High in the Blue Mountains; Blackheath #1

The Blue Mountains loom large, both literally and in the history and mythology of European settlement of the Sydney area. They certainly had cultural importance for many thousands of years before that as well but, as I've noted before, those are not my stories to tell. This post is to introduce to you a little of the area of the high mountains, especially around Blackheath near the western edge of the range. We like Blackheath for its 'village' feel and for being surrounded by forest. The highway to Sydney runs south from Blackheath through a natural landscape to Katoomba of tourist fame (think 'Three Sisters' and constant coachloads of tourists). From there it swings east and descends, with an essentially continuous strip of suburbia flanking it, to the Sydney plains at Penrith. If I'm coming up from Sydney (which is not generally how I approach the mountains) Blackheath is the first time I feel I've left Australia's biggest city. 

We've now stayed twice in a little cabin surrounded by bush, against the Blue Mountains National Park, east of Blackheath on the road to Evans Lookout. The first time was during the drought, in the middle of summer, while the second was very recently with the bush flowering and rain much of the time, courtesy of the La Niña phase of the ENSO cycle. This post draws on both those experiences.

As is well known, most of the greater Blue Mountains area burnt in the summer of 2019-20. At least 80% of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area - which comprises a million hectares of mostly national park - was incinerated. It got to within a few hundred metres of 'our' cabin (no, we only rent it) but the area around it was spared. This post will be a two-parter, starting today with some scene-setting - habitats, scenery, some fire recovery - and some (mostly smaller) animals, and concluding next time with a parade of wildflowers. Firstly though, the cabin we now think of as 'home' when we're in the mountains.

It's solid and comfortable, surrounded by bush but just a few minutes drive from
Blackheath shops and cafes. The other (identical) cabin and the owners' home are nearby
but out of sight. Just look up Rough Track Cabins - there are various web sites
with more information, though this is a pretty good place to start.
I don't 'do' ads here, but I'm always happy to let you
know about places that are good to stay in and whose owners are doing the
right thing by the environment.

The forest around it is dominated by Sydney Peppermint Eucalyptus piperita with a lovely heathy understorey and something flowering on just about any day of the year.

This is the view outside the back door.

And this is the little track that runs from near this back door through the forest to a lookout over the Grand Canyon (yes I know, but the Blue Mountains are awash with such names - it's because of the somewhat twee times when they were being renamed in English). Many of the photos in these two postings were taken in the vicinity of the cabin.

The burnt areas can't, and shouldn't, be ignored, but I'm not going to dwell on them. Last summer's fires were unprecedented, certainly in European times, and probably within the last several centuries at least, for their intensity and vast scale - though without a dramatic rethinking of carbon-based fuels they are simply a foretaste of the world we're creating. However fires, including intense summer ones, are integral to most Australian landscapes and thus those landscapes and their living components are well adapted to recovery. 

Looking over recovering dry forest and heathland to the cliffs known as the
Blackheath Walls across the Grose Valley. (ie Blackheath and our cabin are behind those walls.)
This is from the walk to The Walls Lookout which starts from Bells Line of Road.

Xanthorrhoeas (or grass trees) which have regrown from root stock and put up
flower spikes 2-3 metres high in response to the January 2020 fires. Many other
plants, including orchids, are also flowering in such areas.

Saw Banksia B. serrata reshooting from the base after fire. We would normally
expect banksias to die and regrow from seed held in cones on the dead plant,
but nature doesn't feel constrained by our expectations.

In sheltered areas of the mountains, especially in gorges such as the Grand Canyon, there are significant stands of warm temperate rainforest (especially of Coachwood Ceratopetalum apetalum). Entering these can be quite a shock, as they may be only metres from the dry flowery heaths and eucalypt forests but are dim, green, cool and moist. Grand Canyon at Blackheath is one such rainforest patch, but a more easily accessible one is the Coachwood Glen Nature Trail, right by the roadside and well-signposted near the beginning of the Megalong Valley. From Blackheath, simply cross the railway line by the highway in the middle of town, and follow the signs.

Tree Ferns, especially the tall Rough Tree Fern Cyathea australis,
dominate the understorey in places.

Other ferns include the shorter-trunked Smooth Tree Fern Dicksonia antarctica
and various fishbone ferns Blechnum spp.

In the centre of this rainforest picture is an ancient leaning eucalypt,
Brown Barrel Eucalyptus fastigata.

Another important tree of the rainforests is dark rough-barked
Sassafras Doryphora sassafras.

Mossy rocks and banks line stream lines, above and below.

I don't have as many animals photos as you might have expected, but the timing of our visits - in drought and rain respectively - had a lot to do with that. Here are a few that we encountered, most of them around the cabin in summer, representing a range of animal groups.

Australian Painted Lady Vanessa kershawi, a common and widespread
species across southern Australia.

Varied Swordgrass Brown Tisiphone abeona. These were common around the cabin
in summer but I found them to be very flighty and it took some time to get
a non-blurry photo! It relies on various species of swordgrass (actually a sedge,
Gahnia spp., of the Family Cyperaceae) for food for its caterpillars.

This is apparently shaping up to be a bumper season for cicadas in the high mountains, though of course there weren't many calling in the cold wet conditions that prevailed when we were last there - and the drought summer didn't favour them either. However there were plenty of nymph cases on tree trunks as evidence of the mass emergence.

The split in the back of the carapace is evident; from here the adult cicada emerged.

A very handsome Masked Devil Cyclochila australasiae form spreta, pretty
much immobilised by the cold, in a friend's garden in Katoomba. This is a baffling
species which comes in a bewildering array of colour forms, including those
known as Yellow Monday, Chocolate Soldier, Greengrocer and Blue Moon!

An elegantly long-legged fly (resting on our wet car in case you were wondering
about the studio!). Per invaluable input from Susan and Harvey (see Comments below),
and a closer look at another photo which featured its backside, it is clear that this
is a Bristlefly, Family Tachinidae, almost certainly genus Senostoma.

Yellow-striped Hunter Austrogomphus guerini - thanks Steve! The world of
dragonflies is yet another thing I don't know enough about.

Surprisingly few bird pics I'm afraid, though I undertake to compensate for that in other posts.

Jacky Winter Microeca fascinans, a confiding little robin, looking at us looking at orchids,
Megalong Valley.

Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos Zanda funerea, are common in the Blue Mountains.
(This and the two Western Australian white-tailed black-cockatoos have recently
been split off from the genus Calyptorhynchus.)

Gang-gang Cockatoo Callocephalon fimbriatum, a very characterful little
cockatoo of the mountain forests. This is a young male, with grey still
showing through his spiffy red head feathers.
(Oddly, my head's getting greyer as I get older!)

And to finish off, a very engaging little lizard that was busy outside the cabin on our previous visit, including digging into the gravel, either looking for snacks or somewhere suitable to lay eggs.

Mountain Dragon Rankinia diemensis taking a rest from its labours.

And busily digging into the gravel path.

Next time, I'll be back to share some of the wealth of wildflowers we enjoyed on our visits to this superb part of the world - and one which, like so many other parts of regional Australia, needs our support after this grim 12 months or so.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 19 NOVEMBER.
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