Secret Garden

While walking Hermione today, we discovered a track that runs between the Parramatta River and some properties near Rivendell in Concord, Western Sydney. We had explored the track from the other direction when we visited Rivendell near the concord hospital but this was a couple of Km's to the East.

The path meandered along the river side for sometime . . .

until we came to a large lawn area and some introduced tree species, like this majestic pine shown above . . .

soon after we discovered a heavily planted cliff or embankment that looked at little strange . . .

there seemed to be paths leading into the embankment and we could see small caves in the undergrowth . . .

following one of these it snaked through archways and up small stone stairs towards the top . . .

finally through a brightly sunlight exit about 4 or 5 metres higher than where we began . . .

we found ourselves in a large flat grassed area with a grassed embankment and a grand stone staircase . . .

up the staircase ever further from the river bank . . .

at the top of the stairs was a working fountain, with demonic gargoyle like faces spitting water . . .

From the side you can see it leads to a large house that is actually the Dame Eadith Walker Convalescent Hospital (Yaralla) which was completed in 1864. That grotto complex we came up through apparently once had a large swimming pool at the bottom.