If long walks aren’t your thing, and a walk to Kunderang Brook or Georges Junction with multiple river crossings doesn’t appeal, then this is the walk for you. Short, sweet and dry boots.
This is Dunghutti country, and Cunderang is the name of a local dialect. Kunderang is on the travelling pathway from Walcha in winter to Bellbrook on the lower Macleay. These Macleay gorges were a place of frontier violence and conflict during the 1830s to 1840s, with a number of massacres in the Kunderang region.
East Kunderang station has a century of pastoral heritage. The homestead with its pit-sawn red cedar slabs and verandahs has been carefully and beautifully conserved. From the back deck of the homestead, there is a view across the mown paddocks to where an old Ford truck rusts beneath a large tree. Access to East Kunderang was first via the river valleys, on horseback or foot. Cedar King Bill Haydon built the track part way to East Kunderang from the tablelands in the mid twentieth century. The road was completed by the new owners after the Fitzgeralds sold in 1967. Electricity arrived in 1973.
Follow the fence line up the paddock, through the gate and continue on the track to Edward Fitzgerald’s grave. Fitzgerald and McDonnell purchased Kunderang from the Crawfords (of Moona Plains Station, near Budds Mare) in 1889. The Fitzgeralds built and lived in this house from the 1893 until 1928. Joseph Fitzgerald and Katherine (nee McDonnell) had 10 children. Their son Edward Joseph was lost after he fell off his horse in the river and drowned, aged 14, in 1901.
Further up the hill is Duval’s Hut. Jack Duval was an aboriginal stockmen who won 8,000 acres in a ballot in 1954, and built a hut here. The OpenSourceMap shows his bridle track access, which was later replaced with the new line of road.
You can return to the homestead from Duval’s Hut the way you came, but the adventurous might want to try find Mick Lennon’s grave. Walk back down the track from the hut signpost some thirty metres to a low saddle and look for the remains of a fence (you might spot a star picket). Follow the fence pushing through the regrowth to Yards Creek. Staying above yards creek, turn towards the homestead and walk until you reach a clear track. Micks Lennons marked grave with a mound of stones is a short distance up the track.
The track leads back to the homestead, first passing the remains of the Aboriginal stockmen hut burnt in 1997. The cattle yards are across Yard’s creek from the hut remains. Closer to the homestead is the restored forge, with the graffiti of local stockmen, and hayshed.
Back at the homestead after your heritage wander, you might enjoy looking at the old photographs on the walls or browsing the collection of books.
