Issue No. 4, July 2026

Dear Megalong Valley Community,

There’s lots happening in our Valley Under the Rock so I’m going to jump right in with an update, a backward glance and a look to the future.

Thanks for all your support in recent months.

Claudia Rossi Hudson

President

Megalong Valley Community and Landowners Association Inc.

Please have a browse and tell us what you think! You can send feedback to website@megalong.org and the designer and creator, Oliver Michell, will respond. We are grateful to Oliver for all he has done. If you have a business in the Valley that you would like to promote send us some information to be added.

We were able to use the website to sign up and collect payments for stallholders at the Markets – so handy! We are currently working on a password protected area where MVCLA members can access past minutes and other documents.

Whilst our Megalong Valley Community Facebook page is a useful instant communication tool for many of us in this rural setting, not everyone is on Facebook.  The official communication avenue for the MVCLA Inc is our email list. There are 140 members on this list.  However, there are about 300 regular viewers on the Facebook page and we would like to invite all eligible Megalonians to become members of the MVCLA.  The Committee has recently reviewed and broadened the criteria for Membership which is on the website.  Membership is currently free and there is an online application form on our new website – we encourage you to view who can be members and join up here https://www.megalong.org/becomeamember

Flight paths for the airport will be in operation from 9 July and the first cargo flights are expected to start using the airport towards the end of July.  After a lot of pressure from members of the MVCLA WSI subcommittee we were pleased to be advised in April that noise monitoring equipment has been installed at the Community Hall and has been operational since April. The public can track real time data on flights (just like Flightradar) and noise levels around the airport’s flight paths at this site: WebTrak : Western Sydney.  The latest Project update from Air Services Australia also specifically mentions refined operations to reduce night-time overflight impacts on the Megalong Valley!  A win!

A Message from Simon Anderson – Senior Deputy Captain of the Megalong Valley Bushfire Brigade

Above left: Katja Gordon observing fire at Kurranburrock Cultural Burn 2025

Victoria Pass Road Closure and financial relief

It’s now been four months since the Pass was closed and no doubt most of us will have experienced the inconvenience and extra time and expense this is causing.  In the recent announcement of the awarding of contracts, the government also announced the broadening of financial relief to impacted business to include Megalong Valley. More information on eligibility criteria and application process through NSW Rural Assistance Authority is available at: https://www.raa.nsw.gov.au/grants/gwh. 

I have written to our local MP, Trish Doyle to thank her for pushing for our inclusion. She invites all to email her office at electorateOffice.BlueMountains@Parliament.nsw.gov.au if you need any help or clarification of the process as she is in close contact with the Minister’s office.

Roads

The Roads committee headed by “Sheriff” Chris Partington and ably assisted by John Allen have been keeping up pressure on BMCC to fix roads and maintain other council assets. Five Mile Creek Rd has is now sealed allowing safer passage for those needing to travel this backroad connecting Megalong Rd with Peach Tree Rd.

The “Campground to Campground” road upgrade between Blackheath Glen Reserve and the Old Ford Reserve on the valley floor is well underway with many of us amazed at the size of the culverts that are being installed.  Chris has brought to the Council’s attention the necessity of preserving the existing bridal paths for the safe passage of riders and horses on our country roads.  This and other safety concerns requires constant vigilance but he is onto it.  Thank you, Chris.  The culvert work is almost finished but the resealing of the road cannot be done until the other side of winter for technical reasons.

Free camping

And speaking of campgrounds…..The issue of free camping in the Megalong Valley has become a major headache and risk for the Valley.  The campgrounds are overcrowded on weekends and school holidays with inadequate toilets and garbage facilities.  This has been exacerbated by the closure of Dunphy’s campground at the far end of Megalong Road for the past 6 months or more.  Residents close to the Old Ford Reserve have witnessed campervans emptying sewage into the creek, toilet paper up and down the banks, campers pushing further and further into the valley, flattening bushland, trespassing on private property and disregard of fire bans.  We have raised this issue with the Council many times and continue to do so. The Blue Mountains Waterway Health Explorer (below) is a data portal for Council water quality monitoring and includes sites in Megalong.

Councillors’ visit to Megalong Valley

On 9th May, at our request, we welcomed our three Ward 1 Councillors to join us for a chat and a drive around.  Over a coffee in the Tea Rooms we covered 11 discussion points which we had sent to them in advance.  They included the free camping situation, traffic flows into and out of the valley on weekends and event days, community hall maintenance and the need for a large water tank there and the risk of injury to walkers on the Six Foot Track where it converged with Aspinall Road.  We then drove them around in two cars to see the campgrounds, the showground and Aspinall Road for themselves.  They agreed to raise the points via a Customer Service Request to the Council.  This has happened.  We understand that a response will be received in the next couple of weeks.  Watch this space…..

Past Events

Here’s a round up of what we all got up to over the past few months.

February – Sundowners at the Hudson’s at the end of Peach Tree Road. Thank you for all the yummy leftovers that fed Roger and I for a week!  I can’t remember much – I had a broken nose and plastic surgery on my forehead.  All good now…[if I knew how I would insert and emoji of someone going cross-eyed!]

March – lemonade making and pizza dough preparation for the Markets.  This is becoming a fun ritual where we gather at the Hall and squeeze and own lemons and anyone else’s to make a lemon cordial that is sold at the Markets.  Thanks to Harris Farm Markets for all those lemons! And thanks to David Swan who showed us how to get that dough ready for the wonderful pizzas that were sold at the Markets.

Above left: Andris Heks does his kookaburra thing with Helen Finney the kookaburra. Above right: Helen’s stall at Makers Market.

April – Easter is also the time where the Megalong Music Festival showcases amazing talent – emerging and established.  Congratulations to Asmira Woodward-Page for another successful Festival and thankyou for having some of your musicians entertain the visitors to the Markets.  I wonder if they knew that they had an internationally acclaimed concert violinist and Sydney Symphony Orchestra musicians playing for them as they bit into their delicious pizzas from our pizza over crew.

Still in April – Rosemary picking at the Harris’s farm in support of Legacy (below).  This annual event has been a part of the Valley for many years now.  Legacy values the freshness of Megalong Valley rosemary and the day is always a combination of hard work harvesting the rosemary, chatting whilst cutting away and good fun sharing a meal and a drink afterwards.

See you all at the Trivia night on 1st August