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Forest Report from N.S.W., Australia

Written by a student of S.C.E.C.G.S Redlands

Class or age : Year 8

Name of Forest: Blue Mountains National Park

Blue Mountains
The Three Sisters (rocks)

Blue Mountains National Park
Bridal Veil Falls
Bridal Veil Falls
drop 180 metres
into the Grose Valley.

Land form
The Blue Mountains National Park was raised from the level of the coastal plains during the Tertiary Period, about 2 million years ago, and since then the rivers and creeks have eroded the landscape to form enormous valleys and sheer escarpments.

The sandstone which formed the plateau's upper crust was formed from sandy sediments deposited by a giant river system over the last 200 million years. Below these exposed at the bottom of the deepest valleys are shales, fine sandstone and black coal seams.



Aboriginal inhabitants
At least 14,000 years ago, Aboriginal people were living in the Blue Mountains. Evidence of their long occupation survives in the form of axe grinding grooves, rock engravings and charcoal and ochre drawing. Most of the information we have of the mountain Aborigines largely comes from Francis Barrallier in 1802.

Arrival of White Settlers
Just a year after sailing from England to the colony of New South Wales in 1788, Governor Arthur Phillip and his party rowed up the Hawkesbury River to the edge of the Blue Mountains.

Health and Recreation

By the late 19th century, an increasing number of Sydneysiders and other visitors were making their way to the mountains for health and recreation. In 1917 their were a lot of reserves all over the Blue Mountains including one that covered all of Wentworth Falls and The Valley of the Waters.

Imperial Hotel
The Imperial Hotel at Mount
Victoria is one of the oldest
in the Blue Mountains.

Becoming a National Park
In 1959 The Blue Mountains became a National Park. In 1969 further additions came to the park. In 1967, the National Parks and Wildlife Service was established. In 1987 another 3,000 hectares of former crown reserves were added to the park.

Climate
The climate in The Blue Mountains National Park is warm summers and cool winters with snow and frost.

Environmental Concerns

 The Blue Mountains is a fragile environment like all environments are these days because if you litter in the long term it could really damage the wildlife, for example a plastic bag could damage the plants.

There are lots of environmental concerns in all National Parks but here are some for The Blue Mountains National Park.

Fire
Fire
Bushfire

The Blue Mountains National Park has to deal with bush fires, wild animals and pollution. Bush fire in the Blue Mountains is a problem because it wipes out all the nice trees and plants that they have been trying to look after, and if it wipes out the trees and plants than it would either kill most animals living in that region or burn down their home.



Feral Animals

Some wild animals that are a problem are wild dogs, dingoes, foxes and other animals. These animals create problems for people and the other animals for example if you leave your cat out at night and you live very close to a bush. During the night a fox may come in and eat your cat. There is no way of totally controlling the growth of these animals however some things that they have done to get rid of these animals are things like poisoning, trapping, shooting and exclusion fencing.

Feral fox
Feral foxes are a problem


Pollution
In The Blue Mountains pollution isn't a major problem but it could turn into a major problem because more people are moving to the Blue Mountains and more people are visiting.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

This park has been compared with the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.

Click here to see the comparison.
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Reporter: Samir A. of Year 8.

This page has been visited times since 11th Dec, 1996.

Computer Co-ordinator : Judith Bennett : This page was last modified 24th Dec, 1996