Federation track Appin to Stanwell park railway station

[dnaylor]

Just curious, has any one actually walked this section of the track and been able to use the route shown as being the "federation track"? i tried doing this just recently 2-3rd sept 2017 and have some issues with it that suggest either it hasn't been done recently or possibly not actually physically walked in its entirety for that section..

just re read the info at the Federation track web site.. supposedly that stanwell park/appin route was done in late 1991, now possibly there may have been access along the route as mining was still strong in the area and those trails "may" have been maintained...
still though i don't think any one has really re visited it fully from that group and a lot has changed in access, right of ways etc...

[wildwanderer]

Interesting.. Ive never walked it or even heard about the 'federation track'.

I had a look at NSW topos, open street maps and the federation track website. It looks like that section of the route is a combination of roads, mining access roads and trail. Some of the trail is marked on open street map topo but there is no indication of a trail in the NSW gov topos. I say its a case of walking along different routes with the general aim of heading east. Open street maps show a large tangle of tracks/firetrail (probably mining related) in that area near Appin.

Looking at the satellite there does a appear to be a trail crossing west to east however it could be that since the sat photos were done fire has come through the area and wiped away that trail or it could just be heavily overgrown.

Were you following a gpx track from the fed track website or navigating map to ground ?

[michael_p]

Hi dnaylor,

EDIT: Damn it, I've just realised that I have written this reply starting at Stanwell Park. Apologies for the error.

I've walked or ridden nearly all of those tracks/trails between Stanwell Park and Appin. Some of them several times.

I had a look at the gpx track from the federation track website. Holy cr*p, who mapped that track out, what a shocker. Who ever mapped this has never walked it.

The best way to do the section from Stanwell Park to the Princes Highway is along the Forest Track. Their map appears to use the fire trail network to the west of this track meaning many of the good views along the way are missed. Pity.

The section from the Princes Highway to the 10a fire trail crosses catchment land. There are signs all along the roads in that area. No one is allowed in this area without special permission. If it was me doing this section I would head north along the highway (past the Boomerang golf course) and then west along Darkes Forest Rd to the 10a fire trail (it's the fire trail 50-100m before the Maddens Falls trail car park). As fas as I am aware this is the only legal way to do this section.

The 10a to 10b section is fine. I like the track down across Iluka Ck.

10b to Appin. There is so much wrong with their route. After heading north along the 10b trail you are advised to head west before turning south towards the Appin-Bulli Rd. Where do I start with this disaster. The trail heading west from 10b is the old service trail for the abandoned coal mine power lines. I've investigated this trail from a couple of angles and decided against trying to follow it as it's a scrub fest (trust me, I've done a lot of off-track in Dharawal NP). There really is no need to head south and cross the Appin-Bulli Rd. Also, I am not sure of the legality of firstly, traversing the cataract scout camp and secondly, using the trails from the scout camp along the Georges River to get to Appin (the land on the south side of the Appin-Bulli Rd is catchment land).

My route from 10b to Appin. Head north along 10b until you get to the 10r trail sign. Directly across the road from the 10r sign is the start of the Seven Creeks Way. It is overgrown but not hard to follow. Just continue to head west till you get to the colliery road. Walk north along the road (sticking to the fence as the road all the way to the Wedderburn air field is leased to the colliery and is technically private property). Continue past the gate at the end of the bitumen onto the dirt road. Look for a clearing at*: -34.210152, 150.822942. The main fire trail starts in the NW corner of the clearing. This fire trail heads west till it hooks around to the south and crosses the Georges River. After crossing the river look for trails on your right. Walk up the trails to Appin. Admittedly this is not as scenic as the federation track suggested route but it is doable.

Any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Michael.

* I need to check if this is the right spot. I will go through my archive of mtb rides in that area and check. My memory is not as good as it use to be.

[kanangra]

I've just had a look at the web site for that "track" and wonder if anyone has attempted it? I know that in fact no track exists on the ground in many areas where it says the "track" goes? If you didn't know what you were doing you could really entice someone to come to grief in some very remote country trying to follow this "track".

K

[dnaylor]

[quote="michael_p"]

lol... your correct about all of it.. i actually tried to walk it as laid out and its a disaster, if so much is wrong in a 30km stretch then i shudder to think how the remaining 2K plus kilometers are... started at appin, no problems till i got to the gate at the main enterence to the scout camp.. locked and there is a chainlink fence going for kilometres around it.. (found a gap and wriggled under, walked around to the 10g trail up that to i hit a wall of that armored scrub at that old power line track, back tracked to the seven creeks track, i've done the Ikula and seven crks tracks in the rain so by passed the ikula one for a road walk down to appin rd, along to #10 trail and continued along the set route via that and #10A.. went along #10Q to the supposed crossing point at maddens creek... no crossing point of the motor way there unless you go up over and cross the road... stuffed around a bit then crossed the motorway and ended up walking up on top of the cutting!! did a bash untill i got onto #10J trail.. (honestly if i knew it was going to be like this i would have taken 10Q to darkes forest rd then follow roads back towards the escarpment trails), i ended up short cutting my planned route along the supposed track in sections where i had done previously and knew existed (such as the forest walk and waddi waddi tracks) as a work around as i was running out of time on the sunday.. even so i still ended up doing the last section down to stanwell park station from the conference centre by torch light... truthfully i think is criminal to place in the public domain something that is that shoddy in planning and probably illegal... when i sort out my GPX files i'll post them on here as i do all my walks... http://www.gpsies.com/mapUser.do?username=dnaylor

[dnaylor]

before i followed the "federation track" i did a side by side look at their route while also looked at Nokia and google satellite maps plus sigma cycle.. something looked suspect at the start, then i downloaded their GPX and uploaded that to the gpsies site route creator (i use that and my "maverick" app for all my route planning), the gpx is a tangled mess, as if the user hadn't made unique trip files but simply turned it back on when ever they thought about it... to be honest i often plan routes by looking at sat pictures etc but i don't post them online and pass them off as an actual sanctioned route!!
just a note: i mainly use my samsung xcover3 mobile (G388f) as my gps and "Maverick" as the app, maverick accesses many maps but the main ones i use are "nokia maps satellite" and "OSM cyclemap"... the xcover3 receives both GPS and GLONASS which often means 12+ satellites for fixes...

[wildwanderer]

I've just had a look at the web site for that "track" and wonder if anyone has attempted it? I know that in fact no track exists on the ground in many areas where it says the "track" goes? If you didn't know what you were doing you could really entice someone to come to grief in some very remote country trying to follow this "track".

K

From reading the 'history' of the route it seems a handful of people did some walks in the 90's/early 2000s and decided they could put them all together and call it the ''the federation track''. Nice to chronicle your adventures I guess but as mentioned its a bit of a disservice (and possibly dangerous) to others to call it a route and publicize it like its a maintained track. http://federationtrack.com.au/track/history-2/

[north-north-west]

PMSL
Just had a gander at the map on the website. The main map suggests you walk to the tip of Point Nepean, then cross the Rip to the end of Point Lonsdale, and resume walking. This I really want to see.

Of course, they really have you crossing on the ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff, but think how much better the other option would be!

[ribuck]

From the website:

If you encounter any problems with the track or waypoints, please email me – bill@federationtrack.com.au

[dnaylor]

From the website:

If you encounter any problems with the track or waypoints, please email me – bill@federationtrack.com.au

lol... tried that, no reply... for all i know its an old site/ address and no longer monitored by creator, to be honest without remapping and actually walking the route, doing proper planning, proper trail markers and getting access permissions the route shouldn't even be in the public domain... the occasional yellow tape, green wool string are not enough, doesn't even have the old standby blobs of yellow spray paint or rock cairns anywhere... i was relying on several maps (including Nokia maps satellite) and my GPS/GLONASS and still had to back track a few times and use intuition to find a track that turned out to be not where their drawn route went...

[ribuck]

... the route shouldn't even be in the public domain...

Oh, I absolutely disagree with that. It's great to have the route in the public domain, although it should be described for what it is: an approximate recording of a route that was viable and was walked some years ago. I can see that even getting it to its current state represents an enormous amount of work, and has considerable value.

Having it in the public domain makes it possible for someone else to pick it up and improve it. It might be possible to crowdsource its improvement by encouraging people to each refine a small segment of the route.