The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is calling on volunteers to guide tours at the Copeland Tops State Conservation Area and Mountain Maid Gold Mine.
NWPS’s Manager of the Barrington Tops Area, Anthony Signor said the Service was looking for people ranging in age from teenagers to retirees to give guided tours once a month.
“It can be really rewarding,” Mr Signor said.
“Volunteers are trained and mentored, meet people and spend time outdoors in nature,” he said.
“For younger people it can be valuable work experience guiding with national parks, and some may even go on to apply for a career with NPWS.”
Mr Signor said volunteering was a way for people to be part of a wider community, and NPWS was calling for anyone over the age of 18 who “just want to learn”.
He said the site was a former goldmine in which only the entrance was currently accessible and provided a glimpse of the mining carts’ rail lines entering the dark interior of the mountain.
“Gold was discovered here in the mid-1800s when timber getters were felling red cedar in the area,” the Area Manager said.
“A couple of timber-getters washing their damper pan in the creek found gold, and when word got out, a gold rush ensued.”
Mr Signor said Copeland Tops was a dry rainforest, with shatterwood, and Morton Bay figs – bird’s nest ferns, orchids, lyrebirds and red cedar trees everywhere.
“It’s just beautiful,” he said.
“I can’t recommend it enough to anyone with an interest in the environment, ecology, local history, national parks, or gold mining.”
Mr Signor said anyone interested in the volunteer positions should contact the local NPWS Barrington Tops Area office on (02) 6538 5300 or via email, [email protected].
