Antarctic Beech at Comboyne

There are four known populations of the Antarctic Beech in the Comboyne area, in New South Wales, Australia.

In 1925, the botanist E.C. Chisholm wrote that the Antarctic Beech at Comboyne was "extremely rare, although many trees were undoubtedly destroyed during clearing." The Comboyne Plateau was mostly cleared between 1900 and 1925.

The Comboyne plateau is a scarp-bounded located between the central north coast of New South Wales and the Great Dividing Range. Miocene basalts overlie much of the plateau, creating relatively fertile red/brown soils.

In the southern third of the plateau are underlying Triassic sediments of the Lorne basin. The plateau has a wet, sub tropical climate, though subject to frost and occasional snow.

The Antarctic Beech group (Nothofagaceae) is an ancient type of tree, of significance to southern hemisphere botanical distribution. This group is often associated with the breakup of the ancient super continent Gondwana. Plants in the Nothofagaceae are currently found in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and New Caledonia).

Previously known as Nothofagus moorei, the Antarctic Beech is a cool temperate rainforest tree, usually seen on the Great Dividing Range up to 1550 metres above sea level. This species is distributed between the Barrington Tops in the south to the Lamington National Park in the north. At Comboyne they are found as low as 570 metres. The population at Comboyne was considered likely to be extinct by the scientific community, until published in 1994 by the botanists Bale & Williams. This community of trees regenerates well from seed and is notably , with many young plants.

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