Burning Mountain, the common name for Mount Wingen, is a hill near
Wingen, New South Wales, Australia, approximately north of
Sydney just off the
New England Highway
New England Highway is an long highway in Australia running from Yarraman, north of Toowoomba, Queensland at its northern end to Hexham at Newcastle, New South Wales at its southern end. It is part of Australia's National Highway system, an ...
.
It takes its name from a
smouldering coal seam running underground through the sandstone. Burning Mountain is contained within the Burning Mountain
Nature Reserve
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...
, which is administered by the NSW
National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).
A trail with information panels runs from the parking lots to the site where
smoke
Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-produc ...
emanates from the ground.
The
Leyland brothers reported on Mount Wingen in the first episode of their travel programme, ''Ask The Leyland Brothers'':
Coal seam fire
The underground fire is estimated to be at a depth of around .
It is estimated that the fire has burned for approximately 6,000 years and is the oldest known coal fire.
European explorers and settlers to the area believed the smoke, coming from the ground, was volcanic in origin.
It was not until 1829 that geologist Reverend C. P. N. Wilton identified it as a coal seam fire.
The fire is generally moving in a southerly direction at a rate of about per year. The combustion has caused soil discolouration and an uneven ground surface in the area.
See also
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Brennender Berg
*
Centralia, Pennsylvania
Centralia is a borough and near- ghost town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Its population has declined from 1,000 in 1980 to five residents in 2020 because a coal mine fire has been bur ...
*
Darvaza gas crater
The Darvaza gas crater ( tk, Garagum ýalkymy), also known as the Door to Hell or Gates of Hell, is a burning natural gas field collapsed into a cavern near Darvaza, Turkmenistan. How the crater formed and ignited remains unknown.
Geography
The ...
*
Eternal flame
An eternal flame is a flame, lamp or torch that burns for an indefinite time. Most eternal flames are ignited and tended intentionally, but some are natural phenomena caused by natural gas leaks, peat fires and coal seam fires, all of which can ...
*
List of coal mine fires
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List of mountains in New South Wales
*
New Straitsville mine fire
*
Smoking Hills
The Smoking Hills are located on the east coast of Cape Bathurst in Canada's Northwest Territories, next to the Arctic Ocean and a small group of lakes. The cliffs were named by explorer John Franklin, who was the first European to see them on hi ...
*
Yanar Dag
References
{{Hunter Region places and items of interest
Upper Hunter Shire
Mountains of New South Wales
Geology of New South Wales
Persistent natural fires