It’s a special time in the organisation’s history and a great opportunity to celebrate what has been achieved over the past five decades.

Over the coming weeks additional articles of the five part series will be published by the Gloucester Advocate online to help celebrate the anniversary with 50 interesting things about the national parks of Barrington Tops and the NPWS.

10 more interesting things:

31. More than 75 per cent of the Barrington Tops is designated wilderness. This is largely unchanged by modern humans and allows native plants and animals to survive and evolve without interference. The Barrington wilderness has diverse ecosystems, high quality habitat for threatened species and pristine rivers featuring waterfalls and steep gorges. It also provides for self-reliant recreation such as remote area walking and camping.

32. Royal National Park is the oldest national park in Australia and the second oldest in the world. Gazetted in 1879 as ‘The National Park’, it was renamed The Royal National Park after Queen Elizabeth's visit to Australia in 1954.

33. Karamea Homestead in Curracabundi National Park was opened to the public in March 2016 following its centenary. It was originally built in 1914 as evidenced by the builders’ graffiti signatures found inside a wall during renovations. Notable of Karamea’s history is that over its 100 years as a grazing property, it was managed mostly by female owners. Karamea now provides holiday accommodation at a remote and exclusive setting beside the Barnard River.

34. Gold was first discovered in Copeland by timber getters looking for red cedar trees. Miners flocked to the area and the population reached over 4,000. Copeland had 12 pubs, a police station, courthouse, school and a gaol. A total of 50,178 ounces of gold was mined from Copeland during 1876-1890 with a value of $55.6 million. The reserve has significant cultural heritage value and the Mountain Maid Gold Mine is of state significance as one of the longest, continually operating gold mines in NSW. The mine’s relics preserve the area’s history and is a wonderful place to enjoy a guided tour.

35. Copeland Tops State Conservation Area contains the largest accessible area of dry rainforest in the region including one of the largest groves of red cedar trees.

36. Gold mining also featured in the early European history of the south-eastern Barrington Tops. Mining occurred at Wangat and Whispering Gully during the 1880s. There was even a small village located in the Wangat. It had about 60 people and included a school, a pub, blacksmith, cemetery, and at least one dairy. The Wangat village also supported a cricket team whose home pitch was made from mine crushings and was said to sparkle on sunny days! Mining ceased in 1889 and Wangat has since entirely regenerated with rainforest. It is now wilderness and an important water catchment for Newcastle.

37. The Barrington Tops Forest Road was completed in 1978 to link Gloucester and Scone. It was constructed by the then NSW Forestry Commission primarily as a logging road. Today it is managed jointly by the two local councils, NSW Forest Corporation and NPWS.

38. In June 1998, a massive storm traversed the Barrington Tops completely flattening over 1000ha of forest in one night. Wind speed was estimated to be up to 200km/h and about 15cm of snow fell during the event. The Scone Road was closed for four days by snow and tree-fall until crews could clear a path.

39. The Barrington Guest House near the Williams River was opened with great fan-fare in 1930 by Sir Earle Page, who later became Prime Minister. It was built between 1925 and 1927 by Dungog hotelier Norman McLeod. The guesthouse was popular, especially in the 1930-50s, offering walkers a solid diet of scones with  lashings of tea, and dinners of meat and three veg steamed to a slurry of mash. More recently visitors could step back in time enjoying an unchanged menu and evening entertainment that persisted right up to 2006 when the guest house burnt down.

40. There are 24 identified/formal walking tracks in our local national parks. These range from the 15-minute wheelchair accessible paths at Blue Gum Loop near the upper Williams River and Devils Hole Lookout on Barrington Tops, to multi-day wilderness treks through the Barrington wilderness.  

Watch out for the next segment in the 50 years of National Parks series.