Barrington Tops
The Barrington Tops is a fascinating plateau located on the edge of Mt Royal Range, 61 kilometres north of Dungog. The area is the source of several rivers including the Manning, Barrington, Chichester, Allyn, Paterson and Gloucester. The surrounding bushland contains a remarkable abundance and variety of native flora species, including Snowgum and Antarctic Beech.

Natural Attractions
The road from Scone to Gloucester takes the visitor through spectacular scenic views of the Tops, encompassing forests, rivers and mountain sights, which all make the visitor marvel at the unspoilt beauty of the region. Walking Trails in the Telegherry Forest Park and Jerusalem Creek meander through shady copses, abounding with native flora and fauna.Picnic spots abound at Bandon Grove, by the shores of the Williams River. Ferndale Park and Camoing Reserve allow visitors access to the splendid waters of the Chichester River. Chichester Dam has shady picnic and barbeque areas and is adjacent to the Barrington Tops Wilderness Estate. Lady's Well is a refreshing rock pool with beautiful cascading waters feeding it from the Allyn River - perfect for an invigorating swim or a peaceful picnic amongst the fragrant wildflowers which festoon its shores. Carey's Peak Trail leads the visitor to the summit of Mt. Alwyn where spectacular vistas await.

Other Attractions
The less energetic may wish to visit the historic Barrington Guest House and enjoy a Devonshire Tea and a conversation with the locals. Native animals such as wallabies and crimson rosellas may be hand fed in the grounds of the guest house.

The Barrington Tops are ecologically unique and valuable for a number of reasons:

• It is the furthest south of the main tracts of Sub Tropical Rainforest in Australia.
• It is the largest tract of Sub Tropical Rainforest left in NSW.
• It is the second highest mountain range in the State (after the Australian Alps) and this attracts regular snowfalls during the winter months. It is the furthest north of the "snow country" (sub alpine  woodland)in Australia.
• This melding of rainforest (including Sub Alpine Rainforest) and snow country means that a hiker can encounter five separate forest types all in a days walk. This characteristic is apparently duplicated in only a handful of  sites world-wide.
• This diversity of forest types led the rainforests of the Barrington Tops to be included onto the World Heritage list in 1986. It is the furthest south of World Heritage Rainforests on mainland Australia.
• A substantial percentage of the area was declared wilderness in 1996 under the NSW Wilderness Act.
• It is one of the larger tracts of wilderness in the State and is also one of the closest wilderness areas to Sydney and Newcastle.
  
  The 35,000-hectare Barrington Tops National Park is located on the eastern  escarpment of the Great Dividing Range near Dungog. It contains two linked plateaus, Barrington and Gloucester Tops, and the headwaters of several rivers. The climate is cool in summer with cold, wet winters. The topography  ranges from 300m on the lower section of the Gloucester River to 1500m above sea level on Careys Peak. The plateaus are undulating with the edges being incised by rivers forming deep chasms but few cliff lines. Deep fertile  soils occur from the breakdown of the basalt lava flows of the plateaus and the sedimentary rocks of the river valleys. However, sandy soils have resulted from the disintegration of the granodiorite peaks.
  
  Several  distinct vegetation communities occur because of the variation in rainfall, changes in altitude and soil variations. Sub-alpine woodlands, dominated by Snow Gum, (Eucalyptus pauciflora) are the major environments on the  plateau. Small areas of black sally (E. stellulata) and other woodlands also occur. On the sheltered slopes along the creeks lying between 900m and 1500m cool temperature rainforests occur dominated by Antarctic Beech,  (Nothofagus moorei.) Warm temperature subtropical rainforests, some dominated by sassafras (doryphora sassafrasm) and others containing a mixture of tree species, occur in the valleys below the small cliff lines along the  lower sections of the Allyn, Patterson, Chichester and Williams rivers.
  Wet and dry sclerophyll forests surround the two rainforest communities on the ridgetops and upper slopes of the river valleys. These are areas of  lower moisture and less shelter from the westerly winds. The dominant tree species found in these areas are Ribbon Gum (E. viminalis), Brown Barrel (E. fastigata) and broad leafed messmate (E. obliqua) with bracken  pteridium sp, and bladey grass, imperata sp, being a common ground cover and Acacias becoming important in the higher altitudes.