Sweet Wayfaring

Portland Cement Works At the nearby town of Portland there is another major heritage industrial site, this time a cement works. Built in 1890 it closed down in 1991. As it is a large site situated right in the centre of the town, I imagine the shutdown must have had a big impact on this small (population 2000) community. I'm going to leave it to your imagination as the entire site is fenced off making it rather difficult to get good photos even though there are many buildings including workshops, offices, homes and the factory itself. That's it for industry for now. But if you are interested in another significant industrial ruin, over at Blue Mountains Journal we've just finished visiting the Shale Oil refinery ruin at Newnes -- well worth the trip.

Shed by railway, Wallerawang I can't stay away from old stuff for long, at Wallerwang I saw this old railway shed up from the railway station. Also, as I've built up quite a backlog of photos so I'm going back to daily posting for a while.

Wallerawang Power, Station The abundant coal fuels power stations which also need copious amounts of water for cooling. The man-made Lake Wallace not only provides water for the power station but also a nice amenity for the local community.

Coal Mining, Lithgow Around Lithgow today there is plenty of coal mining action tucked among rural scenery.

State Mine Heritage Park & Railway, Lithgow A steam train that isn't belching steam doesn't have quite the same alure but it was fun to photograph nonetheless.

State Mine Heritage Park & Railway, Lithgow The railway plays an important part of the heritage of industry in Lithgow. Today we still hear long coal trains rumbling on the track over the Blue Mountains towards the sea. There are more heritage carriages down at the local Railway Station (shown below). Yes it was a very grey day. Railway station, Lithgow

Bath House, State Mine Heritage Park, Lithgow I could show you squillions of other images from the mining museum but will stop at these taken in the bath house where miners changed from the street clothes to mining gear and vice versa. It previously housed Lithgow's first power station. Out the window on the bottom right you can see a railway car. The Heritage Park is also home to railway heritage items, were looking at them next.

State Mine Heritage Park, Lithgow The blacksmith is an artist (unfortunately I didn't get his name). This piece made from old blacksmith's hoods, marine bouys and other found metal was in Sculpture by the Sea. In the exhibition is apparently had some sort of earpiece so you could hear water sloshing about. Put your ear to the pipe in the image below and you can hear the water sloshing about many metres below in the flooded mine. I know it's out of focus but I still liked its arty appeal.

Blacksmith's Workshop, State Mine Heritage Park, Lithgow Stepping into the workshop I was transported back to my youth ... my Dad was a blacksmith ... the smell of coal dust and metallic clutter everywhere. Pure nostaligia for me. Looking out the window at the top right (click to enlarge) you can see the Poppet Head. It's not the actual Poppet Head for this mine, which was dismantled after the mine was closed. It is one from another mine that closed down in more recent years.

State Mine Heritage Park, Lithgow The grounds are filled with lots of interesting equipment. From my perspective 'twas their photogenic possibilities but for miners and engineers I'm sure they have more practical appeal.

State Mine Heritage Park, Lithgow Our next port of call is the Lithgow State Mine underground colliery, now derelict, which operated until the mid 1960s. Attractive industrial buildings of yesteryear are now operated as a museum to showcase the history of the Western Coalfields. This was another photographic treat so you are going to get quite a few more days on this one.

Blast Furnace Park, Lithgow And a couple more shots before we move on to our next industrial find.

Blast Furnace Park, Lithgow I first learnt of this place from Winam's Static and Silence blog and knew right then I would have to explore it myself one day. I just love the way nature is taking over the ruin with all the summer flowers in bloom.

Blast Furnace Park, Lithgow I was inspired by Martina's industrial photographs to explore our local industry in a series that is more about images than travels. Since the industry of the Blue Mountains is tourism (not quite what I had in mind) we went to Lithgow a small city just west of the mountains which has a proud history of heavy industry. The blast furnace is where the first iron and steel were cast in Australia. It was established in 1886 and continued production until 1928 when the entire industry was moved to Port Kembla and one presumes the buildings left to go to rack and ruin. A perfect place for photographers so there will be more over the next couple of days but in colour after today.

We had been driving all day and I didn't see one new Royal Hotel ... we saw them at Sofala , Hill End , Capertee and Cullen Bullen but I've already recorded those. We did however see this one outside Lithgow which I have passed many times but just not got around to putting in the blog. That's it for this trip. Next we are coming back to Lithgow for a very different series, one I am quite excited about as it had great photo opportunities which I gathered over a number of weekends. However I am going to slow down to posting just 3 days per week alternating with Blue Mountains Journal. It will give me a little breathing time to do things other than blogging.

The sky was doing something interesting again. I went minimalist this time.

At Lake Lyall, Lithgow's water supply. That's it for this trip. If you go over to the Blue Mountains Journal for the next couple of weeks you can see what I've been up to at home.

As we traced our way back home we spotted these wallabies grazing on the grass. Wallabies are rather like small kangaroos ... shorter legs, different colouring. That's it for this trip.

We lounged on the ancient chairs on the verandah of the hotel, sipping drinks, taking in the view and watching small birds flit in the grass -- they were tiny wrens and red beaked finches. The birds were too small and too far away to get a shot so I settled for the chicken scratching around on the verandah, while we wondered if the rich people from the resort would dare to venture down here for a drink.

At the very end of the road is a great camping ground, with green grass, a good sized creek and magnificent cliffs surrounding the site. We have camped here before but every time I visit I love the fission of joy that bubbles up from within in such places. But there was no camping this time, we retraced our tracks to the Newnes Hotel for a drink before returning home.