Holiday houses in Springwood

Springwood is a small town outside of Sydney, nestled in a narrow valley at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Evidence from Aboriginal rock engravings shows historic Springwood dates back 40,000 years, and the nearby Blue Mountains are one of the few places in Australia where you can still see the ancient rock art. Springwood is also home to one of the oldest railways in the Blue Mountains, built in 1867, and its railroad service into the mountains is one of the few still running today.

The untamed eucalypt forests surrounding Springwood are home to a variety of marsupials like the koala and wallaby, along with hundreds of bird species. A walk through Springwood’s Fairy Dell bushwalk trail offers a mix of thriving green fern plants and staggering eucalypt trees, where you can birdwatch for bright-coloured species like the rainbow lorikeet and the crimson rosella. The trail ascends to one of Springwood’s many elevated viewpoints, Lawson Lookout, making for an impressive glimpse of the lush, tree-covered valleys ahead.

Summer in Springwood is warm and sunny, making it the best time to hire a kayak and paddle through the nearby waters at Penrith Lake Regional Park. Autumn weather is cool, and it’s also the rainiest season in Springwood. You can take a short drive or a one-hour trek to Martin’s Lookout for panoramic views of the surrounding valleys this time of year, as bushy green trees blend with autumn’s red and orange shades.

Winters are usually chilly and rainy. If you follow the Sun Valley Trail, you will see Clarinda Falls’ small cascades flow at their full potential during wintertime. During pleasant spring, colourful wildflowers like the deep fuschia New South Wales Warrah are on display at the 250-hectare Blue Mountains Botanic Garden.

Springwood Conservation Park

The 36-hectare Springwood Conservation Park is home to diverse flora and fauna amid an overflowing eucalypt forest. You can take the park’s steep “Stairs of Death” to a plateau lookout point for aerial views of the sprawling eucalypt woods and small gorges below you. If you look up in the trees as you ascend the “Stairs of Death,” you might see small species of quail birds and multi-coloured doves.

Blue Mountains National Park

More than one million hectares of dense gum and eucalypt forest cover the Blue Mountains National Park. The world-renowned Three Sisters hanging rock formation sits within the Katoomba section of the park. You can get an up-close view of the Three Sisters by trekking the Three Sisters trail, or follow the path to Echo Point Lookout for a full-length view of the Three Sisters further in the distance. Keep an eye out for native wildlife like kangaroos, koalas, and the brush-tailed rock wallaby.

Valley Heights Rail Museum

New South Wales’ rail history is on display at the Valley Heights Rail Museum, featuring preserved vintage locomotives. The museum shows how innovative engineering during the late 1800s helped create a railway that could run through the Springwood area's steep valleys into the Blue Mountains.