The Habitat Advocate

 

 

The Habitat Advocate, after half a year ‘ground-truthing’ Pulpit Hill’s heritage, then intensive researching, and authoring; back on Friday 1st August 2011 submitted the following nomination to the New South Wales Government’s Office of Environment and Heritage in Parramatta. 

It’s 245 pages. It’s not copyright protected, because it’s a compilation of work by others who’ve valuing this place over years.  It’s of public land and of significant very early Australian heritage value from 1813.   We made the effort to research, document and try to protect this heritage precinct; yet one had nor sought any financial, personal gain nor has any  ancestral connection to this particular place.    We just learned ad recognise the heritage value from association with older wiser historians and from our dedicated historical research.

This document report we offer up freely public and freely downloadable to all Australians and anyone in the World in perpetuity.   What happened in the past, happened in an older time in human evolution.  

Pulpit-Hill-1813-2013-A-Nomination-for-Heritage-Recognition-20110726

The timing of our submission happened to be two years prior to the then forthcoming celebratory bi-centennial of 2013 of the first successful was the first successful crossing of the Blue Mountains (previously named the “Carmarthen Hills”) in New South Wales by European settlers.  The expedition was led by Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth in 1813.

Ahead of our formal submission, The Habitat Advocate sought support from government, local leaders, political parties and historical societies, thus:

• Blue Mountains {city} Council Major and councillors
• Premier of New South Wales
• Liberal Party
• National Party
• Australia Labor Party
• The Australian Greens
• Blue Mountains Historical Society
• Royal Australian Historical Society
• Colong Foundation for Wilderness

 

However to our disappointment, none of the above was supportive nor interested.

We subsequently approached the fringe nationalist/patriotic Australia First Party, and its President Dr Jim Saleam expressed his keen enthusiasm and support to this Australian heritage recognition cause; such that he even accepted our invitation to visited the nominated site at Pulpit Hill in person on Saturday 27th November 2010.   

However, sadly a decade hence, on 21st February 2021, Blue Mountains [city} Council Mayor (a Labor Party man) Mark Greenhill authorised the total removal of the iconic and symbolic Explorers Marked Tree at Pulpit Hill – an unnecessary politically motivated act of heritage hate.   Party politics?

 

Previously, The Habitat Advocate from 2005 as part of our SAVE ELPHINSTONE PLATEAU CONSERVATION CAMPAIGN sought nomination for the official inclusion of the nearby large plateau of bushland atop the Blue Mountains Western Escarpment long called ‘Radiata Plateau’ (also ‘Elphinstone Plateau’) , to be incorporated into the contiguous Blue Mountains National Park (since 2004).   

 

However, similarly that was rejected by the then so-called NSW Minister for Environment (1999-2007) and NSW  Member for Blue Mountains Bob Debus (1981-1988, 1995-2007) (another Labor Party man) on the spurious basis that it was somehow not contiguous.   

 

Yet, same plateau was in 2019 out-of-the-blue acquired by a subsequent NSW Liberal-Coalition Government for $2.8 million and added to the NSW national park estate, and in 2020 renamed and unpronounceable newly made up name ‘Ngula Bulgarabang‘.   Politics again?

 

The Habitat Advocate has acquired the full campaign archive of the campaign to Save Elphinstone Plateau from local legendary campaign Glen Humphreys.    This archive will be eventually sorted and digitised and is provided publicly freely available on this website. 

 

References:

 

[1]    ‘The Marked Tree – Fact or Tradition?‘, 1933-05-27,  by G.A. King, article in the  Sydney Morning Herald, archived on TROVE (Internet digital archive website), by the National Library of Australia, Canberra, ^https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16985384

 

[2]   ‘Opening up the continent – 1813: Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth cross the Blue Mountains‘, (undated), (no author disclosed), published online by the National Museum of Australia,  ^https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/europeans-cross-blue-mountains

 

[3]   ‘Bicentenary of the Crossing of the Blue Mountains‘, by Monument Australia,  Actual Monument Dedication Date: Sunday 19th July 2015, ^https://monumentaustralia.org.au/search/display/112797-bicentenary-of-the-crossing-of-the-blue-mountains

 

[4]   ‘Blue Mountains crossing 200 years on‘, 2013-04-13, by  Jennifer Stackhouse, ^https://gardendrum.com/2013/04/13/crossing-the-blue-mountains-200-years-on/

 

[5]   ‘Blue Mountains crossing cemented colonisation‘, 2013-03-15, by David T. Rowlands, (Greens Left “extremist-hate politics“), Issue 958,  ^https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/blue-mountains-crossing-cemented-colonisation

 

[6]  ‘Goodbye to the Explorers’ Tree at Katoomba‘,  2021-02-25,  by Pauline Conolly, ^https://paulineconolly.com/2019/the-explorers-tree/

GOODBYE TO THE EXPLORERS’ TREE AT KATOOMBA

 

[7]   ‘Crossing The Blue Mountains‘,  (a Blue Mountains information website – bluemountainsaustralia.com ) ^https://www.bluemts.com.au/info/about/history/history-detail/#:~:text=In%201788%20the%20Blue%20Mountains,by%20oil%20bearing%20Eucalyptus%20trees.

 

[8]   ‘The Pulpit Post‘,  by Steven Ridd, Conservation Consultant, The Habitat Advocate,  Katoomba, download PDF: ^https://habitatadvocate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Pulpit-Post-Issue-6-2007-Spring-belated.pdf  , one of seven local newsletters compiled and published by The Habitat Advocate between 2006 and 2008 as part of a heritage conservation campaign combining Pulpit Hill’s historical colonial heritage,  Pulpit Hill’s historical stories, and the Save Elphinstone (aka Radiata) Plateau Campaign led by Glenn Humphreys for 20 years. 

 

[9]   ‘Elphinstone Plateau deserves World Heritage‘, 2017-07-26, by Steven Ridd, Conservation Consultant, The Habitat Advocate,  Katoomba, ^https://habitatadvocate.com.au/tag/elphinstone-plateau/

 

[10]   ‘Blue Mountains (New South Wales)‘, by Wikipedia (website), ^https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mountains_(New_South_Wales)