I am cheating here and listing the towns and villages of the Blue Mountains alphabetically rather than by elevation. This is pure indulgence on my part so that I can begin with; Blackheath, aka Bleakheath – Ranks first in this list and first in my Blackheathen heart.
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Recently I posted the story of the Glenbrook railway tunnel during WWII. The disused tunnel was secretly used as an RAAF storage depot, for chemicals such as mustard gas and phosogene. The decision to stockpile the chemicals was due to fear of a Japanese invasion. Japan had
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SILENT WEAPONS OF WAR My research for this story began amid the startling news of the chemical attack on the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, and of chemical weapons being used in Syria. I knew about mustard gas in WWI, because my
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Recently I conducted a little social history survey on how the various towns and villages of the Blue Mountains are perceived. Do they have a distinct character? Well certainly most of them do. Most surprising of all to me was that Glenbrook is considered by many to
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Shortly before midnight on Tuesday, April 8 1930, what has been described as one of the most daring robberies in the history of Australia took place. The heist was conceived by Roy Wilkinson, a 24 year old railway porter. Wilkinson had been serving as escort on the mail train from Sydney to
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