The Federal Pass recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. It is the most popular walk in the Jamison Valley, and links Katoomba and Leura Falls.

See below for text on The Federal Pass.

A new book on the Federal Pass is available from Jim Smith, 65 Fletcher St. Wentworth Falls NSW2782. Cost incl. postage and GST , within Australia, is $25.

Click HERE to see a virtual reality landscape, 387k. Needs QuickTime to view it. When it downloads, drag your cursor over the scene to look around.

Old historical photographs ....1....2....3.

Introduction
In November 1900, the first attempt to describe the scenery along the Federal Pass said that the track passed through "scenes of beauty, sublimity, weirdness and grandeur". For twenty five years I have travelled through these scenes, passionately seeking every corner of the Jamison Valley and its inhabitants. I have searched the country's libraries and archives for every word ever written about it, tried to find every historic photograph ever taken of the valley and attempted to locate and interview those who had cared about the place. I found that the valley was not only filled with birds, animals, plants, trees, rocks, earth and water but that it was a valley of stories. I have now an extraordinarily rich collection of these tales of the Gundungurra and those who lived in and travelled through the valley after them.
I once planned to produce a ten volume series of books on the Jamison Valley to record all these stories. As it has now been ten years between the first volume and the present one, the fate of this publishing project now seems uncertain. What is certain through is that the Valley's "beauty, sublimity, weirdness and grandeur" never loses its allure to those who travel in it.
If you wish to experience a full measure of the "weirdness" of the Jamison Valley, sit among the giant boulders just south of the Leura Forest picnic area. I am quite sure that the strangeness of this arrangement of rocks was known to the Gundungurra and that they camped on the flat nearby. In 1894, while there were still Gundungurra speaking communities scattered around the Blue Mountain valleys, a man called Charlie Diews, who had explored the jungles of South America and South East Asia, came to the Leura Forest Aboriginal campsite and erected a great stone fireplace. Around it he arranged tables and chairs. To this surreal "dining hall" came people from every corner of the earth. Where Gundungurra had once been spoken, a great variety of tongues mingled with the birdsong and the sound of the wind through the rainforest canopy. That is just one of the stories of the Federal Pass. Jim Smith.

This web site was created by Michael Smith splash@hunterlink.net.au