Holts Heaven
Among the pagodas above Bungleboori Creek, an off-track loop finds its way through narrow slots, sandstone walls and spring time heath.
Pagoda country near Bungleboori Creek
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Date: September 2026
Distance: 5 km
Elevation gain: 250 m
Time: 5.5 hours
Grade: 4 — mostly off track, with route-finding through pagoda country, some scrambling and a narrow slot climb.
Location: Newnes State Forest, above Bungleboori Creek
Map: NSW Topographic 1:25,000: Wollangambe
Access: Fire trail branching from the Old Bells Line of Road, reached from the Zig Zag Railway at Clarence
Route: Mostly off-track loop through pagoda country south of Bungleboori Creek
Conditions: Dry conditions, with evidence of past fire. The canopy remains largely intact and the understorey was generally open, making off-track passage relatively straightforward.
Notable features: Pagodas, narrow sandstone passages, slot climb, views west towards Angels Rest, Bungleboori Creek
Trip context: One of Yuri Bolotin’s conservation walks
Photography: Sandstone Symphony (unless otherwise noted)
Holts Heaven is not a walk to a destination. The interest lies in the country itself, and in finding a way through it.
Named in 2003 after walker Michael John Holt, who had noticed the area on an aerial photograph, it is a dense field of pagodas on the southern side of Bungleboori Creek. This visit, one of Yuri Bolotin’s monthly conservation walks, covered only about five kilometres but took five and a half hours, mostly off track.
The route slips beneath the first sandstone walls.
Inside the pagodas, the country becomes cooler and more enclosed.
The reason is in the landscape. The route bends around sandstone walls, drops into narrow passages and climbs through gaps onto the open rock above. Progress is rarely difficult, but seldom direct.
A narrow passage between sandstone walls.
Looking up through one of the enclosed breaks in the rock.
Contour Study
The route through Holts Heaven, bending around the pagodas and finding its way north to Bungleboori Creek.
One narrow slot provided the best climb of the day, rising steeply between the sandstone walls before opening again onto the rock above.
Looking back on our ascent slot.
The country soon opens out again.
There were good views west across the pagoda country towards Angels Rest, but much of the interest was closer at hand: fern-filled passages, dark weathered rock, warm orange walls beneath overhangs, heath and open forest.
Pagoda country. Photo: Avi Sanjoyo
There is evidence of past fire through the area, but the canopy remains largely intact. Beneath it, and unlike much of the Gardens of Stone after the 2019/20 fires, the understorey was refreshingly open, making most of the off-track travel straightforward.
Signs of past fire, but with open understorey beneath the intact canopy.
The country opens into heath between the pagodas.
Flowering heath on the open shelves.
Bungleboori Creek made a pleasant lunch stop, a quiet change of pace after weaving through the rock.
Warm sandstone beneath the weathered outer surface.
Pagodas on the return spur.
Pagodas rise above Bungleboori country.
There was no great objective and no particular drama. Just several hours weaving through fine pagoda country, finding the gaps, climbing the occasional slot, stopping by the creek and watching the landscape rearrange itself around us.'
A pleasant day, in other words.
Back into forest towards the end of the loop.