BURNING MOUNTAIN - WINGEN Photo

Photographer’s Note

The next stop after Tamworth was Burning Mountain located near the small settlement of Wingen (pronounced 'win-jen' and meaning 'fire'), which fronts on to the New England Highway in the upper Hunter region, 17 km north of Scone, and 300 km north of Sydney.

The name Burning Mountain comes from the sulphurous smoke and hot gases which escape from the ground through fissures and vents in the ground.

Burning Mountain was proclaimed as Australia's only mainland volcano, until it was discovered that it was not a volcano at all. Instead, Burning Mountain is actually a burning underground seam of coal. As one section of the coal seam is burnt out, the fire moves on to the next, but because it is some 30 metres underground there is little oxygen, so the rate of combustion is slow. Temperatures as high as 1700 degrees celsius are thought to occur at the front.
The burning site moves about one metre southwards each year. It is believed to have been burning for several thousand years.

The red, iron-rich soil that you can see in the centre photo (which I have not saturated), has been formed by heating and oxidation and subsequently has been washed downslope.

Not many people know about this interesting moutain. I only found about it by reading about it in an 'Amazing Facts' book, when I was a little kid. It fascinated me, so I visited it for the first time 2 years ago and when back this holiday. It is a really interesting place to visit. You can really smell the sulpher and feel the heat from the hot gases.

Photo Information

Top Photo:
Lens: Sigma 70-300 F4-5.6 DG MACRO
Shutter: 1/1000 sec
Aperture: f8.00
Focal Length 70.00mm
ISO speed: 400
Flash: No

Centre Photo:
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 II
Filter: Marumi 58mm UV Haze
Shutter: 1/200 sec
Aperture: f11.00
Focal Length 18.00mm
ISO speed: 400
Flash: Yes

Bottom Photo:
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 II
Filter: Marumi 58mm UV Haze
Shutter: 1/250 sec
Aperture: f5.60
Focal Length 45.00mm
ISO speed: 400
Flash: No

http://www.walkabout.com.au/fairfax/locations/NSWBurningMountain.shtml
http://www.volcanolive.com/burningmountain.html
http://wingen.visitnsw.com/HolidayItem/6665.htm

pranab, singuanti, Rev, tober, andysalay, MLINES, stat, Matthew-Watt has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

pranab (5354) 2006-02-18 21:53

claudia,
nice piece of interesting history and geography about australia. well written note and good choice of photos to show the entire process.
well done!!

Seena (0) 2006-02-19 2:35 [Comment]

Show Comment

Rev (1782) 2006-02-19 11:50

Hi Claudia
Well presented group of photos showing a little known phenomena.
Good quality photos accompanied by excellent and informatve notes,
Well done
Regards
Peter

singuanti (15240) 2006-02-19 13:47

Hi Claudia. Good job in showing this oddity of the world. I've never heard of it myself until your note. The smoke is well-rendered, now if we could only get the smell of the sulpher over the Internet, lol! tfs Claudia.

MLINES (11225) 2006-02-26 16:23

Good photo and explanation of this unusual place. Good the way you have added the sign also. Kangaroos sometime sit over the cracks in the ground to warm up early in the morning here. Your POV is good to show the smoke coming from the ground. Well done.