Three spectacular volcanic national parks in central north-west NSW offer a perfect spring break.
Inland New South Wales is home to some of Australia’s most dramatic landscapes. A chain of weathered volcanoes running from northern Queensland to Mount Macedon in Victoria includes three of NSW’s loveliest national parks: Mount Kaputar, Warrumbungle and Coolah Tops.
These parks in central north-west NSW are at their finest in spring, when wildflowers inflame the dry sandstone plateaus and the mountain air is crisp and clear. This is the best time to visit — summers can be searingly hot, while winter powders the summits with snow.
Warrumbungle is a popular family destination, with first-rate facilities and good prospects for koala-spotting. Mount Kaputar is predominantly wilderness and scarcely less spectacular.
Coolah Tops, a national park for just a few years, is a secret whose time is up. This narrow plateau will attract more visitors as word spreads about the ancient grass trees, some a thousand years old, and the breathtaking vistas over the Liverpool Plains. For now, it’s still possible to find your own corner and wrap yourself in the silence of the stringybarks and snow gums.
All three parks have camping facilities and motel or guest house accommodation within reasonable driving distance. Allow about a week to visit all three — longer if you enjoy bushwalking and camping.
This recent addition to our national parks is the perfect antidote to modern life. Visitors are few and there is space to relax without too much passing traffic. Formerly the Bundella and Warung State Forests, Coolah Tops is a long, narrow plateau with expansive views over the fertile Liverpool Plains, Warrumbungles and — if you’re lucky — distant Mount Kaputar. Pack a panoramic camera as views of this magnitude are rare in this flattest-of-all-the continents.
The hardwoods that crowd this high country attracted timber-cutters from the 18th century on but modern visitors seek snow gums or grass trees — the park contains Australia’s tallest snow gum (near Breeza Lookout) and majestic old grass trees.
Eucalypts provide a habitat for a healthy population of greater gliders, Australia’s largest gliding possum.
The park’s must-sees are Norfolk Falls, Pinnacle Lookout and the grass trees. The 35-metre waterfall is a one-kilometre walk through silver wattles, stringybarks and ribbon gums. At this altitude, bushwalking is pleasant all year round.
The main camping area, The Barracks, is on the site of an old forestry accommodation block and has toilets, tables and barbecues. Four alternative camp sites have minimal or no facilities.
Myles Dunphy, who was instrumental in having the Warrumbungle mountains set aside as national parkland, said they reminded him of the ruins of ancient forts and towns. They were, he said, an “array of towers, spires, ramparts, terraces, pinnacles, cliffs, walls, defiles, great rock-piles, and rock-slides, with vast, isolated watch-towers”.
It’s hard to think of another national park that casts its spell over approaching visitors from so far away. From 50 km distant, you are drawn on in wonder as your brain struggles to make sense of the strange silhouettes on the horizon. You are looking at the inner workings of a volcano.
Millions of years of weathering have stripped away the ash and lava that made up much of the original dome, leaving only the hardest, earliest components of the active volcano.
The white domes that cap some peaks are part of Siding Spring Observatory, a treat for anyone who has ever gazed at the stars and wondered. An interactive exhibition is open to the public.
The park has good facilities and is popular, especially in school holidays, when bush camping offers an escape from the crowds at the three main camp areas, Blackman, Wambelong and Elongery. Kangaroos and koalas are an attraction — ask at the park visitor centre about recent sightings of koalas. Fees are payable at the centre for day visitors and campers. The Grand High Tops is rated as one of Australia’s finest walks. Allow a full day, and pack plenty of food, water and stamina.
On a clear day, you can see a tenth of New South Wales from the summit of Mount Kaputar, around 80,000 square kilometres. To the east, rises the temperate New England plateau, to the west, vast plains stretch into the dry blue distance. You’re standing on the border between east and west NSW.
On 1,510 metre-high Mount Kaputar, snow gums flourish. Summer temperatures push into the mid-30s but the winter average is 7ºC and the mercury often dips below freezing.
This subalpine wilderness provides a refuge for a number of threatened species, including koalas, turquoise parrots and gliders. Access to the park is from Narrabri, 50 km west.
The most popular attraction, a soaring wall of pentagonal basalt pipes called Sawn Rocks, is on the Bingara road. However, Mount Kaputar and the bushwalks are accessed via the steep, winding Mount Kaputar Road.
Camping and amenities are available at Bark Hut and Dawsons. Two cabins at Dawsons Spring sleep up to six each — bookings are essential, contact Narrabri National Parks and Wildlife Services.
Allow about a week for a leisurely tour of these national parks. Our recommended route takes in the vineyards of Mudgee, historic Gulgong, Coolah Tops, Warrumbungles, Mount Kaputar, the Australia Telescope and Dubbo’s Western Plains Zoo.
Coolah Tops is 380 km from Sydney. Take the scenic Bells Line of Road through the Blue Mountains to Lithgow, then State Route 86 north via Mudgee to the Golden Highway intersection, near Dunedoo. Turn right, then next left for Coolah.
Coolah Tops National Park is 30 km east of town. The Warrumbungles are 130 km north-west, via Coonabarabran. Mount Kaputar is 150 km further north via Narrabri, 120 km.
From Mount Kaputar, drive west to Burren Junction via Wee Waa and the Australia Telescope, then take the Pilliga Road south and on to Coonamble. From Coonamble, the Castlereagh and Newell Highways connect with Dubbo.
Reasons to visit: solitude, views, grass trees, snow gums, greater gliders.
Location: 30 km east of Coolah.
Size: 10,578 hectares.
Facilities: five camping areas, some with toilets, picnic tables and barbecues.
Fuel and supplies: Coolah.
Visitor information: information bays at Coolah entrance and Breeza Lookout.
Bookings: no bookings necessary.
Information: Mudgee National Parks and Wildlife Service, phone: 6372 7199.
Reasons to visit: bushwalking, star-gazing, views, climbing, koalas, kangaroos galore.
Location: 27 km west of Coonabarabran.
Size: 23,198 hectares.
Facilities: 10 camping areas, five accessible by car. Facilities at main areas include hot showers, picnic tables and electric barbecues.
Fuel and supplies: Coonabarabran.
Visitor information: visitor centre in middle of park.
Bookings and information: Warrumbungle National Park Visitor Centre, phone: 6825 4364.
Reasons to visit: views, bushwalking, climbing, Sawn Rocks.
Location: main access is from Narrabri on Mount Kaputar Road.
Size: 36,817 hectares.
Facilities: two camping areas with amenities blocks, barbecues, picnic tables. Two cabins.
Fuel and supplies: Narrabri, 50 km west.
Visitor information: Bark Hut, Dawsons Spring, Narrabri Shire Visitor Centre.
Bookings and information: Narrabri National Parks andWildlife Service, phone: 6799 1740.
Thirty-five million years ago, the Australian continent began to inch north over an unstable hot spot in the Earth’s crust. Over millions of years, molten rock punched holes through weaknesses on the east coast to form a chain of volcanoes from Cape Hillsborough in northern Queensland to Mount Macedon in Victoria.
The tablelands around Narrabri in NSW’s central north were torn by the explosive surge of a new volcano 21 million years ago. During the next four million years, the Nandewar Volcano spewed out what is now the Nandewar Range and the craggy peaks of Mount Kaputar National Park.
Eventually, the Nandewar Volcano choked on solidifying magma, and a new weak point gave way 120 km south. The Warrumbungle Volcano ejected huge volumes of ash, lava and shattered rock, creating a broad dome 50 km wide. Thirteen million years later, rain, wind and ice have worn that huge volcano down to the curious collection of spires, domes, wedges and plateaus contained by Warrumbungle National Park.
Another plateau, east of Coolah, marks the meeting of the Warrumbungles, Liverpool Range and Great Dividing Range at Coolah Tops National Park.
4WD
