GRANDEUR BY NIGHT

Hokitika Guardian, 20 December 1932, Page 8

GRANDEUR BY NIGHT

NATURE UNDER FLOODLIGHTS. AUSTRALIAN BLUE MOUNTAINS. SYDNEY, Dec! 18. The .Minister of Health, Mr Alarr, worked an electric switch at Katooinba on Saturday night, and glorious scenes in the Blue Mountains were revealed in a beauty and grandeur that fascinated the 6000 pedions who had assembled' to witness the ceremony, and who hailed it as the inauguration of a new era for Australian tourist attractions.

Two sections of the full flood-lighting scheme have been completed. They are at the Leura Cascades- and the Three Sisters, near Echo Point, Katoomba. The former section is about half a mile in length, beginning at the Meeting of the Waters, near the baths. Standing in the gloom of the night, among the trees that lined the slopes rf the valley, the crowd heard Air Marr’s few formal words, then the moving of the electric switch, and the transformation had come, startling and wondrously beautiful. The slender fines of the Chelmsford Bridge appeared in the background in the midst of tea-tree and gum, revealing colours that even the sunshine had net brought forth previously. Between overhanging trees the sparkling water like molten silver danced on its way over varied tinted rocks, emerald, amber, and brown. Over all the--moon-'looked down upon a fairyland' shut in by massive, boulders and towering cliffs. .. . A MIGHTY TABLEAU. Six powerful lamps bad been set in the face of the cliff below Echo Point, and when the light was turned on the Three Sisters stood revealed, a mighty tableau in the silence of the night, breath-taking in timir. grandeur. The out due was perfect, showing the figures that the fanciful mind sees in these unusual rode• formations, with a background of impenetrable gloom, the spur fading into the night and the ease disappearing into the vast depth of the valley below. The experiment I was described as the first of its kind J in Australia; the result certainly makes a notable contribution to the mountains as one of the show places of the world.

The headlights of motor-cars throwing into relief the rocks and foliage lining the mountain roads, brought, to Alderman Spellaey, of Katoomba, a vision of tlici world-famed beauties of hits district under flood-lighting. His fellow aldermen caught- the inspiration -that bad come to him, the technical officers of the council were instructed: to- prepare a scheme embodying Alderman Spe’laey’s idea, and on. • Saturday night came the result—powerful floodlights breaking through the darkness of the great mountain valleys and the beautiful glens and l revealing that which night: had covered.

GRAND SCENIC EFFECTS. Mr Miarr, speaking at the ceremony, rsaid ho Iml travelled far, visiting some of the world-famed resorts, and had never seen anything to surpass tho. magnificent scenery of the K.atoomba district. There was little need for Australians to visit other countries in search of grand scenic effects when there existed at home such, magnificent spectacles. The history of those mountains! was indivisible, from the history of the State. For the first quarter of a century, regarded as an almost insuperable bander, to-day they had become a greatly prized asset. The Katoom.bia Council had spared no effort to exploit their natural resources, and lied opened up the district to tourists on a scale never attempted before. Apart from the cost of constructing improvement, the annual expenditure upon them was approximately £4OO-0. “The switching on of these floodlights is symbolical,” the Minister said. “The darkness ever these renowned spots is to be swept away, and a new convection nf light and beauty takes its place. What one poet '.on is capaide of is within the reach cf tho whole nation, and by determination and transformation cf Australia from the darkness cf depression to tho light of recovery is net far off.”