The Making of "The Nepean" - Day 7
First Shown: 19 December 2018 on YouTube
We visited Bents Basin, The Rock and Victoria Bridge today. We were only going to go to the first two but we finished early due to both being short and easy to access. Bents Basin is a State Conservation Area and is the traditional land of the Gundungurra, Dharawal and Darug people. Also known as Gulguer (meaning whirlpool or spinning), Bents Basin is associated with an awful aquatic creature called Gurungadge or Gurungaty. This creature is prominent in the area's ancestral stories. Archaeological finds, suggest the area was also an important trading place. Bents Basin along with the adjoining Gulguer Nature Reserve protect a variety of Aboriginal rock art and artefacts.
The basin itself is known as a scour pool, this geological formation is like a small lake, created over time by fast-flowing floodwaters exiting the gorge about 30-40km/hr. In spring and summer a thermocline exists in the lower part of the 22 meter deep scour pool. A thermocline, is an abrupt temperature gradient in a body of water, marked by a warm layer above, and a cold, more dense layer, below. Thus, when a thermocline exists in bents basins water fish and other aquotic animals cannot survive below 10 meters due to a lack of oxygen in the dense cold water.
Our next Location was 'The Rock'. As many times before, this place was at the end of a dirt road with a short walk through the bush. On first sight a person might describe 'The Rock' as a mini 'Uluru', complete with carved steps and a hand-rail. From the top we got a panoramic view of the Blue Mountains and below in a deep gorge, the Nepean.
This place was visited way back in the 1800's - its surprising it was found at all, its so obscure - I cannot find out who named it but back in 1858, published in the Sydney Morning Herald, it was called 'Gibraltar Rock'.
Our final destination today was Victoria Bridge, in Penrith. This bridge has so much history attached to it that I cannot do justice to it here, suffice to say, it was built in 1863 and is now the oldest surviving bridge on the New South Wales State rail system. Designed by Engineer in Chief of Railways, John Whitton, (who also designed and built the Knapsack Bridge) as part of the western railway line, this bridge replaces a ford called 'Emu Ford', a number of punts and a low-level wooden bridge that was washed away in a flood eighteen months after completion.
Due to its close proximity to the Victoria Bridge we spent time crossing the recently built pedestrian and cycleway over the Nepean called Yandhai Crossing (opened in October, 2018). We recorded some nice shots of Victoria Bridge from the center of this walkway.
With our planned days activities completed we stopped at Penrith Rowers Club for a much needed beer and watched the sun go down over the Nepean and the mountains beyond.
