There is a cast bronze plaque near the Bowral Lookout, which reads:
Mount Gibraltar Reserve
Bowral Lookout 2001
over Wingecarribee Valley
Site of Micro-syenite-trachyte quarries 1886 - 1986
1930 Picnic Area restored and landscaped 1995 - 2003
On-going bush regeneration of the
endangered ecological forest
by
Wingecarribee Shire Council [and]
Mount Gibraltar Landcare and Bushcare
There is a larger, aluminium plaque attached to the front of a boulder at the picnic area for the Bowral Lookout, which reads:
COUNTRY:
You are welcomed to Gundungurra Country.
THE RESERVE
Mount Gibraltar Reserve is 130 hectares in size; half is owned by Wingecarribee Shire Council and half is Crown land gazette and managed as part of the Reserve. There are several lookouts and picnic areas linked by walking tracks or the scenic Loop Road.
FLORA AND FAUNA
The Reserve supports a unique Endangered Ecological Community called 'Mount Gibraltar Forest'. This vegetation ranges from tall forest with a fern groundcover where the soil is deep and sheltered, to shrubs on exposed edges and to lichen-encrusted rocks. Each site supports a wide diversity of wildlife. There are tree hollows for birds, bats and possums, rock crevices for little marsupials, lizards, snakes and snails and deep litter for fungi and invertebrates. you may be lucky enough to see a Swamp Wallaby, Echidna or massed butterflies gathering to migrate.
LANDCARE AND BUSHCARE
Since 1993 the Reserve has been managed and regenerated by the Mount Gibraltar Landcare and Bushcare group assisting the Council. Disturbance from quarrying allowed invasion of the environmental weeds such as Blackberry, English Ivy, Japanese Honeysuckle and berry bearing shrubs such as Holly, Barbery, Privet, Contoneaster, Hawthorn and Cherry Laurel. These have been systematically removed by the volunteers, supported by matching State and Federal grants for contract work. Volunteers have also worked to restore the lookouts and picnic areas first constructed in the 1930's in a depression relief program.
[Photo of Queen Victoria Market - 1909 - in Sydney; a lot of the quarried Bowral Trachyte was used in it!]
[Drawings of: Swamp Wallaby, and Short-beaked echidna]
WATERSHED
The mountain forms a watershed for the Wingecarribee River and the Nattai River, both of which flow into the Sydney drinking water supply.
The numerous springs once provided water for the towns of Bowral and Mittagong. Now water from Wingecarribee Reservoir is reticulated through storage reservoirs located around the mountain.
SETTLEMENT
Most of the mountain was cleared for farming and gradually settled with holiday houses. Now you will see beautiful homes with fine gardens and splendid views.
GEOLOGY
Mount Gibraltar is the exposed remnant of a volcanic intrusion that pushed up the overlying Hawkesbury Sandstone and Wianamatta Shale/ These have eroded away over 180 million years leaving the volcanic rock exposed. It is known as microsyenite, or Bowral Trachyte.
QUARRIES
This rock is very strong, dense and fine grained and was quarried for 100 years for building blocks, kerb stones, railway ballast and road surface from several quarry sites. Structures of note containing Bowral Trachyte include: National Library, Pyrmont Bridge, Hampden Bridge, Queen Victoria Building, Equity Life Building, Commonwealth Bank, Art Gallery of NSW, Central Railway Station, State Library of NSW, The Treasury building, Australia House London, Bowral Court House and commemorative monuments such as the Commonwealth Stone in Centennial Park, The Commencement Column of Canberra, the Bong Bong Memorial and numerous war memorials and headstones.
[One building, that I have personally found is Mansfield House, at Maitland, that had 1,000 tons of Bowral Trachyte used in its construction!]
[Map of Mittagong and Bowral, with the Mount Gibraltar Reserve right in the middle - It does give a coordinate of Lat. 34.36S Long. 150.43E, which is a little out of the way!]
There is a Multi Geocache that commences near the Bowral Lookout pathway.
Visited: 3pm, Wednesday, 10 February, 2016 - with younger son, who had just come 'home' on uni holidays.