The New England National Park is a

protected Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although th ...

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

located on the

Northern Tablelands The Northern Tablelands, also known as the New England Tableland, is a plateau and a region of the Great Dividing Range in northern New South Wales, Australia. It includes the New England Range, the narrow highlands area of the New England regio ...

in the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

region of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The park was created in May 1935 and is situated approximately north of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, and south of

Waterfall Way Waterfall Way is a country road in the Northern Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia, linking Raleigh on the state's North Coast to Armidale. The route passes through some of New South Wales' most scenic countryside and has become ...

, just east of

Armidale Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale had a population of 24,504 as of June 2018. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region. I ...

and west of Coffs Harbour. The closest village to New England National Park is Ebor, located away. The park is part of the New England Group

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

Gondwana Rainforests of Australia The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, formerly known as the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves, are the most extensive area of subtropical rainforest in the world. Collectively, the rainforests are a World Heritage Site with fifty separate res ...

inscribed in 1986 and added to the

Australian National Heritage List The Australian National Heritage List or National Heritage List (NHL) is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The list includes natural and ...

in 2007. More than 1,000 plant species are found within the park, attracting prolific birdlife.

History

In the 1920s Phillip Wright of Wollomombi led the push to have this area declared a National Park. Most of the area was declared a reserve in 1931 and in 1935 dedicated for public recreation. Between 1934 and 1956 mining leases for

antimony Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient time ...

were granted. The national park was officially opened by the

Governor General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

Lord Gowrie in 1937, although the wilderness area was recognised for its beauty as early as the 1920s. New England National Park (NENP) was

World Heritage A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

listed in 1986 and forms part of the New England Group of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia (previously the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves of Australia) (CERRA). The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia was added to the Australian National Heritage List in 2007.

Geography

Located on the precipitous escarpment on the east of the undulating Northern Tablelands plateau, the wilderness consists of impressive cliffs, rugged ridges, spurs and streams. To the west the Nymboida,

Guy Fawkes Guy Fawkes (; 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated ...

and Styx Rivers drain across the tablelands. To the east is the thickly forested Bellinger River valley. The

Cunnawarra National Park Cunnawarra is a national park located in New South Wales, Australia, east of Armidale, off the Waterfall Way and north of Sydney. The Styx River Forest Way runs from the Point Lookout Road through Cunnawarra National Park to the Kempsey Roa ...

adjoins the New England National Park on the north-western boundary and the Bellinger River National Park joins it on the north-eastern corner. Public access to the park focuses on the Point Lookout area, at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

, from where on a clear day the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abe ...

is visible. This lookout is the second tallest mountain in the region and one of the highest places north of the

Snowy Mountains The Snowy Mountains, known informally as "The Snowies", is an IBRA subregion in southern New South Wales, Australia, and is the tallest mountain range in mainland Australia, being part of the continent's Great Dividing Range cordillera system ...

Flora and fauna

The park lies within the

Eastern Australian temperate forests The Eastern Australian temperate forests is a broad ecoregion of open forest on uplands (typically on the Great Dividing Range) starting from the east coast of New South Wales in the South Coast to southern Queensland, Australia. Although dry s ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

. It is noted for the wide variety of plant and animal species. The diverse vegetation in the park includes sub-tropical, warm temperate and cool temperate rainforest in the higher altitudes. There are also areas of

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...

forest,

sub-alpine Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

land and

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

land. In the eucalpyt forests

Brush box ''Lophostemon confertus'' (syn. ''Tristania conferta''), is an evergreen tree native to Australia, though it is cultivated in the United States and elsewhere. Common names include brush box, Queensland box, Brisbane box, pink box, box scrub, a ...

, Sydney blue gum and Tallow-wood predominate. Heathland is found at Wrights Lookout and in other patches. Previous estimates of the number of different plant species in the park place the figure at 500. This figure has been revised upwards to around 1,000. This includes snow gums (''

Eucalyptus pauciflora ''Eucalyptus pauciflora'', commonly known as snow gum, cabbage gum or white sally, is a species of tree or mallee that is native to eastern Australia. It has smooth bark, lance-shaped to elliptical leaves, flower buds in clusters of between sev ...

''), Antarctic beech, tree ferns and red cedars (''

Toona ciliata ''Toona ciliata'' is a forest tree in the mahogany family which grows throughout southern Asia from Afghanistan to Papua New Guinea and Australia. Names It is commonly known as the red cedar (a name shared by other trees), toon or toona (al ...

'').

Dingo The dingo (''Canis familiaris'', ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (Basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage of dog found in Australia (continent), Australia. Its taxonomic classification is de ...

koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the womb ...

tiger quoll The tiger quoll (''Dasyurus maculatus''), also known as the spotted-tail quoll, the spotted quoll, the spotted-tail dasyure, native cat or the tiger cat, is a carnivorous marsupial of the quoll genus '' Dasyurus'' native to Australia. With male ...

s, common bentwing bats,

brown antechinus The brown antechinus (''Antechinus stuartii''), also known as Stuart's antechinus and Macleay's marsupial mouse, is a species of small carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae. The males die after their first breeding season, and the specie ...

es, and

northern brown bandicoot The northern brown bandicoot (''Isoodon macrourus''), a marsupial species, is a bandicoot found only on the northern and eastern coasts of Australia and nearby islands, mainly Papua New Guinea. It is not, however, found far inland. Description ...

s are some of the mammals found in the park.

Birds

At least 100 species of birds have been recorded. Larger species include the

wedge-tailed eagle The wedge-tailed eagle (''Aquila audax'') is the largest bird of prey in the continent of Australia. It is also found in southern New Guinea to the north and is distributed as far south as the state of Tasmania. Adults of this species have lon ...

greater sooty owl The greater sooty owl (''Tyto tenebricosa'') is a medium to large owl found in south-eastern Australia, Montane rainforests of New Guinea and have been seen on Flinders Island in the Bass Strait. The lesser sooty owl (''T. multipunctata''), ...

sulphur-crested cockatoo The sulphur-crested cockatoo (''Cacatua galerita'') is a relatively large white cockatoo found in wooded habitats in Australia, New Guinea, and some of the islands of Indonesia. They can be locally very numerous, leading to them sometimes being ...

and

superb lyrebird The superb lyrebird (''Menura novaehollandiae'') is an Australian songbird, one of two species from the family Menuridae. It is one of the world's largest songbirds, and is renowned for its elaborate tail and courtship displays, and its excell ...

Eastern whipbird The eastern whipbird (''Psophodes olivaceus'') is an insectivorous passerine bird native to the east coast of Australia. Its whip-crack song is a familiar sound in forests of eastern Australia. Two subspecies are recognised. Heard much more ofte ...

eastern bristlebird The eastern bristlebird (''Dasyornis brachypterus'') is a species of bird in the bristlebird family, Dasyornithidae. It is endemic to Australia. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, temperate shrubland, and temperate grassland. It is thre ...

crimson rosella The crimson rosella (''Platycercus elegans'') is a parrot native to eastern and south eastern Australia which has been introduced to New Zealand and Norfolk Island. It is commonly found in, but not restricted to, mountain forests and gardens. The ...

Australian king parrot The Australian king parrot (''Alisterus scapularis'') is a species of parrot endemic to eastern Australia ranging from Cooktown in Queensland to Port Campbell in Victoria. Found in humid and heavily forested upland regions of the eastern portion ...

s and several kinds of

honeyeater The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family (biology), family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Epthianura, Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, Manorina, miners and melidectes. They are ...

s also inhabit the reserve. The park has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) because it supports one of five remaining populations of rufous scrub-birds, as well as of

flame A flame (from Latin ''flamma'') is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic chemical reaction taking place in a thin zone. When flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density they ...

and

pale-yellow robin The pale-yellow robin (''Tregellasia capito'') is a species of passerine bird in the family Petroicidae. It is endemic to eastern Australia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is a nondescript bird with grey ...

paradise riflebird The paradise riflebird (''Ptiloris paradisea'') is a passerine bird of the family Paradisaeidae. It is one of four riflebird species in the genus ''Ptiloris''. It is found in subtropical, temperate rainforests in eastern Australia. The species is ...

green catbird The green catbird (''Ailuroedus crassirostris'') is a species of bowerbird found in subtropical forests along the east coast of Australia, from southeastern Queensland to southern New South Wales. It is named after its distinctive call which soun ...

regent bowerbird The regent bowerbird (''Sericulus chrysocephalus'') is a medium-sized, up to 25 cm long, sexually dimorphic bowerbird. The male bird is black with a golden orange-yellow crown, mantle and black-tipped wing feathers. It has yellow Beak, bill, ...

s and

Australian logrunner The Australian logrunner (''Orthonyx temminckii'') is a species of bird that is endemic to eastern Australia where it uses unique foraging techniques and adaptations to search for its food on the floors of temperate, subtropical, or tropical moi ...

Facilities

There is an extensive walking track system that traverses the higher areas of the park. Limited accommodation is available in the park at

Banksia Point Banksia Point is a point on a ridge overlooking the Bellinger River valley. It is located at 30° 29' S 152° 24' E, within the New England National Park on the Northern Tablelands in New South Wales, Australia. The name refers to the plant gen ...

. If visiting in winter it is a good idea to bring warm clothes because at such a high altitude the region experiences frequent snow falls and cold temperatures.

References

External links

* * * {{authority control National parks of New South Wales Northern Tablelands Forests of New South Wales Protected areas established in 1937 Gondwana Rainforests of Australia 1937 establishments in Australia Important Bird Areas of New South Wales