The Blue Mountains Lookouts & Waterfalls
Episode 1
First Shown: 3 July, 2020 on YouTube
Bluff Lookout, Chalmers Lookout & Martins Lookout
Bluff Lookout is in Bluff Reserve overlooking Glenbrook Gorge and is only 150m east of the car park at the end of Emu Road. I was unable to locate any information on this lookout.
Chalmers Lookout is also in Bluff Reserve and can be found 450m west of the car park. So it is easy to visit both lookouts in the one visit. The lookout has strong railings and the views to the south and west are excellent. Great sunsets can be seen from Chalmers Lookout.
The lookout was named on 16th of November, 1932, after Hugh Chalmers for his community work. In February, 1933, Mr. Chalmers wrote to the Council thanking them for naming a very fine Lookout after him. Through his years in the mountains he helped organise many functions and dances some of which he was Master of Ceremonies. He was M.C. at one memorable benefit in aid of the relatives of the victims and sufferers of the railway tragedy at Warrimoo in January, 1930. Among other activities, Chalmers was the foundation member of the Faulconbridge Progress Association. Mr Chambers was born in 1889 and died in 1958 at the age of 69.
Martins Lookout is at the end of Martin’s Lookout Trail that is accessed from Farm Road, Springwood. It's only 4.1km from the Great Western Highway but at 3.3km the road turns to dirt. When I visited, the dirt road was very bumpy.
This Lookout is an unfenced view on the rim of the plateau, south of Valley Heights. On clear days you should be able to see across and up Glenbrook Creek, and to the Lost Worlds lookout, on the opposite cliffs, which features a small white crucifix. This cross is in memory of a Roman Catholic Christian Brother, Rev. Eric Raymer, who was an avid bushwalker in the area. There is a plaque in the rock at Martin’s Lookout that is directly opposite this cross.
Brother Raymer, 28, of St. Patrick's College, Strathfield, was drowned saving a 10-year-old, Joe McDermott, in the surf at Wollongong on 25 July, 1953. The Reverend had taken a party of pupils to Wollongong for a Rugby League carnival and with time permitting took several of the boys to the beach for a swim.
The lookout was named after Sir James Martin, QC (1820–1886), three times Premier of New South Wales, and Chief Justice of New South Wales from 1873 to 1886. He was born in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland but emigrated with his parents to Sydney, Australia at the age of one. He was educated at Dame's School, Parramatta, despite his family's poverty. He attended the Sydney Academy and Sydney College under the tutelage of William Timothy Cape, and left school at the age of 16 to become a reporter.
In 1838, Martin published the Australian Sketch Book, a series of character sketches he dedicated to Sydney barrister George Robert Nichols, for whom he was then working as an articled clerk in 1840. James qualified as a solicitor in 1845, and combined his legal career with employment as a newspaper editor and publisher. He married Isabella Long on 20 January 1853 and together they produced 15 children.
