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Thursday, 26 February 2015

MERMAID’S CAVE BLACKHEATH NSW AUSTRALIA

“There is a beautiful gully near Blackheath, leading from what is known as the Mermaid's Cave - why so called only those who named it can know: one thinks of a sandy beach with white-crested waves, a cavern decked with glistening shells, and a lady with a long tail combing her hair. There is nothing of that sort to be seen, but after scrambling down a stony path and jumping over rocks, where a fall would be most inconvenient, one comes upon a shining pool, which, fed by a stream trickling through a cleft in the over-arching nook, in its turn feeds another stream, which gurgling over a rocky
path makes a deep gorge glorious with greenery. Here are ferns, from the majestic tree spreading protecting arms over the clear water to the tiny plant whose delicate fronds beautify every nook and corner and make all nature lovely. "Oh, if I could only take a little bit of the gully home," said one of us, "I shouldn't want a bush-house." "Just so, my dear madam, but this is a world of work, and nothing good can be got without effort." We appreciated this answer when the time came to go back, but hard work though it was we felt amply repaid by the memory of beauty, which once seen can never be forgotten.”
Charles Bayless photograph circa 1885
This poetic description comes from the Illustrated Sydney News, February 16, 1884 and is similar to several others of the time. Blackheath was in its infancy in those days, the first lots having been sold at a government auction in 1879. Development was slow at first and by the time of the Illustrated Sydney News report the population would have been only a few hundred. Nevertheless, Mermaid’s Cave appears to have been the first Blackheath attraction after Govett’s Leap and the Recreation Reserve surrounding it must have been declared in the 1880’s. It is now administered by the Blue Mountains City Council.
Naturally, the history of the place goes back into the Dream Time. Whether this is based on folk memory or not I cannot say, but it is a place which all visitors should enter with respect.
From the movie - source given on right
That this has not always been the case is apparent by comparing the scene today with old photographs, which reveal the amount of destruction of the rain forest which has taken place. I doubt that filming scenes from the movie “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” in 1985 did it much good either. For more information see here.
Other useful references are my You Tube video (here) and Jack Merriman’s photographs (here).
The place is easy to find. Cross the railway at the level crossing in Blackheath and immediately turn left into Station Street. Turn right along Shipley Road soon after, which you follow for about a kilometre to the Megalong Valley turnoff on the left. About another kilometre further on, the road goes through a deep cutting, at the end of which you will see the Mermaid’s Cave car park on the right. The track is signposted opposite the car park. Take care here – descending traffic cannot see you crossing the road! The walk takes 10-15 minutes and you can return by following the road back to the car park. All this is shown in the video. Fortunately traffic is light, except perhaps at weekends.

Source: JEM Russell's Pictorial Guide to the Blue Mountains 1882-85
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Sunday, 4 January 2015

WATER NYMPH’S DELL WENTWORTH FALLS

WATER NYMPH’S DELL WENTWORTH FALLS


If you’re travelling by train, then this is a pleasant round walk you can do from Wentworth Falls station. It’s on the opposite side of the line from the shops and actually closer than the better known walks on the Jamison Valley side. If travelling by car, then turn at the traffic lights, go past the shops and over the railway line. Take the first to the right (Railway Parade) and park in the commuter car park. My video on the walk (here) describes the route from the railway bridge.

Mountaineer Tourist Guide 1927
You can, of course, commence at the other end of the track, but it’s more difficult to describe how to get there. Incidentally, if it’s a clear day, you can see the high rise buildings in central Sydney from the bridge.

Railway Tourist Guide 1938
Just who gave the name “Water Nymph’s Dell” to this attractive rainforest gully and when, I don’t know. The earliest reference I’ve come across (using Trove) is from the Nepean Times (Penrith) for Saturday 25th August 1888, page 4. You can download the whole story here if you wish. The gist of it is that a committee of local residents is requesting that Water Nymph’s Dell be set apart as a reserve “as it is one of the most beautiful dells on the mountains”. This did indeed happen and the area remains a reserve to this day, though not part of the Blue Mountains National Park.
Track conditions vary from excellent to poor. There are some fine examples of nineteenth century stone steps, especially on the ascent up the other side of the valley. There is a solitary picnic table under an overhang which I’m sure was there when I visited the place as a boy 60 years ago. The central feature of the dell is a small waterfall and associated pool, which, while not exactly suitable for swimming, looks like it ought to be able to entertain small children (under close supervision, of course).
We are lucky to have this place in as good condition as it is. Over the years it has suffered from neglect, threats from loggers, invasion by weeds and leaky sewer pipes. The Water Nymph's Dell Bushcare Group has done a fantastic job of rehabilitation and protection. 

As I was gathering this information, I came across many accounts of tourist visits to the area, but none more interesting than one in the Clarence and Richmond Examiner (Grafton) for 19th November 1901, page 2. 
How I would have loved to have known the mountains as they were then! Somehow, the growth of population and the management of the reserves by local and state government authorities (excellent though it is) can never be the same as it was in those far off days when everything was fresh and exciting and the local people through their Reserve Trusts were directly involved in developing, maintaining and promoting the sights in their immediate area. Read this article in the Examiner in full here. Yes, there are ferruginous stalactites there today, much like the ones at Fairy Falls, Lawson.



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Tuesday, 16 December 2014

GEORGE DAVIES & Co CORDIAL MAKERS KATOOMBA

GEORGE DAVIES & Co CORDIAL MAKERS KATOOMBA

Some of you might recall that I found a broken soft drink bottle while on a walk at Lawson a few months ago. (The video may be found here.) The complete wording on the bottle is “2D deposit charged which is refunded on return. This bottle is the property of GEORGE  DAVIES & Co KATOOMBA”. The wording is unusual in that it shows the deposit as tuppence (twopence) instead of the more usual penny. When I was a lad it had gone up to thrippence (threepence). The reason for the 2D deposit would surely have been the great loss of bottles that cordial makers in the Blue Mountains suffered from nonreturns. Just like today, it seems to be harder to carry home an empty bottle than to bring out a full one. Bring back deposits and make it a dollar at least. I could use some extra cash!
The only other marking is AGM on the base, denoting the Australian Glass Manufacturers company (Sydney). This style is found on bottles from around 1920/25.
George Davies Sr
Although it is missing, no doubt the bottle had a machine made crown seal top. I’ve seen other examples of this and similar bottles from the company including the 26 ounce (oz) variety. My example is a 13 oz one; there may be an even smaller 7 oz. There is also a crown seal stone ginger beer and more than likely a much larger stoneware demijohn, soda syphons and possibly 7 oz crown seal soda waters and amber glass ginger beers. The company came into existence too late to have used the older marble bottles, torpedos etc., though they may have been used some of Rowlands bottles with paper labels until their own were ready.
In those days every town had one or more soft drink factories (always called cordial works then) and it is a great field for collectors to acquire specimens and gather information about the makers. In addition to the main centre of Katoomba, there were also cordial works in Blackheath and Leura and possibly Lawson and Springwood.
I haven’t researched the subject in any detail yet, but the names of Bronger and E Rowlands stand out. The firm of Bronger Bros (EW and RJ) was established in Penrith around 1892 when they took over an existing business. The bottles from this firm show a pair of shaking hands as their trademark, no doubt a play on the word “cordial”. RJ Bronger moved to Katoomba in 1895 to establish a cordial factory. This was on the corner of Murri and Kundibar Streets and was subsequently converted into a modern ice works in 1919/20, the water supply being drawn from a deep well on the site. The operator of the ice works was WT Davies (son of George Davies).
The firm of E Rowlands had a long record going back to the gold rush days in Ballarat, where Evan Rowlands began a cordial works in 1854. The business expanded to Melbourne, Sydney and Katoomba. Many of their bottles bear the celebrated "Miner and Farmer” trade mark, though not the Katoomba ones, so far as I know. The connection with Katoomba began in 1888, when land was purchased from which large quantities of pure water were drawn. The water was dispatched to Sydney for use in the factory there, later a cordial works was established on the site in Katoomba. This was in Bent St and presumably the famous “Katoomba Spring” must have been there too. We know for certain that George Davies and Co bought the E Rowlands business in 1920 and that RJ Bronger was an employee of the Rowlands business in 1906, when he lost an eye due to an exploding bottle. Presumably RJ Bronger had ceased making his own aerated waters and went to work for Rowlands some time before.

To get back to George Davies. He appears to have been a coal miner in the early days of Katoomba before becoming a successful butcher, in which trade he continued for the next 40 years. He was Mayor of Katoomba five times and always concerned for the future of his town. Most significantly, from the point of view of this Blog, he was not a cordial maker. It appears that the company “George Davies & Co” was established to provide employment for his son WT Davies on his return from the Great War. We know a lot less about William than his father, George. Something seems to have happened to the ice and cordial businesses after George’s death in September 1923. William’s name vanishes from the advertising after May 1924 and George Davies Junior’s name appears from October that year. No more ads can be traced for the Ice Works after November 1924. As for the aerated waters business, the last advertisement in the “Blue Mountain Echo” appears to be 16th October 1925 when the firm was looking for a “smart boy, about 16, to work in aerated water factory”. There is an ad in “The Mountaineer” tourist guide for 1927, but this publication was notoriously out of date.
You might say that this is just a taste of the George Davies story. You can find further information on these sites using Trove (here) :
The Ice Works The Blue Mountain Echo, Friday 23 January 1920, p 4
The E Rowlands Takeover The Blue Mountain Echo, Friday 19 November 1920, p 2
George Davies obituary The Blue Mountain Echo, Friday 14 September 1923, p 5
My Blue Mountains You Tube playlist may be found here. I have three other playlists - on gem hunting/fossicking, Glen Innes and New Zealand.

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Wednesday, 3 December 2014

WENTWORTH FALLS LAKE BLUE MOUNTAINS NSW AUSTRALIA

WENTWORTH FALLS LAKE BLUE MOUNTAINS 
NSW AUSTRALIA

It’s not hard to see why a railway dam was constructed at the place we now know as Wentworth Falls. By that, I mean the township, not the waterfall. It is the only place between Glenbrook and Bell where the railway line actually crosses a watercourse.
The 1813 exploration led by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth successfully crossed the Blue Mountains because they stuck to the principle of following the ridgelines as they moved generally westward from the Nepean River at Emu Plains. When the expedition reached the cliff edge overlooking what we now know as the Jamison Valley at Wentworth Falls, they ran out of a ridgeline to follow. Turning north and keeping the watercourse we know as Jamison Creek on their left, they eventually reached its head and resumed following the main ridgeline again.
George Evans evidently crossed this creek when he retraced their route later that year, according to the plaque in the reserve beside the lake. However, William Cox and his roadmaking team stuck with Blaxland’s track in 1814/15 and headed the creek. He set up a depot near the creek which became known as the Weatherboard Hut, from his note on the map of the road to Bathurst. This appears to have been on the eastern side of the creek near the bridge over the railway line.
As soon as accurate maps began to be made by surveyors, it became clear that the road could be shortened by several miles by crossing the creek instead of going around its head. Just when this happened I don’t know, but you can be sure that Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell would have insisted on this route when the road to Bathurst was being reconstructed in the 1830’s. Charles Darwin stayed at the Weatherboard Inn on the western side of the creek in 1836 and the inn had been there for several years by then. The railway builders of the mid 1860’s naturally followed the same ridgeline as the road and so the railway crossed Jamison Creek just where it does today. Steam engines need prodigious amounts of water and there are few places on the Blue Mountains Line where it can easily be obtained. Weatherboard (as the locality was then called) became the first railhead on 11th July, 1867 as the tracks pushed westward. So far as I can tell, the first railway dam was built at Lawson (then Blue Mountain) in that year. It wasn’t very adequate even if Blue Mountain was a good place for a watering stop. The supply at Lawson was augmented by larger dams in the valley to the north, the last of these being the ancestor of the Olympic Pool in Wilson Park.
Jamison Creek Below the Dam Wall
The line was soon extended to Mt Victoria, this extension being opened on 1st May 1868. The chosen spot for watering engines in the upper mountains was Blackheath, originally intended as the temporary terminus. Water was pumped from dams across Pope’s Glen Creek and, as in Lawson, their descendants became swimming holes. The upper one gave rise to today’s beautiful pool in Blackheath’s Memorial Park; the lower dam becoming the duck pond. The water supply from this source eventually became inadequate and a replacement dam was built on Govett’s Leap Brook.
Further dams were needed as the next section of line was constructed, the line descending via the Great Zig Zag into Lithgow’s Valley to the new railhead at Bowenfels. This section was opened on 18th October 1869. I believe these dams were at Clarence and Zig Zag.
Another dam on Dargan’s Creek (Newnes’ Junction) was needed to service engines on the Newnes branch line some time later.
Eventually it was decided that only the creek at Wentworth Falls could supply the volume of water for the rapidly expanding rail network. The large dam, backing up into what we know as Wentworth Falls Lake, was completed in the early years of the twentieth century and supplied water by a pipeline to watering points as far down the mountains as Valley Heights. This sufficed until electrification and dieselisation made steam engines practically redundant on the Blue Mountains by 1960.
The development of the dam as a recreation area happened over many years. It was too good a resource to go to waste and it has become the most diverse and extensive recreation area in the Blue Mountains City. Now you can have a picnic (with barbecue), enjoy the two children’s play areas, fish from the shore or the dam wall and appreciate the many water birds as you walk around the shores of the lake. Swimming isn’t recommended, however, as it is difficult to guarantee water quality when there are residential areas in the catchment. One improvement is a new, centrally located toilet block. 
Further Information:
My Video: here     "Cloudscape" Blog: here


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Friday, 21 November 2014

THE KATOOMBA LANDSLIDES OF 1931

THE KATOOMBA LANDSLIDES OF 1931

Photo taken June 1960
What was once a place of high drama is now practically forgotten. The site of these great landslides cannot be seen from any of the well-known lookouts, nor does a sign point to any place from which it can be seen (with the exception of the track from the Scenic Railway). In fact, with the continued discoloration of the once-clean rock face as oxidation takes effect and plants make it their home, the site is beginning to look much the same as the rest of the cliff line. The site is usually referred to as at “the Dog Face Rock”. Presumably this landmark was lost when the cliff collapsed.
Even the jumble of debris at the base of the cliff and down into the valley is becoming overgrown in spite of gravity pulling it further down the slope.
So, what is the story of this place and where can you go to see what remains? We only know that cracks behind the top of the cliffs were first reported in 1929, apparently by a miner returning from work at the coal mine in the valley below.
It became apparent that a major rock fall was imminent, though what that might mean in geological terms wasn’t at all clear, since no-one had witnessed anything like this in the Blue Mountains previously (nor has it been observed since, to my knowledge). As 1930 advanced, the cracks widened noticeably and pieces of rock regularly detached themselves and hurtled into the valley below. Crowds came to watch, hoping to be there for the climax when hundreds of thousands of tons of rock would fall in one great mass.
2014
January 1931 arrived. By this time anybody and everybody was practically holding their breath, waiting for the GREAT EVENT. See the Sydney Morning Herald article (Tuesday 27th January 1931) here. It happened (unfortunately, as these things tend to happen) around 4am on the morning of 29th January. There were no witnesses and no photographs, though there are plenty of the lead-up and the aftermath. This was not the end, as things turned out, because it soon became obvious that there would be a further fall before long. This took place on Saturday 2nd May, at around 2pm, according to the Herald report in the edition of Monday 4 th May, page 9 (here). The report mentions witnesses, but evidently they weren’t carrying cameras and I can’t even find a mention of their names. It’s a bit late in 2014 to be asking for eyewitness reports, though. The Sydney Mail of Wednesday 6th May has a good report, including some photographs taken at around the time of the fall (here). There must have been many smaller falls after this, but people’s interests moved on. This all happened during the Great Depression and there more pressing issues to worry about than yet another landslide at Katoomba.
2014
So where can you go to see the site today? If you take the walk from the bottom of the Scenic Railway towards the Ruined Castle, you will soon find yourself crossing the debris field of the Landslide. See my video on this walk here. 
Landslide Lookout is perched at the highest point of the actual break in the sandstone cliff, but you can’t see the landslide itself from here. You can, however get a good view from Narrow Neck Lookout by heading off through the scrub to the left (ie, away from the Narrow Neck below you). See my video Cliff Drive Lookouts here. There are many places along Glenraphael Drive (which goes along the Narrow Neck peninsula) where you can see the landslide, but naturally they are further away. See my video Narrow Neck Lookouts here.

Landslide Lookout 2014

An assortment of photographs may be found in Trove here. 


From below June 1960




June 1963
 

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