Skip to main content

Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
Multimedia
Explorers Tree, Katoomba c1890

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Explorers Tree, Katoomba c1890

By

William Henry Bursle

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

Search

Browse

Browse
- Artefacts
- Buildings
- Events
- Natural Features
- Organisations
- People
- Places
- Structures
- Entries
- Multimedia
- Subjects
- Roles
- Contributors

Connections

Subjects

Exploration Heritage movement History Memorials Plants

Artefacts

Explorers' marked tree

Places

Katoomba

Natural features

Blue Mountains

Events

European crossing of the Blue Mountains 1813

Footer

Home
About
Copyright
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Bursle, William Henry

WH Bursle was a photographer. He worked as a travelling photographer with Charles Sibert before opening a photographic business in Lithgow and Katoomba between about 1889 to 1900. He then ran a successful photographic business in Orange before moving to Newtown to take over the Tasma studios in the 1920s.

State Library of New South Wales

Plants

Memorials

Exploration

History

Heritage movement

Explorers' marked tree

full record »

Stump of a blackbutt tree just outside Katoomba that was allegedly carved with the initials of Wentworth, Blaxland and Lawson during the crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813, but this historical significance is often questioned.

Katoomba

full record »

Chief town of the Blue Mountains with a name which means 'falling together of many streams' or 'waters tumble over hill'. It grew after the construction of the western railway from Sydney enabled a prosperous coal and shale mining industry and brought tourists to see the scenic beauty of the area.

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 .

full record »

European crossing of the Blue Mountains 1813

Expedition across the Blue Mountains undertaken by Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth and party in May 1813.

full record »