The originals are over 100megs, 600dpi, & 7000 x 5000 pixels.
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The Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, roughly 100 kilometres west of Sydney, are a range of sandstone "mountains" that reach to at least 1190 metres above sea level (in the Lithgow area). They are not mountains in the usual sense but a sandstone plateau with rugged eroded gorges of up to 760 metres depth. Much of the Blue Mountains is incorporated in the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Site and its constituent seven national parks and a conservation reserve.
The Blue Mountains were thought to be impenetrable by the early settlers of Sydney, and were not crossed until 1813, by Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson. Rather than, like earlier explorers, following the river valleys only to discover that they were terminated by vertical cliffs several hundred metres high the trio followed the ridges to reach the plateau.
The name "Blue Mountains" derives from the bluish tinge the range takes on when viewed at a distance, which is caused by the release of volatile oils from eucalyptus forests. (Most mountains and plains in the forested parts of Australia take on a similar hue: the Blue Mountains were a familiar sight to early British settlers in the Sydney district long before the bulk of the continent was explored by non-native people.)
The predominant natural vegetation of the higher ridges is eucalypt forest. Heath-like vegetation is present on plateau edges above cliffs. The sheltered gorges often have a temperate rainforest. There are also many hanging swamps with button grass reeds and thick, deep black soil. Wollemia nobilis, the "Wollemi pine", a relic of earlier vegetation of Gondwana, is found in remote and isolated valleys of the Wollemi National Park.
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