The Blue Mountains
'...the most beautiful and most wonderful lights and shadows.'
"The afternoon and the evening were the most beautiful and most wonderful lights and shadows. What struck us more than anything was the wonderfully brilliant blue of the distant hills. I have never seen anything to compare to it at all, the most gorgeous real sapphire blue, really transparent blue – it is impossible to give any idea of it.” - Lady Tennyson, 1900.
The Blue Mountains
The Blue Mountains is an immense landscape of sandstone plateaus, escarpments and gorges situated mid-way along the spine of the ‘Great Dividing Range’ the 3,500km long expanse of mountains, plateaus and hills that runs parallel to the east coast of the continent of Australia.
The Mountains are a deeply cut sandstone plateau in a large eucalypt dominated landscape, representing one of the largest areas of intact bushland in Australia, and an outstanding illustration of the evolutionary history of plant life on planet Earth. The weathered sandstone escarpments of the Blue Mountains form sublime natural landforms, including cliffs up to 300m high, waterfalls, canyons, caves and extraordinary rock formations.
Hundreds of species of plant-life exist within the Blue Mountains landscape, including many species that are relics of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana.
A third of the bird species on the continent of Australia are found within the Blue Mountains landscape, which also provides habitat to 63 reptile, 30 frog and 52 mammal species, along with 120 species of butterflies and 4,000 species of moths.
Much of the bushland of the Greater Blue Mountains Area is of high wilderness quality and exists in a largely undisturbed state, allowing natural ecological processes to continue.
The vegetation of the region is dominated by a variety of Eucalypt habitats, but also features heathlands, wetlands, grasslands and swamps. One of the world’s rarest plants, the ancient Wollemi pine, a “living fossil” is also found in the region.
Animals found here include the tiger quoll, Echidna, platypus, Eastern Grey Kangaroo, the Blue Mountain water skink, and the dingo. The region is also important for birds, with endangered species such as the regent honeyeater found in the Blue Mountain’s forests, along with flame robins, pilotbirds, lyrebirds and hundreds of other bird species.
Human History
The sandstone rocks which form the plateau of the Blue Mountains were formed from sediment deposited into ancient river systems 250 million years ago, before being pushed up from the ancient plains to its current height around 90 million years ago, and then eroded over millenia into the deep canyons, valleys and cliffs seen today.
Humans have frequented the landscape of today’s Blue Mountains for many thousands of years, with Aboriginal people from six language groups, including the Gundungurra, Darug and Burra Burra peoples having lived here for many thousands of years, as evidenced by a rich diversity of rock engravings, rock shelter art, occupation sites, archaeological sites and areas of immense cultural significance dating back more than 22,000 years.
After the British colonisation of Sydney Cove, the Blue Mountains’ thick bush, tough terrain and steep cliffs initially slowed the western expansion of British people and invasion of the traditional lands of Indigenous peoples. In 1813, the range was eventually crossed, opening up the gentler western slopes of the mountains for further colonial expansion into the more open and flatter landscapes beyond.
Rising dramatically inland from Australia’s most populous city of Sydney, and backyard to its more than 5 million residents, the Blue Mountains provides the city with clean air and drinking water, and has been a close landscape of inspiring natural beauty and source of recreation, rejuvenation and spiritual renewal for many years.
The Blue Mountains takes its name from the bluish hue of distant views of the mountains, which is in part thought to be caused by the effect of the evaporation of eucalyptus species’ oils on light.
Conservation
The Blue Mountains was put forward as a proposed national park by pioneer conservationist Myles Dunphy in 1932, and after many years of effort by conservationists to have the region recognised, was eventually gazetted as a national Park in 1959, and inscribed on the World Heritage list as part of a Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage area in 2000.
There a number of threats to the long-term integrity of the plant and animal life of the Blue Mountains region. Global warming is driving increasing frequency and intensity of bushfires, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in 2020 listed the World Heritage site as being a site of significant concern, due to the scale of the impact of recent bushfires on the area. Global warming is also putting pressure on the fragile ecology of the region through increased temperatures and changes to rainfall patterns. Feral species such as foxes, horses, and feral cats are an ongoing problem for the ecological integrity of the region, whilst pollution from nearby coal mines, from greater Sydney and outdated sewage systems in the Blue Mountains are also sources of concern. Most recently there is currently a major outcry over a developer’s proposal to raise the wall of the Warragamba Dam, which would destroy wild rivers, flood cultural heritage sites and flood thousands of hectares of wild country within the Blue Mountains National Park World Heritage site.
Conservation Efforts
The Colong Foundation for Wilderness is one of the longest running and most successful groups advocating the preservation of wild places in Australia, and has been instrumental in the formation of multiple National Parks in the Blue Mountains area - https://www.colongwilderness.org.au
Give a Dam is a campaign to stop the raising of the Warragamba Dam – which would flood cultural heritage sites, wild rivers and thousands of hectares of the Blue Mountains National Park World Heritage site https://www.giveadam.org.au
The Blue Mountains Conservation Society were instrumental in the campaign to achieve World Heritage listing for the Blue Mountains, and works for its long-term protection -
https://www.bluemountains.org.au/index.shtml
Birds of the Blue Mountains is a conservation group dedicated to promoting awareness of and conservation of the birds of the Blue Mountains - https://www.birdsofbluemountains.com
The Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute is a non-profit committed to inspire collaborative stewardship of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage area: https://www.bmwhi.org
More Information
The Greater Blue Mountains Area UNESCO World Heritage listing - https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/917/
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service – Greater Blue Mountains Area page -
https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/conservation-and-heritage/greater-blue-mountains
“I had never seen such a scene before…It is hard to grasp the stupendous immensity connected with all things relating to the scenic part of the Mountains.”
– Myles Dunphy, 1910
