Tourism > Australia > New South Wales > Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains Tourism

About the Blue Mountains Region

The Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, are found approximately 100 kilometres west of Sydney. They are a range of sandstone geological structures that reach to at least 1,190 metres AHD (in the Lithgow area). The Blue Mountains are not as the name suggests a range of mountains but rather a series of cliffs surrounding a plateau with rugged eroded gorges of up to 760 metres depth. A large majority of the Blue Mountains is incorporated in the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Site and its constituent seven national parks and a conservation reserve.

The mountains were originally named by Arthur Phillip in 1788 as the Carmarthen Hills for the northern section near Sydney, and the Lansdowne Hills for the southern, however Blue Mountains quickly became preferred as the popular name.

Although known by Indigenous Australians for thousands of years, the Blue Mountains were thought to be impenetrable by the early white settlers of Sydney, and were not crossed until convicts and other explorers found their way across. The most famous expedition was in 1813, by Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson. This crossing of the Blue Mountains has traditionally been regarded as a critical step that opened the west of New South Wales to European settlement.

A road crossing the mountains was built in only 27 weeks by William Cox, at the behest of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, using 30 convict labourers and 8 guards and was completed in early 1815.

Coal and oil shale were mined near Katoomba up until after the Second World War.

List of Towns in the Blue Mountains Region

Click on any town name in the following list to display historical, geographical and tourism related information for the town selected.

BELL | BILPIN | BLACKHEATH | BULLABURRA | CLARENCE | FAULCONBRIDGE | HAWKESBURY HEIGHTS | JENOLAN | KATOOMBA | KURRAJONG | KURRAJONG HEIGHTS | LAWSON | LEURA | LITHGOW | LITTLE HARTLEY | MEDLOW BATH | MEGALONG | MOUNT TOMAH | MOUNT VICTORIA | MOUNT WILSON | OBERON | SPRINGWOOD | WARRIMOO | WENTWORTH FALLS

Last Minute Accommodation in the Blue Mountains Region

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