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| Blue Mountains |
Sydney is famous for its sunny days and bustling city life! But just outside of the city centre is a lush valley bursting with stunning greenery and sprawling mountaintops. The mesmerizing mountains are named the Blue Mountains and are one of the most visited destinations for travellers.
How the Blue Mountains formed
The Blue Mountains have been around for much longer than us, stretching back million years ago. Back then, the sea completely covered the entire area, with residue dropping into the water continuously before settling at the sea floor. Eventually, this debris compressed into sandstone and shale, which essentially were hard rocks. After the water lowered, the massive rocks came to the surface and were slowly shaped in hills from erosion. Further moulding came about after volcanic eruptions nearby caused lava to flow through the cracks of the rock, hardening and creating new shaped mountains. The entire area took 250 million years to form, with massive rock formations, deep canyons, and unique wildlife roaming the region.
Its History with humans
The Mountains have been home to a number of humans throughout our history, with the first landowners being the local Aboriginal tribes. The area is so large it was able to fit multiple tribes without any worries, with about six separate Aboriginal communities including the Darug, Gundungurra, Dharawal, Darkinjung, Wanaruah and Wiradjuri people. European settlers did not venture into the area until 1813, as the land was rough and too tough for their style of livening. However, an expedition to the area found a calmer and less steep route up the mountains, did the Europeans begin to dwell here.
The Reason behind its Name
The Blue Mountains region is famously known for being blue, but this can be quite confusing to those who visited it in person. With a large carpet of green covering the area, most would think the Green Mountains would be a better fit. But if you take a step back and view the region from Sydney, the name actually suits it perfectly. This is all due to the native tree that covers the region; the eucalyptus trees! The eucalypti are one of the most common plant types within the Blue Mountains, blending together with the rest of the bushland. Eucalyptus trees are known for the oil which has a wide range of personal and household uses. As Sydney is a sunshine region, the sun regularly beams down onto the trees, making the oil slowly seep out of its leaves and releasing the oil fumes. The fume mists out across the mountain region, with the sun, reflects against the light to cause a blue haze. Although this cannot be seen up close, at a distance, the blue haze is startlingly clear, transforming the area in blue mountains.
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