What To Know Before You Go On A Blue Mountains Day Tour

With rich nature troves and lush eucalypt woods that cover an area of over 1.3 million hectares, here awaits you a sight to behold. Sporting a blend of verdant hillocks and sharp gorges, rocky cliffs and mystery-filled caves to sweeping woods and dense bushlands, it is a live extravaganza of diverse flora and fauna! Welcome to the World Heritage Listed Blue Mountains!

Gazillions all over the world have opted for the memorable experience a Blue Mountains day trip is, to be mesmerised by the ageless mysteries that are unique to this iconic destination.

As is the case with every World Heritage listing, this one also made the cut due to not one, but countless reasons! Flaunting an ever-growing diverse display of a one-of-a-kind ecosystem topped by unique native culture, both its natural and man-made wealth played a part in it finding space in this wide-acclaimed listing.

What’s more…its rich woods and rainforests also shelter flora and fauna, unique to the area! Icing on the cake comes in with the area also being home to one of the most preserved scleromorphic forests in the Earth’s temperate region!

With a history that goes back to over 50 million years, Blue Mountains is a haven to 10 percent of Australia's higher plants, with the hero of the tale being the mighty eucalyptus! With the region being home to 13% of the net eucalypt diversity all over the world segregated in to over 100 classes, it also has world’s greatest concentration of the same! The concentration is also so diverse that 12 of the 100 varieties are present solely in this region. Not only that, refraction between eucalyptus mist and sun is what gives the Blue Mountains its characteristic blue tone.

To top off the eucalyptus forests in the region, Blue Mountains also consists of over 10% of Australia’s vascular flora. The region is also home to over 127 classes of unique flora and 52 species of endangered wildlife. When added, over 400 diverse animal species live in the depths of its wilds, right from tiger quoll, yellow-bellied glider, koalas, brush-tailed rock wallaby, broad-headed snake, regent honeyeater, green and golden bell frog to Blue Mountains water skink. You can also see the Wollemi pine – a distinct living fossil that goes all the way back to the Mesozoic Era! So, there’s no doubt that conservation aces the list of concerns when we talk of the Blue Mountains.

If you add up a strong legacy of Aboriginal connections to it, its significance skyrockets! Not one but a multitude of recorded sites provide evidence to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribe settlements native to the area, with some as old as 22,000 years!

With both biodiversity and culture to its advantage, there’s no reason why this region shouldn’t make it to the World Heritage site. World Heritage status not only offers an international accredit to the region second to none, it also offers a surge to global tourism and revenue, which in turn adds up to the efforts put in to conserve this unique ecosystem for the future. The funds that the region receives from the UNESCO body topped by expert advice and technological aids go a long way in the successful implementation of preservation measures put in to ensure its unscathed wilderness status.

A Blue Mountains day tour from Sydney is all that it takes for you to realise its significance, with no doubts as to why it is a World Heritage listed region. Drop in, contribute to its conservation and make the most of the scenic Blue Mountains experience on a full day trip!

Merlin Jakes traverses the world during her free time, taking her to various exotic places, ticking off her travel bucket list one by one.