Gardens of Stone is finally protected
(date posted: 1 December 2021)

In the rocky upland wilderness of Wiradjuri Country two hours west of Sydney lies a new protected area with a nine-decade-long history of dogged environmental activism: the Gardens of Stone.

Last month, the New South Wales government officially recognised the Gardens of Stone as a State Conservation Area within the National Parks estate. First proposed in 1932 and with a small portion of the area designated as National Park in 1994, this decision will see more than 30,000 hectares finally protected.

The government has also earmarked the region for ecotourism. With its epic gorges, the globally unique hanging swamps of Newnes Plateau, craggy cliff ravines and slot canyons, this 250-million-year-old geological landscape is a paradise for adventurers.

But more than anything, the Gardens of Stone is, as stalwart campaigner Julie Favell puts it, a “storybook of nature”. This is no simple story, but one of a generational mining community on the brink of social change and an often thankless, hard-won battle for ecological recognition in the heart of coal country.