The Blue Mountains seen from Greystanes Hill (Click to enlarge)

The Walk: Starts with a good walking surface. Then a rough grassy slope and rough track. At the point where you leave the good surface of Butu Wargun Drive, there is a fence to negotiate. Access across the fence seems to be intermittent. If there are no gaps that you can get through without causing damage then this walk will not be possible. Please read the Access page.
Distance: Less than 1 km each way;
Time: 25 minutes ascent, 20 minutes descent.
Getting there: Westbus routes 811, 813 and 815 run from Parramatta and Merrylands to Pemulwuy Marketplace. Route 830 runs along Greystanes Road from Cabramatta and Blacktown. However this last service is very infrequent on weekends and public holidays.
Car parking: in Driftway Drive near the start or in the car park of Pemulwuy Marketplace.

The Ascent

This walk starts in Pemulwuy at the roundabout where Butu Wargun Drive meets Driftway Drive. This is the hub of the new suburb of Pemulwuy. Look at the noticeboard by the roundabout and notice that the ridge line green area is labelled "Marrong Reserve - Walkway and Lookouts." This is your assurance that public access to the highest point of Prospect Hill is welcomed. Although people have been wandering over this area for at least 40,000 years, Delfin (the developer) and Holroyd Council have not made access easy.

Start the walk by crossing the bridge over Girraween Creek and walking up the steeper part of Butu Wargun Drive. This road has at last been opened to traffic having lain idle for several years since its construction. A barrier at the top bars access to the industrial zone to all except buses, bikes and pedestrians.

As you walk examine the fence on your left for places where you might be able to access Marrong Reserve without causing damage to the fence. After a few minutes you will come to a roundabout. This is the most likely place to find a way into the Reserve. In spite of the description of this area as a recreational area in numerous documents (Holroyd 2008), the Council has not made any clear provision for access. At best the possibilities are intermittent. See our Access page. You may need to go back down Butu Wargun Drive if you have seen a likely entry point on your way up. If you are unable to find a way in anywhere, you will have to abandon your attempt to scale Prospect Hill's highest point.

If you are able to enter the Marrong Reserve, then a faint 4x4 track leads half-right towards the crest of the ridge, then curves round left alongside the fence which follows the crest as it rises to a level section at the top.

Plans are afoot to create a proper walkway which will wind its way along the ridge you are standing on, both southwards towards the South Summit and northwards across Butu Wargun Drive to Prospect Lookout. It will be a board walk with lookout points, interpretation panels and seats. I hope the bush atmosphere will be preserved.

The Summit

It's difficult to decide when you have arrived at the exact highest point, but I reckon it's where there is a noticeable pine stump. There is a "goodly prospect" westward to the Blue Mountains (1). Prospect Reservoir is hidden by the western ridge of Prospect Hill, on the summit of which you can see the two water towers.

The View

At this point the view eastwards is obscured by nearby pine trees, but if you move a few metres further along you will see the high rise buildings of Sydney's CBD. The thin stalk of Sydney Tower is unmistakable and, further to the left, the arch of Sydney Harbour Bridge can also be seen. A little to the right of Sydney Tower, and still in front of the CBD buildings you can also make out the arch of the main stadium at Olympic Park.

To the south you can see the South Summit of Prospect Hill and to its right the Gap through which the industrial sheds of Wetherill Park are visible. To the right of the Gap is Reservoir Hill. (Click on the photograph to see an enlarged version.)

To the south-east are the impressive cliffs of the west wall of the quarry. Keen eyes may pick out an abandoned old-style trig. station (near a tall pole towards the right of the picture). Surely this can only be the old Greystanes Trig Station removed from its original position near where you are standing and for some reason deposited over a kilometre away on the opposite ridge of Prospect Hill. (Click on the photograph to see an enlarged version.)

Next is Water Tower Hill. At ground level, this hill is just a metre lower than where you are standing. The older of the two water towers (the one with a new-style trig point on top) is almost completely hidden behind the newer tower. The large shed to the right of the towers is the covered reservoir. At the time this photograph was taken (September 2008) work was in progress to stabilise the slope above the west wall of the quarry.

Apart from the sheds of the new employment development area, the view west to the Blue Mountains appears much as they would have done when Watkin Tench saw them on 26th June 1789:

I left the redoubt at day-break, pointing our march to a hill, distant five miles, in a westerly or inland direction, which commands a view of the great chain of mountains, called Carmarthen hills, extending from north to south farther than the eye can reach. Here we paused, surveying “the wild abyss; pondering our voyage.” Before us lay the trackless immeasurable desert, in awful silence (Tench 1793).

However the nearest row of trees you see here is the avenue of hooped pines which line the access road from Reservoir Road to Prospect Reservoir. (Click the picture to enlarge.)

Descent

Retrace your steps along the rough grass track to Butu Wargun Drive and then down the road to your starting point.

As an alternative way down, it is may possible to continue south from the top of Greystanes Hill. Where the rough grass track swings left, follow it away from the Quarry Fence. Then, when it descends a bit more steeply and swings right, find the easiest way through the undergrowth to Daruga Avenue below. There is usually a way of exiting to the road but you will need to be fairly agile to do so. Again do not cause damage to the fence or to yourself. It would be best if you have reconnoitred the exit beforehand.

Postscript

Remember that this reserve has been walked over for tens of thousands of years, not least by Pemulwuy, the local leader after whom the suburb is named; it has designated as public open space since April 2008; it is part of a State Registered Heritage area and the Conservation Management Plan commissioned by Holroyd City Council was endorsed by the Heritage Council on 12th May 2006; it is signposted as "Marrong Reserve - Walkway and Lookouts" on prominent signposts on Driftway Drive.

(Holroyd 2008).

(1) It is widely believed that the phrase "a goodly prospect" was quoted by Governor Phillip, thus giving rise to the name Prospect Hill. I can find no authority for this. The phrase is from John Milton's Paradise Lost of 1667 (Book 3): "... Obtains the brow of some high-climbing Hill,/ Which to his eye discovers unaware/ The goodly prospect of some forein land/ First seen, or some renownd Metropolis/ With glistering spires and pinnacles adornd..." (Milton 1667). I have argued elsewhere in this web site that it is more likely that Watkin Tench was the one who named Prospect Hill. He was the first to record an ascent of the hill and his detailed knowledge of Paradise Lost is a matter of historical record. Indeed he used several quotations from it (though not the one quoted above) in his description of his ascent of Prospect Hill. (Tench 1793). («)