The area is rich in the heritage of white exploration, transport and industries like mining and forestry, as well as recreation.

• Numerous historic guesthouses, public edifices and other buildings add to the charm of the many villages and the rural landscape of the region.
• Many walking tracks in Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and adjacent reserves date back into the 19th century and display superb craftsmanship and stonework. Some of those around Wentworth Falls, Katoomba and Blackheath are particularly illustrative.
• At Mount York, near Mount Victoria, the Blue Mountains Crossings walking tracks follow some of the first roads to negotiate the western escarpment.
• The Megalong Australian Heritage Centre in the Megalong Valley displays rural and pioneering heritage. Phone 02 4787 8188.
• Hartley Historic Site is one of the best preserved 19th century villages, with a monumental courthouse dating from the 1830s and a number of other restored buildings. Phone 02 6355 2117.
• The Zig Zag Railway at Clarence runs daily steam trains over the sandstone viaducts of the historic descent into the Lithgow Valley. Phone 02 6355 2955
• Lithgow also has the 1886 Blast Furnace Park, scene of Australia's first iron and steel production, and the State Mine Heritage Park (02 6353 1513) which offers displays and tours of early coal-mining heritage.
• Down the Wolgan Valley, protected in Wollemi National Park, are the remains of the massive Newnes industrial and railway complex dating from 1906, where oil shale was mined and refined into motor oil, paraffin and other products. The Newnes railway was a major engineering achievement of its day, and now the Glow Worm Tunnel is its most famous relic.
• Jenolan Caves, cited as Australia's first tourist attraction, have been open to visitors for more than 150 years. Heritage includes the imposing Jenolan Caves House, historic underground infrastructure and one of the first hydroelectric schemes in the world.
• Historic Yerranderie village once had a population of 2000. Now, tucked away in a remote part of Blue Mountains National Park and the Warragamba Catchment Area, it has many stories to tell of those bygone days of silver-lead-zinc mining in the early 1900s.