Where

Towarri National Park in Country NSW

Accessibility

No wheelchair access

Distance

1.2km loop

Time suggested

30min - 1hr

Grade

Grade 3

What to
bring

Drinking water, sturdy shoes, hat, sunscreen, snacks

Please note

• If you’d like to extend your walk, follow Middlebrook walk 350m further downstream to Washpools campground, and then return back to Washpools picnic area, or continue on the Range View track.
• Campers can start the walk from Washpools campground, following the Middlebrook walk upstream. 
• There is no bridge across the creek, so you’ll need to rock hop or get your feet wet crossing the creek. 
• Drinking water is not available in this area so it’s a good idea to bring your own.
• There’s limited mobile reception in this park.

Washpools and Middlebrook walking tracks offer a journey of contrasts along a tranquil creek in Towarri National Park. You’ll cover rough, rocky creek banks, grasslands, open woodlands, and go rock hopping.

Start at Washpools picnic area and walk 500m upstream along the creek’s rocky western bank. When you reach Washpools waterhole, reward yourself with a break and enjoy a dip at this popular swimming spot, if the brook is running. Or enjoy a lunch break in the shade of river oaks before crossing the creek. Follow Middlebrook walk downstream, winding through Poa tussock grasslands, rough-barked apple forests and regenerating eucalypt woodlands. Cross back over the creek (rock hop or get your feet wet) and loop back to the picnic area.

This 1.2km walk is ideal for adventurous families and fit bushwalkers. In some areas, you’ll be challenged by uneven surfaces, natural obstacles and slippery ground underfoot. But you’ll also enjoy the journey through narrow-leaved ironbarks and forest redgums, and the fresh earthy smell of the creek. If you visit in spring, you might see wattles in bloom, and in autumn you’ll enjoy a cool and quiet environment.

Birdwatchers will be kept busy by the array of birds that live here. See if you can spot glossy black cockatoos feeding on oak trees and flocks of grey-crowned babblers gliding through the canopy. Keep an eye out for threatened brown treecreepers, diamond firetails, black-chinned honeyeaters and speckled warblers.

You could also see lace monitors, pobblebonks (eastern banjo frogs) and hear rocky-river frogs croaking in the brook. If you’re visiting near dusk or dawn, you might see echidnas searching for ants and termites, or bare-nosed wombats grazing.

For directions, safety and practical information, see visitor info

Visitor info

Maps and downloads

Learn more

Fabulous flowers and creatures of flight

Towarri is inhabited by a range of birds and animals, many with a particularly distinctive call, appearance or ability that appears in their name. The powerful owl is as strong as it sounds, hunting and feeding on medium-sized mammals and marsupials including gliders, possums and wallabies. The glossy-black cockatoo is as self-explanatory as the red-tailed and yellow-tailed black cockatoos. The greater glider spreads itself out like a sheet of paper to change trees. The Liverpool Range sees the blending of many plant species. Towarri National Park is home to about 650 species. From the cassuarina forests along the creeklines to the majestic snow gum on the ridgeline, that are capped with snow on occasion. The miltant grass trees stand on the hills amongst the serene poa grasslands. The gully lines off the falls of sandstone play host to dry rainforest pockets providing habitat to many fauna species. The unique area is a floristic wonderland with many species at the edge of the range.

Snow gums and spinifex

Three distinct bioregions meet in Towarri: the Sydney Basin, the Brigalow Belt South and North Coast. This means that the soil type, fertility and depth differ throughout the park. Throw in a variation in rainfall, elevation and geological features and the result is a mosaic of plant communities. Snow gums decorate the skyline above a snowgrass understorey on the high plateau areas of Mount Tinagroo and Bald Hill.

The first people

The Wonnarua People (also spelt Wanaruah) were the first inhabitants of the Upper Hunter Valley. Their name means ‘people of the hills and plains’, describing their traditional lands from Merriwa in the west, Barrington Tops to the east, the sandstone escarpment at Wollombi to the south and the Liverpool Range mountains to the north. Towarri means ‘warrior’ in the Wonnarua language, whose people fought hard for their land after European settlement. There is an array of artefacts including stone flakes, scarred trees and hearths in the park and surrounds, demonstrating long cultural use and occupational of the area by the Traditional Custodians.