The Blue Mountains Lookouts & Waterfalls
Episode 7
First Shown: 16 October, 2020 on YouTube
Fairy Falls, Dante's Glen Falls, St Michael's Falls & Frederica Falls
These four waterfalls are on the northern side of the Great Western Highway at Lawson, in New South Wales and can be reached by walking the Dante's Falls Walking Track and Empire Pass, in a circular fashion, from North Lawson Park. However, Frederica Falls is quite a distance from St Michael's Falls via Empire Pass and there are quicker ways to reach Frederica Falls via three other walking tracks. One is from the northern end of San Jose Avenue, another from the northern end of Hughes Avenue (the shortest) and the third is from Queens Road at the eastern end of the North Lawson Trail under the Transmission Lines.
Fairy Falls are located on the eastern edge of Dante’s Glen, within Fairy Falls Creek, on a tributary of Blue Mountains Creek. The walk to the falls starts in North Lawson Park and follows the Dante's Glen Walking Track to a side path to Fairy Falls, then on to Dante's Glen Falls, then further to a side path to St Michaels Falls and even further to Frederica Falls via Empire Pass. I have been told that the walk through Empire Pass is well worth the trip.
The two parks called South Lawson Park and North lawson Park were originally called Santa Cruz and San José, respectively, and named, in 1876, by José Gillermo Hay who owned all the land in the vicinity. He was born in Chile, South America and came to New South Wales in 1858 where his name was anglicised to Joseph Hay. For 10 years his two park’s names were retained, until in 1886 Surveyor John Deering reported their names as South and North Lawson Parks to the NSW Surveyor General.
In 1879, 3 years after he arrived and while in the employ of the Lands Department, Joseph Hay, had the falls name gazetted as Cecilia Falls, possibly after Cecilia Hay, the wife of his brother, Adam Alexander Hay or as some say he named it after Saint Cecilia since he named two other falls in the area after Saints.
In the Australian Star newspaper of 1894 it is written, "Here the eastern stream falls over a ledge of rock to a depth of 40ft., (that’s 12m) and becomes lost amid masses of fern and bush plants. A few paces further on, the Sebastian Falls are reached. These descend a depth of 90ft. (28m) on to the water-worn boulders below, and into a narrow, winding channel that leads downstream." In those early days, the continuation of falls just 3m further down the creek deserved its own name, given by land owner and parks trustee Joseph Hay, as Sebastian Falls. But later maps and photos, refer to both falls as Fairy Falls inferring that the two drops constitute the same waterfall.
How or by whom the name Cecilia Falls was changed to Fairy Falls is not known. It may have been renamed by Surveyor John Deering or as a consequence of the arrival, in Sydney in 1867, of Dr Charles Badham who was a keen admirer of the Italian poet Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri (often referred to simply as Dante) who died in 1321.
Dante's Glen Falls This is another short downhill walk and the track in places is very steep. I initially thought this fall was on Fairy Falls Creek further downstream from Fairy Falls, but it is actually on Dante's Falls Creek. The original name for this fall was Christabel Falls and the area was known as Christabel Glen.
The story of Joseph Hay continues with Dante’s Glen Falls. In January, 1880, Mr Hay, the trustee of the two reserves, San José and Santa Cruz and the one who named the area and falls, in the town of Blue Mountain where he lived, was informed that Blue Mountain was to be renamed Lawson. The Katoomba Times newspaper in 1890 credited him by reporting, "Santa Crux Park was named by Hay after Santa Crux in Chile where he was born."
There remains today street names in Lawson, that show Hay’s influence, Mary Street, Christabel Street, St Bernards Drive and San José Avenue. There are also streets and waterfalls that he named that have been changed by other sources of influence. In 1886 San José Park, was renamed North Lawson Park, Santa Cruz Park is now South Lawson Park, and Christabel Glen and Falls were changed to Dante’s Glen and Falls. Santa Cruz Avenue became Falls Road then Honour Avenue. There are, however, some names remaining, Adeline, Mary and Christabel Streets. There are likely to be more.
In 1893, Hay left Lawson for Western Australia. Was he disillusioned by all the name changing? Although he did not seek it, what of the credit for all his work carving out the walking paths on his property, that are now reserves, in Lawson. Blue Mountain Hotel retains the town's original name.
St Michael's Falls This is a very short walk from Dante's Glen Falls that crosses Fairy Falls Creek just below the junction of Fairy Falls Creek and Dante's Glen Creek. St Michael's Falls are accessed via a side path to the east that crosses Fairy Falls Creek. The track is well defined but just before it crosses the Fairy Falls Creek there is a sign that indicates there is no through path. This is confusing and I found walkers returning saying Empire Pass Walking Track was closed. The sign, however, refers to a small side path that goes north on the western side of the creek. The Empire Pass Walking Track is accessed after crossing the creek and at the junction of the St Michael's Falls side path.
Frederica Falls was named after Effie Alice Frederica Chivers William Roberts, born 1882 died 1935, the daughter of Benjamin Roberts who owned portions of land in Woodford and Alameda House and Stores, in Lawson. Alameda House became Alameda Hotel, then sold and renamed the Grand Hotel. In the early hours of 11th of October, 1932 the Grand Hotel was destroyed by fire and never rebuilt.
While this fall is not very tall it has a large circular pool of water at its base and a cave behind the fall. The pool takes up most of the area around the fall so there is no level place to sit and picnic. When I was there people were accessing the pool to swim (or wade) via a very small one metre beach (1m) or by walking on planks from boulder to boulder to leap into the shallow water. The cave was unimpressive and not really worth the scramble through thick bushes to reach.
I walked to the falls from Queens Road at the eastern end of the North Lawson Walking Track. It was a 1.4km walk that was mostly down hill and a strain to walk back up. At the time I knew nothing about a track from Hughes Avenue that is much shorter than all the other ways mentioned earlier. Not having walked it I know nothing about its condition or its steepness.
