Open your eyes to Australia
© Jim Low
On the afternoon of 23 August 2005, I went for a long walk in the bush. That morning I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Denis Kevans, the self described ‘Poet Lorikeet’. Denis was known for his poetry, his songs, his performances, his scholarship and his passion for the environment. He was also a friend.
A well-worn pedestrian bridge crosses the railway from Memorial Park, established in 1920 as a tribute to soldiers, to Railway Parade and the Wilson Glen loop bushwalk, opened in 1933. The remnants of red bunting still adorn the bridge, placed there in 2019 during a so-far successful campaign to stop the bridge being demolished, and it is still providing access to one of the best short bush walks in the mid mountains.
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Memorial Park is now little used since the widened highway has brought fast traffic so close to its long-valued picnic areas but the Wilson Glen walk, taking in two pleasant creek valleys and the Gypsy Cave as it winds from Railway Parade to Buena Vista Road, is often visited.
WILSON GLEN
DEDICATED TO
THE BLUE MOUNTAINS SHIRE
————– BY ————–
THOMAS WILSON
IN MEMORY OF HIS WIFE
24TH AUGUST 1932
The variety of vegetation in its couple of kilometres is stimulating, ranging from Angophora costata stands near Buena Vista Road to fringe temperate rainforest in the shadier sections. The scrub is thick enough to provide shelter for numerous small birds. In 1934, Blue Mountains Council seriously considered building a swimming pool in the reserve but the idea was eventually dropped, leaving the area exclusively to bush walkers.
© Don Morrison
All photos © Christine Davies
I’m an old woman now, and live by the sea, but I remember the Blue Mountains. I knew them well and drank from the clear streams in my youth.
Continue reading “I remember when we could drink from any mountain stream”
