'Going Bush': Exploring the Blue Mountains

On 26^th July, I went on a day-long trek into the legendary Blue Mountains, 80 kilometres west of Sydney. My driver, guide and mentor was a lovely Aussie guy called Col’, an expert in bushcraft survival skills, who arrived in a huge beast of a 4-wheel drive vehicle, with a snorkel exhaust pointing up above the windscreen- potentially we were equipped for some adventurous off-road exploration! This World Heritage treasure (yes, another one!), covers an area the size of Belgium, and is home to vast forests of Eucalyptus, boasting over 100 different varieties of the tree that we associate so much with Australia. It is the evaporating oil droplets from the billions of eucalyptus trees that hover in the atmosphere and give the legendary blue haze, especially on hot, sunny days.

 After the one hour drive, by 8.00am I found myself walking through Euroka Clearing, near Glenbrook, searching for the Eastern Grey kangaroo, which initially proved elusive. Instead, green droppings and tracks led us to the large burrow of a nocturnal wombat that was probably still asleep inside its home. The only sounds were the raindrops dripping from the trees and the unfamiliar birdsong that pierced the silence.

Then, a magical moment – to my delight, we came upon a female kangaroo and her mate, grazing on grass, and totally indifferent to us as we got almost within touching distance of them; and what’s more, she had a little joey in her pouch who poked its face out briefly!

We drove onto the area of Katoomba, which straddles the ridge between the Grose and Jamison Valleys, and enjoyed walks that led to natural panoramic viewing outcrops with evocative names such as Eagle Hawk Lookout, Echo Point, The Anvil, and Govett’s Leap. From the first vantage point we could see glimpses of Katoomba waterfalls far below, and massive rock formations that rival America’s Grand Canyon, but were even older.  

Many of the National Park’s heritage tracks and lookouts that we followed were created for Victorian-era honeymooners and day-trippers, and I imagined what is would be like walking down some of the steep staircases and narrow tracks in a dress with a bustle!  From Echo Point we had spectacular views of The Three Sisters which is of great significance to the Gundungurra Aborigines whom the forests were once home to. Their related dreamtime story tells of the three beautiful sisters called Meehni, Wimiah and Gunnedoo who lived long ago in the Jamison Valley. They were in love with three brothers from the rival Dhapruk tribe, but marriage to outsiders was forbidden, and so the desperate men vowed to capture the women by force. The Kuradjuri (witch doctor), used his magic bone to turn the sisters to stone to hide them, intending to restore them to life when the battle between the two tribes ended, but he was killed and his powerful bone lost in the forest. The magic bone has never been found, and until it is, the spell cannot be broken, and the three sisters will forever be frozen in time as the three iconic rock formations that are the focal point of this wonderful view.

The story Col’ told me reminds me that this land was once the home of the Aborigines and that they have different names for these places, and mysterious explanations of how the geology was formed- another legend was that the river meandering through the gorge below was a giant serpent that once slid through the forest; to me such stories are more appealing than the rational science that tells us that this was the site of a great inland sea, and the strange shapes and textures of the sandstone rocks that I run my hands over, are actually just caused by the erosion of the elements over millions of years.

Aboriginal people have been here for 50,000 years, living off the land and sea, and at our other walks near Leura and Blackheath, Col’ pointed out the native names for plants and their uses by the indigenous inhabitants – Tree grass was used for basket weaving, Banksia’s sharp, serrated leaves were used to cut the pelt off a hunted animal, and another rough-textured leaf was used as sandpaper to smooth the surfaces of their carved wooden boats.

Back in the town of Katoomba we had lunch of flat-head fish at the Mountain Heritage Hotel, with its enviable views over the Blue Mountains. Bizarrely the hotel was decorated with Christmas trees and fairy lights, as in Australia they sometimes have an extra Yuletide celebration in their winter, as Christmas Day falls in summer - their hottest time of year.

I had requested to see some more Aboriginal rock art, and we stopped off at Ticehurst Park to see some remarkable flat rock engravings that were spread out over a sandstone platform overlooking a ravine below. Surprisingly the precious relics that could date back thousands of years, are adjacent to three modern houses, and could easily be missed or vandalized.  Col’ pointed out representations of three life-sized emus – one with a full crop, and another, wounded with its head dropped. My expert guide explained that the holes spread out along the incised lines were plotting points that the artist used to map out and guide his scratched line drawings. The hunter’s footprints could be seen too, carved into the exposed rock beneath my own feet.  Other dips in the rock were in reality axe-grinding grooves where the Aboriginal hunter had sat and sharpened his axe and spear tips. Also significant were a number of small water "wells" or dips in the rock floor that collected water for drinking. The placement of the axe-grinding grooves next to water wells was, I learnt, practical, as water was required for the stone-grinding process both to wash away the sand produced by the grinding process and to keep the axe cool during the process.

A local rock art site might tell a particular creation story which is connected to another rock art site which could be a few hundred metres away. Some sites are a long distance apart yet still connected through the Dreaming stories they tell.

This photograph shows Red Hands Cave, a few miles away, once home to the Daruk tribe that lived in the Blue Mountains for 14,000 years

There was an eerie presence at Ticehurst Parkand the images laid out before me had an intangible power. Sadly, no Aboriginal has received the exact story and the symbolic meaning of the haunting pictures, and they are in danger of damage from ignorant visitors who inadvertently walk over them or worse, intentionally vandalize them. Being in this place I gained a deeper understanding of the paintings of native animals, rivers and water holes that I saw in the memorable dreamtime paintings in the Melbourne gallery, and hope that the Aboriginal rock art treasures seen in the Blue Mountains can be conserved for future generations.

What a superb day, and a fitting climax to my time in Sydney, as I say goodbye to this unique country, and move onto my final world culture tomorrow – BALI!