In 1788 the Aboriginies of the Blue Mountains had had no contact with Europeans; within 30 years their traditional way of life had been irrevocably changed. Of the generations of new mountain dwellers who followed, few appreciated the Aboriginal heritage of the region, even though evidence of their presence was known from the Nepean River and the adjacent escarpment. Increasingly however, widespread discoveries of art sites, occupation sites, stone tools, axe-grinding grooves and stone arrangements, research into the journals and early writings of European explorers and settlers, and the compilation of oral histories, are providing a rich, if incomplete, account of the traditional lifestyles and environment of the Gundungurra and Darug people of the Blue Mountains. This new edition gathers together new research and information about the original inhabitants of the Blue Mountains. It provides a fascinating account of histories, languages, legends and European contact.