Blue Mountains News

From mushroom foraging near Jenolan Caves to sweeping avenues of russet leaves in the upper reaches and late season hues in the lower Mountains, autumn is a multi-coloured changing palette best experienced alongside the rich culture and activity of the region.

If you travel up the Great Western Hwy past the flaming red plane trees lining the sports oval at Glenbrook, the Corridor of Oaks at Faulconbridge is a great picnic spot for scuffing among the fallen leaves.

You can wander along a new accessible boardwalk among oak trees – described by instigator of this national monument, Joe Jackson MLA, as 'Green Robed Senators of the Mighty Wood' – commemorating each Australian Prime Minister since Sir Henry Parkes in 1901.

Further up the Mountains, the colour is plentiful along the highway and framing Wentworth Falls railway station and continues along the backroad to Wentworth Falls Lake in Sinclair Cres, where you can picnic, walk and the kids can play in the accessible playground.

At Leura, the pink cherry trees in the middle of the famous shopping mall turn rusty and the art nouveau heritage gardens of Everglades House & Gardens feature terraces and meandering pathways of crunchy leaves, lichen-covered drystone walls and views over the World Heritage-listed landscape.

It’s been 25 years since the Greater Blue Mountains was recognised by the United Nations as a World Heritage Area.

That inclusion put this 1 million sq ha of protected landscape in the company of other world attractions like Mt Everest, the pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China. 

The Blue Mountains is one of only two cities in the world located within a World Heritage Area.

Sites which are protected under the UNESCO World Heritage List are defined as having ‘cultural and/or natural significance which is so exceptional as to transcend national boundaries and to be of importance for… all humanity’ (Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, July 2012).

Further up the highway, there’s Insta-worthy scenes in every direction at Blackheath and Mount Victoria, where century-old oak trees sprawl colour-tipped branches over the streets and dry leaves flutter around you on a brisk breeze.

At Campbells Rhododendron Garden myriad exotics are planted beneath and among native eucalyptus trees and shrubs over the 18.3ha property in Blackheath.

While there is colour throughout the gardens, the best can be seen on the Maple Walk where there are trees in various states of change, and more in the Circular Garden.

West of the sandstone curtain near Oberon, you will find mushrooms hiding among the pine needles of 40,000ha of pine forests.

Be sure to only pick saffron milk cap and slippery jack mushies – others, no matter how pretty, are poisonous and you mustn’t touch them. (If in doubt, throw it out and get your mushrooms checked by experts, such as the staff at Oberon Visitor Information Centre)

If you cross the Darling Causeway at Mt Victoria to the OTHER Blue Mountains, you will discover the secret hamlets of Mt Wilson and Mt Irvine off the Bells Line of Road – and public avenues and private cool climate gardens filled with autumn colour. 

On the main road at Mt Tomah, Blue Mountains Botanic Garden is a free national showcase of local and imported cool climate plants and basalt cap forests surrounded by World Heritage-listed wildness.

You can wander walking trails, inspect plant displays and recharge at the café.

Further down the Bells Line of Road at Bilpin you’ll find camellia hedges, flame-hued maples and more at Wildwood Garden.

Psst: be sure to snap your selfies safely!