WILD COUNTRY

BASALT PEAKS, MISTY ESCARPMENTS AND REMOTE RIVER CAMPS MAKE THE GONDWANA RAINFORESTS A STANDOUT ESCAPE IN NSW'S NEW ENGLAND REGION

- WORDS AND PHOTOS KEV SMITH

It’s hard to believe that a couple of hundred million years ago Australia was located in the northern hemisphere, twisted on its side, and up until now we've been slowly moving towards the South Pole.

But new reports suggest we're heading back north and, in about 20 million years, Cape York will once again sit near the equator - all part of continental drift. Australia was once part of an ancient supercontinent called Pangea, about 250 million years ago, but as Pangea began to break apart during the Jurassic period, two large land masses formed - Laurasia and Gondwana.

The Gondwana supercontinent was named by Edward Suess, an Austrian geologist, in the 1800s. He derived the name from a region in northern India called Gondwana, and this is where Australia was once located.

After the earth settled through storms, volcanoes and ice ages, we're left with what we see today - unique and often strange animals and plants thriving in biodiverse hotspots along the east coast of Australia. One of these, the New England group, is in my backyard, just a couple of hours from Armidale in NSW, and there are plenty of spectacular landforms to explore through these forests.

I started my journey at Ebor and, like most travellers, stopped at the upper Ebor Falls to stretch the legs and check out the new viewing deck, built after the last one was destroyed by fire. NPWS has been busy here, installing new facilities and walking tracks to town and down to the lower falls. After The water drops over the two falls, it flows into the rugged Guy Fawkes area and eventually into the Clarence River system that runs past Grafton.