A 1 hr drive west of Barrington Hideaway is the World Heritage listed Barrington Tops National Park. At 1500 metres above sea level with a 25km long sub-alpine woodland plateau and 20 + sub tropical rain forests covered lower valleys “The Tops” is an ultimate retreat for nature & adventure lovers. 200+ bird species, a wild herd of Brumbies and a Tasmanian Devil conservation breeding program all help make The Barrington Tops is a unique, must visit destination.
Located west of Gloucester is Barrington Tops State Forest. Within the forest, on the banks of the Manning River in cool highland forest, is a stunning picnic area popular with four wheel drive enthusiasts and freshwater fisherman. Cobark Lookout is on the eastern edge of Barrington Tops State Forest, and provides beautiful views looking south.
The Gloucester Tops circuit combines three popular and scenic walks in Barrington Tops National Park into a longer 7km circuit. It’s an excellent option for a shorter day walk and a great walk to get a sense of the astonishing diversity within the Gloucester Tops precinct of the park.
Look out for swamp wallabies and grey kangaroos along the way
Closer to The Hideaway you can visit Copeland National Park and the Mountain Maid Goldmine where you will find old mining memorabilia, including the steam engines used to power the stamper battery. You can do your own self-guided ‘Copeland Hidden Treasure Walk’ 1.5 –2 hour walk.
A guided walk takes you deep into the hillside, following the main shaft to where the gold-bearing ore was extracted, before it was fed into the stamper battery, to be crushed so that the gold could be separated from the quartz and other impurities. Visit the original schoolhouse and folk museum where you can read tales from the gold mining era.