Blue Mountains

This weekend I'll be letting you know about the garden shows that are on.

So many people putting effort into private gardens, and one of those regions that's been doing it for decades is the Leura Gardens Festival in the Blue Mountains.

Gardeners, uh, wanting to experience the beauty of spring in the Upper Blue Mountains, you'll be flocking to the Leura Gardens Festival.

The festival will run over the long weekend in October for a total of four days, from Friday, the 2nd of October, to Monday, the 5th of October.

Now, there are a total of 10 magical gardens to visit.

From the chilly reaches of space to the Blue Mountains of New South Wales now where there's a rescue mission underway to save an endangered shrub but this plant's main threat isn't climate change or habitat loss.

No, it's fertility.

Shelby Trainor tagged along on a field trip with the scientists trying to save it.

We're planting them onto the female flowers, and then we're seeing if we can make babies.

And he's like, "Oh, I get it now." [laughs]

I'm at Narrow Neck Peninsula in the Blue Mountains on a warm December day about to visit an endangered shrub, Ziera kavenyi.

It's an ordinary-looking shrub with oily leaves that erupts into small pink and white flowers.

It can grow up to two meters tall, but the population I'm about to visit is struggling.

But that's the wonder of radio is that we thrive off the listeners that contribute.

And out of 9-11, I come back to many years ago covering the bushfires and they were in the Blue Mountains.

we would talk to people and the Rural Fire Service would ring us and say, that person you spoke to, where were they? Because we need to know this.

Now, we've come a lot further now in the technology.

Buses also replace trains between Leppington and Liverpool.

Blue Mountains line trains are running between Blue Mountains stations and Blacktown only, so use T1 Western between Blacktown and the city, and some Blue Mountains services from Blacktown are running up to 30 minutes later than normal.

Bathurst trains are on a changed timetable too.

Tomorrow, Sydney Metro is not running between Tallawong and Sydenham, with replacement buses between Tallawong and Chatswood only.

He was referred to by Ensign Francis Borrelier as Canaan Bagel, C-A-N-A-M-B-A-I-G-L-E, on November 7th and 8th, 1802.

When speaking of a native who joined his party between Menangle and Picton during an expedition to try and cross the Blue Mountains, Borrelier writes, The mountaineer called Bungin was an inhabitant of the south and had left the Canaan Bagel tribe because they wanted to kill him.

barallier says that bungin wore a cloak made of skins of animals governor king spoke of the chief as canna bygal c a n n a b y g a l or canna michael c a n n a m i k e l and mentioned that george cayley a botanist had seen him when the sable chief was visiting the cow pasture natives about eighteen hundred and two and king writes cayley describes cannabaigle and his tribe or family to be a stout athletic band far surpassing the other natives in height and stoutness on march ninth eighteen eighteen when in this locality on his expedition with hamilton hume which culminated in their discovery of lake bathurst on april third eighteen eighteen surveyor james mehan wrote tent at mittigong at the south end of a plain of swampy meadowland These flats were occupied in 1821, for on May 21st of that year, Surveyor Harper refers to Chalker's Hut on Portion 82, Parish of Mittagong, and in November 1830, Surveyor Robert Hoddle records the presence of Cutter's Inn on Portion 73 on the site now occupied by the boys' home No. 8.

Pass Mittagong January 28th course west-south-west the land runs much the same the timber thin with a good many stringy bark trees and a little further we saw a number of meadows and a hundred acres of land without a tree upon it here we saw a party of natives wilson run and caught one of them a girl thinking to learn something from them but her language was so different from that one that we had with us that we could not understand her We kept her all night, but she cried and fretted so much that the next morning we gave her a tomahawk and sent her to the rest of the natives, which were covered with large skins, which reached down to their heels.

thence past Maryland to the summit of Mount Taurang, about six miles in a direct line easterly from Goulburn, and in addition to having had a distant view of the southeastern portion of Goulburn Plains to the east of Lake Bathurst, they discovered the upper portion of the Wollondilly River.

Here a shortage of provisions caused them to return, and in doing so they travelled past Exeter and to the eastward of Moss Vale, thence through the cow pastures to prospect.

during the whole of these two journeys except when they just touched on shoalhaven waters these explorers were within the watershed of the hawkesbury river and although they passed the roughest portion of the south-western mountains and reached a point from which so far as surface contours are concerned they might have travelled without obstacle to the lower murrumbidgee yet they did not pass on to western waters over the main divide which is situated about twenty miles further on if they had proceeded to the next ridge about four miles westerly from mount taurang they would have had a close view of those extensive and valuable downs known as goulburn plains and had they possessed another score or so of biscuits this result would most probably have been achieved at the time these expeditions were made the settlement at sydney was only ten years old and the need for expanding into new country was not so pressing as was the case fifteen years later when the blue mountains were crossed otherwise the records contained in the lad's journal if not fully credited would at least have been investigated while we must still admit that blaxland lawson and wentworth were the first to carve out a passage over the blue mountains and that surveyor g w evans was the first to pass the actual main divide on to western waters we must surely render due credit to the earlier work done among the southern mountains by such as ensigned francis barallier and the party of which wilson and barracks were members when reading the record left us nearly a hundred and twenty two years ago by the plucky intelligent lad who eagerly volunteered for this second most hazardous adventure after having been nearly starved to death during the first we cannot but be impressed with the dauntless courage untiring energy and readiness to face danger exhibited by these early explorers and we are moved to admire the great services rendered by many australian pioneers in plunging into the mountain fastnesses and opening up ways for the future progress and development of our great country i wish to express my thanks to mr a j hare under secretary for lands mr e b harkness under secretary chief secretary's department and mr hugh wright mitchell library for permission to examine early records To Mr. Percy C. Cordeaux, I am indebted for facilities afforded to visit the Boullieu district, while for references to some early field books, I am grateful to Mr. H. Selkirk of the Lands Department.

Forget whatever plans you have this weekend because you're staying at home and playing on SpinQuest.

And you have issued, you know, a bit of a warning to anybody who's thinking about, I mean, we've got all these beautiful places to hike and to go for a bushwalk.

And, you know, people get lost often, don't they? Made up in the Blue Mountains.

I mean, there was one lost in the older fella.

They found him down in Victoria.

He was referred to by Ensign Francis Borrelier as Canaan Bagel, C-A-N-A-M-B-A-I-G-L-E, on November 7th and 8th, 1802.

When speaking of a native who joined his party between Menangle and Picton during an expedition to try and cross the Blue Mountains, Borrelier writes, The mountaineer called Bungin was an inhabitant of the south and had left the Canaan Bagel tribe because they wanted to kill him.

barallier says that bungin wore a cloak made of skins of animals governor king spoke of the chief as canna bygal c a n n a b y g a l or canna michael c a n n a m i k e l and mentioned that george cayley a botanist had seen him when the sable chief was visiting the cow pasture natives about eighteen hundred and two and king writes cayley describes cannabaigle and his tribe or family to be a stout athletic band far surpassing the other natives in height and stoutness on march ninth eighteen eighteen when in this locality on his expedition with hamilton hume which culminated in their discovery of lake bathurst on april third eighteen eighteen surveyor james mehan wrote tent at mittigong at the south end of a plain of swampy meadowland These flats were occupied in 1821, for on May 21st of that year, Surveyor Harper refers to Chalker's Hut on Portion 82, Parish of Mittagong, and in November 1830, Surveyor Robert Hoddle records the presence of Cutter's Inn on Portion 73 on the site now occupied by the boys' home No. 8.

Pass Mittagong January 28th course west-south-west the land runs much the same the timber thin with a good many stringy bark trees and a little further we saw a number of meadows and a hundred acres of land without a tree upon it here we saw a party of natives wilson run and caught one of them a girl thinking to learn something from them but her language was so different from that one that we had with us that we could not understand her We kept her all night, but she cried and fretted so much that the next morning we gave her a tomahawk and sent her to the rest of the natives, which were covered with large skins, which reached down to their heels.

thence past Maryland to the summit of Mount Taurang, about six miles in a direct line easterly from Goulburn, and in addition to having had a distant view of the southeastern portion of Goulburn Plains to the east of Lake Bathurst, they discovered the upper portion of the Wallandilly River.

Here a shortage of provisions caused them to return, and in doing so they travelled past Exeter and to the eastward of Moss Vale, thence through the cow pastures to prospect.

during the whole of these two journeys except when they just touched on shoalhaven waters these explorers were within the watershed of the hawkesbury river and although they passed the roughest portion of the south-western mountains and reached a point from which so far as surface contours are concerned they might have travelled without obstacle to the lower murrumbidgee yet they did not pass on to western waters over the main divide which is situated about twenty miles further on if they had proceeded to the next ridge about four miles westerly from mount taurang they would have had a close view of those extensive and valuable downs known as goulburn plains and had they possessed another score or so of biscuits this result would most probably have been achieved at the time these expeditions were made the settlement at sydney was only ten years old and the need for expanding into new country was not so pressing as was the case fifteen years later when the blue mountains were crossed otherwise the records contained in the lad's journal if not fully credited would at least have been investigated while we must still admit that blaxland lawson and wentworth were the first to carve out a passage over the blue mountains and that surveyor g w evans was the first to pass the actual main divide on to western waters we must surely render due credit to the earlier work done among the southern mountains by such as ensigned francis barallier and the party of which wilson and barracks were members when reading the record left us nearly a hundred and twenty-two years ago by the plucky intelligent lad who eagerly volunteered for this second most hazardous adventure after having been nearly starved to death during the first we cannot but be impressed with the dauntless courage untiring energy and readiness to face danger exhibited by these early explorers and we are moved to admire the great services rendered by many australian pioneers in plunging into the mountain fastnesses and opening up ways for the future progress and development of our great country i wish to express my thanks to mr a j hare under secretary for lands mr e b harkness under secretary chief secretary's department and mr hugh wright mitchell library for permission to examine early records To Mr. Percy C. Cordeaux, I am indebted for facilities afforded to visit the Boullieu district, while for references to some early field books, I am grateful to Mr. H. Selkirk of the Lands Department.