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pp.155-157.
“ON leaving Illawarra for Sydney there is a choice of a road, and of what can only be called a track. If the traveller choose the former, he winds up the face of a mountain, having, at every turn, a view that fills him with admiration, and soon gains what was once a splendid macadamized road. Here, far on his left, rise the hills called the blue mountains, of an intensity and yet delicacy of colouring that is exceedingly beautiful. Mr. Darwin visited these mountains, and thus describes their wild and extraordinary recesses: - ‘In the middle of the day, we baited our horses at a little inn called the Weatherboard. The country here is elevated 2800 feet above the sea. About a mile and a half from this place there is a view exceedingly well worth visiting. Following down a little valley and its tiny rill of water, an immense gulf unexpectedly opens through the trees which border the pathway, at the depth of perhaps 1500 feet [Wentworth Falls]. Walking on a few yards, one stands on the brink of a precipice, and below, one can see a grand bay or gulf, for I know not what other name to give it, thickly covered with forest. The point of view is situated as if at the head of a bay, the line of cliff diverging on one side, and shewing headland behind headland, as on a bold sea coast. These cliffs are composed of horizontal strata of whitish sandstone, and are so absolutely vertical, that, in many places, a person standing on the edge and throwing down a stone, can see it strike the trees in the abyss below. So unbroken is the line of cliff, that in order to reach the foot of the waterfall, formed by this little stream, it is necessary to go sixteen miles round. About five miles distant, in front, another line of cliffs extends [Mt. Solitary], which thus appears completely to encircle the valley; and hence the name of bay is justified, as applied to this grand amhi-theatrical depression. If we imagine a a winding harbour, with its deep water surrounded by bold cliff-like shores, to be laid dry, and a forest to spring up on its sandy bottom, we should then have the appearance and structure here exhibited. This kind of view was to me quite novel, and extremely magnificent.’ - (Journal of Researches, p. 437.) The blue mountains were long a barrier, defying the efforts of the colonists to penetrate into the interior; they are now crossed by noble roads, or, more properly, by what were once such.
“To return: the high-road from Illawarra to Sydney has been suffered to fall into utter disrepair. The bridges that were laid over streams or boggy places are entirely denuded of the soil that once covered the planks that form their floor. Between the joints of these planks, poles have been laid by travellers in order to preserve their horse’s legs from getting into chancery, and yet the passage is dangerous; and, if one ride through the streams, the chances are that his horse will get bogged; or, at any rate, that the rider will be so splashed that he will cut no better figure than if he had stood in the pillory, and been pelted with mud. Hence, we choose the track, and passing the pretty residence of Captain Westmacott, a son of the sculptor, climb an ascent cut on the edge of a range, - in fact, a kind of ledge, with woods above and woods below, - and soon wide barren heaths lie before us.
“As we journey on, we reach the scene of the bushfire before alluded to, in which some travellers lost their lives. I well recollect, before the accident, observing the signs of a former fire, and thinking how much danger in this respect the wayfarer runs.
“In the course of the ride, we pass through a rocky ravine, which would furnish an admirable bandit scene, and from the rocks springs the gigantic lily [Gymea Lily]- doryanthes excelsa. Crossing George’s river in a punt, and Cook’s river by a dam, we are soon in the midst of the dust and bustle of Sydney, having ridden fifty miles.”
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