Katoomba

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.

Name

Alternate

The Crushers

Property

Administered by

Blue Mountains City Council

Part of

Blue Mountains local government area

Type

Suburb

John Merriman

2008

Built on the traditional land of the Gundungurra people, the settlement on the western road over the mountains was a lonely outpost until the 1870s when it was named Katoomba and became a mining and tourist town. With the advent of the motor car, Katoomba became even more popular with holiday makers and honeymooners, as well as residents willing to commute to Sydney by train.

Matti Keentok

2008

Part of the vanished mine heritage of Katoomba, John Britty North's tramway hauled coal and shale from the Megalong valley along an extensive tramway system of which today's Scenic Railway is only a small part.

Delia Falconer

2016

supported by

Varuna The National Writers House

Blue Mountains City of the Arts Trust 2015 Grant Program

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.

Katoomba

Katoomba coal tramway

Echo Point

Blue Mountains City Council

Blue Mountains local government area