Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Sketch map of Kanangra tourist resort

Sketch map of Kanangra tourist resort

1939
M M2 812.26/1939/1
Map

One of Myles Dunphy’s greatest conservation achievements was the declaration of the Blue Mountains National Park in 1959. The status of ‘National Park’ was significant, as it secured protection of the land.

Dunphy’s favourite spot in the Greater Blue Mountains Area was the Kanangra-Boyd region; one of the most rugged wilderness areas in New South Wales. The magnificent scenery consists of the sheer sandstone cliff faces of the Kanangra Walls, deep canyons, misty mountain tops and several waterfalls. This picturesque landscape is abundant with echidnas and lyrebirds, and is densely covered in eucalyptus trees.

Situated just to the south of Katoomba, the Kanangra-Boyd is a national park that’s a continuation of the Blue Mountains National Park. It comprises of two land units: The Boyd plateau with its labyrinth of creeks, rivers, gorges and ridges, and the Kanangra Walls. In this map, Dunphy has traced new tourist bushwalking tracks along the mountain tops and around the Kanangra Walls to the Kanangra Falls, which flow into Deep Kanangra Canyon.

A celebrated conservationist

Myles Joseph Dunphy was born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1891 and spent his childhood in Sydney and Kiama, NSW where he explored the South Coast countryside and developed his lifelong interest in bushwalking and nature conservation. He was a founding member of the Mountain Trails Club in 1914, the Sydney Bush Walkers in 1931, and was secretary of the National Parks and Primitive Areas Council from its inception in 1923 until 1965. Its major early campaigns were for the preservation of a Greater Blue Mountains National Park and the addition of Garawarra and Era to the Royal National Park. Dunphy took inspiration from the flourishing National Parks movement in the United States and lobbied for over 20 years for the gazettal of the Blue Mountains National Park.

Dunphy produced maps of the areas in which he walked and for many years served as a counselor on the Geographic Names Board of NSW. He studied architecture at Sydney Technical College, 1907-1912 and qualified as an architect in 1923 but never practiced professionally. He taught in the schools of architecture at Sydney Technical College and the University of NSW until he retired in 1958. Myles Dunphy died in Sydney on 30 January 1985.