Mount Canobolas, a mountain on a spur of the Great Dividing Range, is located in the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia.
With an elevation of above sea level,
There is a 360 degree view from the summit, which is often snow-capped in winter. The summit can be seen from up to 100 km away.
The mountain is now part of the Mount Canobolas Conservation Area, managed by the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service, which offers various walks: to Bald Hill; to Young Man Canobolas; Federal Falls to Mount Towac, and other locations. The volcanic peaks give wide views and there are some attractive waterfalls.
Since 1962, with the opening of television stations ABCN-1 and CBN-8, the top of the mountain has been dominated by several towers used for communications, radio and television transmissions across large areas of the Central Tablelands and Central Western Slopes regions. These include towers for television transmitters – Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Seven Network (formerly Prime7 and Prime Television), Channel 10 (formerly Southern Cross Nine and Southern Cross Ten), and WIN Television – and for Airservices Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force.
Each year the Orange community runs the Great Volcanic Mountain Challenge, an walk and fun run from the Pinnacle to the Summit of Mount Canobolas by the volcanic plugs of Mount Towac and Young Man Canobolas. The inaugural event was held in 2006.
Fires on the mountain
A major bushfire in 1967 affected 415 ha in the northern section of the Mount Canobolas Conservation Area. Another bushfire in 1982 affected 414 ha in the western part of the conservation area and a further bushfire occurred in the southern part of the conservation area in 1985.
Another bushfire affected most of the northern area of Mount Canobolas in February 2018, and the entire Mount Canobolas Conservation Area apart from the summit remains closed (as of mid 2020) until the effects of this fire – the danger of falling trees and branches and damage to much of the walking track infrastructure – are rectified.
Bushire frequency on Mount Canobolas is poorly recorded, however it is believed to be quite low. The floristic composition suggests that the vegetation has evolved largely in the absence of regular intense fire. Information from local landholders indicates that the mountain was subjected to annual low intensity burning by previous occupiers to maintain fresh feed for their stock during the 1940s and 1950s.
Highest point claims
Mount Canobolas is not, as is sometimes claimed in tourism brochures, the highest point between Australia's Great Dividing Range and Africa, as Mount Zeil in Australia's Northern Territory and Ngarutjaranya in South Australia are further west and higher, and a number of peaks elsewhere on the Great Dividing Range and peaks on Madagascar and Réunion are higher. It is, however, the highest point in a direct east-west line between the Blue Mountains and the western coast of Australia. However, it is also higher than anywhere in the Blue Mountains, and it is the highest point in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales.
See also
- List of volcanoes in Australia
- Division of Canobolas