Blue Mountains Journal

I retire from the workforce this week and to celebrate have decided to retire my current blogs and start afresh with a single consolidated blog -  My Bright Field  - to record the delights of my new life adventure. If you are interested follow me over there where I will be recording the bright spots I discover in my gardens, towns and travels.

Mount Vic has the misfortune of being the current village undergoing the never ending roadwork on the highway.  But good progress is being made and the parts that have been completed are looking good. That's if for this town.  I am not sure where I will go next.

We capped off our visit with a nice lunch at the Petalura Eatery.

The railway is important here too.  Many trians teminate here while others go onto Lithgow. Trains are a historic feature of this villiage with a Train Museum and a Great Train Weekend held each May.

Back up at the village you find a range of small shops and eateries as well as hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation.

The modern road down the escarpment is Victoria Pass.   I caught this shot going up rather than down.

Finding a route across the mountains and then building a road across to the grasslands to the west was a very big thing in 1813-1815.  The western point of the road before descending the escarpment is at Mount York. They had lots of trouble getting down to the plains below with various roads being built over time, each trying to improve on the steep descent. At Mount York there is a collection of old monuments celebrating the centenary and other milestones.  There is also very interesting modern signage explaining the history.  A short bush walk (which I didn't do on this occasion) also takes you to historic cuttings from the first road.

We started our exploration heading out of the village towards Mount York.  At Barden's Lookout you get a great view of the countryside west of the Blue Mountains.

Mount Vic has a popular old style cinema - a real trip back in time.

Instead of going to Katoomba (which wasn't inspiring me at the time) we went further up the mountain to Mount Victoria.  This is the last of the villages before descending down the other side to the west - hence its slogan "Explorers gateway to the west". Let's do a little bit of exploring ourselves.

And of course there is some pleasant bushwalking to be done in the area.  This is Leura Cascades, a quite easy walk. This is the end of my short revisit to Leura.  I will move up the road to Katoomba in a week or so.

Also in Leura there is the Toy and Railway Museum at the historic home Leuralla and the Treasured Teapot Museum at Bygone Beauties tea rooms. Over the road from the Toy and Railway Museum Boofhead and Olive Oyl have a lovely mountain view.

Leura is known at the village of gardens - they run a great garden festival in the Spring each year where you can get a chance to visit a range of open gardens.  Perhaps the most famous of the gardens is the Everglades which is open all year and run by the National Trust.  It is a delight to visit whatever the season.

If shopping is your thing you will find lots of speciality shops.  One of my favourites is the Moontree candle shop, along with Megalong Books, but there are gift shops, homewares, galleries, clothing and more … and let's not forget the lolly shop.

You will find just what you need to rest and indulge your appetite in Leura - whether it is a cup of coffee, indulging in cake, high tea or a hearty meal.

Next up the highway from Wentworth Falls is Leura. It's a lovely vibrant spot with lots of interesting shops and good places to eat.  As such, it is the go-to destination for heaps of tourists and locals and seems to get busier by the day.  I couldn't face the hassle of traffic or the hopeless hunt for a car park so decided that my current series on this town will be reposts of images from earlier visits.

The lake is a very pleasant picnic spot with interesting sandstone sculptures but the weather on the day of my photo shoot was not exactly the best to be out an about. Before I finish this town I will go back and to get a photo of the artwork on the water tower artwork.

The falls are on the south side, if you drive around the north side you will find it is a world of picket fences, heritage cottages, and tree lined streets.  Very nice.

I guess you are interested in seeing the falls.  It was rather useless trying for a shot on this day because the mist was so heavy so you will have to do with the painted mural at the bus stop and follow these links to see more -- Wentworth Falls , the view from the escarpment , top of the falls , and the wonderful walking tracks in the area .

The beginning of Charles Darwin Walk is a very short distance from the shopping centre.  Following the track all of the way to the falls is rather more work but unlike most mountain walks is quite an easy grade. I did not walk the track on this occasion but if you can see what I found on previous occasions at this link Darwin's Walk .

Like most parts of the mountains you don't have to venture far from the town to get to the bush.  This is Jameson Creek, which is the creek Charles Darwin followed in 1836 walking from the Inn where he was staying to Wentworth Falls.

The town has a nice heritage feel with old style buildings and mature exotic trees.

The railway station is conveniently located over the road from the shops if you are coming by train, which may tourists do.  It's recently been updated with lifts.

And there are plenty of places to eat too.

Wentworth Falls has a vibrant shopping centre with a good range of speciality shops so a lovely place to spend an hour or two exploring.

Let's get started on our next town Wentworth Falls on a damp misty mountain day. Wentworth Falls is named after the famous Australian explorer Wentworth, who together with Blaxland and Lawson crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813 opening up a path to the lands to the west.   This is his bust located in the local park. The town takes its slogan from even more famous world explorer "Where Charles Darwin walked".  He visited and walked here while on his voyage on the HMS Beagle.

The last place of note is Sir Henry Parkes Park.  I usually associate Sir Henry with the town of Faulconbridge, I am not sure why he pops up here. That's the end of our quick photo walk through Bullaburra.  In a day or two we will continue to the next town up the highway Wentworth Falls.

Back up at the highway there are the historic Progress Association buildings.  They are used for various purposes and there is also a monthly market held here.

The village green was actual parkland.

I went looking for Red Gum park because it is apparenly named after the Sydney Red Gums (Angophoras) that grow in the area.  But I was disappointed to find it was a bush walk rather than a park  so gave looking for red trees a miss. Like most mountain towns there is also a bush walk to a waterfall which I did years ago.  It's not one of the best walks in the mountains.

We decided to drive down the road to see where it took us.  I was surprised at how far down into the bush it goes, much further than Lawson.  Eventually we got to the end and found these seats.

At this time of year there are agapanthus in bloom in just about every garden.  They are a bit of a weed, but I love them.

There seems to be some sort of project to brighten up the water towers.  The one at Bullaburra has a rather nice Kingfisher.

Like most Blue Mountains towns it has a railway station where trains take daily commuters to the Sydney to work.  The railway platform has been recently extended and there is an amazing labaryth of overpasses to get people across the highway and railway. Again like most mountain towns it is split into two by the highway/railway.  I only explored the South side.

It is hard to think of Bullaburra as a town because it doesn't actually have any shops other than this one, which in the past would have been a general store but now sells New Age things.   Bullaburra is effectively a residential town.

The name Bullaburra is the aboriginal name for the area.  There is some debate as to it's meaning, Blue Skies or Twin Peaks - Mount Hay and Mount Banks - which are readily visible from the town.

Happy New Year!  I have resolved to begin blogging again  and here at Blue Mountains Journal I am going to visit each of the townships that make up our city.   First one is Bullaburra, the next town up the highway from where we live at Lawson. A few years ago the council replaced the heritage look town signs with this more modern design, I like it. Each of the towns have their own 'slogan' which is included below the mountain graphic.  The residents of Bullaburra chose "Blue Skies Village". Below that is a "Total Fire Ban' sign that can be opened when the weather demands it.  The Blue Mountains are very fire prone given that each of our towns is nestled within a national park full of eucalypts.