The 4,117-hectare Wollumbin National Park (formerly Mount Warning National Park) is located 12 kilometres south-west of Murwillumbah on the Far North Coast of New South Wales.
Rising to a height of 1,157 metres above sea level, Wollumbin is a remnant central vent of an ancient volcano that 20 million years ago stretched from Mount Tamborine in the north to Lismore in the south. This spectacular feature can be viewed from a range of vantage points in the surrounding massive crater, The Tweed Caldera, one of the world's largest and best examples of an erosion caldera.
Wollumbin National Park is one of the most biodiverse areas in Australia and is a Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, listed in 1986. It is home to over 200 rare and endangered plant and animal species. This includes Alberts lyrebird, tiger quolls, rose crowned fruit doves and several species of threatened plants.
Wollumbin – a highly sacred place
'Wollumbin is of the highest significance to the Aboriginal nations, particularly the Bundjalung nation in northern NSW, as a sacred ceremonial and cultural complex linked to traditional law and custom. Wollumbin is interconnected to a broader cultural and spiritual landscape that includes Creation, Dreaming stories and men's initiation rites of deep antiquity.
Bundjalung beliefs illustrate the spiritual values embodied and evoked in Wollumbin and its connections to a broader cultural landscape. These connections are important to the spiritual identity of the Bundjalung nation, many other nations and families connected to Wollumbin, predominantly men and also women.
We have a responsibility for caring for Country, our environment, plants, animals, water, earth, and sky. As the oldest living culture in the world, we are sharing our cultural knowledge and entrusting this knowledge with the broader community so that our values, tradition, and law are respected, understood and acknowledged.'
– Wollumbin Consultative Group 2022
In 2014, an Aboriginal Place was declared over the upper reach of Wollumbin, including the summit, affording Wollumbin special legal protections, recognising and protecting Aboriginal cultural values, and ensuring a greater role for Aboriginal custodians to make decisions on managing the site.
National Parks and Wildlife Service has legislative responsibility to protect the park's cultural and natural heritage values, manage the Aboriginal Place in consultation with Aboriginal custodians, and ensure public safety.