Location: 224 kilometres north of Sydney just off the New England Highway at the head of the Hunter Valley, New South Wales

As its name suggests, Burning Mountain is a mountain that is quite literally burning. There are no flames, just smoke constantly rising out of the hot ashes across the mountainside. The area burning is too hot to walk on, even when wearing shoes.

The first European settlers in the area who saw this phenomenon believed that the smoke coming from the ground was volcanic in origin. In reality, it is a smouldering coal seam running underground through the sandstone.
The scientific estimate is that the smouldering fire has burned for approximately 6,000 years and is the oldest known coal fire in the world. The fire is moving in a generally southerly direction at a rate of about one metre per year. The land surface above the ‘burnt-out’ zone is characterized by subsidence features such as fractures, closely-spaced parallel faulting, small grabens (fault-bounded gullies) and open gash-like fissures. As the seam was once exposed to the surface it is speculated that either a bushfire or lightning may have ignited it, although sulphur is capable of spontaneous combustion after heating.
Burning Mountain, contained within the Burning Mountain Nature, is the common name for Mt Wingen, which takes its name from the word for 'fire' in the language of the Wanaruah aboriginal people who once occupied the Liverpool Range. A walking trail runs from the Park carpark to the site where smoke emanates from the ground. An elevated walkway provides close access to the burning area, and information panels explain the phenomenon.

The Legend of Wingen Mountain

In the legends of the Wanaruah it is said that the Gumaroi tribe from over the Liverpool Range sent a raiding party south to Broke to steal Wanaruah women for wives. Forewarned by the Wiradjuri people the Wanaruah warriors prepared themselves and headed off to meet them. One of the Wanaruah women sat at the edge of the cliff in question waiting for the return of her beloved. When he failed to do so she asked the sky god Biamie to kill her as she could not bear to live without him. Taking pity on her he turned her to stone. As she was transfigured she cried tears of fire setting Burning Mountain alight.

Amidon, North Dakota, is one of the few other places in the world where this phenomena occurs. The fire smouldering in a coal layer several feet underground was burning when viewed by the first white settlers in the area. Burning Coal Vein has since become part of a Little Missouri National Grasslands natural area with adjoining campground. The underground fire is less active in recent years, but local landscape features and columnar Rocky Mountain juniper (cedar) bear witness to it.

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