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| History Looking
across to the Blue Mountains from Sydney in 1788, the early settlers did not suspect
the difficulty that the crossing of this seemingly modest range would pose. The
most notable of the early attempts was made in 1804 by George Caley, a plant collector
who had arrived in Sydney in 1800 under an arrangement made by Sir Joseph Banks.
He reached `Fern Tree Hill', as he called what later became known as Mount Tomah,
before going on to nearby Mount Banks, which he named for his patron, before turning
back. The Blue Mountains were finally conquered when a way across was found further
south in 1813, followed by the building of a road in 1815. Subsequently, in1823,
Archibald Bell, then only nineteen, found a northern route, via Mount Tomah, and
a second road was constructed. | 
Columnar basalt in the Garden |
| The reaching of the high points
of the northern Blue Mountains revealed that they were capped with basalt, the
remains of lava flows of about 18 and 14 million years ago. On Mount Tomah and
elsewhere these have given rise to deep, well-drained soils, a striking contrast
to what is found in other parts of the Blue Mountains. These soils carry a tall
eucalypt forest with an understory of tree ferns which, on slopes favoured
by their aspect, gives way to temperate rainforest. This rainforest is characterised
by lianes, epiphytes and abundant ferns, including tree ferns. The aboriginal
word `tomah' reputedly means 'tree fern' and the aptness of the name Mount Tomah
remains apparent today, even though much of the area has been cleared. |
Tree Ferns at the entrance to the Gondwana Walk | The
Soil The reaching of the high points of the
northern Blue Mountains revealed that they were capped with basalt, the remains
of lava flows of about 18 and 14 million years ago. On Mount Tomah and elsewhere
these have given rise to deep, well-drained soils, a striking contrast to what
is found in other parts of the Blue Mountains. These soils carry a tall eucalypt
forest with an understory of tree ferns which, on slopes favoured by their
aspect, gives way to temperate rainforest. | | This
rainforest is characterised by lianes, epiphytes and abundant ferns, including
tree ferns. The aboriginal word 'tomah' reputedly means 'tree fern' and
the aptness of the name Mount Tomah remains apparent today, even though much of
the area has been cleared. The
Perfect Garden Site George Caley was
the first to draw attention to Mount Tomah's vegetation and, following the discovery
of Bell's Line, it was visited by a succession of professional and amateur botanists.
In view of its position in the history of exploration in Australia, its vegetation,
its soil, its altitude, and its climate, it is singularly appropriate that Mount
Tomah should have become the site for an important Australian botanic garden. |
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