THE JEWELS OF THE MOUNTAIN

Deep in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney stands one of Australia’s grandest and most iconic hotels — the Hydro Majestic, affectionately known simply as ‘The Hydro’. Capitalising on a spectacular location in the township of Medlow Bath, the Hydro complex stretches more than a kilometre along the escarpment overlooking the picturesque Megalong Valley.

In many ways, this grand edifice reflects the life and times of its creator, visionary retailing magnate Mark Foy (1865-1950), who pursued a lavish lifestyle with a penchant for the theatrical and a taste for timeless elegance.

MARK FOY

Foy was born in Bendigo, Vic, in 1865, the son of an enterprising French Irish immigrant who joined the gold rush to Australia in 1859. Arriving virtually penniless, Foy Snr relied on his trade as a draper to establish a business in a modest hut in the goldfields that grew to six drapery stores in Collingwood. After their father’s death in 1884, Mark and his brother Francis moved the retail enterprise to Oxford Street in Sydney where it was an immediate and spectacular success.

As a young man of 20, Mark