The Walk: Starts along the Prospect Canal reserve walkway/cycleway, an excellent and safe off-road route. Continues on quiet, even disused, roads
Distance: 3.0 km
Time: 50 minutes

Start by finding the short link walkway at the corner of Hyland Road. Follow this a few metres to the main Canal Reserve walkway and turn left. At this point the walkway/cycleway has left the old canal bed as the latter now enters a tunnel, the "Covered Way" (CRAG 2), through the shallow spur that descends from Prospect Hill's South Top on your right.

The sign here about closing times applies if you are intending to walk the full section to Andrew Cambell Reserve. The part up to Reconciliation Road is open at all times.

The "covered way" ends a short distance further on. The track then starts a gradual descent to cross Reconciliation Road. According to early plans a bridge was to carry the walkway/cycleway across the multi-lane highway (two bus-lanes, two lanes of normal traffic and a cycleway). However it seems that Boral or the RTA or the State Government have reneged on this promise and substituted a signalised "at-grade crossing." As I write the prospect of the bridge being built seems to be receding. We will see.

There is some danger, especially for children, in coming down the steep hill from the safety and freedom of the walkway/cycleway and meeting the dual carriageway of Reconciliation Road with traffic lights the only protection. I have seen some truck drivers leaving the Boral Recycling Plant and, ignoring the red arrow, driving across the pedestrian crossing while the lights show green for pedestrians and cyclists to cross.

At this point there is the option of leaving the Circular Walk by turning left towards Wetherill Park or right along the Reconciliation Road walkway, the Link Walk, to join the Short Cut to return to Pemulwuy.

In fact the Circular Walk is now closed from here to Reservoir Road. To re-join it you must turn right here and follow our Canal Reserve crossing to the end of Picrite Path link walk. Then you turn left to follow Picrite Path and Picrite Close until you reach Reservoir Road where you re-join the Circular Walk just after the start of the next Section. This is because the Prospect Reservoir precinct is closed until the end of December 2014. Please see Latest News for details.

Continuation

The walkway now twists and turns to rise back up to the level of the canal. The track is well fenced in here. but you will see an area of bushland on the slope on your right which leads up to the summit I have called Reservoir Hill. This slope is now within the quarry boundary and the lack of public access has served to preserve the native bushland, although there are some large areas where quarry spoil has been dumped. In a few minutes the track makes a left turn. At this point the old Reservoir Quarry is visible on your right.

You will now enter Walder Park. Leave the walkway as soon as you can and cross the grass on your right to a seating area where you may wish to take a break. This continues through a break in the trees to the main Prospect Reservoir access road, now named William Lawson Drive, which leads towards Blacktown. A short way along the road you will see on your right the historic valve house which contains the valves and other gear which controlled the flow of water from the Reservoir to the Lower Prospect Canal. Alongside it is the start of the old Sydney Water Supply Canal which became redundant in May 1995 when Sydney Water commissioned an underground pipeline. In 2003 the full 7.7 km length of the canal from here to Guidford became the Lower Prospect Canal Reserve with a cycleway/walkway along its full length. It's worth spending a few minutes examining this part of the canal and the valve house (Heritage, Prospect Reservoir Valve House).

Turning right along William Lawson Drive, take the first road on the right (signposted to Conference Centre). Walk past a building on your right. After a short distance you will come to the long-disused Reservoir Quarry. This was the site of "the first major exploitation of the Basalt of Prospect Hill... [In] the 1880s... blue metal slabs were quarried to surface the waterside of Prospect Reservoir’s earth wall... The operation was undertaken by Sperring and partner, using primitive methods - the rocks were drilled, shot out and broken down by hand, just as convicts had done fifty years earlier. This area of quarrying was owned by the Water Board and was named Reservoir Quarry." (Holroyd 2005, p 56).

Returning to William Lawson Drive you are now as close to Prospect Reservoir as you will get on this Circular Walk with a good view along the dam wall. The Reservoir was built between 1882 and 1888 to secure a water supply for Sydney. Many hundreds of workers were employed on the building project and the old village of Prospect prospered during the building period. The Reservoir has been largely supplanted by the huge Warragamba Dam opened in 1960. Prospect Reservoir is used as a reserve supply (SCA and Heritage, Prospect Reservoir and surrounding area).

The walk now continues along the William Lawson Drive. Note on the right various displays and information boards, including examples of the types of pipe that were used to pipe water from the reservoir to the Pipe Head at Guildford from 1927 onwards, when the Lower Canal could no longer cope with the flow rate required. The road now passes the Water Treatment works behind which is the steep slope that is one of the ascent routes of Water Tower Hill. A little further on you will see on the right across the grass an old post-and-rail fence (near some Bunya pines) which was part of the paddock of Veteran Hall. You may just make out (under a tree) the brick cairn marking the site.

You now come to a mini-roundabout where a lane to the right leads to the site of Veteran Hall and another ascent routes to Water Tower Hill. Go straight ahead a short way until you arrive at Prospect History Cottage. This is the home of the Prospect Heritage Trust and contains a museum which is open on the second and fourth Sunday of each month, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Prospect HT).

Continue along the road. This fine avenue of hoop pines, Araucaria cunninghamii, was planted in connection with the construction of Prospect Reservoir in the 1880s. In a moment you will arrive at the Andrew Campbell Reserve.

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

Next Section of the Circular Walk

Or take the slightly shorter Short Cut Section straight to Pemulwuy.