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At 1,556 m, Mount Barrington western slopes
overlook grazing land towards Scone in the Hunter River Valley.
Barrington Tops is a twenty-five-kilometre long plateau extending
between a series of extinct volcanic peaks in the Mount Royal Ranges, an
easterly offshoot of the Great Escarpment. Eighty km west of the coast,
mountains rise up from the mists. During spring, on a plateau stretched
between their summits are alpine meadows with wildflowers growing
beneath snow gums. Melting snow becomes white water flowing down to the
sea through beech forests, whilst water from sphagnum moss swamps is
slowly release in great quantities from the plateau, fed by the mists,
melting snow and an annual rainfall exceeding 1,500 mm. Over twenty valleys radiate from the hub of the plateau. Wild rivers
become waterfalls plunging from great heights into fern-lined gorges. In
the river valleys of the lowlands, weathered basalt washed down from the
mountains forms rich alluvial soils. Rainforest in Barrington Tops
National Park is the southernmost link in a chain of remnant rainforests
in central Eastern Australia. Antarctic beech forests cloaking the
slopes above the 900m mark are a living link with the super continent of
Gondwanaland, where they evolved sixty-six million years ago.
Such is the diversity of the park that include stands of tall
straight eucalypts, ancient beech forest, rich sub-tropical rainforest
in the lowland gullies, and twisted, stunted snow gums on the high
plains. There is much to experience and enjoy, that tourist often come
back time after time.
Check out some of the listed travel guide attractions and visit the local tourist centre for additional information. For Barrington Tops N.P. accommodation
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Barrington
Tops
