Greater Blue Mountains Drive

Fast facts

• A series of linked drives and discovery trails that encircle the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area
• The World Heritage Area is a vast 10,000 sq km that includes Wollemi, Yengo, Gardens of Stone, Blue Mountains, Kanangra Boyd, Nattai and Thirlmere Lakes national parks plus Jenolan Karst Conservation Reserve  
• Easy access from Sydney via the Hawkesbury Valley, Glenbrook in the Blue Mountains or Mount Annan Botanic Gardens in the Marcarthur region

Why drive it

This is one the country’s greatest touring routes, a journey to challenge, captive and stimulate. You’ll enjoy rustic towns and villages, mountains, bushwalks, museums, wineries, wilderness and wildlife. There are spectacular views, country markets, botanical wonders and bush-lined creeks where a skilled hand with a steel pan still yields specks of gold.

The Greater Blue Mountains Drive includes 18 Discovery Trails that branch off the main route, each one taking travellers on a unique adventure. The common link is the network of national parks and conservation areas that make up the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. This stretches from the Upper Hunter, to Mudgee, Goulburn, the Southern Highlands and the Hawkesbury.

Along the way

• Discover a treasury of native plants and birds at Mount Annan Botanic Garden.
• Visit Australia’s oldest and largest rail museum at Thirlmere or enjoy a steam engine ride on the Zig Zag Railway near Lithgow.
• Take a trip to Jenolan Caves and explore the labyrinth of stalactite-lined limestone chasms carved by underground rivers.
• Stock up on fresh apricots, peaches, apples and avocadoes in season from roadside stall at Kurrajong.
• Go mountain biking, along Narrowneck at Katoomba or the Woodford-to-Glenbrook Oaks Trail.
• Take a step back in time with a stroll among the historic buildings of St Albans in the Hawkesbury Valley, Wollombi and Broke.
• Camp at Dunns Swamp and take a boat tour or hire a canoe to explore the quiet waterways.

Don’t miss

• Remnants of the Great North Road built by convict labour to link Sydney to the Hunter Valley
• The eerie lights of Glow Worm Tunnel, Newnes Plateau
• The Wollemi Pine, a living fossil, at Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens
• Kangaroos in the wild at Euroka Camping and Picnic Area, near Glenbrook
• Echo Point lookout, Katoomba and Govetts Leap, Blackheath to see pristine wilderness
• Aboriginal rock art at Blackfellows Hand Rock in Wolgan Valley