Blackheath is an Australian suburb located near the highest point of the Blue Mountains, between Katoomba and Mount Victoria in New South Wales. The town has an approximate altitude of and is located approximately west north-west of the Sydney central business district, north-west of Katoomba and approximately south-east of Lithgow. At the 2011 census, Blackheath had a population of people.
History
The region of what is now known as Blackheath and surrounding areas were thought to be a summer corroboree meeting place for several Indigenous peoples of the Darug, Gundungurra and Wiradjuri nations.
Following European settlement of Australia, the site was originally named Hounslow. After crossing the Blue Mountains in 1815 and returning from Bathurst, Governor Lachlan Macquarie renamed the settlement as "Black-Heath", in reference to the colour and texture of the native shrubbery in the area. Macquarie recorded in his journal: "This place having a black wild appearance I have this day named it Black-Heath."
The first building in Blackheath, the "Scotch Thistle Inn", was erected by Andrew Gardner in 1831 and Charles Darwin visited the inn in 1836. The extent of the original grant of land to Gardner can be seen today as the area bound by the Great Western Highway, Govetts Leap Road and (the misspelt) Gardiners Crescent.
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