Located just 45 km west of Camden as the crow flies, within the western section of the Blue Mountains National Park, Yerranderie has operated as a tourist destination under the watch of Valerie Lhuedé and her caretakers. It’s a popular spot for 4WD tours and hardened bushwalkers. Up to 60 people can stay at the site in restored historic buildings or camping.
Yerranderie is an important part of Sydney’s cultural heritage. A visit to the place immerses you in the area’s rich silver mining history, and its intriguing European and Indigenous stories. Valerie has lovingly restored many of its early 20th century buildings and preserved countless artefacts of historical value.
Miss Lhuedé’s property also contains hundreds of hectares of wildlife habitats. Yellow-Bellied Gliders, Sugar Gliders, Eastern Grey Kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, possums and numerous bird species live on the property.
Yerranderie, once stripped of native grasses by cattle and partially deforested, was encouraged to return to a wildlife sanctuary under Ms Lhuedé care. “I let all the trees grow back and got rid of the nasties that had come in. I’d go out in the evening and chop the weeds, and by slow degrees I had the area around the Private Town back to the original tall trees and grassland underneath,” Miss Lhuedé said.
Miss Lhuedé describes Yerranderie as a “very beautiful spot in the mountains full of myths and legends and history.” Miss Lhuedé has written a book, Yerranderie is my Dreaming, about the British, Aboriginal and French history of the area.
During its heyday of 1907 to 1914, Yerranderie had a population of over 2,000 people. But those heady days are long gone; the price of silver dropped and the site was cut off from direct access to Sydney by the Warragamba Dam project.
Today it is only accessible via Oberon and long stretches of gravel road, making it a five-hour trek from Sydney.
Foundation Projects
Protecting Yerranderie for all time
Valerie Lhuedé has been restoring her own private ghost town of Yerranderie for over 30 years, but at the age of 87, she donated the 467 hectare property to the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). Yerranderie will become a state managed Regional Park, preserving its heritage buildings and wildlife habitats for the enjoyment of all.
