IN 1986, A NUMBER OF RAINFOREST RESERVES LOCATED ON THE GREAT ESCARPMENT OF EASTERN NEW SOUTH WALES, KNOWN AS THE AUSTRALIAN EAST COAST SUB TROPICAL AND TEMPERATE RAINFOREST PARKS WERE INSCRIBED ON THE WORLD HERITAGE LIST FOR THEIR OUTSTANDING NATURAL UNIVERSAL VALUES:

• as an outstanding example representing major stages of the earths evolutionary history;
• as an outstanding example representing significant ongoing geological processes and biological evolution; and
• containing important and significant habitats for the in situ conservation of biological diversity.

Large extensions to the area, including reserves in south east Queensland, were listed in 1994 under the new title of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves (Australia).

Rainforest occurs in NSW and southeast Queensland as discontinuous patches like a chain of islands in a sea of fire prone eucalypt forest and agricultural lands. These patches range in size from tiny gully stands to lush forests covering large valleys and ranges. The Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves include the most extensive areas of subtropical, rainforest in the world, large areas of warm temperate rainforest and nearly all of the Antarctic beech cool temperate rainforest.

Rainforest once covered most of the ancient southern super continent Gondwana and remains the most ancient type of vegetation in Australia. The Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves provide an interesting living link with the evolution of Australia and hence a record of the past. Few places on earth contain so many plants and animals whose ancestors can be traced through the fossil record and today remain relatively unchanged. There is a concentration of primitive plant families that are direct links with the birth and spread of flowering plants over 100 million years ago, as well as some of the oldest elements of the world's ferns and conifers.