Theo Poulos Real Estate Pty. Ltd. An area of great scenic beauty with inspiring, weathered escarpments wide forested valleys and narrow gorges, the Blue Mountains have always drawn people to them. Inhabited from as long as 14,000 years ago by Aborigines, the Blue Mountains presented an impenetrable barrier to the expansion westwards of the Europeans settlers. The first successful European crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813 by Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson opened up the western plains for farming to supply the colony of NSW. The first road through the Mountains was built 1815 by convict labour. Remains of this and subsequent roads can still be seen at Mount York. The early history of European settlement in the Blue Mountains revolved around the road to the western plains. It was not until the railway line was built in 1867 that the Mountains came to be regarded as an area for permanent settlement. Around this time coal began to be mined near Katoomba, being lifted out of the Jamieson Valley by what is now the Scenic Railway. Remains of Aboriginal habitants and of early European settlement are still to be seen through the Blue Mountains. From the 1870's the Mountains began to be regarded as an attractive holiday area for people from Sydney. At first the people who came were wealthy Sydney residents such as Sir Frederick Darley, either building country homes or staying in hotels such as the Carrington at Katoomba and the Victoria and Albert at Mt Victoria. By the early 1900's middle and working class tourists came an expansion of facilities. Fences and lookouts were built on cliff tops, steps were cut into the cliffs giving access to the valleys and networks if walking tracks were constructed throughout the Mountains. |
