Where most Blue Mountain journeys begin: from the townships high on the Blue Mountains Range. This long and winding watershed divides the Coxs River from the Grose River, and swells to a high, cliffbound plateau between Lithgow and Wentworth Falls. The plateau bushland is a rolling mix of dry forests, swamps, windblown heaths and ferny glens cradled between wet cliffs.
58 Photos
A wild labyrinth of gorges and ridgelines, dry, twisted woodlands, big, clean creeks and yellow sandstone.
16 Photos
That famous, cliff-rimmed view with the Three Sisters, Mount Solitary, verdant deeps and distant blueness. Beyond the maze of escarpment walking tracks lie forests of unmatched diversity and beauty.
56 Photos
Huge cliffs and big forests. A wilderness between the highways, a wild river with platypus and bass, and Blue Gum Forest: the spiritual home of wilderness conservation in New South Wales.
60 Photos
Once-forgotten rainshadow country rich in wildlife, swirling stone and Aboriginal heritage. A wildflowered labyrinth of sandstone ridges and creeks dominated by the sacred basalt summit of Mount Yengo.
21 Photos
The greatest surviving wilderness in the east Australian mainland, a haven for threatened species and home of the Wollemi Pine. A vast tangle of dry bush ridges and winding gorges with ochred cliffs, rainforest creeks and clean water, punctured with volcanic peaks and necks. (For simplicity, this 'Wollemi' gallery takes in all national park areas north of Bells Line of Road, including a section of Blue Mountains National Park.)
128 Photos
The name says it all: both gardens and stone. Remarkable ironstone formations fringing the Wolgan Valley, the Capertee Valley and the nearby Great Dividing Range. Some parts are protected in Gardens of Stone National Park, Wollemi National Park and Mugii Murum-ban State Conservation Area, but large areas are still unprotected - see the Threatened Gardens of Stone gallery.
67 Photos
Geological and ecological complexity. A mix of Sydney Basin sandstones, granites and older basement rocks, more than 1000 metres of relief, waterfalls, diverse forests, wilderness and vital city water catchment. Saved from mining and clear-felling in the 1960s and 70s.
45 Photos
Large areas of this amazing landscape on the western escarpments of the Blue Mountains are threatened by mining, logging and destructive trail bike activity. The Gardens of Stone Stage 2 reserve proposal takes in the pagodas and forests of the Wolgan, Ben Bullen and Newnes State Forests. Open cut coal mines threaten to destroy large areas piece by piece, while lax management gives open slather to damaging recreation.
62 Photos
Images from the 'outer fringes' of the Blue Mountains, and places with only limited coverage.
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A very personal selection....
32 Photos