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Friday October 19, 2007 (Day 3)
Tour of the Blue Mountains
The Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, are found approximately 100 kilometers west
of Sydney. They are a range of sandstone geological structures that reach to at least 1,190
meters AHD (in the Lithgow area). The Blue Mountains are not as the name suggests a range
of mountains but rather a series of cliffs surrounding a plateau with rugged eroded gorges
of up to 760 meters depth. A large majority of the Blue Mountains is incorporated in the
Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Site and its constituent seven national parks
and a conservation reserve.
The name of the mountains derives from the blueish tinge the range takes on when viewed
at a distance, which is caused by the release of volatile oils from eucalyptus forests.
(Most mountains and plains in the forested parts of Australia take on a similar hue:
the Blue Mountains were a familiar sight to early British settlers in the Sydney district
long before the bulk of the continent was explored by non-native people.)
The mountains were originally named by Arthur Phillip in 1788 as the Carmarthen Hills for
the northern section near Sydney, and the Lansdowne Hills for the southern, however Blue
Mountains quickly became preferred as the popular name. Although known by Indigenous
Australians for thousands of years, the Blue Mountains were thought to be impenetrable
by the early white settlers of Sydney, and were not crossed until convicts and other
explorers found their way across. The most famous expedition was in 1813, by Blaxland,
Wentworth and Lawson. Rather than, like earlier explorers, following the river valleys-only
to discover usually that they were terminated by vertical cliffs several hundred meters
high-the trio followed the ridges to reach the plateau. This 'first crossing' by Lawson,
Blaxland and Wentworth is a common misconception due to various monuments claiming this to
be so. Indeed the only geographical reward they received for their efforts was the naming
of three hills in the Kanimbla Valley northwest of Mount York. This crossing of the Blue
Mountains has traditionally been regarded as a critical step that opened the west of New South
Wales to European settlement; however, modern historians point out that until about the time
the mountains were first crossed there was still ample land available closer to the coast.
The oft-told tale, that the Blue Mountains were a crippling barrier to colonial expansion,
is largely myth.
A road crossing the mountains was built in only 27 weeks by William Cox, at the behest of
Governor Lachlan Macquarie, using 30 convict labors and 8 guards and was completed in early 1815.
The predominant natural vegetation of the higher ridges is eucalypt forest. Heath-like vegetation is present on plateau edges above cliffs. The sheltered gorges often have a temperate rainforest. There are also many hanging swamps with button grass reeds and thick, deep black soil. Wollemia nobilis, the "Wollemi pine", a relic of earlier vegetation of Gondwana, is found in remote and isolated valleys of the Wollemi National Park.
Many Bushcare Groups carry out bush regeneration to restore and protect the bushland areas on public lands within the City of Blue Mountains.
The climate varies with height. At Katoomba (1,010 meers) summer daytime temperatures are usually in 20s with a few days extending into the 30s (Celsius). Night time temperatures are usually in the teens. In winter the temperature is typically about 12 or 13 °C in the daytime with ?3 °C or so on clear nights and 2 to 3 °C on cloudy nights. There are two to three snowfalls per year. In the lower mountains, however, the climate is significantly warmer. Annual rainfall is about 48 inches (1,200 mm) with many misty days.
The main natural disasters to afflict the area are bushfires and severe storms. In recent years the lower mountains has been subjected to a series of bushfires which have caused great loss of property but relatively little loss of life. The upper mountains had not had a major fire for some decades until December 2002 (The Blackheath Glen Fire) and November 2006 when an extensive blaze in the Grose Valley threatened several communities including Bell and Blackheath (The Lawson Long Alley Fire). This latest fire burned for almost a month but was extinguished without loss of human life or property. A program of winter burning seems to have been quite successful in reducing fires in the upper mountains.
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