Bilpin
Bilpin
If you are heading west go the wild route and forget the traffic lights, shops and tedium of suburbia. There are two roads over the mountains leading to the western plains of New South Wales. There’s the aforementioned traffic light nightmare or the Bells Line of Road (the northern road) through …BILPIN .. -where you’ll travel through a diversity of mountain scenery with great walls of sandstone and endless canyons, combined with charming orchards and fruit and vege stalls offering all local varieties of stone fruit in season and autumn apples. Visit local artisans in metalwork, ceramics, art, opals, wonderful dried flowers (combined with Russian antiques!) and woodwork, combined with numerous charming coffee stops all featuring home made apple pies, jams, local honey and our proudly made Bilpin Apple Juice and Apple Cider Vinegar.
There’s stacks of quality accommodation – from self-cater cabins through to completely serviced in-the-home bed and breakfast. There’s half a dozen wedding venues and a bus to transport guests to and from their function to their beds. Visit the cold climate Mt.Tomah Botanic Garden and enjoy lunch on the deck and Mt Wilson and Mt Irvine for world renowned private, open gardens. See the real Australia with people working their orchards and walking their wilderness.
HISTORY
The first journey along what is now Bells Line of Road was first undertaken by Archibald Bell in 1823(Sensibly he used the knowledge of the local Aborigines who had been crossing the mountains for tens of thousands of years. Although the mountains has been crossed at Katoomba a decade earlier, there was still no satisfactory route through the mountains from Richmond at this time.
In his diary Archibald Bell recalls that, upon his return to Sydney, he reported the richness of the soil in the Bilpin area which inevitably led to the arrival of settlers eager to grow fruit trees in the area.
In 1851 gold was found near Bathurst and Bells Line of Road became a ‘human foot-plodders’ road towards chancy fortune’. In 1831 the population along Bells Line of Road numbered twelve or thirteen families – a far cry from today.
