THE CHARLES DARWIN WALK, WENTWORTH FALLS NSW AUSTRALIA
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| The Wilson Park entrance |
The track alongside Jamison Creek at Wentworth Falls leads from Wilson Park (alongside the Great Western Highway) to the brink of Wentworth Falls. It is approximately the route followed by Charles Darwin on his visit to Australia in 1836 and by thousands of others before and since.
It is a pleasant enough walk, some of it close to houses but
most of it through bushland. Weeds are an obvious problem, most of which appear
to be garden escapees. It improves in its naturalness as you approach the
falls. Following this track reveals lots of things of interest, some good and
some bad. Firstly, after years of neglect, in which the quality of the
bushland markedly deteriorated, heaps of money has been spent improving the
track, building boardwalks where appropriate, and providing good quality
information.
It’s a pity that it took so long and it remains to be seen if
these things can be maintained in good condition.
Secondly, it is an illustration of bad planning. Looking
back over the years since European settlement began, following the construction
of the first road in 1815, one can only wonder at what those responsible had in mind by allowing
huge areas of bushland to be sold off without regard to the
effect on the preservation of the scenery and the natural features of
the
country which brought people there in the first place.
This isn’t peculiar to
Wentworth Falls, of course – there are numerous subdivisions in inappropriate
places all over the Blue Mountains and the local council has to do its best to balance
development and conservation, which will never be an easy thing to do.
You can begin the walk at either end; if starting at the
Wentworth Falls picnic area the starting point is the track down to the top of
the falls and if entering at the Wilson Park end, the track commences next to
the tennis courts.
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| Sign at the waterfall end |
Darwin walked from the Weatherboard Inn, which was located
near the creek a few hundred metres upstream from the highway. He stayed here
on both his outward trip to Wallerawang and Bathurst and on his return. He visited the falls
each time, as well as Govett’s Leap, so Blue Mountains scenery obviously impressed
him, though he had difficulty in coming to terms with how the valleys had
formed. You can download your own copy of the “Voyage of the Beagle” by following this link to Trove and then
making your selection. The account of his Australian visit makes interesting
reading.
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| Wilson Park Finds |
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| Extract from "Voyage of the Beagle" |
Darwin had a copy of Lyell’s “Principles of Geology” with him on the ship so he was quite familiar
with what erosion can do. Even so, he found it hard to believe that small
streams like Jamison Creek could carve such huge valleys.
You might find the adjacent article from the Sydney Morning Herald, 11th
October 1930, of some
interest. I wonder what became of these things? The second article (Sydney Morning Herald. March 30th 1908) is about the old Wentworth Falls swimming pool, which is passed during the walk. There is a bridge across the creek at this spot. (Article is at the end of this blog).
The Wild Walks description and map of this walk may be found here. My video is here. Another interesting video on the walk may be found here
https://johnsbluemountainsblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/links-to-all-blog-entries-and-relevant.html All Blue Mountains blogs and videos
All New England and other Geology blogs and videos
Limestone Caves of NSW
Song Studies. Bible studies based on hymns and songs
Shoalhaven District Geology
.
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