Mel Nichols drives deep into a hidden valley on a rugged off-road trail through new south wales.

Australia is a four-wheel driver’s paradise. There are the extreme treks, of course, such as the fabled and much YouTubed 220-mile slog up the Old Telegraph Track in Far North Queensland. If you survive its deep ruts, vicious rocks, perilous mud holes, cloying sand, and slippery banks dropping to croc-infested river crossings, you reach Cape York at the very top of Australia.

But much closer to the major cities and big towns, strewn through the 2200 miles of the Great Dividing Range that hugs Australia’s east coast, myriad dirt roads and firetrails provide both difficult and easy off-road driving, and take you to secluded and magical places.

One of my favourites is the climb and descent into Bendethera, a spectacular, once-secret valley hidden deep amid the ragged peaks and towering forests of the Deua National Park in southern New South Wales, 240 miles down from Sydney and 90 miles south-east of Canberra.

There are two ways into Bendethera, both along narrow and rugged dirt roads. From the east, at the coastal town of Moruya, you pick up Little Sugarloaf Road to the Bendethera Firetrail. For 35 miles, the track picks its way along the ridge tops, skirting lofty gum trees, twisting and turning, rising and plunging, at times so steeply some cars struggle to handle the gradients. 

Spectacular views abound, especially if you deviate briefly off Little Sugarloaf Road onto the Plumwood Fire Tower Track where you’ll marvel at the breathtaking vista north across the Deua National Park to mile after mile of the Great Divide. In the distance you’ll spot the cone of Pigeon House Mountain, named by Captain James Cook as he sailed up the coast in 1770.

Eventually, the Bendethera Firetrail plunges to the Deua River, which wends the length of the valley. You might make it through in a soft-roader but it’s best to have a proper 4WD with high ground clearance, low range, lockable differentials and knobbly tyres because the approach to the Deua ford is tricky, the riverbed boulder-strewn – and if there’s been heavy rain it’s very slippery and your vehicle will need a fording snorkel.

The alternative western route, south from the pioneer town of Braidwood onto the Cooma Road to Krawarree Road then east to the Minuma Range and Dampier Mountain Firetrails, is – to the delight of hard-core off-roaders – even more challenging.

Heart-in-mouth climbs and descents, tight hairpins and precarious stretches that slice across mountain faces will test your nerve and skill.

And it’s worth the effort. When you at last wade the Deua, scrabble up the far bank and weave along the Bendethera Valley track, you emerge onto grassy flats sprinkled with camping areas far enough apart not to encroach on each other.

The south coast Yuin Aboriginal groups trod ancient trails through Bendethera for millennia. But few whites knew of it until 1861 when Joseph George, a butcher from near Araluen 40 miles north, tracked his horse, stolen by Aboriginals, down the Deua River into Bendethera.

Entranced by its seclusion and potential, he trekked home – with the horse, by the way – packed up his wife, child and possessions and returned to lay claim to 840 acres in Bendethera. Men hired from Araluen helped clear trees for paddocks and build a rough-hewn homestead.

Progressively, with his growing family – his wife Mary bore 14 more children there – he developed a prosperous farm growing cattle, pigs, turkeys and crops. Getting his meat and grain out and supplies in was difficult. Everything had to be lugged by his team of 40 packhorses. George’s descendants would stay at Bendethera until 1939. Subsequent owners then ran the property until 1979 when the NSW government bought it to include in the Deua National Park.

The Georges’ rustic homestead is long gone but their corrals and the stone walls of their cookhouse give campers a glimpse of the isolated lives they lived. To stand there and run your eyes around the surrounding mountains, crammed with tall trees, fills you with wonder.

After you’ve pitched your tent or unfurled the awnings on your off-road camper, you can laze in the river’s clear pools, fish for eels, go kayaking, walk the trails, or watch and listen for some of the 90 types of birds. You’ll probably encounter a big goanna (technically, a lace monitor lizard) up to two metres long trundling along before shinnying up a tree to keep an eye on you. At dusk, the wombats and mobs of kangaroos emerge. It’s hard to imagine a more serene place to linger a few days. This is the Aussie bush at its best.

Words Mel Nichols Twitter/X | Instagram  

ROADBOOK

CLASS: BUSH TRAIL

NAME: Bendethera or Bust

ROUTE: Moruya to Bendethera

COUNTRY: AUSTRALIA

Distance: 36 Miles