u/Proph3tron

17x images - Not far from the Mount Tomah Botanical Gardens, Mount Banks is a popular location for day-hiking ...but it can get windy on the exposed ridge. You can even make Mount Banks out in the distance if you're standing at the Lookout at Govett's Leap at Blackheath, on the other side of the valley. I don't see a lot of wildlife here other than a few skinks during the day and random insects and micro-bats at night. These images were mostly taken from the first gravel parking spot over a span of a few years.

The distinctive peak of Mount Banks formed 12 to 17 million years ago when fluid basalt lava flows capped the underlying sandstone. So it's a bit like a Lamington in structure. It's not an eroded volcano crater or a volcanic plug, but a remnant lava flow that protected the softer rock beneath from extensive erosion. There's quite a bit of quartz from the hydrothermal vents that formed... but sadly, no gold here.

In Summer it's warm enough to stand around with a t-shirt on at 1am. But in winter it drops below zero from time to time. Oddly enough, there's reasonable phone reception here for some reason.

13x images of two sunsets at 'Boar's Head'. Some photographed from nearby Cahill's Lookout with an EF 100-400mmL II lens showing people gathered to watch the sunset from a rather precarious position... and some wider shots captured with a 24mm lens from 'Boar's Head' itself.

* The concentric rings visible in the first image are a typical optical artifact from the Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens when directed towards an extremely bright light source.

There's a few smokey images from the 2019-2020 bush-fires in here as well. Images are not in chronological order.

1. White's Skink - (Mt Banks)
2. European Wasps - (Echo Point, Katoomba)
3. Eastern Water Skink - (Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens)
4. Australian Raven - (Govett's Leap, Blackheath)
5. Juvenile Eastern Spinebill - (Govett's Leap, Blackheath)
6. Sydney Funnel Web Spider - (Roadside, Mt Tomah)
7. Sawfly Larvae hiding beneath a leaf - (Blackheath)
8. Melanistic form of the Gumleaf Grasshopper - (Mt Banks)
9. Dark-flecked Garden Sunskink - (Mt Tomah)
10. Leech on my lens - (Mount Tomah Botanical Gardens)
11. Cowboy Beetle (Large, Australian Scarab) - (Blackheath)
12. Blue Ant (solitary Wasp / wingless-female) - (Blackheath)
13. Yellow-bellied Water-skink - (Govett's Leap, Blackheath)
14. Crimson Rosella - (Govett's Leap, Blackheath)
15. Leaf-tailed Gecko - (Cahill's Lookout, Katoomba)
16. White's Skink - (Mt Wilson)
17. White's Skink - (Mt Wilson)
18. Spiny Ground Weevil - (Mt Banks)
19. Green-headed Ant - (Katoomba)
20. Fruticose & Crustose lichen - (Hartley)

* A closeup of her multi-strand "web mechanics" in the first image.

One of the best, unobstructed Westward views in the Sydney Blue Mountains - especially if observing comets after sunset. But it's very hard to spot the geckos on the footpath in the dark when you leave. Their grey-brown mottled texture perfectly matches the patterns and colors of the cement used to create the walking path. A UV torch helps. When the comet was finally visible after weeks or rain and cloud, it was a "headless ghost comet" without a nucleus. It did not survive its trip around the sun. A few days later it just looked like a patch of smoke in the night sky. But it was visible to the naked eye on this particular evening.

These look like just like a Gold Tael and are probably the same size... but at 31.1grams each, they weight less (a Tael is typically a Chinese weight of 37.5 grams). I'm going to store a volume of these for jewellery and related melt purposes ...for projects a little further down the track. I'm anticipating a surge in Silver pricing later this year and that's going to make it harder to buy or locate these inedible silver treats when it becomes scarcer. I got into Silver way back in 2004 when it was about AUD $7 a Troy ounce... so I'm finding the current price (of almost AUD $100 an ounce for most 1oz coins etc) to be a little abrasive.

Sample images now added to post. *I ran some tests in the evening after sunset and was pleased with the image results so far. There was no hard vignetting, even with double-stacked UV+CPL filters in daylight shots. Some mild sky banding at 15mm from the CPL filter. Was able to track faces easily (and possibly more reliably) than the R6 Mark 1 - and the Eye-Detection/Tracking worked well, even more than 40 minutes after sunset. *Images are handheld and shot in JPEG... Mostly due to laziness since I was only shooting to test the new settings.

This fire incinerated around a million hectares in the Blue Mountains area and extinguished over 3 billion animals nationwide. Commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), scientific reports confirmed the toll included 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds, 143 million mammals, and 51 million frogs.

I arrived at Cahill's Lookout just after leaving Medlow Bath - where chain-smoking international tourists were watching the catastrophic fires from the edge of the National Park at the Hydro Majestic hotel... and witnessed several of them flicking their LIT cigarette butts directly into the bushland in front of them.

Taken from my car window at Narrow Neck Lookout, Katoomba - during the start of the Great Bushfires.

Canon EOS M6 + 11-22mm lens.

Sadly, it's still closed until further notice. According to The Blue Mountains City Council, Lincoln Rock is closed until at least November 30, 2026. They have extended the temporary closure to allow time to budget, scope, and implement short-term safety infrastructure and environmental management plans before safely reopening it to walk-in visitors.

(*taken with iPhone 15 pro Max)

Also known as "Mount King George" - Mount Banks is within The Blue Mountains National Park. It was named Mount Banks in 1804 by the explorer George Caley, who had worked for the botanist Sir Joseph Banks. Caley was the first European to reach Mount Banks. You can see Mt Banks from the Govett's Leap Lookout on the other side of the Grose Valley. The bright crimson Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) can be seen just right of center, along with the Coalsack Nebula and the Southern Cross constellation. The glow on the horizon on the left is from the city of Sydney.

(Canon EOS Ra + EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens - 15 second exposure)

(8 PICS) Taken from the Cahill's Lookout with my iPhone's zoom lens. (iPhone 15 Pro Max).

I accidentally left my NiSi 'Natural Night Filter' on my 24mm lens because I was trying to shoot some astro images the night before. This typically ruins daylight photographs.

(12x Pics) - The Pilpit Rock in the Sydney Blue Mountains (which is within view of Govett's Leap Lookout) is still closed to the Public until safety improvements are completed. The Pulpit Rock Reserve was closed in August 2024 after extensive damage from bushfires and erosion on the unsealed access road. National Parks claim that upgrades and road improvement works are scheduled to be completed by the end of June 2026, after which the reserve will reopen. It's quite a majestic view when you realize that those are fully grown trees below. These images were shot just before the valley was consumed by the Megafire. It's 600m (2,000 feet) to the valley floor below.

(13 pics) - I visited Echo Point Lookout (3 Sisters) to try to photograph the Aurora Australis a little while back - but a Fog Bank descended the moment I was parking my car. There were hundreds of young Chinese students there, and they told me they'd been tipped off about the Aurora on social media. They were disappointed - but they seemed to enjoy the fog. It really looked like Dawn Of The Dead at one point.

I took these before they paved, refurbished and re-fenced the lookout area.

Some of the rusted relics along Bells Line Of Road.