The Gibraltar Range is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

in the

Northern Tablelands The Northern Tablelands, also known as the New England Tableland, is a plateau and a region of the Great Dividing Range in northern New South Wales, Australia. It includes the New England Range, the narrow highlands area of the New England reg ...

region of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. The range extends off the Great Dividing Range at Bald Nob about east northeast of and trends generally east northeast and north northeast for about to the junction of

Timbarra Berwick () is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's central business district, located within the City of Casey local government area. Berwick recorded a population of 50,298 at the 2021 census. It was name ...

and

Clarence Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a loca ...

rivers. It forms the watershed between these two rivers. Within the range is the

Gibraltar Range National Park Gibraltar Range is a national park in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia, north-east of Glen Innes and north of Sydney. The Park is part of the Washpool and Gibraltar Range area of the World Heritage Site Gondwana Rainforests of Austr ...

. Mines in the area have produced amalgamated ores of

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resista ...

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...

rhodium Rhodium is a chemical element with the symbol Rh and atomic number 45. It is a very rare, silvery-white, hard, corrosion-resistant transition metal. It is a noble metal and a member of the platinum group. It has only one naturally occurring ...

and

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

. Recently, there have been forest fires or threats of forest fires in the Gibraltar Range.

Location and features

The Gibraltar Range is located in the northeastern part of New South Wales. The mountain range is the site of the Gibraltar Range National Park, one of the

Gondwana Rainforests of Australia The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, formerly known as the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves, are the most extensive area of subtropical rainforest in the world. Collectively, the rainforests are a World Heritage Site with fifty separate re ...

. The mountains are found in the

Clarence Valley Council Clarence Valley Council is a local government area in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. The council services an area of and draws its name from the Clarence River, which flows through most of the council area. The ar ...

area. The range is inland of

Grafton Grafton may refer to: Places Australia * Grafton, New South Wales Canada * Grafton, New Brunswick * Grafton, Nova Scotia * Grafton, Ontario England * Grafton, Cheshire * Grafton, Herefordshire *Grafton, North Yorkshire * Grafton, Oxfordshi ...

. The

Gwydir Highway Gwydir Highway is a state highway in northern New South Wales, Australia. The highway was named after the Gwydir River, which in turn was named after a locale in Wales. Route Gwydir Highway traverses the New England region from the inland p ...

runs through the range and its national park. The Gibraltar Range is defined by its high ridges and steep valleys that intersect

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

s. They were created in the middle of the Palaeozoic Era. Volcanoes found in the range date to the

Late Permian Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

(Lopingian) Epoch, with granite in the range dating to the Permo-

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

. In the range are volcanic intrusions. They can be seen in "intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks which clearly pre-date the

Great Escarpment The Great Escarpment is a major topographical feature in Africa that consists of steep slopes from the high central Southern African plateauAtlas of Southern Africa. (1984). p. 13. Reader's Digest Association, Cape Town downward in the directio ...

." The Gibraltar Range receives much rain. There is a surface water measurement station found in the range at Dandahra Creek that was opened on 10 May 1972. The area has a mean annual rainfall of with a mean annual run-off of and mean annual run-off as a percentage of annual rainfall of . The ranges have rock outcroppings and

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

. The range is also home to mallee ecosystems. The area is a Northeast Forest Lands. Amalgamated ores of titanium, tin, gold, nickel, rhodium and iron are found within the range. Thickly forested highland areas cover part of the mountains, and there are isolated populations of

Waratah Waratah (''Telopea'') is an Australian-endemic genus of five species of large shrubs or small trees, native to the southeastern parts of Australia (New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania). The best-known species in this genus is '' Telopea sp ...

. The rufous scrub-bird lives in the Gibraltar Range, although its population was slightly reduced due to a fire in 2002. The mountain range is also home to the

Parma wallaby The parma wallaby (''Notamacropus parma'') is a small, hopping, kangaroo-like mammal native to forests of southeastern Australia. About the size of a stout cat, it lives in dense shrub and is only active at night to feed on grasses and small plan ...

. During the 1850s, European fruit trees flourished at the base of the range.

Recent history

In the 1850s, there were mines in the mountains. In 1890s and 1900s, an area of the mountain range had been reserved for forestry. Construction of the first "sealed road" over the mountain range began in 1960. It allowed the first bicycle race from the town of Grafton on the East Coast to the town of Inverell on the Northern Tablelands. In 2002, forest fires were burning in the Gibraltar Ranges. In late 2007, two prison escapees were last spotted near the ranges and the police were looking for them. In October 2009, parts of the Gibraltar Range were closed because of the potential for bushfires.

References

External links

Google map of Gibraltar Range, New South Wales, Australia
{{New South Wales mountains , state=autocollapse Volcanoes of New South Wales Northern Tablelands

Location and features

Recent history

See also

References

External links