Oxley Wild Rivers National Park
THE NATIONAL PARKS of New England’s high country are on lands forged by violent geologic forces. These magnificent landscapes offer great bushwalking opportunities.
In the depths of winter, mist can drape New England National Park like a chiffon veil, settling silently in the -valleys and lingering for hours.
Mosscovered Antarctic beech, which have thrived on the Great Dividing Range for aeons, assume a ghostly appearance on such mornings – and deep within the cool temperate rainforest, Weeping Rock becomes festooned with icicles. Here you can step back more than 100 million years ago to the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana.
On a clear day the vistas from Point Lookout can stretch up to 60km across velvety swathes of World Heritage-listed wilderness to the Pacific Ocean. With a decent pair of binoculars, you can even see breakers rolling in to the beaches.
The lookout serves as a fantastic open-air geological classroom, showing the graphic legacy of the massive Ebor Volcano, which was active until about 19 million years ago. Its repeated eruptions formed the rock of the plateau’s edge and the surrounding caldera, and subsequent erosion has sculpted the precipitous cliffs best seen from Point Lookout to the north, or on the one-hour Banksia Point circuit walk.
