Echo Point is modified little by little and this time sign boards of 1m x 1.5m were going to be built.

　　　　
Precise documents were quoted as follows.

At the same time, artificial stones were going to be set.
　　　　　



If you want to know more, following sign boards are effective.
　　　
　　　　

_White Settlement_

In May 1813 Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Wentworth became the first British colonists to cross the Blue Mountains. William Cox and 30 convicts built a road to Bathurst between 1814 and 1815. A little over 50 years later, a railway line was built across the mountains.

Tourism was the earliest industry in the Blue Mountains. During the 1880's, John North mined for oil-shale and coal on the western side of the Jamison Valley and Maxwell family cleared some of the eastern side for farming.

Many walking tracks and lookouts were constructed around and into the Jamison Valley. By the 1920's the Jamison Valley and Echo Point had became the most popular inland tourist destination in NSW. Walking track construction reached a climax in the early 1930's with the building of the Giant Stairway and Prince Henry Cliff Walk that connect Echo Point to the Jamison Valley and Katoomba and Leura Falls.

In the late 1950's with the damming of the Warragamba River, the Jamison Valley became part of the catchment area for Sydney's water supply.


_World Heritage_

Conservation by non-Aboriginal people in the Blue Mountains began when the first reserves to safeguard land from development were made in the 1860's. Over the next seventy years hundreds of new reserves protected waterfalls, cliffs, forests and catchments in the region.

Local community trustees managed these parks and developed some with walking tracks, lookouts and other tourist facilities. The first reserve at Echo Point was gazetted in 1883. In 1934 conservationist Myles Dunphy published his map of a proposed Greater Blue Mountains National Park. The development of the Australian conservation movement has strong links with the Blue Mountains.

Blue Mountains National Park was created in 1959, and has been increasing in size ever since. In 1989 Geoff Mosely first provided the impetus for World Heritage listing in his book "Blue Mountains for Heritage". In November 2000 the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area was recognized for its outstanding biodiversity and ongoing ecological and biological evolutionary record. The local community continues to care for this area through local volunteer bush care groups and conservation organizations.


_Muggadah Dreaming_

Welcome to Gedumbah from the Elders of the Gundungurra people

The Gundungurra landscape is respected by Anangus, Gooris, Kooris, Nungas and Murris.

This ancient country is an identification of their physical and spiritual relationship with the land. This landscape reflects the spirit of the Gundungurra.

The land is the Mother of its people's spirit. The land sustains the heritage of living culture. Everyting has its own belonging in the ancestral landscape.

People and country are nurtured by spiritual dreaming stories

Gedumbah is the name of the valley seen from Echo Point. The name of this place has been interpreted by settlers as Kedumba, Godoomba and Katoomba. The basin bounded by Echo Point and Sublime Point east of the Sister is Gundungurra women's country. Further east from Kings Tableland to Nepean River is called Muggadah. The well known Three Sisters are part of the Seven Sisters - Muggadah Dreaming. The story spans thousand of years and links other important dreaming sites and people across Australia.

Muggadah Dreaming is told in the constellations of Pleiades and Orion. Muggadah affects people's consciousness, for its arrival indicates a time of great planetary change. Ancient stone engravings at the cliff edges map the passage of stars in the night sky.

These dreaming stories belong to the traditional custodians and are told on different levels. Traditional law and custom prohibit the telling of the full story of the Seven Sisters to uninitiated people.

Billy Lynch [1830's - 1913] was a Gundungurra leader who experienced the early impact of European settlement and survived to raise a large family and become a much-loved member of the Megalong Valley and Katoomba communities.


_Land Forms_

The Blue Mountains have slowly evolved over hundreds of millions of years. The cliffs of the upper Blue Mountains belong to the Narrabeen Group of layers formed 248 to 213 million years ago.

At that time huge swamps gradually turned to coal as a result of being covered with river sediment. Ancient river systems dumped vast quantities of sand over the region.

About 95 million years ago the sea floor spread between Australia and New Zealand. The entire Eastern Highland was uplifted by massive earth movements. The coastal plain then dropped, leaving the Eastern Highland as an exposed plateau.

The Landscape Today

Mountain streams cut through the upper layers of sandstone, following vertical joints in the strata.

Soft claystone layers halfway down and at the bottom of the cliffs are more readily eroded.

As the softer layers are eroded, unsupported sections of the cliff collapse. Erosion continues today, allowing the valleys to very slowly widen.


_Animals and Plants_

The most common trees in the Blue Mountains are gum trees: there are over 90 different types here. Gum trees have co-evolved over millions of years with the insects, birds and mammals that rely on them for food and shelter.

Some Blue Mountains flowers produce large amounts of nectar in the colder months to attract birds and small mammals. These animals can pollinate their flowers when insects are not active.

Most animals of the area only come out at night. Gliders and possums live in hollows in the trees; small bandicoots, wallabies and wombats live on the forest floor. There are many reptiles, including rare lizards and snakes.

The chattering and whistles of honeyeaters, the squawk of parrots, and the 'curr-a-wong' call of the large black and white currawang are common bird calls in this area. Bellbirds can be heard in the gum trees hundreds of meters below Echo Point. Millions of migrating honeyeaters pass through here on their way north in autumn, and south in spring.

2003/09/01