Burrowa-Pine Mountain National Park

The area was declared a National Park in 1978 to preserve outstanding scenery, protect areas of high nature conservation value and provide for adventurous outdoor recreation. Before 1978 much of the area now within the park was a timber reserve and many trees, especially blue gums, were harvested for sawlogs.

About 350 million years ago a mass of molten lava forced its way through the earth's crust, cooled and became a hard rock called jemba rhyolite. The rhyolite was harder than the surrounding rock and subsequent erosion has left only the rhyolite mountain. This is the Mount Burrowa massif or Cudgewa Bluff. It is different from the granite of nearby Pine Mountain, which contains larger crystals formed when it cooled slowly below the earth's surface.

The Pine Mountain area is of great botanical importance because a number of rare and endangered species of plants grow there. These include the rare phantom wattle (found only here and in Dora Dora State Forest, NSW), Pine Mountain grevillea and branching grevillea. Black cypress-pines and kurrajongs grow on the dry rocky slopes.

The vegetation of the Mount Burrowa block is diverse. Snow gums are found on the highest peaks and patches of alpine ash in high sheltered areas. Peppermint and gum-barked eucalypts occur at lower altitudes. The high rainfall of this block (averaging 1000 mm per year) supports wet forest flora, including numerous ferns in the deep gullies.