Pilot Hill Arboretum

Batlow, New South Wales, Australia, Australia

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Pilot Hill Arboretum is a beautiful, grassed, and open picnic area located in Bago State Forest near the village of Laurel Hill, about 50 kilometers from Batlow in New South Wales' Snowy Valleys region, featuring plantings of more than fifty tree species from all over the world that were mostly planted in the 1920s and 1930s.

Miraculously, these historic tree plantings survived the Black Summer bushfires of 2019/2020 and remain a towering, green display of the forest's resilience, surrounded by lush native alpine ash forest. The arboretum offers two short walking tracks: the Alpine Ash Walk, a one-kilometer easy-grade one-way walk through majestic forest featuring sculptural works that form part of the Bago Sculpture Forest and broader Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail.

The Pilot Hill Wellness Walk (also called NatureFix Nature Wellness Trail), a short interactive walk launched in 2023 that encourages visitors to pause, relax, and connect with the forest's sights and sounds through six routines, including a Sky Seat for canopy views and a Sound Pod for bird song. The site is free to enter, open for day trips, and situated less than a half-hour drive from both Batlow and Tumbarumba, making it a fabulous spot for exploring the native alpine ash forest of the Bago Plateau and an integral part of the Snowy Valleys Nature Wellness Drive.