Historic ghost town which describes itself as 'The nearest wilderness to Sydney'.
Yerranderie is a ghost town that once prospered as a silver and lead mining operation. In the years immediately prior to World War I it had a population of over 2,000 and between 1900 and 1912 the mines in the area yielded 5,381,000 ounces of silver, 9,951 ounces of gold and over 12,000 tons of lead. The war saw miners leave the area and it never really recovered. The town was effectively killed when, in the 1950s, the Sydney Water Board built the Warragamba Dam and cut access from Camden and The Oaks. The dam reduced access to a difficult drive on unsealed roads from either Goulburn or Oberon. Then in 1947 the entire town was sold to Aubin Rene Lhuede and for decades it was owned and run by his daughter, the remarkable Valerie Lheude, who, in 2011 at the age of 89, handed it over to the NSW Minister for the Environment. It is now managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service in Oberon.
Location
Yerranderie is located 279 km from Sydney via Oberon and 359 km via the Hume Motorway and Goulburn. Visiting Yerranderie involves commitment and, preferably, a 4WD. It is either 101 km from Goulburn or 50 km from Oberon then turn north on a dirt road (an old stock route) marked 'Mt Werong' and 'Jerrong' and for the next 90 minutes travel 62 km crossing five creeks (in good weather the road is open to all traffic but in the wet it is strictly for 4WD vehicles) on a winding and difficult road before reaching the township. Ironically Yerranderie is only about 100 km from the Sydney CBD "as the crow flies".
^ TOPOrigin of Name
It is a rarity for no one to know what an Aboriginal town name means but Valerie Lheude, who knows more about Yerranderie than anyone else, says she never discovered what the word meant. She thinks it might be the name of the group of First Nations people who lived in the area ... but she is not sure.
^ TOPThings to See and Do
Historic Exploration of the Village and the Mine Sites
There is a good map of the town which provides details of walking tracks (many are steep climbs) in the area to the Burragorang Mine site, the Lance Shaft, the Bartlett No. 6 Shaft, the Colon Peak Mine, the Piece of Pork Mine, the Wonga Mine, the Silver Peak Mine and the location of the town's most significant buildings - the Court House, the Police Station, the Post Office, St Senan's Catholic Church and Krubi Cottage.
There is a sense of friendliness that pervades the experience of staying at Yerranderie and the caretakers provide details about the historic remnants of the town as well as providing a handout for the Mine Walks and a Self-Guided Town Tour. The website also provides very comprehensive information about the mines and shafts. A typical entry is that of the Wonga Mine: "Main shaft 850 ft long, slope 18 degrees. Opened in 1911 it had its own winding gear, boiler and air compressor and was worked together with the Burragorang Mine. The lode on Wonga was unpromising, although some ore assayed as highly as 1.5 ozs of silver per ton and 60% lead. Quartz containing iron pyrites (fool’s gold), silver and lead can still be found around the entrance to the mineshaft."
The Bushwalks
The area is noted for its long distance walks with keen bushwalkers trekking overland from the Blue Mountains to the Southern Highlands along tracks and stock routes which are old and very scenic. There are two modest walks which start from the Post Office in the village.
(a) Yerranderie Peak Walk - 3 km return. It is easy if you are reasonably fit and takes around 2-3 hours. The walk offers fine panoramic views of Warragamba Dam. It also allows the walker to see the damage done to the area by the mines with the scars of both Silver Peak and Colon Peak being still visible and mullock heaps being an eyesore on the pristine bush landscape.
(b) Zuchetti Flat Walk - 4 km return. This is a walk of moderate difficulty which usually takes around three hours and is ideal for walkers hoping to see local wildlife.
The Fauna
The area is alive with wildlife. The visitor can expect to see kangaroos and wallabies particularly Eastern Grey and Grey Forrester Kangaroos and Red-Necked Wallabies. If you are lucky it is also possible to see dingoes, wombats, wallaroos and emus. And the whole area has a rich variety of birds including the kookaburra, lyrebird, wattlebird, pardalote, wren, honeyeater, treecreeper, wattle bird, whipbird, noisy friar, Wonga pigeon, currawong, chough, bowerbird, raven, King parrot and crimson rosella.
The Flora
Not surprisingly the mines damaged the landscape but much of it has been reforested with wattles and mixed eucalypts. The area also has fine stands of ironbark and banksia and in springtime the displays of wildflowers are impressive.
Other Attractions in the Area
Wombeyan Caves
From Yerranderie there is picturesque fire trail (only accessible by 4WD vehicles) that runs for 35 km to Wombeyan Caves which have an excellent picnic ground which is alive with mobs of kangaroos. Be prepared to climb and clamber when you explore the caves: the Wollondilly Cave, regarded as the highlight of Wombeyan, has some 539 steps. Check out https://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/wombeyan-caves-nsw.
Kanangra Walls
To the north-west are the Kanangra Walls (which is only about 25 km across the valley but some 162 km via Oberon by road) which offer the most spectacular views in the whole Blue Mountains. The views from Kanangra Walls across Kanangra Deep to mountains romantically named Stormbreaker, Cloudmaker, High and Mighty is unforgettable.
History
* Prior to the arrival of Europeans the area around Yerranderie had been occupied by members of the Dharug, Dharawal and Gundangarra First Nations language groups for over 20,000 years.
* The first European into the area was the French explorer Francis Luis Barrallier who, in 1802, walked from Nattai to Yerranderie. He recalled the exploration in his book Expedition into the Interior of New South Wales.
* In 1871 a part-Aborigine named Werriberri (known as Billy Russell) found galena - from which silver and lead can be extracted - three kilometres from the town site.
* The price of silver was so low at the time that serious mining did not start in the area until 1898 when John Vigar Bartless produced payable ore.
* By 1899 a road had been built from Camden across the Burragorang Valley. It allowed mining machinery to be brought to Yerranderie and the extracted minerals to be taken out.
* Between 1900 and 1912 a total of 5,381,000 ounces of silver, 9,951 ounces of gold and over 12,000 tons of lead were extracted.
* By 1914 the town had over 2,000 residents and services including a school, three churches, two butchers, one hotel, a police station, Court House and a silent movie theatre. At the top of the hill was the small 'Government Town' (where one of the churches, the court house and the school still stand) and below it was the more populous 'Private Town'.
* In 1907 a post office was built.
* Between the end of the World War I (1918) and the outbreak of World War II (1939) the town experienced long periods of industrial unrest and many of the miners did not return.
* In 1928 the miners were locked out of the mines due to an industrial dispute.
* By the 1930s Yerranderie was a ghost town.
* In the 1950s the Burragorang Valley was flooded by the Sydney Water Board after the building of Warragamba Dam. This cut off the main accessible road to the town. The only access was from Oberon via the Colong-Oberon stock route.
* In 1947 Aubin Rene Lhuede (his father had emigrated from Brittany in 1871) purchased the entire town. He sold the hotel license to Les Hooker, the principal in the real estate and development company, L.J. Hooker. Hooker transferred the license to a hotel in St Marys in Sydney's west.
* In 1956 Val Lhuede purchased shares in her father's company.
* Val Lhuede took the Sydney Water Board to court and in 1959 she was compensated £3,000 for the lack of access to the town.
* In 1965 the price of silver rose and a Canadian company started mining in the area but the mine was not economically viable. By the late 1960s it had closed down.
* From 1947-2011 'Private Town' was owned by the conservationist and architect Valerie Lhuede who started restoring the old buildings and converting them to accommodation.
* In 2011, at the age of 89, Valerie Lheude AM, B.Arch (Restorer) gave the village to the New South Wales Minister for the Environment. It is now administered by the National Parks and Wildlife service.
* Today Yerranderie Regional Park, which was created in 2012, covers 470 ha which combines the remnants of the town with old mining sites and bushwalks.
* Val Lheude died in 2024. She had been born in 1923.
^ TOPVisitor Information
National Parks and Wildlife Service, Ross Street, Oberon, tel: (02) 6336 1972.
^ TOPAccommodation
Yerranderie Caretakers, Yerranderie, tel: (02) 4659 6165.
^ TOPUseful Websites
National Parks and Wildlife have a website - check out http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/yerranderie-regional-park and there is important information on the Oberon site - http://www.oberonaustralia.com.au/visitor-information/area-information/yerranderie-regional-park/.
^ TOP
The yerranderie.com web link provided above is no longer working (March 2016)
Thanks Andre. This is hardly surprising as Val Lheude gave the village to the NSW Minister for the Environment and she was the one keeping things up to date. She is now over 90.
Can anyone tell me if the road to Yerranderie is dangerous to drive on? That is, narrow with hairpin bends? I have a Suburu all wheel drive, not a 4 wheel drive so not sure if I want to chance it. Thanks.
The last time I went there – about five years ago – I actually went in a Subaru AWD and it was fine. The dirt road is long and not terribly interesting but, if there has been no rain, it is easy. The rewards are well worth the effort.
Old Water Board Rangers Like Fred Morris, Ron Mortimer and Ivan Davis should get some of the credit for the preservation of Yerranderie and surrounding areas. If it had not been for them and their constant patrolling of the Yerranderie area the place would have been a complete shambles overrun by bikers, campers, pollution and noxious weeds pest animals. I worked there for 27 years at Warragamba and saw things that are not mentioned today. I would say by now the complete eradication of the horses from around the area fire trail left to overgrow with vegetation. Those fire trails where put in at strategic points to stop fires. I would say by the sheer neglect by the NPWS supposed to be our protectors of Wilderness areas and NP. I witnessed a NP Ranger send a helicopter back to Blackheath because he had forgot his dessert. Another time a NP Ranger shot a horse in the Cowmung River and left it there to rot in the Sydney water supply. I think if you got statistics out you would find we have had more fire introduced into that area than ever before. It’s about time somebody started to say something about the so-called protectors of this area it was better protected under the Water Board than the NPWS. It is called money.
I would be interested to see if there are any photos or records of my father (William Alwyn Sheean). He worked there as an artisan for quite a few years prior to his death in 1981.
Can anyone help, please?
A sign at Silver Peak mine proudly proclaims that the automatic safety brake, now used on lifts in mines and buildings all round the world, was invented here in Yerranderie by Mr Frank Hocking.
I would love to see Yerranderie one more time as it was the place my mother and her sisters and brothers grew up there attended the two room school while my grandmother managed the Silver Mines Hotel and played the organ on Sundays I remember staying at the hotel when I was very young playing with my sister in the chook yard and told to stay out the back of the building. She made bread and cooked all the meals for the guests.
In the early 1950s the whole Nott family went to Yerranderie by the last bus. We walked down to the school where my mother found amongst the scattered papers her work book which I now have. How amazing was that. We all had a wonderful time. Lots of happy memories and as we drove away there were some tears too
Hi Japan Grant. I am writing a history of the Nott’s in Yerranderie and trying to establish why Grandma Nott came to Yerranderie whether George Nott came with her, dying in 1916. Was Evelyn Nott the licensee for the Hotel? Did her newphew George Edward Nott and his wife Annie ran it for her?
Can we access from Picton way as buying land in the town 0455 190 099
No. There hasn’t been access to Yerranderie from Picton and Camden since the Warragamba Dam was built. Only access is either by plane or by car via Goulburn or Oberon.
In 1970 after studying the fine detail map produced by the University of Sydney Bushwalking Club – This map is hand drawn with descriptive passages – I set off with my two sons Steve age ten and Glenn seven with backpacks to explore the now deserted silver mining town of Yerranderie. Now a private town owned by a dear lady named Val Lheude. We drove out from Sydney on the Great Western Highway to Oberon, then to a late-night camp at Mt Werong. The next morning on a rough track we drove to a place on the map named Bindook, Bindook Creek then along the Murruin Range. Leaving the car, we shouldered packs to find the sinkhole entrance to the Colong caves I had been told the track we would be on was originally known as the Cedar getters trail that linked Oberon and Yerranderie in the 1900’s. We trekked past the high peak of Mt Colong or Big Rick as it is known skirting around the Colong Swamp, crossed the Tonalli River, camped and caught a big trout from the bank of the Kowmung River which we crossed then walked the track to Colong Caves, carrying a long rope for cave exploration. After a rest camp, we set off on the arduous walk and climb to Yerranderie over the next two days It was a steep climb to camp that night on a high range with a dusting of snow at night. We were now on the last section of our walk to Yerranderie, by mid-afternoon we were walking into the deserted ghost town of Yerranderie and standing in front of the biggest building standing. The Post Office. The front door was locked but we found a window partly opened. Climbing in I opened the door and that night we had the most comfortable camp of the journey, on the top floor with views over the streets of Yerranderie. We camped and rested for the next few days walking and exploring the region, including the old silver mine. It was time to head back on the long walk to our car. Now back on the track doing the long trudge we heard, then saw a vehicle coming along the track, it looked like a battered old jeep and the driver was a local cattleman and dingo trapper who drove this long track regularly setting bait and traps for wild dingoes. I think his name was Gardiner. After some conversation, he agreed to give us a lift back to our car, but told us it would be a long journey as he had to stop frequently to clear and reset his trap and poisons along the way. He was paid a bounty for the dingo scalps he collected. It was the most interesting and smelliest part of our journey, the stink coming from a foul potion he used on his traps and baits, and the interest came from his knowledge of dingoes and habits. Pages 308-309 of my book Erskineville To Bush by Venture Publishing tell the story
I have visited Yerranderie on numerous occasions. I was out there also with Bush Fire brigade fighting the fires in 1997 that started by lightning strikes on Nov 26 and the fires were not controlled until about 10 Jan 1998. On one occasion we were sent out to do a back burn on Scotts Range. The NPWS stopped this fire break burn. This allowed the fire to burn right across to Warragamba Dam and had a massive toll on the wild life. Surely the NPWS are shown to be hopeless in fire management and protecting the environment. The Bushfire Brigades were taken back to Yerranderie for property protection work. I assisted Val’s manager pack up Val’s pictures, keepsakes and Yerranderie ‘s artifacts. We then escorted out all residents of town back to Oakdale via the Water Board land. I agree with Gary Readon’s comments. I am so glad that the wind changed and Yerranderie was spared by this bushfire and the efforts of the RFDS.