Rise and falls ... the majestic Ellenborough Falls.
Candice Ward finds bats and bushrangers on the Comboyne Plateau, on a long diversion between Taree and Port Macquarie.
There's a dank aroma here that's neither easy to bear nor identify. The leaves of giant trees above us block out sunlight. Screaming creatures surround us. Yet, as it turns out, Wingham Brush, 10 minutes' drive north-west of Taree, is very special.
We've detoured on a scenic route from Taree to Port Macquarie, bypassing the Pacific Highway to break the monotony of long-distance driving. Though driving between the two towns normally takes only an hour, our inland diversion via the Comboyne Plateau entertains us the whole day.
The plateau, now cleared for farming, was once covered in subtropical lowland rainforest and Wingham Brush, the first stop on our adventure, is the last remnant in this area. We walk along a raised timber boardwalk, past the roots of massive Moreton Bay figs that reach across the leaf litter like giant fingers.
The mysterious dank smell is bat dung. Wingham Brush is a rare maternity site for the threatened grey-headed flying fox, the largest bat in Australia. By the time we reach the nesting area the squawking is deafening. We loop the trail and the racket fades as we leave but we retain the image of hundreds of tubby, golden fur balls resting upside-down in neat rows.
The town of Wingham is just two minutes' drive away, yet appears to have paused a little in time. National Trust buildings line the streets, revealing the architectural traces of a once-thriving country centre. The facades endure because of Wingham's distance from highway-related development, says Sydney-based author Robert Milliken, who grew up in Wingham along with several generations of his family.
"Wingham's character hasn't changed in 40 years," he says. "It was built the farthest up the Manning River you could go and still get timber from the forest onto the river."
This legacy has left Wingham with elegant, wide streets that accommodated bullock teams hauling timber onto the town wharf.
More history is hidden in a large timber building frame that sits on a vacant block near the main park. Wingham Hotel burned down last year and all that remains is the frame of the heritage-listed stables, built by Milliken's grandfather in the 1920s. Milliken lived in the hotel as a child with his publican parents.
"It is the probably the largest surviving hotel coach house in NSW, even Australia," he says.
It is scheduled for demolition due to structural instability. "Like many Wingham residents, I would like to see it saved," Milliken says.
We discuss this during breakfast at Bent on Food, a foodie haunt known for its use of local produce. We try the Brookfarm muesli with macadamias, Hastings Valley honey yoghurt and strawberries, apples and pears that taste fresh from the field.
Among the local labels on its shelves is macadamia butter, harvested on the Comboyne Plateau, peaches preserved in chardonnay and toffee-apple syrup.
Nourished, we set out along Comboyne Road, passing picket-fenced homesteads and grazing country. Past the town of Bobin we find a plaque marking Jimmy Governor's capture in 1900. He and his friend Jacky Underwood killed nine people. Governor was captured, locked up in Wingham and executed in Sydney in 1901, one of Australia's last bushrangers.
Our next destination was no stranger to triumph over evil either, we suppose, when it featured in the 2006 Hollywood film Superman Returns. Ellenborough Falls has been widely regarded as the largest single-drop waterfall in the southern hemisphere, though a sign at the site says it has been subject to a "revision of Australian geographical fact" recently. Apparently, it is now regarded as the second largest - after Wallaman Falls in Queensland.
Nevertheless, watching the Ellenborough River burst over the escarpment, then crash onto the gorge floor 200 metres below, is a dizzying experience. The viewing platform provides a side aspect of the falls, though it's an awkward viewpoint. The 700-metre Knoll Outlook walk has a better panorama and with more time we would have attempted the Lower Falls walk, a steep 641-step trek to the base of the falls.
At this height the scenery stretches far. We drive up the Comboyne Plateau, 750 metres in elevation at the highest point, along a red dirt road. The plateau is an extinct volcano and its fertile basalt soil is the basis of the area's dairy industry. This heritage is celebrated enthusiastically at the Udder Cow Cafe in Comboyne, with its quirky collection of fluffy-cow memorabilia.
We descend from the plateau, past swathes of green pasture into the valley below. On the way, we stop for lunch at Blue Poles Cafe and Gallery whose colourful buildings brighten the remote community of Byabarra. The cafe stages exhibitions by local artists; landscape paintings echo the view of the Quintoc Hills outside.
Owner-proprietor Ian Farlow offers some home-made macadamia fudge. "We make almost everything from scratch, from the pasta to the cakes and flatbreads," he says. He runs the cafe on an eight-hectare property fronting the Thone River, a platypus habitat with a citrus orchard and rainforest.
Farlow points to guest accommodation in a corrugated-iron dwelling. Originally built as an art studio, it is now a blue-and-green tree house.
Today though, we must keep moving. As the afternoon stretches on we pass Bago Bluff National Park. The stunning band of exposed rock atop a forested hill - Bago Bluff - is visible. Just behind it lies Bago Vineyards.
We wind along a wooded dirt road, feeling as though we are about to disappear into the bush, just as we enter a wide open space: a carpet of green lawn, 25-year-old grape vines and lilac jacarandas. We stop to try Bago Vineyards' signature variety, chambourcin.
One of the highlights of the winery is its hedge maze. When it's completed next year, owner Jim Mobbs says the maze will be one of the largest in the state.
Started in 2006, the maze is the brainchild of his son, a landscape architect. "It's a family affair," Mobbs says. "The maze's shape mirrors the tendrils of a grape vine and its design represents the cyclic nature of the vineyard."
When I return next year to walk along its two kilometres of paths, I must make a mental note to do the maze first, then the wine tasting.
As we return to the highway, a darkening sky reveals hundreds of flying foxes beginning their migration for the night, this time silent against the sunset.
FAST FACTS
Getting there
From the Sydney CBD, the 300-kilometre drive to Taree takes four hours along the Pacific Highway. Take the Taree South exit into Taree, then head north-west along Comboyne Road to Wingham, Comboyne and Byabarra. The road becomes the Oxley Highway at Huntingdon; continue through Bago to Wauchope, then detour onto Bago Road to Bago Vineyards. The Pacific Highway is only a couple of minutes drive from here.
Staying there
Blue Poles Cafe and Gallery has accommodation for two people in a tree house, which costs $195 a night on weekends, $175 a night midweek, including breakfast. At 1086 Comboyne Road, Byabarra; see bluepoles.com.au.
Touring there
Other points of interest along this hinterland trail include Boorganna Nature Reserve, where visitors can walk a rainforest trail to view Rawson Falls and Mumfords Creek. Allow three hours return; see comboyne.org.
To learn more of the area's pioneering history visit Timbertown, a heritage park near Wauchope.
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