Burning Mountain
In New South Wales, a coal seam has been burning underground for about 6,000 years, the oldest known coal fire on Earth.
What was reported
Burning Mountain, at Mount Wingen in the Upper Hunter region, is a coal-seam fire about 30 metres underground. Smoke and heat rise through cracks, and the rocks around them are baked and discoloured.
Settlers in the 1820s at first thought it was a volcano. The Wonnarua people tell a story of a woman whose tears of grief turned to fire.
Explanations offered
The fire was probably started by lightning or a bushfire igniting coal at the surface. It creeps about a metre a year. It's thought to be the oldest continuously burning coal fire known.
- When
- Burning for about 6,000 years
- Where
- Mount Wingen, New South Wales, Australia
- Witnesses
- The Wonnarua people, then settlers
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.