Blue Mountains – Page 2 – Simply Australia

14 August 202014 August 2020

Blue Trail Village Scenes No 5

MOODS OF THE BOARS HEAD, KATOOMBA

Boars Head has been a name used for a feature in Katoomba at least since 1882 and was described in the Katoomba and Leura Illustrated Guide of 1940 as “The perfect presentation of the head of a great boar, the beetling snout, the slavering jaws, the curved tusks”.

From Cahill’s Lookout on a misty morning

Today, Cahills Lookout and the Narrowneck fire trail are increasingly visited areas of Katoomba and a meet and greet ranger from National Parks & Wildlife Service has given information to visitors to the fire trail on certain days. Very few prominent features in the Blue Mountains can be easily photographed against such a variety of completely natural backgrounds – all the more so since the State Government purchase of Ngula Bulgarabang has apparently ruled out development on that outstanding plateau which provides a forest backdrop across Nellies Glen from the Boars Head.

From Glenraphael Drive with Peckmans Plateau and Ngula Bulgarabang Regional Park in background

The vicinity is worth revisiting to appreciate the changes in the Boars Head appearance according to the weather and the time of day.

© Don Morrison

above photos © Christine Davies

Eleanor Dark, Eric Dark, Osmar White and Eric Lowe on the Boar’s Head Rock 1931 – first ascent of the rock by rope. *Provenance: Photo by James (Jim) Starkey, copy donated by his daughter Jane Chadwick and son Ian: the Starkey Collection, Blue Mountains City Library – Local Studies*

3 July 202021 November 2022

I remember when we could drink from any mountain stream

I’m an old woman now, and live by the sea, but I remember the Blue Mountains. I knew them well and drank from the clear streams in my youth.

Mount Victoria Railway Station – Platform 2
[Image by City Plan Heritage]

Continue reading “I remember when we could drink from any mountain stream”

30 June 202021 November 2022

The Life and Times of Tom – son of Third Fleet convict John Pye

© Keri Webb

There were just the four of us as we grew up, and the only relatives we knew of were our two grandmothers, one very reserved aunt and a wonderfully eccentric uncle. We had no cousins, no family stories, no gossip, nothing. I was somewhere in my 40’s before curiosity got the better of me … surely there were more? What about grandfathers? Who were they? Why was there no mention of them?

It was then I found myself on a fascinating journey of discovery.

Continue reading “The Life and Times of Tom – son of Third Fleet convict John Pye”

16 April 202016 April 2020

Blue Trail Village Scenes No 1

KATOOMBA HOSPITAL PRECINCT
The Eucalyptus oreades stand

Eucalyptus oreades at Pulpit Hill, near Radiata Plateau.
(© Christine Davies)

Eucalyptus oreades (also known as Blue Mountains Ash) is found in scattered areas along the Great Dividing Range. It is along western parts of the Blue Mountains range, especially from Lawson to Bell, and on southern Newnes Plateau that it is most abundant. Stands of oreades, in various stages of maturity, flank major tourist asset areas including Leura Cascades and Radiata Plateau. Among the native trees found in the upper mountains, it is one of those with the most inspiring appearance.

In 1989, a stand of mature Eucalyptus oreades on railway land south of Katoomba Hospital was added to Blue Mountains Council’s Register of Significant Trees. Early this century, when the Great Western Highway was widened to four lanes, this stand of endemic trees was protected by separating the eastbound and westbound carriageways of the highway. In the final design, the westbound carriageway was effectively cantilevered in a section abutting the working lines of the railway. Nowhere else, in the four lane sections of the highway, has the design been so markedly modified to protect vegetation.

Eucalyptus oreades are described as especially vulnerable to large wildfires as trees lack a lignotuber and do not resprout from the trunk or higher branches. At around age 20 years the species develops a distinctive stocking of corky bark that provides some protection of the lower trunk during low intensity prescribed burns however.

In areas where construction and fire control activities will be widespread in future, stands of Eucalyptus oreades are among the more vulnerable natural assets. (Many thanks to Margaret Baker and Ian Brown for advice about Eucalyptus oreades.)