LEURA CASCADES TO TARPEIAN ROCK, BLUE MOUNTAINS NSW AUSTRALIA

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Tarpeian Rock is on the extreme right of the map (not named)

This short walk follows the Prince Henry Cliff Walk from the Leura Cascades picnic area to Tarpeian Rock Lookout and return, with a diversion to Bridal Veil View Lookout.

The area around the present day picnic area is part of a major development which took place in 1911-13 and included the baths (now filled in), the Chelmsford Bridge and what is now Cliff Drive. The Leura Falls Kiosk (now the Solitary Restaurant) also dates from around this time as no doubt do some of the area’s walking tracks.

See The Blue Mountain Echo (NSW: 1909 - 1928), Friday 19 May 1911, page 2 for an entertaining account of the beginnings of the project. (This can be found by searching the newspaper files at www.trove.nla.gov.au) .

Lord Chelmsford (Frederic John Napier Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford (12 August 1868 – 1 April 1933) was a British statesman who served as Governor of Queensland (1905–1909) and Governor of New South Wales from 1909 to 1913 at the time of the work at Leura Cascades. He officiated at the opening of the new Katoomba Town Hall in January1912.                                                                                                                                            

Bridal Veil View is a romantic place

A one-time feature of the walk to Tarpeian Rock was the flying fox which took supplies down to the Katoomba-Leura sewage treatment works in the valley below Leura Falls. This seems to have been removed as part of the cleanup after the sewage works closed down a few years ago. There is no shortage of cleaning up to do down in the valley.

I wonder what this sign used to read!

The diversion to Bridal Veil View Lookout is well worth taking. It’s only a few minute’s walk to a point directly opposite the Bridal Veil (upper Leura Falls, reached by going down the Leura Cascades track). This lookout seems to have a problem with its name, as I have also seen it called Bridal Veil View Lookout or just Bridal Veil View.

Leura Tarpeian Rock

Rome Tarpeian Rock

So far as I know, there have been no criminals thrown off the  Tarpeian Rock at Leura, unlike the original in Rome which was used for that purpose for hundreds of years. There is some physical resemblance between the two rocks, I guess. You decide.

The Wild Walks information and map is useful. You will find it here .

My own video of the walk may be found here . My Blue Mountains You Tube playlist may be found here.  I have three other playlists - on gem hunting/mining, Glen Innes and New Zealand. Please comment and subscribe.

Chelmsford Bridge August 2009

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