What is Barrington Tops National Park?
'''Barrington Tops National Park''' is a 745&nbsp;km² large [[national park]] in the [[Australia|Australian]] state of [[New South Wales]], about 270&nbsp;km north of [[Sydney]] . Barrington Tops is a [[plateau]] that stretches between two peaks of the ''Mount Royal Ranges'', part of the [[Great Dividing Range]]. It also forms the watershed between the Hunter and Manning Rivers. Barrington Tops sits on top of a [[volcano]] and reaches an altitude of 1586 m. At 3 December 1969 the region between ''Mount Barrington'', ''Mount Royal'' and the ''Gloucester Tops was'' declared a national park. Since 1982 the park has been listed as part of the [[Gondwana Rainforests|Gondwana rainforests of Australia]] as a [[World Heritage Site|UNESCO World Heritage Site]]; as such, it is the southernmost of the affiliated national parks. == History == The Barrington Tops area was home to various Aboriginal countries, namely the ''Worimi'' and ''Biripi'' in the east and the ''Wonnarua'' in the west. From around 1820, European settlers began to settle in the region, using the areas to cut logs and as grazing land for [[cattle]]. Gold was also searched here. In the early 20th In the 19th century, tourism became popular through horse riding, hunting and fishing. ''The Barrington Club'', founded in 1948, campaigned for nature conservation. In 1959 the first areas were placed under protection. == Ecosystems == [[File:Barrington_lookout.jpg|right|thumb| View from ''Captain Thunderbolt's lookout'' over Barrington Tops]] The park includes ecosystems of [[tropical rainforest]] in the protected valleys and gorges at heights between 400 and 600 m. At altitudes of 700 to 1400 m there is cool [[temperate rainforest]], where ''Nothofagus moorei'' predominates. This is followed by an alpine zone with alpine woodland and subalpine peat bogs in the summit regions. [[Eucalyptus]] forests with various species predominate across all heights: Sydney and Messmate eucalyptus dominate the valleys and, on the slopes, and the southern beech also dominat