Editing Katoomba (section)

== History ==

For thousands of years, the Blue Mountains were home to Aboriginal peoples, specifically, the [[Gandangara|Gundungurra]] and [[Dharug|Darug]] tribes. They knew the area as ''kedumba'', meaning ''shiny, falling waters''. Many of them were forced to move from their ancestral lands to Aboriginal settlements such as the Gully, a tract of land in south Katoomba, as part of discriminatory policies established at the beginning of the 20th century.<ref name="abo">{{Cite web |title=Blue Mountains History |url=https://www.bluemts.com.au/info/about/history/ |access-date=2024-10-31 |website=www.bluemts.com.au |language=en-au}}</ref> The Gully was used as a summer encampment by the Darug and Gundungurra peoples long before the arrival of white settlers. Settlements on the [[Blue Mountains (New South Wales)|Blue Mountains]] before 1950 led to the relocation of many Aboriginal families to the Gully.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Giotis |first1=Chrisanthi |title=The Gully Aboriginal Place in Katoomba: Implementing the National Parks and Wildlife Act? |journal=Indigenous Law Bulletin |date=2007 |volume=6 |issue=27 |pages=2–3 |url=https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/journals/IndigLawB/2007/25.html}}</ref>

Between 1955 and 1957, dozens of the inhabitants of the Gully were forcibly evicted in order to clear the land for a racetrack being developed by a group of local businessmen. By 1958, at least 27 children from the area had also been [[Stolen Generations|taken from their families]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Read |first1=Peter |editor1-last=McGrath |editor1-first=Ann |editor2-last=Jebb |editor2-first=Mary Anne |title=Long History, Deep Time: Deepening Histories of Place |date=2015 |publisher=Austalian National University Press |location=Canberra, Acton |isbn=978-1-925022-52-0 |pages=124–126 |chapter=Dispossession is a Legitimate Experience |chapter-url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/32986/1/578874.pdf#page=145}}</ref>

Today, there are still many traditional Aboriginal peoples living in the Blue Mountains, where there are now a number of cultural sites that walk visitors through the region's rich past and share the customs and heritage of the local tribes.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} 

Katoomba and nearby [[Medlow Bath, New South Wales|Medlow Bath]] were first developed as tourist destinations towards the end of the 19th century when a series of hotels were built and then repeatedly extended.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} 

Katoomba Coffee Palace was a [[coffee palace]] created around 1900 by "Mr Tamm" in a building previously known as The Priory,<ref name=cp1900/> which was the boarding house of a school before being converted into a guesthouse. Tamm renamed it Royal Coffee Palace. Council headquarters were built on the site in 1961.<ref>{{cite web | last=Library | first=Blue Mountains | last2=Studies | first2=Local | title=The Royal Palace, Katoomba | website=Flickr | date=3 January 2025 | url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/blue_mountains_library_-_local_studies/3590695679 | access-date=3 January 2025}}</ref> It included a large dining room seating up to 75 people, as well as 35 bedrooms.<ref name=cp1900>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article194836194 |title=Katoomba Coffee Palace. |newspaper=[[The Mountaineer]] |volume=VI |issue=327 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=23 November 1900 |accessdate=4 January 2025 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} </ref> An undated photograph shows intricate [[Victorian Filigree|Victorian filigree]] architecture,<ref>{{cite web | title=Snow scene, Katoomba Coffee Palace, Katoomba, NSW, [n.d.] | website=Living Histories | date=13 January 2020 | url=https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/35602 | access-date=3 January 2025}}</ref> while a photo dated 1906 shows a very different facade, with the balcony removed.<ref>{{cite web | title=Children playing quoits at the Katoomba Coffee Palace | website=State Library of New South Wales | url=https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/children-playing-quoits-katoomba-coffee-palace | access-date=3 January 2025}}</ref>

Coal and [[oil shale]] mining was also carried out in the Jamison Valley for many years,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Geological sketch map (with section) of the country in the vicinity of Katoomba showing the position of coal and kerosine shale seams |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-880144096 |access-date=2022-06-05 |website=Trove |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Jim |title=Bent Backs, a social and technological history of the Western Coal Field |publisher=Industrial printing Co. |year=1987 |location=Lithgow |pages=122–132}}</ref> but when the seams were completely exhausted by the early 20th century, Katoomba was an established resort town. By the 1960s, Katoomba had somewhat declined, and several of its guest houses were converted for other purposes, including convalescent hospitals.{{citation needed|date=February 2017}}

In the 1980s, the guest houses and hotels again became fashionable and many were restored.

In 2012, under the [[National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974]], the Hon. [[Bob Debus]], local Member of Parliament, officially declared The Gully an “aboriginal place”, a place of special significance to Aboriginal culture.<ref>{{cite web | title=National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 - Sect 84 Aboriginal places | website=Australasian Legal Information Institute | url=http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/npawa1974247/s84.html | access-date=20 August 2021}}</ref><ref name="abo" />