Oberon and the Southern Blue Mountains
Most people arrive at this corner of the map looking for Jenolan Caves. The honest answer comes first, because it changes the plan: the caves are shut. What is open on this side, how far it is and what to do instead, below. The best Blue Mountains tours all stay on the Katoomba side of the range.
Jenolan Caves, and what closed the road
It is worth being clear about how much this matters. Jenolan is one of the eight reserves in the World Heritage property and the single most-searched underground attraction in the region. Its absence is the reason this side of the range currently has almost no visitor traffic at all.
Kanangra Walls and the Kanangra-Boyd plateau
The other reason to come, and it is open. Kanangra-Boyd National Park is part of the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage property, and the National Parks and Wildlife Service puts it at just 180km from Sydney. Kanangra Walls is a wall of sheer sandstone cliff faces facing a plateau that carries Mount Cloudmaker, the Kanangra-Boyd lookout, and Kalang and Morong Falls.
The park is always open and may close in poor weather or high fire danger. This is walking and camping country rather than lookout-and-carpark country.
Where Oberon is — 180km, and what that means
South-west of Katoomba, reached around the bottom of the range rather than over the top of it, on the western tablelands. The National Parks and Wildlife Service's figure of 180km from Sydney is the useful one: it is further than Katoomba in kilometres and considerably further in driving, because the last part is not highway.
For a visitor on a Sydney itinerary, that puts it beyond a day trip and inside a touring holiday.
The Blue Mountains Heritage Centre and the Oberon office
The National Parks and Wildlife Service runs a contact office at 38 Ross Street, Oberon, open Monday to Friday from 9am to 4.30pm. The Blue Mountains Heritage Centre, on the Katoomba side, opens 9am to 4pm daily and closes on Christmas Day. Between them they are where current track and road conditions on this side of the range come from, and both are worth a call before a long drive.
Mayfield and the Oberon plateau
The country around Oberon is high, cold and agricultural rather than forested — closer in feel to the tablelands than to the escarpment an hour away. Mayfield Garden, a large cool-climate garden, is the best-known drawcard in the district. Its opening times and admission could not be confirmed from an official source, so check directly rather than planning around a figure found elsewhere.
The Six Foot Track, and what is closed on it
The Six Foot Track is the historic walking route between Katoomba and Jenolan, and it is the other casualty of the road closure. The operator records it as closed between Jenolan Caves House and Binda Bush Cabins. The Katoomba end is unaffected, so the walk still exists as an out-and-back rather than as a through-route, and anyone planning the full three-day crossing needs to check current status before setting out.
Fire danger, weather and when it shuts
Kanangra-Boyd National Park is always open and may close in poor weather or high fire danger, which is the same rule the National Parks and Wildlife Service applies across the property. Out here that matters more than it does at Katoomba, because there is no second road and no town at the far end. Check the alerts the night before rather than the morning of, and treat a closure as a closure rather than a suggestion.
How far it all is
| From | To | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | Kanangra-Boyd National Park | 180km |
| Sydney | Katoomba, for comparison | About 100km, under two hours |
| Oberon | NPWS office, 38 Ross Street | In town, Mon–Fri 9am–4.30pm |
| Katoomba | Blue Mountains Heritage Centre | Blackheath, 9am–4pm daily |
| Anywhere | Jenolan Caves | Closed until early 2027 |
Getting there
By car, and realistically only by car. There is no train and the guided day tours do not come out here for the same reason they do not reach Lithgow: the road time would eat the daylight. A private vehicle booked for a full day could be routed this way, which is what the private tours page is for.
What to book instead this year
If underground was the appeal, there is no substitute in this region until the caves reopen, and it is better to say so than to sell you a lookout instead. If the appeal was quiet country away from the coaches, that is available now on the Katoomba side: the private days deliberately work the emptier lookouts, and the things to do page sorts the options by how long you have.
See Lithgow for the other western gateway, the map page for how it all fits together, and Blue Mountains Tours for what each fare covers.