For a city of 4 million plus, Sydney is truly blessed by the extent of Nature that lies so close to its doorstep. On the East, the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean, while to the North, South and West Sydney is fringed by vast tracts of pristine bushland. The greatest of these are the picturesque and remote swathes of forest of the Blue Mountains - renowned for their blue tinge and spectacular views.
Named for the blue haze produced by oil emanating from the plentiful Eucalyptus trees, the Blue Mountains have long been an area of interest for millennia. Aboriginal people have lived in the area for thousands of years, and the mountains consist of significant areas of the traditional lands of the Gundungarra and Darug language groups. The significance of this area extends to more than just mere physical landscape. Myths, personal histories, and a sense of place are strongly woven into the rock art, rock engravings and rock shelters that are hidden amongst both suburban and wilderness areas within the Blue Mountains.
While the ‘mountains’ as they are affectionately known, are now one of the most visited and easily accessible areas near Sydney, they were thought impassable until 1813; thirty years after Captain Cooks' landing in 1770. It wasn’t until Gregory Blaxland, William Charles Wentworth and William Lawson, along with four servants, five dogs and four packhorses, left St Mary’s on the outskirts of Sydney in May of 1813 and 18 gruelling days of trekking, that a passage through the mountains was forged and the Bathurst Plains to the west were discovered. This same journey today takes a mere 90 minutes from Sydney, and takes you through the aptly townships of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth Falls.
