Lockley Pylon

Lockley Pylon is a rocky summit on Du Faur Buttress, about 600 metres above the Grose Valley. The marked walk ends on an open ridge with a wide sweep over the valley, Mount Hay and Mount Banks. This is a proper outing rather than a roadside stop: the walk is 7 km return and usually takes 2 to 3 hours.

The walk starts from a parking area beside Mount Hay Road, north of Leura. The drive includes unsealed gravel sections, and their condition changes, so check access conditions before setting out. The track is Grade 3, with short steep hills, occasional steps and some obstacles. Much of it is a rolling walk over rocky ground; the final kilometre crosses an exposed ridge before a short climb to the summit.

There’s no drinking water at the walk and mobile reception is limited. Bring your own water, and take food if you want a picnic or thermos stop along the way. The ridge has little shade, so the open stretch can feel exposed.

The bush gives way to broad views at about 2.5 km, then the ridge stays open for much of the final kilometre. At the top, the wide rocky platform and large cairn sit above the forested valley. On a clear day, the panorama reaches from the Grose Valley toward the Illawarra and Sydney.

For a photo, include some of the pale sandstone and heath at your feet with the cliff line across the valley. That foreground helps show how the escarpment rises above the forest, instead of turning the frame into a flat wall of rock.

The summit is named for J.G. “Redgum” Lockley, a journalist and conservationist. In 1931, a group campaigning to protect Blue Gum Forest brought Lockley into the valley and told him they would name the rocky pylon for him. The forest became a public recreation reserve the following year, an early conservation win in the mountains.

The sheer walls around the Grose Valley are made of Narrabeen Group sandstone, about 240 million years old. The harder sandstone resists erosion and holds the cliffs upright; softer layers wear back into the forested slopes below. From the ridge, the contrast between bare rock face and tree-covered valley is easy to pick out.

The walk crosses heath above sandstone, including hanging swamps where peat holds water on the slopes. Spring brings wildflowers, including lambertias and orchids. Pink flannel flowers may appear after fire, but their timing and presence vary, so treat them as a possibility rather than a promise.