Kings Tableland

Kings Tableland
The plateau of Kings Tableland stretching to the left, above Jamison Valley, centre, 2008.
Elevation	1,000 m (3,281 ft)
Location
Range	Blue Mountains Range
Coordinates	33°49′S 150°24′E / 33.817°S 150.400°E / -33.817; 150.400Coordinates: 33°49′S 150°24′E / 33.817°S 150.400°E / -33.817; 150.400[1]
Geology
Type	Sydney sandstone plateau

The Kings Tableland is a plateau, located in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. The Tableland is an eroded remnant of a sandstone layer that is approximately 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) AMSL, situated immediately south of Wenthworth Falls. The Tableland is the major southerly spur of the main spine of the Blue Mountains Range and forms the beginning of the Southern Escarpment, an unbroken series of tall sandstone cliffs which fringes the Jamison, Megalong, Kanimbla and Hartley Valleys.^[2]

Situated to the west of the locality of Blue Labyrinth, Kings Tableland extends from Boddington Hill south to McMahons Lookout and extends about 4.8 kilometres (3.0 mi). The plateau was named by Governor Macquarie after King George III.^[1]

Indigenous significance

A portion of the Kings Tablelands has been gazetted as a camping and meeting place of significance for the Aboriginal Gandangara people. The conserved area includes a sandstone rock platform with extensive grinding and other grooves, a shelter with rock art that has been recorded as being the oldest Aboriginal site in the Blue Mountains region and containing unique vertically engraved depictions of kangaroo and bird tracks.^[3][4]

Modern developments

The Kings Tableland Observatory is located at Wentworth Falls, at the northern end of the spur. The observatory is equipped with two modern telescopes and a flat screen planetarium housed within a 4.5 metres (15 ft) dome.^[5]

A road from Wentworth Falls runs north and south along the plateau and there is a track descending from the western edge down into the Jamison Valley, originally leading to the old (now abandoned) sewerage works below the cliffs at Katoomba. The abandoned Queen Victoria Hospital is also located on Kings Tableland.

Gallery

• 

  Grinding grooves, Aboriginal site, 2009.

• 

  Allocasuarina nana, commonly known as the Dwarf She-Oak, found on Kings Tablelands, 2011.

See also

Media related to Blue Mountains, New South Wales at Wikimedia Commons

• List of Blue Mountains articles

References

External links

• Smith, Jim (2009). "New insights into Gundungurra place naming" (PDF). In Koch, Harold. Aboriginal Placenames: Naming and Re-Naming the Australian Landscape. Canberra: Australian National University. pp. 87–114. ISBN 9781921666087.