Gudgenby & Yankee Hat

Ngunnawal Country

Namadgi is on Ngunnawal Country. Parks ACT: Ngunnawal people have maintained cultural, social, environmental, spiritual and economic connection to these lands and waters. Yankee Hat is a living cultural place, not a backdrop.

Parks ACT: carbon dating of deposits shows the shelter was used more than 800 years ago; nearby sites suggest people camping in the area about 3,700 years ago. It is the ACT’s only publicly accessible Aboriginal rock-art site.

The site reopened after 2020 fire-recovery works, including a fire-resistant viewing setup. Stay on the marked track and platform. Download the official Yankee Hat map and guide (Parks ACT PDF) before you lose signal.

The walk itself

Official: 6.5 km return from Yankee Hat car park, Old Boboyan Road, 3 hours, Grade 3, Status Open on re-check 13 Sep 2026. Easy walking through grasslands, often with kangaroos, to the granite shelter.

Sun and heat on open grassland are the ordinary hazards. Carry water. Give wildlife space. Do not feed kangaroos.

From the same car park: Gudgenby Bush Regeneration Circuit — 5 km loop / 2 hours / Grade 2 / Open. Former pine plantation returning to native forest. Cycling permitted on that circuit. Side trip possible to Eleanor’s Grove on Hospital Creek.

Old Boboyan Road

From Tharwa / Visitor Centre south on Boboyan Road then Old Boboyan Road to the signed car park. Parks ACT: unsealed roads here are generally 2WD when dry. Fords after rain. Conditions change at short notice — phone 02 6237 5307.

Budget about 90 minutes from Canberra CBD depending on roads. This is not a 20-minute lookout from the Visitor Centre. If you only have a Canberra morning, Cypress Pine is the closer product.

How not to wreck the paint

View from the platform. Do not climb the boulder. Do not lean on the painted surface. Parks ACT: it is an offence to damage, disturb or destroy First Nations heritage places, including objects.

Stay on boardwalk and marked track. The shelter is a granite boulder undercut by weathering; the painted surface can crumble.

If the road or the heat fails

If Old Boboyan Road is a soup, reverse to the Visitor Centre and do Woodland Walk / Cypress Pine. The art will wait.

If granite was the point of the day, Square Rock is the Corin-door Plan B — still 4.5 hours, still cliffs. Do not invent Gibraltar Falls as a waterfall add-on: that lookout is CLOSED until further notice.

Highlights at a glance

• Yankee Hat shelter — ACT’s only publicly accessible Aboriginal rock-art site
• 6.5 km return / 3 hours / Grade 3 — Status Open on re-check 13 Sep 2026
• Grassland kangaroos
• Gudgenby valley views
• Gudgenby Bush Regeneration Circuit 5 km from the same car park (Grade 2, Open)
• Site reopened after 2020 fire-recovery works — still fragile

Walks nearby

Grades, times and open/closed status change — open each guide and verify on Parks ACT before you go.

Itineraries that use this area

3–5 hours on the ground (+ Canberra drive)

Half-day from Tharwa

Visitor Centre, then one outdoor block: Woodland Walk or Cypress Pine Lookout. Yankee Hat only if you already have the road status and a 3-hour walking window. Not Gingera, not Booroomba-from-Honeysuckle.

One night + a morning walk

Overnight Orroral + valley morning

Book Orroral (or Honeysuckle) official only. Per person per night. Phone the Visitor Centre during the online outage. Morning: Orroral heritage or Yankee Hat — not Gingera, not Mount Clear with a camper trailer.

Map

Orientation only — confirm trailheads and road status before you drive.

FAQ — Yankee Hat

Explore next

Other Namadgi corners — not a second summit stacked onto this one. Pick the door that matches tomorrow’s clock.

Tharwa

The front door. Namadgi Visitor Information Centre on Naas Road, 2.7 km south of Tharwa bridge. Maps, conditions, PLB hire, firewood for sale, card only. Mount Tennent starts in the car park.

Orroral

Valley camping, Orroral Homestead, former tracking-station context at Honeysuckle, and the current walking access to Booroomba Rocks while the road is closed.

Gingera

ACT alpine: snow gums, Pryors Hut, Mount Gingera 1,857 m, Mt Franklin Road, Stockyard Spur. Winter snow. This is not a Canberra café afternoon.

Boboyan south

Settlers Track, Mount Clear campground, remote unsealed south. Mount Clear is basic, not for camper trailers, 7-night max.

Corin

Western Canberra approach: Square Rock 10.5 km, Corin Dam, Stockyard Spur toward Gingera. Gibraltar Falls lookout is closed until later in 2026.