Curio

State Library of New South Wales
The Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves in natural colour

The Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves in natural colour

1952
981.5/H
Publication

This iconic photograph of Katoomba’s most famous landmark, The Three Sisters was captured by the highly acclaimed Australian photographer and film maker Frank Hurley (1885 – 1962.) The image probably first appeared in a seven piece series Hurley produced in 1952 for Angus & Robertson entitled The Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves: a camera study. Hurley also supplied this image to stationary magnate John Sands to feature in an annual calendar promoting well-known Australian landscapes.

The Three Sisters is one of the Blue Mountains most spectacular sites. The unusual rock formation comprises of three soft sandstone cliffs that tower over the Jamison Valley. Throughout the day, the rock’s nubbly surfaces reflect different colours, ranging from pale earthy tones, to rich reds and ambers. It is believed that these cliffs that stand up to 922 metres high are the result of the land erosion that has occurred over time.
According to various Aboriginal legends, the Three Sisters were created by a witch doctor who transformed his three beautiful daughters 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' to stone to preserve their beauty and protect them from evil forces. In honour of these Indigenous stories, the site has adopted the name ‘The Three Sisters.’

Nature’s work of miracles

…The gradual climb from the coastal flats at Emu Plains up the remarkable dividing ridge to the Blue Mountains Plateau, conveys little impression that an ascent is being made to nearly four thousand feet. It is only when you reach the precipitous brinks that almost entirely isolate this remarkable plateau that the grandeur of the Blue Mountains region is dramatically revealed. Here are the breath-taking panoramas of valleys walled in by perpendicular rock, so deep that the giant forests below look like fluffy pile on a verdant carpet…
It is all very grand, and, as a world traveller, I have not seen anything better in plateau-canyon scenery anywhere…
The Blue Mountains are, so to speak, the grand keep of what I may picturesquely refer to as Nature’s Jewel Chambers, or prosaically as the Jenolan Caves… The Caves excel anything of the kind we have in Australia, and for richness of formations and variety the world holds nothing finer…
I may be excused for singing the praises of Jenolan when I say that I have visited the Caves over thirty times and my appreciation of Nature’s work of miracles grows with each visit…
I have done my best with my camera to give you some glimpses of Blue Mountain grandeur and Jenolan’s wonders….
Frank Hurley
From Foreword to The Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves: a camera study by Frank Hurley. Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1952.