Wentworth Falls, New South Wales
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Wentworth Falls ( , elevation 867 metres) is a town in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales located 100 kilometres west of Sydney, and about 8 kilometres east of Katoomba, Australia, with a population of 5,380.
Originally called Weatherboard after the ‘Weatherboard Hut’ built in 1814, one year later the town was named Jamison’s Valley by Governor Macquarie. In July 1867 the historic first railway journey in the Blue Mountains left Penrith station and travelled through to Weatherboard Station where the train terminated. In 1879, the village took its name from a nearby system of waterfalls, which in turn were named for William Charles Wentworth, one of the men that headed the exploration to cross the mountains in 1813.
At the top of Bodington Hill (head along Kings Tableland Road and turn left into Queen Elizabeth Drive) you can find Kings Tableland Aboriginal Site. This area is highly significant to the Darug, Wiradjuri and Gundungarra people. Used as a gathering place for at least 14,000 years, the area contains a variety of cultural features, including engravings, axe-grinding grooves, modified rock pools and an occupation shelter. Further along Queen Elizabeth Drive, at the end of a long firetrail, is Ingar Picnic Ground, one of the most remote and beautiful picnic grounds in the Blue Mountains. Also in this area are Sunset Lookout and McMahon’s Lookout, both of which provide long views as far as Lake Burragorang. On route to Sunset Lookout there used to be a deer park, which closed down in the late 1980s, subsequently falling into private ownership. Several of the deer were sighted around the area, until they were culled by the National Park rangers.
Other points of interest and local institutions include the historic Grandview Hotel, the Wentworth Falls School of Arts, the Kedumba Gallery (found within the grounds of the Blue Mountains Grammar School), Wentworth Falls Lake an artificial lake created early in the 20th Century to provide water for steam locomotives, now a reserve and play area, and Yester Grange, a privately-owned historic homestead available for private functions and accommodation. The School of Arts is a popular venue for local community events and theatre productions.
On the north side of the town is Pitt Park. The Bathurst Traveller, later renamed Weatherboard Inn was an inn built in 1826 at Pitt Park. Charles Darwin was reported to have stayed there in 1836. At this time, Charles Darwin walked from the Weatherboard Inn along Jamison Creek to the cliff’s edge, about which he wrote ‘an immense gulf unexpectedly opens through the trees, with a depth of perhaps 1,500 feet’. The track was formally opened in 1986 and now leads from Wentworth Falls train station all the way to the top of Wentworth Falls.
There are many spectacular natural lookouts in the area including Breakfast Point Lookout, Princes Rock Lookout, Wentworth Falls Lookout and Rocket Point Lookout. If you head down the Valley of the Waters (only accessible on foot), you can reach Empress Falls, Sylvia Falls, Lodore Falls, Flat Rock Falls and way down near the junction of Jamison and Valley of the Waters Creeks, the sheltered Vera Falls. One of the most popular walks in the area, the National Pass, descends down the Valley of the Waters, follows a narrow claystone ledge perched halfway down the cliff and then ascends back up to the ridge top up a series of sandstone steps built by Peter Mulheran and a group of men called ‘The Irish Brigade’ in 1908.
The Conservation Hut is an information centre and restaurant in Wentworth Falls leased from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, and makes a great starting point from which to enjoy many of the walks.
Wentworth Falls hosts several festivals including the Wentworth Falls Autumn Festival in April and Wentworth Falls Public School Art and Craft Show in May.
Another local attraction is the Kings Table Observatory at 55 Hordern Place, off Kings Tableland Road. Facilities include three modern telescopes as well as a flat screen planetarium for cloudy nights. Opening hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 7pm (8pm during daylight savings), or every night in the school holidays.
