Georges River
Revesby Beach to Chipping Norton Lake
22 December 2019
Trip Leader: JOHN WARD
By JP COLLINS
We have such an abundance of great kayaking destinations in Sydney—from Sydney Harbour and Botany Bay, to the Nepean-Hawkesbury, to Port Hacking—that it’s easy to overlook the fact that just 25 minutes from the Clubhouse is the beautiful and tranquil Georges River National Park. A day trip exploring the Georges River was a long overdue Club outing, and we took advantage of some perfect winter weather to get out and about.
Six of us met at 9am at the Revesby Beach carpark in the Georges River National Park. It’s easy to get to, straight down the M5 motorway—keep in mind that parking in the National Park is $7). We were initially thinking of heading downriver towards Como, but the prevailing tides and winds saw us switch gears and head upriver.
The morning was crisp and breezy, but the day warmed up and we hit our paddling stride. The Georges River is a lovely, broad, winding river with some beautiful areas like Picnic Point and Sandy Point making for a surprisingly enjoyable day. There are plenty of natural stopping points for shorter paddles, including the iconic East Hills Footbridge. However, we all felt great and powered on northwest, past Bankstown Airport and its steady movements of some great heritage aircraft.
We arrived at Homestead Park on Chipping Norton Lake at 12.30pm and enjoyed a good break overlooking the lake. There are toilet facilities here, and it’s a lovely place to watch the local sailing boats out on the water. (If you wanted to make it an even bigger day out, it’s possible to continue paddling upriver a few more kilometres until Liverpool Weir makes for an upper navigational limit.) Homestead Park is just over 15 kilometres from Revesby Beach, so a really good distance to cover over a few hours.
The return trip was also very enjoyable, although there were certainly a few tired crew members as we finally rounded the last bend and returned to Georges River National Park, 31 kilometres after starting the day. Many thanks to John Ward for providing a great float plan and excellent leadership once again throughout the day, and also many thanks to a fun collection of paddlers.
Georges River is an excellent destination that is really perfectly suited to our Club—particularly for newer members wanting to build up experience, distance and stamina on a beautiful but also protected waterway. Let’s line up a few more adventures here—we could also look at exploring downriver towards Salt Pan Creek and Como, or further upriver around Chipping Norton Lake and through to Liverpool.