The walk begins with a steady climb on Rollover Road through forest to a series of unfenced lookouts on Bago Bluff, in the Broken Bago Range near Wauchope. The views are expansive, taking in Mount Seaview, Mount Werrikimbe and Mount Cairncross. There are deep forests below, extending to green pastures and the Hastings River Valley.
The return path descends from the bluff, through Six B’s Flora Reserve. Some wag has inserted an extra “V” on the Flora Reserve sign. In this case B does not mean beer, but means Broken Bago Big-fruited Blackbutt Biotype Bush (that’s six B’s) and protects threatened species. The Big-fruited Blackbutt grows here.
Once out of the national park, turn onto an old logging road, which eventually crosses Herons Creek close to the start of the walk. Bago Bluff National Park was gazetted in 1999, before that date this area logged, like the surrounding state forests, so is mostly new or regrowth forest.
Noting some rocks heavily scraped by the undersides of vehicles on the track up to the lookouts, we wondered if Rollover was named for a tendency for 4WD vehicles to tip over. But seems it was named long before this was a recreational area for 4WDs, back when logs were rolled over the cliff for collection below to take to the Timbertown sawmills.
While you are in the area, go visit Old Bottlebutt, a short walk to a big red bloodwood.
If you have a 4WD, you can drive up to the lookouts, but cannot drive the full loop due to tree fall and other obstacles. We drove up to Bago Lookout, above Wauchope. The route to Bago Lookout is challenging, so make sure have suitable 4WD gear and experience.
