Clad with ancient forests and home to roaring waterfalls and brimming creeks, Barrington Tops in new South Wales, is a naturalist’s and bushwalker’s haven little altered by time.

Centred on the Barrington massif – a series of crests forming part of the Mount Royal Range – Barrington Tops NP is dominated by a 22km plateau that falls away steeply to the east, west and south.

Twisted trees and deep, rich greens and yellows dominate the landscape of Barrington Tops National Park.

Wild brumbies’ coats shine in the rainy mist. Although they’re lovely creatures, these introduced species are wreaking havoc on native plants in Barrinton Tops NP.

Conjuring images of ghosts and ghouls, this mist-shrouded plantation forest, known as ‘The Firs’, is located just outside Barrington Tops NP, in the adjoining state forest. It is home to a resident lyre bird population.

Four types of rainforest make up the World Heritage-listed Gondwana Rainforests, and Barrington Tops features them all: dry, subtropical, cool temperate and warm temperate. The plateau is also home to a number of subalpine swamps.

Visitors can get into the park’s southern end via Dungog at the Jerusalem Creek and Williams River areas. The eastern edge can be reached from Gloucester, via the Gloucester Tops Road, and the plateau can be navigated via the Barrington Tops Forest Road and the Barrington Trail.

Barrington Tops National Park is home to many of Australia’s native species, including the echidna, which squeezes itself into a ball at the sign of danger.

On the western edge of the Barrington Tops plateau, forest and farmland meet, sometimes to comical consequences.

Gloucester River, near the Gloucester River camping area near the eastern entrance to Barrington Tops National Park, NSW.

Keeper Adrian Good shows off two young adult Tasmanian devils, two new joeys born at Devil Ark, a breeding centre just north of Barrington NP. Animals bred here form an ‘insurance population’ for threatened wild devils.

Prior to the 1920s, first-hand knowledge of BarringtonTops was limited to graziers, foresters and a handful of adept bushwalkers and naturalists. Now it’s a national park.

Wild brumbies in Barrington Tops NP are actually pests. There are discussions planned for how to safely move them on from the area.

Swamp wallabies nibbling on the grass on the Barrington Tops plateau.

In 1959, the national park was formed when about 13,831ha on and around the Barrington Tops plateau were gazetted. In the decades that followed, the park progressively grew to the 74,567ha it is today – one-third the size of the ACT.

Barrington Tops features all four types of rainforest: dry, subtropical, cool temperate and warm temperate. It also features swampland, like this location.

Dry ecalypt forest is just one of the many ecosystems at Barrington Tops NP.

A lyrebird perches on a branch. These remarkable birds are able to mimic and remember sounds such as camera shutters, chainsaws and other bird calls.

Because of its location, Barrington Tops can be shrouded in mist.

The high mist and rainfall around Barrington Tops makes for many a lush scene.

Australian Reptile Park and the Foundation for Australia’s Most Endangered Species have established Devil Ark, a 500ha breeding facility for Tasmanian devils at Ellerston station, just north of Barrington Tops.

Mosses, lichens and ferns carpet nearly every surface, from boulders to the branches of Antarctic beech, in the wetter parts of the park.

Barrington Tops rises to a height of 1586m so the temperature difference down to its lowest rivers can be 10°C.