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The sacred mountain Yengo, seen from Mount Finc...

The sacred mountain Yengo, seen from Mount Finchley August 2019

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Greater Blue Mountains Area Mount Yengo

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Hawkesbury district Yengo National Park

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Joy Lai

Artist and photographer.

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Mount Yengo

Tabletop mountain in the Yengo National Park north west of Sydney, between the Hawkesbury River (Dyarubbin) and the lower Hunter Valley, that forms part of the of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. The mountain is a remnant of an ancient volcano and is a sacred place to local Aboriginal people and s regarded as the ‘Uluru of the NSW east coast’.

A gigantic Ancestral Being was said to have stepped on to the mountain over nearby Burragurra or ‘Devil’s Rock’, leaving footprints on the land. It was a place where many different clans came together for ceremonial business. Dominating the skyline of the Bulga Plateau, It can be seen from all along the Boree Track on the east, from places on the Putty Road to the west, and from the ridges above Wisemans Ferry (Woolloomoorang) on the Hawkesbury River (Dyarubbin) to the south.

The meaning of 'Yengo' is unknown but the original spelling was 'Yungo', so it possibly derives from the word 'yung' used by Hunter River and Lake Macquarie people meaning ‘there’, and is possibly associated with pointing. 'There', a word directing the gaze over Country towards this sacred place is a powerful acknowledgment of Yengo’s compelling presence.

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Hawkesbury district

Area surrounding the Hawkesbury River to Sydney's north and north-west, which was important in early colonial agriculture and the site of the early towns of Richmond and Windsor.

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Greater Blue Mountains Area

UNESCO world heritage area of 1.03 million hectares of sandstone plateaux, escarpments and gorges dominated by temperate eucalypt forest. It is noted for its representation of the evolutionary adaptation and diversification of the eucalypts in post-Gondwana isolation on the Australian continent.

Spread across eight adjacent conservation reserves, it constitutes one of the largest and most intact tracts of protected bushland in Australia. The eight reserves are: from the south, Thirlmere National Park; Nattai National Park; Kanangra Boyd National Park; Jenolan Karst Conservation Reserve; Blue Mountains National Park; Gardens of Stone National Park; Wollemi National Park and Yengo National Park.

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Yengo National Park

World heritage listed national park between the Lower Hunter and Hawkesbury that forms part of the Great Dividing Range. Founded in 1993, it is one of the eight conservation areas in the Greater Blue Mountains Heritage area. The Macdonald River (Gununday) flows from the north west to the south east of the park, where it reaches the Hawkesbury River.

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