Burning Mountain, the common name for Mount Wingen, is a hill near Wingen, New South Wales

Wingen, New South Wales

Wingen is a village in the Upper Hunter area of the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, Australia. Situated on the New England Highway, it lies about 15 minutes from the town of Scone. It is known for the local "Burning Mountain" tourist attraction, a burning underground coal seam...

, Australia, approximately 224 kilometres (139 mi) north of Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 just off the New England Highway

New England Highway

The New England Highway is a highway in Australia running from Hexham near Newcastle at its southern end to Yarraman near Toowoomba at its northern end. At its southern end it connects to the Pacific Highway and at its northern end it connects to the D'Aguilar Highway. It traverses the Hunter...

. It takes its name from a smouldering coal seam running underground through the sandstone. Burning Mountain is contained within the Burning Mountain Nature Reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

, which is administered by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service

National Parks and Wildlife Service (New South Wales)

The National Parks and Wildlife Service is part of the Office of Environment and Heritage - the main government conservation agency in New South Wales, Australia....

 (NPWS).

A trail runs from the Park carpark to the site where smoke

Smoke

Smoke is a collection of airborne solid and liquid particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-product of fires , but may also be used for pest...

emanates from the ground and includes information panels.

The scientific estimate is that the fire has burned for approximately 6,000 years and is the oldest known coal fire. Original explorers and settlers to the area believed that the smoke coming from the ground was volcanic in origin. The fire is moving in a generally southerly direction at a rate of about one metre per year.