Separating Two Thumb and Rollesby Ranges, Burkes Pass permits easy entry to the high tussocklands of the Mackenzie District. 

There are two restored cob cottages and still standing is St. Patrick’s Church, built in 1871.  In 1992 artist Shirley O’Connor leased the old church and carefully restored the building and turned it into a gallery/craft shop.  In 2001 the community purchased the church and now it is used for church services and meetings. 

The church was recently repainted by the Burkes Pass Heritage Trust, with the church's exterior being transformed to its earliest recorded heritage colour scheme, which was taken from the minutes of a 1933 Presbyterian Management Committee meeting, when the colour scheme was decided to be "light cream with Venetian red facings".  The cost of the project in 1933 was a grand total of 17 pounds.