Art & Heritage Walk
There are many stories hidden in the landscape, gardens, buildings and living memories of Lurline Street.
Located on Gundungurra and Darug Country with a human history of at least 22,000 years, the local thoroughfare leads to the most visited Aboriginal sacred site of the modern era.
The street itself dates to the town’s beginnings after the railway from Sydney to Mount Victoria was completed in 1868. The early coal and shale mining days and the steady emergence of nature tourism as the town’s main economic driver are present in Lurline Street’s rich built heritage.
This includes miners’ cottages as well as hotels, guesthouses and holiday homes of the Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco periods. The street’s low rise apartment blocks showcase over a century of architectural styles from 1917 to 2020, some more attractive than others.
There are as well two 1930s memorial parks for aviators Kingsford Smith and Bert Hinkler and a third from the 1960s in memory of local doctor Alex Allen.
The skyline of large old trees in Lurline Street parks and private gardens range from English Oak and Norwegian Spruce to Australian Old Man Banksia, Bunya Pine and Wollemi. They form part of the streets heritage and Upper Mountains garden history.
The Katoomba RSL Club on Lurline Street opens the opportunity to commemorate local men and women who went to the wars of this and the last century, some of whom did not return.
Developing the Art & Heritage Walk
The Walk is an integral part of the Treeline Lurline project and will be implemented by the City Council. The concept has been incorporated into the Draft Katoomba Master Plan currently on exhibition.
We are at the ideas and information-gathering stage and will work closely with Council heritage staff. So far, we have identified the potential heritage themes of First Nations, architecture, mining, tourism, conservation movement, ANZAC (military), the arts, and gardening.
We are inviting local residents, elders and historians to share their memories, photos and knowledge that will help to tell the short and long of it. Local artists will be essential to the telling.
We envisage artworks in the pavement and street furniture as well as interpretative signage. With the guidance and approval of elders, we hope this will include a Welcome or Acknowledgement of Country.
Treeline Lurline Heritage Advisory Committee
The Blue Mountains branch of the National Trust (NSW) are convening an advisory committee to work with the Council’s heritage staff and Treeline Lurline Steering Committee in developing the Art & Heritage Walk.
Please contact us if you would like to contribute to the development of the Walk.
Miners’cottages, late 19th century
Dr Alex Allen Park Banksia mural
Wendy Lenthen and Jason Benedet with their flying machines mosaic in Hinkler Park playground
Cathkin Braes, Federation Queen Anne style, by masterbuilder and stone mason John Howie 1912, now SteelReid Studio
Wollemi Pine at former St Andrews Presbyterian Church.
