Back from the Brink: Blue Gum Forest and the Grose Wilderness

Everyone has been to the lookouts. Many have been to Blue Gum Forest, 1 deep in the valley-but few know the remote and hidden recesses of the labyrinth beyond. Here, an hour or two from Sydney, is a very wild place.

The Grose has escaped development. There have been schemes for roads, railways, dams, mines and forestry, but the bulldozers have been kept out. Instead, the valley became the Cradle of Conservation in New South Wales when it was reserved from sale in 1875—an event magnificently reinforced in 1931 when a group of bushwalkers were moved to save Blue Gum Forest from the axe.

This is the story of people who have visited the Aboriginals, explorers, engineers, miners, track builders, bushwalkers, canyoners, climbers...those who have loved it & those who have threatened it.