Barrington Tops National Park

Fast facts

• One of the World Heritage CERRA regions, Barrington Tops National Park is a mosaic of eucalypt forests, rainforest, subalpine woodlands, swamps and grasslands.
• About 320 km north of Sydney.
   

Why go there

Rainforests cover only about 0.3 % of Australia yet shelter about half of all Australian plant families and about a third of the country’s mammal and bird species. Few rainforests are easier to reach than those within Barrington Tops National Park, an easy drive from Sydney.

The park – which also contains eucalypt forests, subalpine woodlands and wetlands – consists of a 25-kilometre-long plateau set among long-extinct volcanoes. It’s accessible even to those with limited mobility; criss-crossed with an excellent network of tracks offering short, easy walks, steep overnight treks, and much in between.

Villages in the area include charming Gloucester, home to both a school museum and a folk museum, nestled in a valley under a range of hills called The Bucketts. Another town, Stroud, was founded in 1826 in the green Karuah Valley. It still looks much as it did in the 1850s. Gold mining and cedar cutting history is preserved in small museums at Paterson, Dungog and Clarence Town.

Wildlife in Barrington Tops National Park includes the eastern grey kangaroo, red-necked and swamp wallabies, red-legged pademelon, platypus, northern brown bandicoot, yellow-bellied glider, sugar glider, mountain brushtail possum, koala, long-nosed potoroo, three-toed earless skink, stuttering frog, grey-headed flying-fox, short-beaked echidna and common wombat.

Birdlife is profuse, ranging from the magnificent wedge-tailed eagle to smaller species like the White-throated needletail, Rufous scrub-bird and wompoo fruit-dove.

Don’t miss

• Taking a self-guided walk through rainforest at the Gloucester Tops or Williams River sections of the park.
• Birdwatching - the park’s complement of cockatoos, one of Australia’s most colourful (and loudest) bird species, include the sulphur-crested, gang-gang and yellow-tailed black varieties.
• Horse riding over mountain trails and through mountain streams in the foothills of the beautiful Barrington Tops and Cobark Valleys.
• Canoeing in the pristine rivers of the Gloucester/Barrington district.
• Dropping into Alderley Creek Wines Estate, between Booral and Stroud. It’s set in picturesque, bougainvillaea-draped Alderley House, built in 1833 by the Australian Agricultural Company.
• Booking a night or two in this fabulous environment. You don’t need to rough it – options include indulgent spa lodges and secluded cabins in the national park and surrounding villages.