“Moderate Mountaineer-Glowang trail, near Wangat Road, offers scenic mountain views across Gloucester Tops wilderness in Barrington Tops National Park, between Gloucester and Dungog,” the National Parks website states.

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The walk was mostly above 900m elevation, passing through beautiful Antarctic Beech Forest with an understory of tree ferns.

Antarctic Beech trees are only found at high elevations in southern areas of Australia, South America, Africa, New Zealand and New Caledonia, and are evidence that all these continents were once joined together as a land mass known as Gondwana land.

The Barrington Tops is its southernmost occurrence of these trees in Australia.

There are many other plants that flourish in the high elevations of the park, including the Beech Orchid (which grows on the Antarctic Beech trees), Orange Blossom Orchids, a range of fascinating fungi, corkwoods (which have the same texture, feel and weight of a cork) and Mountain Peppers, which would provide a spicy kick to any meal.

“Our walk also took us off trail to a remnant mine shaft part of workings from gold mines at Upper Wangat and Whispering Gully from the 1880s and 1890s,” said buswalk co-ordinator Rod Eckels.

Newspaper reports from the time indicate there were several groups working the area, with a total of around 20 miners all making a “comfortable” living.

“Life would not have been easy, and we can imagine the conditions were rudimentary, but mining came to an end when the cost of work exceeded the income,” Rod said.

These mines were re-worked at various times in the 1940s and 1950s, but are now dormant.

“We had lunch under the massive tree ferns in the Whispering Gully, which gave us time to rest and breathe in the majesty of our surroundings.”

The Gloucester Environment Group plans a range of activities including River Care, Koala Ways, Bird Watching, Native Seed propagation, Bushwalking and quarterly feasts.

To join any of these activities, please contact gloucester.environment.group@gmail.com.