Bombay Fire Trail - Tallaganda Forest - SE New South Wales

The Tallaganda Forest has a series of strategically built fire trails, providing access through the forest.  

The Bombay fire trail runs north-south on the eastern side of Mount Palerang. It connects a number of east-west trails:
- Palerang (connecting Forbes Creek and Braidwood) in the north
- Jinglemoney in the center 
- Lowden Forest Road (connecting Rossi and Braidwood) in the south.

The road, in mid-2014, was in reasonably good condition although a gale the night before had put a great deal of tree litter onto the road and there were some fallen branches across the road.  

It has a number of medium climbs and descents – plus a couple of small streams and a lot of swales built into the road for erosion control.  There had been some rain and it was snowing on and off – but the trail was firm and safe.  Although one lane, there are plenty of places to stop or turn around along the trail.  I didn’t see any other traffic – probably because of the weather conditions.

The trail winds through a number of different tree communities - and there are some good examples of living and dead tree types close to the trail.

There is plenty of wild-life – I came across a pair of eagles, lots of kangaroos and wallabies and a surprising number of ground birds.  There are occasional white ant nests.

At the northern end of the road there was evidence of a recent fire.

Peter Quinton

Palerang

June 2014