Description
This area is one of rugged tablelands, sheer cliffs, deep, inaccessible valleys and rivers and lakes teeming with life. The rare plants and animals that live in this natural place relate an extraordinary story of Australia's antiquity, its diversity of life. This is the story of the evolution of Australia's unique eucalypt vegetation and its associated communities, plants and animals.
The Greater Blue Mountains Area consists of 10,300 square kilometres of mostly forested landscape on a sandstone plateau 60 to 180 kilometres inland from central Sydney. The area includes vast expanses of wilderness and is equivalent in area to almost one third of Belgium, or twice the size of Brunei.
The area called Blue Mountains is based on the fact that when atmospheric temperature rise, the essential oil of various Eucalyptus species evaporates and disperse in the air, then visible blue spectrum of sunlight propagates more than other colours. Therefore the reflected landscape from mountains seems bluish by human eyes.
The property, which includes eight protected areas in two blocks separated by a transportation and urban development corridor, is made up of seven outstanding national parks as well as the famous Jenolan Caves Karst Conservation Reserve. These are the Blue Mountains National Park, Wollemi National Park, Yengo National Park, Nattai National Park, Kanangra-Boyd National Park, Gardens of Stone National Park and Thirlmere Lakes National Park.
The area does not contain mountains in the conventional sense but is described as a deeply incised sandstone plateau rising from less than 100 metres above sea level to 1300 metres at the highest point. There are basalt outcrops on the higher ridges. This plateau is thought to have enabled the survival of a rich diversity of plant and animal life by providing a refuge from climatic changes during recent geological history. It is particularly noted for its wide and balanced representation of eucalypt habitats from wet and dry sclerophyll, mallee heathlands, as well as localised swamps, wetlands, and grassland. Ninety-one species of eucalypts (thirteen percent of the global total) occur in the Greater Blue Mountains Area. Twelve of these are believed to occur only in the Sydney sandstone region.
Read more about this topic: Greater Blue Mountains Area
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