The Walk: Occasionally on roads without footpaths to start with but not normally much traffic. Good walkway later.
Distance: 2.0 km
Time: 35 minutes
Getting there: Westbus 700 from Parramatta or Blacktown station to bus stop near corner of Blacktown Road and Great Western Highway. Route 830 from Blacktown or Cabramatta is less frequent especially on weekends and public holidays. From bus stop on Blacktown Road cross Highway at pedestrian crossing in two stages. At the end of this walk section, catch a Westbus 811, 813 and 815 at Pemulwuy Marketplace to Parramatta or Merrylands.
Car parking on gravel area to west of Prospect Hotel.

Latest News: This route has been rewritten, as of January 2011, to use Wombat Street the new connection from the Lakeside housing development to Clunies Ross Street. The route no longer climbs any of the Prospect Hill summits due to new access issues. These are covered in separate walks under Prospect Lookout and Greystanes Hill.

Start this secton of the Circular Walk by walking along Clunies Ross Street from the traffic lights by the Hotel. You will see Prospect Lookout, the most northerly top of Prospect Hill, straight ahead.

At the entrance to the Australia Post depot on the left, you will see a disused road going back leftwards to end at the motorway. This is all that remains of Old Quarry Road. On the left of it (Clunies Ross Street is relatively modern) was a race course known as the Four Furlong Track (Bloxham 2002).

Also at the entrance to the Australia Post depot, a railway crossed more or less at right angles to the present road. It was built to link Prospect Quarry to the main line at Toongabbie Station and curved round to run down the line of the present Toongabbie Road.

Continue up Clunies Ross Street to the roundabout where you turn left along Wombat Street (which may still be unsignposted). First however, if you take a few steps up Clunies Ross Street above the roundabout, you may see the edge of an old quarry on your left. (You may need to wade through deep grass to the fence.) This small quarry face runs across the hillside and is the earliest quarry on Prospect Hill, thought to have been used by the first European settlers here. Later it became known as Jack Huns Quarry, though who Jack Hun was I don't know.

From here you can take a detour to reach the top of Prospect Lookout.

The Circular Walk continues down Wombat Street. There was grassland right down to the creek until November 2008 when building started on the surrounding housing development. It's a pity - because this area has been used for agriculture since the first land grants to thirteen time-expired convicts in 1791 (See the Settlement page), and for hunting and gathering for thousands of years before that (See the History before 1788 page). Most recently it was used by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) from 1946 until about 2001 for research into animal breeding and husbandry. (See the Prospect Lookout page).

At the end of Wombat Street turn right along Nijong Drive to the first roundabout. Here turn left along a walkway that crosses the causeway between the two lakes. At the end turn right and follow the walkway alongside Driftway Drive passing Butler Road and Lisk Road on your left. Prospect Lookout can be seen from time to time through the trees on your right. The land from here to the summit was granted to George Lisk in 1791. On its right was the grant of William Butler. Information plaques are provided at intervals along this walkway.

The walkway leads to your destination, the roundabout where Driftway Drive crosses Butu Wargun Drive. This is the hub of the new suburb of Pemulwuy. It is also the start of the walk which climbs Greystanes Hill, the highest point of the Prospect Hill ridge.

This is end of the East Section of the Circular Walk.

Next Section of the Circular Walk