Bush walking in Bungonia State Recreation Area

Bungonia (including Bungonia State Recreation Area)
The largest State Recreation Area in New South Wales.
Located 186 km south west of Sydney via the Hume Highway and 580 metres above sea level, Bungonia is not so much a town as a delightful State Recreation Area which is located between Moss Vale and Goulburn on the escarpment above the Shoalhaven River.

The area features a number of particularly spectacular viewing points (some of which are accessible by wheelchair) in a particularly delightful and accessible section of bushland. The Recreation Area covers 3893 hectares of the Southern Tablelands and is characterised by dry sclerophyll forests, deep limestone gorges and, for the experienced speleologist, it has the deepest caves on the Australian mainland. Recent research has discovered over 300 types of flora in the park and over 70 varieties of birdlife.

Christ Church Anglican Church (1893)

The actual township of Bungonia is now little more than a few old buildings spread across a considerable area. There is a sense that the town was once much larger than it is today. It was an important stopover point in the 1820s but was by-passed by the Sydney-Goulburn road as early as 1833. The most significant building in the village is St Michael's Roman Catholic church - the oldest Roman Catholic church in Australia - which was started in 1839 and officially opened by Bishop Polding in 1847. Christ Church Anglican Church (1893), a much more attractive building, stands on the opposite hill.

Things to see:  

The Lookdown
This is the best known viewing area in the park and offers quite extraordinary, and very rugged, views of the Shoalhaven River and Bungonia Creek. The view down into the Bungonia Creek (known as Bungonia Gorge or Bungonia Canyon), a drop of nearly 300 metres in a gorge which is 800 metres long and only 76 metres wide, is the deepest gorge in Australia.

The view from Adams Lookout, Bungonia National Park

It is spectacular and the view across to the awful limestone quarry is a reminder of how the mining industry can defile some of the country's natural wonders.

Bungonia Creek
Only ten minutes walk from the main camping area is Bungonia Creek. It is ideal to swim in during summer and is notable for large pools and attractive small waterfalls.

Bungonia State Recreation Area
For details concerning walking tracks, the weather in the park and general information contact the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, Lookdown Road, Bungonia on (02) 4848 4277. Fax (02) 4848 4331. Entrance to the park costs $6 per vehicle and there is a range of long term National Park ticket options available for people wanting to visit the parks on a regular or semi-regular basis.