Snow Chasing at the Barrington Tops, NSW

A beautiful National Park and State Forest on the doorstep of Newcastle. One of the highest National Parks in the country, and one of the few places outside of the Snow Fields of Australia that receives occasional snow in Winter.

It all started late on a Monday night. We had had a pretty big day and thankfully had the day off on Tuesday, looking forward to some well earned rest. It wasn’t to be, Amanda is a member of the Barrington Tops Snow Chasers group on Facebook, and had spotted a post saying that it was snowing up there on Monday night.

The easiest access is from the NSW town of Gloucester. We got to Gloucester at about 9am, it was a little late, but better than never. We can recommend the pies at the Bakery on the main road, the Cheese and Bacon in particular was outstanding.

Fueled up (Vehicle and Body), it’s about an hour from Gloucester up to Polblue Picnic Area, which is the beautiful heart of the Barrington National Park. The road starts paved in the countryside and winds its way up into the mountains, before the pavement stops and you enter the State Forest and the dirt road that runs through the National Park.

Here’s the Video we made from our day trip up to the snow!

Thunderbolts Lookout is a great place to let your tyre pressures down and have a quick break before finishing the beautiful drive through to Polblue.

Polblue Picnic Area is fantastic to have a morning tea stop at, and there is a beautiful walk around the edge of the swamp, especially when it’s all lined with a white blanket of snow!

There is a small shelter and some picnic tables here too, along with Polblue creek, which is just gorgeous.

We headed back along the way to some snow covered ferns that we had spotted on the way up the mountain. We pulled the truck over at a safe spot and Amanda and Aria waited inside while I jumped out and took a few panoramas.

After this, and with time ticking away, we headed back past Polblue to a place outside of the National Park, called The Firs at Stewarts Brook State Forest. They make our truck look small, and it certainly isn’t!

We had lunch here, it was a bit too cold out, so Amanda made us all wraps and we ate them in the Truck. Lucky it’s spacious in the cab!

During our stay here, I had noticed across the road a few fallen logs with lots of moss on them, and some green tufts of grass. It looked pretty cool, so we headed over to check it out.

Man was I glad that we did!

We spent a good hour or so wandering this magical area of the forest before deciding it was time to head home.

We headed back the long way, down the back to Scone and then Singleton before arriving back at our home in Maitland at about 7pm, completely exhausted!

It’s a really big day trip from Newcastle, but well worth the effort!

Photography by Daniel Courtney Photography.
www.danielcourtney.com.au