Burning Mountain

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The summit of Burning Mountain. Rising smoke is visible in the midground.

Burning Mountain is a feature near Wingen, New South Wales, Australia, approximately 300km north of Sydney just off the New England Highway. It takes its name from a naturally combusting coal seam running underground through the sandstone. Burning Mountain is contained in a Nature Reserve administered by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

A gentle trail from the Park carpark to the site where smoke emanates from the ground takes less than an hour, including the time taken to read the information panels along the route. The area is steeped with Indigenous Australian heritage as well.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, "Scientists estimate that Australia's Burning Mountain, the oldest known coal fire, has burned for 6,000 years."^[1] Original explorers and settlers to the area believed that the smoke coming from the ground was volcanic in origin.

The fire is moving in a generally southerly direction at a rate of about one metre per year.

[edit] See also

• Mine fire
• Wingen, New South Wales

[edit] References

1. ^ Krajick, Kevin (May 2005). "Fire in the hole". Smithsonian Magazine: 54ff. Smithsonian Institution. 

Coordinates: 31°52′S, 150°54′E

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