LEURA

Leura is a suburb in the City of Blue Mountains local government area that is located 109 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the series of small towns stretched along the Main Western railway line and Great Western Highway that bisects the Blue Mountains National Park. Leura is situated adjacent to Katoomba, the largest centre in the upper mountains, and the two towns merge along Leura's western edge.

The Leura Walking Tour begins at The Alexandra Hotel just above the railway station and ends on The Mall at the Redmond Memorial across from Leura Cellars. The walk offers a slow paced look at homes, buildings and churches that are the architectural history of Leura.

One of the most prominent is Leuralla, the former home of Clive Evatt, an Australian politician, barrister and raconteur. Evatt was the brother of H.V. "Doc" Evatt, a former Chief Justice of New South Wales, Leader of the Australian Labor Party, the third President of the United Nations General Assembly, the first Chairman of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, and a Justice of the High Court of Australia. The Evatt family still owns and manages the property which is now home to the NSW Toy and Railway Museum.

Another major attraction is the Everglades Gardens, the former home of Belgian-born industrialist Henri van de Velde now administered by the National Trust. The Everglades includes van de Velde's Moderne-style home and 5 hectares of landscaped gardens designed by Danish architect Paul Sorensen. The Everglades has an outdoor theatre which often hosts productions such as Cirquinox and the Leura Shakespeare festival.

Self-styled as "the Garden Village", the Leura Gardens Festival is held annually in October. The Festival is a registered charity and raises money for the Blue Mountains District Anzac Memorial Hospital in Katoomba by opening private gardens to the public. Not connected with the garden festival but also held at the same time is the popular Leura Village Fair.

Natural attractions include Sublime Point to the south, which offers panoramic views of the Jamison Valley, and Leura Cascades in the southwest. There is a network of tracks that goes from Links Road to Echo Point, taking in many attractions along the way, including the Pool of Siloam, Leura Cascades, Leura Falls, Jamison Lookout, Linda Falls and the Dardanelles Pass, before ascending to Echo Point via the Giant Stairway. The area is popular for bushwalking and photography.

KATOOMBA

Katoomba is the chief town of the City of Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia and the administrative headquarters of Blue Mountains City Council. Katoomba is situated on the Great Western Highway 110 km west of Sydney and 39 km south-east of Lithgow. Katoomba railway station is on the Main Western line. Katoomba is well known for spectacular mountain views and extensive bush and nature walks in the surrounding Blue Mountains. At the 2011 census, Katoomba had a population of 8,016 people.

The rock formation known as the Three Sisters, viewable from Echo Point about 2 kilometres south of the main town, is the most famous feature, and attracts some four million visitors each year. Other features of the Jamison Valley visible from Echo Point include Mount Solitary and the rock formation known as the Ruined Castle. A short walk from Echo Point leads to The Giant Stairway which provides access to a number of nature walks through the Valley. Some of these are quite rugged and not recommended for inexperienced walkers. Several of the Jamison Valley tracks including the Stairway itself were closed in recent years due to maintenance, but most have since been re-opened. The local geography includes extensive areas of dense warm temperate rainforest, hanging swamps and a series of spectacular waterfalls (albeit with a relatively low water volume).

Other attractions include Scenic World, a tourist complex in the southwest of the town. This site is home to the steepest funicular railway in the world, the Katoomba Scenic Railway, which was originally built to facilitate coal and oil shale mining in the Jamison Valley. Scenic World also offers the Scenic Skyway cable car, which travels over an arm of the Jamison Valley and offers views of Katoomba Falls and Orphan Rock. In 2004 the original Skyway car was replaced by a new car with a liquid crystal panel floor, which abruptly becomes transparent while the car travels.

HARTLEY VALE

Hartley Vale is a small village in the Blue Mountains area of New South Wales, Australia. It is approximately 150 kilometres west of Sydney and 12 kilometres south-east of Lithgow. It is in the local government area of the City of Lithgow.

Hartley Vale is centred on Hartley Vale Road, which stretches from the Governors Causeway to the Great Western Highway. The area is largely open countryside with many substantial private properties, bounded by the River Lett to the north and Mount York to the south. The village is approximately five kilometres west of the Main Western Railway—which runs from Sydney to Lithgow and beyond—and ten kilometres from the nearest railway station at Bell.

JENOLAN CAVES

The Jenolan Caves are limestone caves located within the Jenolan Karst Conservation Reserve in the Central Tablelands region, west of the Blue Mountains, in New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The caves and 3,083-hectare reserve are situated approximately 175 kilometres west of Sydney, 20 kilometres east of Oberon and 30 kilometres west of Katoomba.

The caves are the most visited of several similar groups in the limestone caves of the country, and the most ancient discovered open caves in the world. They include numerous Silurian marine fossils and the calcite formations, sometimes pure white, are noted for their beauty. The cave network is very large following the course of a subterranean section of the Jenolan River, with over 40 kilometres of multi-level passages, more than 300 entrances, and the complex is still undergoing active exploration. The caves are a popular tourist destination, with eleven show caves accessible to paying visitors and well lit.

The caves and conservation reserve are one of the eight protected areas that, in 2000, was inscribed to form part of the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Greater Blue Mountains Area. The Jenolan Karst Conservation Reserve is the most westerly of the eight protected areas within the World Heritage Site. The reserve forms part of the Great Dividing Range.