Gardens of Stone – Simply Australia

“If I wanted to get there, I wouldn’t start from here” is the punchline of an ancient joke about an Irishman giving directions to a tourist. Almost as ancient are the laudable objectives on this signboard about the 1995 project which could yet be the jumping off point for the transformation of the southern Newnes Plateau into one of Australia’s finest and best presented natural area experiences – a project aptly named Destination Pagoda in its new incarnation (see article in Blue Mountains Conservation Society’s May Hut News, page 2).

pagodas in Gardens of Stone NP (Photos by Christine Davies)

If you want to get to the finest views of pagodas in the Lithgow district, there’s no choice but to start from State Mine Gully. On a school holiday Wednesday in April 2019, Hut News noticed steady traffic which included standard two-wheel-drive vehicles making their way up and down the shockingly deteriorated escarpment road that connects the Newnes Plateau with State Mine Gully. Many of the drivers were protecting their vehicles by taking ten minutes to do one kilometre.

The intended picnic area underlines the wild and non conforming mood of State Mine Gully. (Photos by Christine Davies)

But this is the only viable access route for most of the plateau’s scenic delights that does not cross private property. It is the only route that truly allows the community of Lithgow a sense of ownership of the most ecologically and geologically diverse part of the town’s hinterland.

A sign lists noble aims of a project which, due to lack of government spending, has fallen far short of its potential. (Photos by Christine Davies)

At the site of the old rehabilitation project, you are confronted with numerous expensive changes that would still need to be made to convince the visitor that this is one of Australia’s most significant natural area gateways. The broom and blackberry plants, along with other weeds, need to disappear. The hardy Mountain Ash trees need their retinue of Banksia and Leptospermum understorey to swell. The discarded sleepers and rails from the old branch line need to be incorporated into the generally well-kept railway museum. And the picnic benches need to look capable of accommodating modern-sized posteriors without fracturing. It’s fortunate that Destination Pagoda has harnessed such experienced and dedicated activists – all our energy will be needed.

Broom plants and other weed species advance towards the Eucalypt forest at the Gardens of Stone gateway. (Photos by Christine Davies)

© Don Morison

The Hassans Walls Plateau, named by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1813 for its similarity to landforms in northern India, offers an eclectic selection of Blue Mountains scenery.

A curtain of Exocarpos cupressiformis (Native Cherry) on the slope north of the lookout [photo © Christine Davies]

In Hassans Walls (according to Col Bembrick in Coxs Road Dreaming 2015), we have a sandstone plateau rising above Permian deposits. Many of the formations appear as outliers of the pagodas and other sandstone structures which characterise the Gardens of Stone district, one reason that Hassans Walls has been recommended to be included in Gardens of Stone reserved area Stage 2.

Pagodas, outliers of the many thousands of such formations found in existing reserved areas of the Gardens of Stone and proposed extensions.
[photo © Christine Davies]

Across the totality of Hassans Walls, there is evidence of major damage to surface features by now defunct underground coal mines but the area around Bracey’s Lookout (in the north-east of the plateau), is by no means the worst affected. Bracey’s Lookout is connected to the Pottery Estate precinct within the Lithgow urban area by a steep foot track of only a few hundred metres but it is a dead end of more than two kilometres for motor vehicle access. It is very popular with bushwalkers, dog walkers and cyclists.

The lookout offers one of the best overviews of the Lithgow urban area including the central business district, evoking memories of the Inch brothers, Pillans and the Bracey family themselves.

The section of Lithgow CBD containing the former Bracey’s Department Store, looking north from the lookout.
[photo © Christine Davies]

Horace and Alice Bracey arrived in Lithgow in 1886 and set up a retailing business in Excelsior Arcade. Horace became Mayor in the 1890s and the business continued under his descendants, eventually ceasing trade in 2007 by which time it was operating in a substantial purpose-built department store in Main Street. Generations of the Bracey family yielded some of the most outstanding philanthropists in Lithgow’s history, especially in meeting the cost of developing Hassans Walls for public recreation and appreciation of nature.

Tag: Gardens of Stone

BLUE TRAIL 58: OLD REHABILITATION PROJECT, State Mine Gully

Blue Trail 48: BRACEY’S LOOKOUT, Hassans Walls Plateau