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The Dictionary of Sydney
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Pitts Amphitheatre 1815-1816

Pitts Amphitheatre 1815-1816

By

John William Lewin

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a303003 / PXE 888, 2]

(Mitchell Library)

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Appears in

Darwin's Walk, Wentworth Falls Echo Point

Subjects

Exploration National Parks and Reserves Plants

Natural features

Blue Mountains Jamison Valley

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Lewin, John William

Australia's first professional artist, who also published Australia's first illustrated book 'Birds of New South Wales' in 1813. He also worked as the colonial coroner from 1810 until his death in 1819.

State Library of New South Wales

Darwin's Walk, Wentworth Falls

Darwin's Walk starts from Wilson Park Wentworth Falls and runs across a boardwalk and bush track through open forest, shrub, and hanging swamps to the national park boundary. It was in the valley at the end of Jamison Creek that Charles Darwin stood in 1836, struggling for words to describe the 'quite novel' scene before him, the 'immense gulf' and the 'absolutely vertical' sandstone cliffs where 'a person standing on the edge and throwing down a stone, can see it strike the trees in the abyss below'.

Echo Point

Situated in Gundungurra and Darug country, Echo Point emerged as a major tourist destination in the 1920s and today attracts around 1.4 million visitors a year. Combining a 'holiday playground' atmosphere with the sublime, Echo Point is a compelling site for thinking about the many different ways of seeing that have shaped the Blue Mountains landscape: Indigenous, Romantic, commercial and environmental.

National Parks and Reserves

Exploration

Plants

Blue Mountains

Part of the Great Dividing Range west of Sydney, reaching a height of 1100 metres. In 1829 the name for the area used by the local Aboriginal people was recorded as being Colomatta .

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Jamison Valley

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Part of the Coxs River canyon system in the Blue Mountains, surrounded by sandstone cliffs and densely forested. The valley was named by Governor Lachlan Macquarie for Sir John Jamison, landowner and doctor.