Page:Rambles in Australia (IA ramblesinaustral00grewiala).pdf/238



THE BLUE MOUNTAINS AND A BUSH PICNIC

We had heard much of the famous Blue Mountains during our progress from West Australia to New South Wales and were anxious to visit them. In the early days they formed an impenetrable barrier between Sydney and the rich country beyond. Many vain and unsuccessful attempts were made to cross these labyrinthine ranges. Each successive line of heights is so like another, its eucalyptus-covered shoulders with the deep, blind gorges between, for long baffled and defied all attempts at exploration. The first of these efforts was undertaken as early as 1793-4 by three naval officers; but it was not till 1813, in the time of Governor Macquarie, that some settlers interested in stock-breeding won their way through. For a time, like all their predecessors, they got entangled in the bewildering network of gorges that make travelling here so difficult, but at last, chancing