wp-image-12418https://home.dictionaryofsydney.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Hydro-Majestic-Hotel-Medlow-Bath-1920s.jpgHydro-Majestic Hotel, Medlow Bath 1920s. By Charles Henry Hunt. Contributed by National Library of Australia [nla.pic-an10566802] 413313/> Hydro-Majestic Hotel, Medlow Bath 1920s. By Charles Henry Hunt. Contributed by National Library of Australia [nla.pic-an10566802]

The Dictionary of Sydney has plenty of content across the greater Sydney region, including Sydney's outskirts high up in the Blue Mountains. The Dictionary of Sydney recently partnered with Varuna, the Writer's House in Katoomba, to commission five writers to write about iconic sites of the Blue Mountains. The essays have just been published on the Dictionary and include:

• Echo Point by Delia Falconer
• Hydro Majestic by Julian Leatherdale
• Varuna by Mark O’Flynn
• Darwin’s Walk by John Low
• Mt Hay Plain and Lockley’s Pylon by Naomi Parry.

For this project, each author explored the layered meanings of cultural icons and landscapes, reflecting on the historical and personal memories that their chosen place evokes. Each place has an environmental and a cultural history, whereby their iconic status has been created and cultivated over time. Before Echo Point and the Three Sisters, there was Wentworth Falls and the Blue Gum Forest in the Grose Valley. Each pathway through the forest has its own stories, ancient and new. And the Hydro Majestic, built by Sydney retailer Mark Foy, capitalised on them all. Foy created an up-market health resort that boasted romance and charm in nature walks and waterfalls, and healthful crisp mountains air. Varuna itself is a more modest but not less influential icon. It was the house of Australian writer Eleanor Dark and her husband Eric. They built it in 1939. In 1990 it was gifted by her son Mick to his mother's memory as a writer's retreat; a gift of nurturing and solitude. A place for writers to come and work, a place of reflective and solitude, quietness. It is a place where writers emulate what Eleanor Dark did, discuss ideas around the fireplace. Mark O'Flynn in his essay describes how Professor Elizabeth Webby "jokingly referred to a new genre in Australian literature, that of the 'Vaurna book'." The jest points to Varuna's influence in fostering creativity amongst writers. One can almost feel the presence of writers gone before, including Eleanor Dark, standing beside you, encouraging you just to 'get on with it'. The collaboration between the Dictionary of Sydney and Varuna, The Writers House was supported by the Blue Mountains City of the Arts Trust 2015 Grant Program. As part of this collaboration, four of the writers - Delia Falconer, Julian Leatherdale, Naomi Parry and John Low - will talk with me at a special Sydney Writers Festival event at Katoomba on 16 May. I hope to see you there! Date: 16 May Time: 3:00 – 4:00pm Place: The Carrington Hotel, Katoomba Single Session Tickets $15 (only available at the door on the day, subject to availability). Listen Now

If you missed today’s segment, you can catch up here via the 2SER website. Tune in 2SER Breakfast with Mitch Byatt on 107.3 every Wedensday morning at 8:20 am.