Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Blackheath

Town west of Katoomba, named by Governor Macquarie in 1815. With an altitude of 1,065 metres, it is the highest town in the Blue Mountains.

-33.632835389296, 150.28349216909

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Blackheath

CC BY-SA 2.0
,
2008

Gundungurra people knew and travelled through the area of Blackheath before the Europeans came. The town grew from the 1830s as a resting place for travellers over the Blue Mountains, first by road and then by rail after 1868. Land sales in the 1880s led to population growth, and growing interest in walking tracks spurred development in the early twentieth century, when Blackheath became a holiday town.