Small cascade on Katoomba Falls Creek, Katoomba

Is this Lurline Falls, Katoomba?

Powerhouse Museum Collection
Lurline Falls, Katoomba (attributed circa 1898)
Glass plate negative, full plate, 'Lurline Falls, Katoomba', Kerry and Co, Sydney, Australia, c. 1884-1917. View here:
www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/9013525547/

The best authority on place names in the Blue Mountains, the Blue Mountains Geographical Dictionary, has no entry for a waterfall of this name in Katoomba. The sole entry for Lurline Falls places it in Leura, as an early name for what is known today as Leura Falls, also once known as Second Falls.

The name 'Lurline' is attributed to Frederick Clissold (1831-1892) who purchased an area of land he named 'Lurline' after a pastoral property of the same name in Springsure, Queensland. A description of Lurline Falls appeared in The Pictorial Guide to the Blue Mountains, by J. Russell, 1882, and in The Railway Guide of NSW, 1884.

The photograph in the Powerhouse Museum collection, described as Lurline Falls, Katoomba, is not Leura Falls.

If the photograph was taken in Katoomba, then one possible location is on Katoomba Falls Creek, adjacent to Katoomba Falls Reserve. This innocuous cascade is barely 1m high and does not meet the definition of a waterfall. Vegetation has changed and the creek bed is likely to have been excavated for the installation of the modern culvert on Cliff Drive. There is still an angled tree at this location.

Just to complicate matters, Frederick Clissold was the first land developer in the area and named properties he purchased after localities associated with his business interests. He is said to have named Leura Falls in early 1881, after the pastoral property 'Leura' in central Queensland. The name 'Lurline' is associated with Katoomba (Lurline St., and Lurline Park, now Hinkler Park). Would Clissold have assigned different names to the same waterfall in Leura? Perhaps Lurline Falls was located in Katoomba after all. Even if that were the case, it seems unlikely that the 'cascade' pictured in the Powerhouse Museum collection would have earned such a title.

Portrait orientation: flic.kr/p/Ba68Ng

Taken in: Australia / New South Wales / Katoomba (show map)

Taken on: November 16, 2015

Tags:

Blue Mountains

Katoomba

creek

moving water

Lurline Falls

Katoomba Falls Creek « less

Sets appears in: • Mystery Lurline Falls

Groups appears in: • Australian Landscape Photography • Blue Mountains Australia more » • Golden Landscape, Only The Best ! (Post 1, Comment 1) • Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury and Central Tablelands • Louisa's Australian Gallery • in explore • MAS DE 100 FAVORITAS • Nature in the town and in the greens • mundo global de fotografias • Blue Mountains Unlimited • Katoomba & Leura « less

Camera: Canon EOS 60D, f/10.0, 2.5 sec, 51mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 60D
Lens:	EF-S17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM
Aperture:	f/10.0
Exposure Time:	2.5
Focal Length:	51mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	-2/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.7 (Macintosh)
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