"New South Wales - Fact File",1,"a\1\1-0002.jpg","c","0"
\BMap:\b Click here for \JMap of New South Wales.\j
\BCapital:\b \JSydney\j
\BPremier:\b \JCarr, Robert\j (ALP)
\BSize:\b 802,000 square km
\BLength of Coastline:\b 1,900 km
\BPopulation:\b 6,068,900. Click here for Australian \JPopulation\j details.
\BFloral Emblem:\b \JWaratah\j
\BFaunal Emblems:\b \JPlatypus\j and \JKookaburra\j
\BHighest Pt:\b \JMt. Kosciuszko\j 2,228 metres
\BFlag:\b Click here for \JNew South Wales Flag\j
\BAverage Annual Rainfall - Sydney:\b 1,224 mm
\BAverage Temperatures - Sydney:\b January maximum, 25.8 degrees C; July maximum, 16.1 degrees C. Click here for \JClimate of Australia\j details.
\BAbout the State:\b Click here for the story of \JNew South Wales\j
\BDescription:\b NSW Flag \I(DFAT)\i
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"New South Wales",2,"a\1\nsw.jpg","c","0"
Of all the states, New South Wales has the greatest variety of climate and environment. In contrast, South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and western Queensland are dominated by vast tracts of dry, near-desert landscape - once the exclusive province of the original Australians, the Aborigines, whose presence there was the lightest and most sensitive of all occupations.
New South Wales, too, has its share of great stretches of dry, flat land, some of it agricultural and some of it desert. It is also significantly blessed with the tablelands, a great farming region that falls away east from the Great Dividing Range, the mountain chain that lines the east coast of Australia from Cape York to the Bass Strait.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Gum Tree Graphics.\i
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"New South Wales - (2)",3,"a\1\1_0071.jpg","c","0"
To the north, pushing up against the lush subtropical and tropical expanse of south-eastern Queensland, the climate along the coast is hot, often steamy in summer and balmy in winter.
Further south, the coast becomes an ideal holiday playground with steady temperatures and gentle winters. The central coast and southern coast from Sydney to the Victorian border are very warm in summer, tending to quite cold and wet in winter.
Squeezed between the Great Dividing Range and the sea is a narrow coastal strip averaging around 150 kilometres in width. It is here that most of the population of the country's most popular state lives. The strip is green and fertile as a result of the moistureladen winds that blow in from the Pacific Ocean.
The dairy farms of the north and south coasts, the sugarcane and tropical fruit plantations of the north, and the market gardens, farms and cattle stations celebrate their harvests at the annual Royal Easter Show in Sydney and at a string of smaller shows in the state's main districts.
The Sturt Highway in the south-west travels along one of the state's great rivers, the Murrumbidgee. The Riverina Highway further south follows the banks of the Murray River, Australia's largest, which rises in New South Wales and flows to South Australia, forming on its way the boundary between New South Wales and Victoria.
\BDescription:\b Old farm house at Coolar \I(DFAT).\i
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"New South Wales - History",4,"a\1\r4816.jpg","c","0"
There was a time when New South Wales was Australia - when the colony stretched from the Cape York Peninsula to Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, from the east coast to a line almost as far west as the boundary of Western Australia.
Between 1825 and Federation in 1901, parts of New South Wales were removed as state after state was created. It ended up as a territory of 802,000 square kilometres, with a coastline of 1,900 kilometres.
When the Australian states came together in a Federation in 1901, arguments were bitter and urgent about the location of the Commonwealth's capital. Victorians wanted Melbourne to be the capital; New South Welshmen wanted Sydney.
A compromise was finally reached, and \JCanberra\j, a city more or less equidistant from Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide, was plonked down in empty farming country in New South Wales.
\BDescription:\b Federation 1901, Sydney \I(RAHS)\i.
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"New South Wales - History - (2)",5,"a\1\rsmh73.jpg","c","0"
It was the plains of Bathurst that saved the colony of New South Wales. The mountains around the central region were impenetrable until, in 1813, the explorers Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth found a route and opened farmlands that sustained cattle and sheep, wheat and vegetable produce.
In this way, a colony that had proved a headache to its masters in Westminster became an asset.
\BDescription:\b Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth crossing the \JBlue Mountains\j \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i.
#
"Sydney",6,"a\1\1_0077.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,879,370\i
Sydney is a harbour city. At its centre, in its central business district and inner suburbs, age has created a rich and complex diversity. Terraces with delicately filigreed cast iron balconies lie cheek to jowl with mansions and factories and high rise apartment blocks.
Sydney now occupies over 12,000 square kilometres and, although the population is only a little over 3 million, it is physically larger than either New York or London.
It sprawls out across the saucer-like basin, constrained in the east by the Pacific Ocean, to the south by the inhospitable scrub of the Royal National Park, to the north by Broken Bay and the Hawkesbury River, and to the west by the sheer walls of the \JBlue Mountains\j.
The city's commuter belt now stretches to Illawarra in the south, beyond the Great Dividing Range in the west, and from Broken Bay to Newcastle in the north.
The city's beaches with their excellent surfing conditions and their large stretches of virgin shoreline are a great attraction on hot summer days.
\BDescription:\b Sydney Opera House \I(DFAT).\i
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"Sydney - (2)",7,"a\1\r905.jpg","c","0"
To the west of Circular Quay lies the area known as 'The Rocks.' From the earliest days of the colony these narrow streets and dark lanes were notorious as the hideouts for street gangs and criminals.
In the 1960s the area underwent a change which preserved its historic charm while making it an area of eateries and gift shops. The Spaghetti Factory set the pace by converting an old warehouse into a multilevelled restaurant.
It boasts the city's oldest dwelling (Cadman's Cottage built in 1816) and oldest pub (the Hero of Waterloo in Lower Fort Street). Also from here you can see Joern Utzon's beautiful Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.
\BDescription:\b The Rocks at the turn of the century \I(RAHS)\i.
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"Sydney - (3)",8,"a\1\rocks1.jpg","c","0"
The Rocks, on the edge of Sydney-Cove, is a place of old buildings and cobblestones, of history and legends. Restored to its early charm it is the site of the first European settlement in Australia.
Here in the superbly restored colonial buildings can be found the unique specialty shops of The Rocks. Open seven days a week, they offer a vast array of wares. Also to be found in The Rocks are some of Sydney's finest restaurants.
Many of the pubs offer live music - jazz, folk and pop. Every weekend The Rocks Markets open under the Harbour Bridge in George Street.
\BDescription:\b The Rocks \I(Readers Digest).\i
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"Sydney - (4)",9,"a\1\tony52.jpg","c","0"
Sydney's city centre is quite small. Its civic architecture has been all but smothered by high-rise office blocks, and the city's streets are continually being refurbished and redirected. In the middle of town is Centrepoint Tower, which stands 325 metres above harbour level.
Across Woolloomooloo Bay you can see the lights of Kings Cross. Once the city's bohemian centre and home to poets, witches, artists and whores 'the Cross' is Sydney's answer to Soho or the Place Pigalle.
\BDescription:\b Sydney's city centre \I(Webster Publishing)\i.
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"Sydney - (5)",10,"a\1\tony62.jpg","c","0"
The transport and communications systems reflect the origins and central importance of Sydney as the birthplace of an English colony. The 1,600 kilometre Pacific Highway runs the length of the coastal strip from Queensland to the Victorian border. And the Hume Highway from Sydney to Melbourne is dual carriageway for nearly all its length.
Radiating out from Sydney are many highways. Due west, across the \JBlue Mountains\j, they pass through Bathurst, Orange, Parkes and beyond. The New England Highway takes travellers to Queensland from Newcastle, north of Sydney, following a route north-west away from the coast.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Webster Publishing\i.
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"Sydney - (6)",11,"a\1\tony59.jpg","c","0"
There are plenty of good reasons to stay north of the Harbour Bridge when you visit Sydney. Many of Sydney's prime attractions are located in the North Shore - including Taronga Zoo, Manly, the spectacular northern beaches and further afield, the aquatic playground of Pittwater and the forests and wildflower heaths of Kuringai National Park.
Development of major shopping areas such as Chatswood mean that there is an alternative to travelling south across the bridge for shopping - and if you're driving, it's far easier as well as cheaper to park your car in a North Shore shopping centre.
\BDescription:\b Looking down to Balmoral beach \I(Webster Publishing)\i.
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"Sydney - (7)",12,"a\1\3_0066.jpg","c","0"
\BEntertainment\b
After dark, the good times come naturally in Sydney - and each of the city's nightlife districts has its own distinct character. Romantics might take to the water for a champagne cruise to watch the sunset paint the harbour city, while all-nighters might head for the bright lights of Darling Harbour, where the nightlife includes pubs, restaurants and a fantasy nightclub.
Traditionalists might prefer The Rocks, where they can bend an elbow in some of the oldest pubs in the country, while Sydney's avant-garde lay claim to the dance clubs, pubs and discos on Oxford Street.
Kings Cross is in a class of its own. From the leafy streets of Victoria and Macleay Streets to Bayswater Road, the Cross is a mecca of restaurants, small bars and coffee shops. Kings Cross is a 24 hour a day place.
\BSpecial Events\b
Sydney's event calendar is a long list of culture and entertainment. The Sydney Festival is a month-long season of art, music and theatre at the beginning of each year. The festival incorporates outdoor movies, circuses, art workshops, ferryboat races and fringe theatre events, and features international stars from the performing arts. A number of free events are also staged outdoors in The Domain during the festival, such as performances by jazz and rock bands, symphony orchestras, and the Australian Opera.
\BDescription:\b Opera in the park \I(DFAT).\i
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"Sydney - Manly",13,"a\2\1_0075.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation 37,632\i
Only minutes from the heart of Sydney by high-speed Jetcat or ferry, Manly is a popular tourist destination for those who come to Sydney. It combines the relaxed atmosphere of a holiday resort with the cosmopolitan feel of major destinations. Manly is the gateway to Sydney's spectacular northern beaches.
Manly's major attractions include:-
Oceanworld Manly, which claims to feature Australia's largest collection of marine life; Manly Wharf Shopping Fair with its novelty shops, restaurants and fun pier; the Art Gallery and Museum; the historic Quarantine Station and the North Fort Artillery Museum on nearby North Head.
Manly hosts several major festivals throughout the year including the Manly Jazz Festival in October - Australia's largest and longest running, and the Food & Wine Festival, which is held the first weekend in June.
Its famous surfing beach is a setting for ironman competitions, surf carnivals, volleyball and swimming tournaments. The Corso is Manly's main pedestrian thoroughfare between the harbour and ocean beach.
\BDescription:\b Manly Beach \I(DFAT).\i
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"Sydney - Parramatta",14,"a\2\r5034.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation 142,993\i
Parramatta is richly endowed with historic attractions, benefiting its status as Australia's second oldest European settlement. Elizabeth Farm, which contains a part of the earliest building in Australia from colonial settlement, is the best known example from a treasury of historic buildings that also includes Experimental Farm Cottage, St Johns Church, Hambledon Cottage, The Lancer Barracks and Parramatta Park.
Situated between Parramatta and Penrith, Australia's Wonderland is the biggest amusement park in the southern hemisphere, designed, landscaped and choreographed for total fun. The action ranges from the giant ferris wheel to the ultimate roller coaster, to the Australian Wildlife Park, a close encounter with the cuddlier kind of Australian fauna.
\BDescription:\b Parramatta River, circa 1880 \I(RAHS)\i.
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"Sydney - Penrith",15,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation 167,927\i
Penrith is a burgeoning city situated at an historic crossing on the Nepean River. Local attractions include the unique Museum of Fire, which provides a fascinating look at the drama and danger of fire-fighting, as well as fire engine displays. From the jetty off Nepean Avenue, the paddle boat Nepean Belle departs for cruises into the Nepean Gorge. Close by at Emu Plains, is the Lewers Regional Art Gallery.
Penrith is just 24 kilometres from Warragamba Dam on the shores of Lake Burragorang.
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"Sydney History",16,"a\2\r4520.jpg","c","0"
In 1787 the Sydney region was populated by about 3,000 Aborigines who enjoyed a lifestyle made languid and easy by an abundance of natural delicacies. They fed off the culinary riches of the harbour and rejoiced in the region's peerless and unpolluted climate. This idyllic lifestyle had existed for nearly 40,000 years.
On 18, 19, and 20 January, 1788 after eight months at sea, the First Fleet straggled into Botany Bay and shattered forever this simple, peaceful world. The Aborigines looked on in amazement. They could not decide if the strange white creatures who manned the ships were devils or possums. Devils was probably an apt description given that the ships were carrying 756 convicts.
\BDescription:\b Cooks chart of Botany Bay \I(Royal Australian Historical Society)\i.
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"Sydney History - (2)",17,"a\2\rsmh41.jpg","c","0"
A week later the ships moved a few miles up the coast to Port Jackson and the settlement of Sydney Town was established on the banks of a freshwater creek which became known as the Tank Stream. The colony was to become one of the largest 'prisons without bars' the world has ever seen.
\BDescription:\b Sydney Cove Port Jackson and County of Cumberland, 1788 \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i.
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"Sydney History - (3)",18,"a\2\smh04.jpg","c","0"
The settlement grew up as a few shacks, an impressive house for the governor, and barracks for the soldiers and the convicts. In its early days it had all the brutal charm of a rough and tumble frontier town.
The soldiers made potato rum which they used as currency. Convicts were lashed with the cat'o'nine tails for misdemeanors. Prostitution was rife amongst the women convicts. Home was half a world and half a year's sailing away.
In spite of the brutality, the loneliness and the violence, the magic of the harbour was always there. A convict on a chain gang only had to raise his head from his labours and he could gaze at the shining waters of the bays and inlets.
\BDescription:\b Chain gang of convicts \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i.
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"Albury",19,"a\2\a1_0029.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 41,795\i
Albury is an historical town on the border of NSW and Victoria, and situated on the banks of the Murray River, with the twin town of \JWodonga\j across the river border in Victoria. In 1974 the Whitlam Labor Government designated Albury-\JWodonga\j a national growth centre and optimistic politicians would like you to refer to it as the Albury-\JWodonga\j Growth Area. It is ideal as a stopover if you are driving from Sydney to Melbourne along the Hume Highway, being just under 600 km from Sydney, 295 km from \JCanberra\j and 300 km from Melbourne.
Europeans fist saw the area when \JHamilton Hume\j and William \JHovell\j arrived in 1824. Two trees were marked by the explorers; one survives with a bronze plaque nearby to show its history, although the original markings are grown over and unreadable.
Albury became an important centre in the river trade of last century. The first store was opened in 1838 by Robert Brown, complete with punt to help foot passengers across the river, and an inn at which they could stay. From this came a tradition of the district providing accommodation for travellers and there are probably more places to stay here than in any other Australian country centre.
The greatest attraction for travellers is the Murray River which, after dividing the two cities of Albury and \JWodonga,\j then flows on to enter the Southern Ocean 2,500 km from its source.
Many buildings form the late 19th century have been preserved in the town. The railway station, of a grand Victorian design, is thought to have been built in the 1880s. The former town hall, which was built in 1907, is another example of ornate architecture and has now become the region's art gallery.
An excellent place for a picnic or a barbecue is the Parklands on the Albury side of the Union Bridge. This park includes \JHovell\j's tree and a waterwheel from the gold mines near Tallandon.
Some 15 km to the north of Albury is what is claimed to be the original Ettamogah Pub and the Ettamogah Winery. This is a complex where there is much entertainment for children as well as adults.
Lake Hume is only 12 km from the town and has sailing, swimming, waterskiing, canoeing, windsurfing, pedal boating and fishing.
\BDescription:\b Albury's main street \I(Random House - photo by Stuart Fox)\i.
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"Alstonville",20,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 3,678\i
Alstonville is situated inland on the Alstonville Plateau at the top of the Ballina Cutting above Ballina on the NSW north coast and 19 km from Lismore. It is in an area of tropical fruit production, bananas, sugar cane and avocados. A Tropical Fruit Research Station is open to the public on Mondays and Thursdays.
The extensive Summerland Farm, owned by the charity the House With No Steps, grows avocados, macadamia nuts, tropical stone fruits, custard apples, lychees and citrus fruits. Visitors are welcome and Devonshire teas are available. The open air Lumley Park Pioneer Relics Museum is in a remnant of the rainforest that once covered the area and has horse-drawn vehicles and early steam-powered machines on display.
Nearby is the Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a remnant of the original scrubland that once covered the whole area.
If you have a drink at the Federal Hotel in the main street, it is worth noting that it has been in business continuously since the turn of the century.
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"Australian Alps",21,"a\2\3_0050.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation Snowy River 17,697\i
The Snowies stretch over 160 kilometres and culminate in Mount Kosciuszko at 2,228 metres, an area which has developed rapidly during the last three decades since the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme provided electricity and irrigation projects in the area.
And Australians pioneered skiing as a sport as early as 1860 when miners on the goldfields of Kiandra strapped fence palings to their feet with the express purpose of gaining easier mobility.
The Alps were first sighted and named in 1824 by the explorers Hume and \JHovell\j during their cross-country expedition between Sydney and Port Phillip (Melbourne).
The Alps were first climbed officially in 1840 by the Polish explorer \JStrzelecki.\j He named the mountain he climbed - which he believed to be the highest - Mount Kosciuszko, because he said that it resembled the tumulus of the tomb of the Polish patriot Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
It is possible that he in fact climbed the nearby Mount Townsend, whose summit is surmounted by a tumulus (unlike Mount Kosciuszko) and which is just 18 metres short of the tallest mountain.
\BDescription:\b Alpine region, Blue Lake \I(DFAT).\i
\JStrzelecki\j was probably not the first white man to penetrate these mountains. Settlers had been moving into the area for some years looking for new land.
Although they were not officially sanctioned by the administration in Sydney, the settlers took advantage of the high country in the summer with its lush grass and plentiful water and drove their stock into the mountains as soon as the snow began to melt. The high country was used for summer grazing until the 1950s when much of the area was declared a national park.
\BDescription:\b Australian Alps \I(DFAT).\i
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"Ballina",23,"a\2\a2_0079.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 34,702\i
Ballina is a fishing town on the mouth of the Richmond River, 790 km north of Sydney and renowned for its temperate climate. The area was first settled by cedar-cutters who, when the trees ran out, were followed by farmers. Gold was found here on the beach near the mouth of the river in the 1860s but there was no serious gold rush. Now Ballina is very much a resort and port to a fishing fleet of more than 50 vessels.
The Las Balsas Expedition Exhibition in Ballina is worth a special detour. It tells the story of the Las Balsas expedition from Ecuador to Australia in 1973, when three balsa wood rafts each carrying four men crossed the Pacific in an attempt to prove that South Americans could have come to Australia. They reached the Australian coast at Ballina 178 days later. Combined with the exhibition is a display recording the maritime history of the Richmond River.
There is a small opal and gem museum and Fenwick House, now a hotel and open to visitors, is a splendid example of a misplaced Scottish manse, all granite and stained-glass windows. There is also a beautiful red cedar dining room and staircase which were carved in Spain.
The lighthouse at Ballina was built in 1879 to mark the Ballina bar which has been the doom of many ships. There are tremendous views from the Lighthouse Hill lookout.
Broadwater Sugar Mill is 19 km south of Ballina and has tours during the cane-crushing season - June to December.
\BDescription:\b Historic balsa raft, Ballina \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i.
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"Batemans Bay",24,"a\2\a2_0077.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 8,320\i
Batemans Bay was named by \JCaptain Cook\j after a captain on one of his earlier ships. The first settlers arrived at the mouth of the Clyde in 1840. Today it is a popular holiday town, particularly for those from \JCanberra\j who use it as a weekend retreat. The town is on the Clyde River estuary, at the foot of Clyde Mountain, 306 km south of Sydney.
The weather here is close to perfect; warm in the winter and cool in the summer. There is great fishing in the bay and in the Clyde River, where there are also crayfish and oysters. The commercial fishing trawlers that work out of Batemans Bay are - unusually - permitted to sell their catch direct to the public.
To the north are the quieter and more rural Durras and Durras Lake. The national park nearest to Batemans Bay is in the Murramarang, which lies between Kioloa and North Head, and has scenery ranging from rainforest to beaches.
\BDescription:\b Sunset over Clyde River \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
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"Batemans Bay - (2)",25,"a\2\a2_0077.jpg","c","0"
The peak holiday season in Batemans Bay runs from about mid December to early February when the place is crowded, though not packed. There are 16 beaches, many with sheltered waters suitable for children. Probably the best area is at Malua Bay, south of the Surf Club.
The Clyde River is navigable for 51 km up into the hills behind Batemans Bay. Cruises on the river are available from nearby Nelligen, otherwise you can hire a boat and just potter around.
Nearby Batehaven Birdland has exotic bird life and includes 'Wombat World' snake demonstrations, an animal nursery and a scale model train. The Historical Society Museum is in the old court house on Beach Road in Batemans Bay and is open on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons.
Mogo Goldfields Park is about 15 km from town and recreates some aspects of life on the goldfields, to which is added a guided tour of the old underground gold mine.
\BDescription:\b Sunset over Clyde River \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
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"Bathurst",26,"a\2\5_0077.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 28,842\i
Bathurst is situated to the west of Sydney on the far side of the Great Dividing Range, and is surrounded by rural countryside. The towns that mushroomed around the goldfields, like Bathurst, Gulgong and Mudgee, are splendid examples of Victorian architecture and street design.
Bathurst's old Court House, now the home of the Bathurst Tourist Centre and the Historical Museum, has a fine collection of photographs from the days of the gold rush. Next door, the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery has a notable collection of works by \JLloyd Rees.\j
\BDescription:\b Bathurst \I(DFAT).\i
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"Bega",27,"a\2\a1_0028.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 28,845\i
Bega is a commercial centre famous for its cheese - the Big Cheese, a more than life size model, is on the way in. The town is 170 km south of Batemans Bay and 80 km south of Narooma. Bega is most conveniently located between the Snowy Mountains and the Princes Highway.
The River Bega winds around the town and is crossed by a long bridge. Bega - the name is possibly Aboriginal for 'big meeting place' - is the centre for the so-called 'Sapphire Coast'.
The clock at the junction in the centre of town is a memorial to Bega's first doctor. St. John's Anglican Church was designed by the great architect \JEdmund Blacket\j and was built in 1878. A small museum is worth a visit and nearby on the Buckajo Road the Grevillea Estate Winery is a new winery that is starting to produce most palatable products. You can see cheese being made at the Bega cheese factory.
There are splendid views from the Dr George and Bega Valley lookouts. You can drive from Bega by way of Kameruka to the village of Candelo which is about 40 km to the south-west and is both historic and totally unspoiled. The largest farm in the Bega Valley is Kameruka Estate which is classified by the National Trust. The homestead is set in extensive gardens and is open to visitors daily.
The Mimosa Rocks National Park and the Mumbulla Falls offer swimming, fishing, and bushwalking.
Near Bega was the old village of Bemboka. It contained Alec Mudie's Federal Hotel and was famous for its talking crow. A report of that amazing bird reads : 'The bird developed a habit of drinking tailings from the beer mugs, and there were times when it would stagger about the bar. On one occasion a chalk line was drawn along the bar counter and the crow was told to walk along it. After making several attempts, the bird turned to the publican and said, "Put me to bed, Alec, I'm as drunk as an owl!"'
\BDescription:\b Bega Court House 1881 \I(Random House - photo by Graham Gittins)\i.
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"Bellingen",28,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 12,253\i
Bellingen is a charming town that lies on the Bellinger River in the rich farming land - mainly dairy - of the Bellingen Valley. Bellingen is on the mid north coast 40 km from Coffs Harbour and 557 km north of Sydney. Bellingen's origins are in the timber industry that dominated the area last century. Today, the town has quality handicrafts shops and chic cafes. Much of the town has been classified by the Heritage Commission. The main road, lined mostly with oleanders, leads almost straight up to the Dorrigo Plateau.
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"Belmont",29,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 6,250\i
Belmont is a commercial centre on the eastern shore of Lake Macquarie, which is the largest saltwater seaboard lake in Australia. Named after its first guest house, Belmont is 19 km south of Newcastle and168 km north of Sydney. On the high ground in the town is what might have been an Aboriginal Mission, opened by the Reverend L.E. Threlkeld who also opened the first coal mine. The all-timber parish hall was built at the turn of the century as an Anglican church. Lake Macquarie is a superb sailing area and the MV \IWangi Queen\i cruises the lake on Wednesdays and Sundays.
In nearby Wangi Wangi is Dobell House, a modest place where Sir \JWilliam Dobell\j lived and worked, which is open to the public and contains a collection of his work and memorabilia.
#
"Bingara",30,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 2,099\i
Bingara is situated between Barraba and Warialda on the Gwydir River. It is named after the first station in the area, which was opened in 1834. It was a gold-mining town - operations did not cease until 1948 - that was mainly the province of Chinese prospectors. It was also once one of Australia's leading diamond, sapphire and tourmaline fields from which came thousands of gems. Diamonds were first discovered in 1874. Now all that remains of this former glory is a stamper at the All Nations mine which opened around 1860 and closed down in 1948. Two shafts give underground access to the four levels that were worked.
The oldest building in the town is the slab building thought to have been Salter's Hotel, which is now a museum listed by the National Trust. An exhibition of old furniture and photographs shows early life in the district.
Near Bingara was a scene of one of Australia's tragedies. At Myall Creek station in 1838, twenty-eight Aborigines were massacred following the death of four white people. Seven of those responsible for the massacre were tried and hanged, the first time whites were punished for crimes against the Aboriginal people.
#
"Blue Mountains",31,"a\2\3_0052.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 72,506\i
Made up of sandstone canyons and hills, and clad in tall forests of bluegum, the Blue Mountains are the elevated remains of what was once a vast plateau. Over the centuries, it has been weathered by rivers and waterfalls, leaving flat-topped ridges on which the white man has built towns. The Blue Mountains in reality is hard country that took the early settlers a generation to cross.
The heart of the park is the Grose and Jamison Valleys, carpeted with ferns and choked with gums. These lie north and south of the high narrow plateau on which the mountain towns of Blackheath, Katoomba and Wentworth Falls are perched.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Blue Mountains - (2)",32,"a\2\stew2.jpg","c","0"
The \JBlue Mountains\j offers some of the best bushwalking country in Australia - beginning in the Lapstone-Glenbrook area only an hour from the heart of Sydney and going all the way up through Leura and Katoomba, past the spectacular Three Sisters, Govetts Leap on to Mount Victoria and beyond.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service operates information centres at Glenbrook and Blackheath and each season runs a series of guided walks to suit anyone from the most casual stroller to the dedicated hiker.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Webster Publishing.\i
#
"Bomaderry/North Nowra",33,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 21,942\i
Bomaderry, which can be considered an extension of Nowra, is home to the Shoalhaven Tourist Centre, and Bomaderry Railway Station is the terminus of the South Coast railway line. It is 126 km to the south of Sydney.
The Bomaderry Creek Walk follows Bomaderry Creek and is well signposted. There is a choice between the long way round, which takes about three hours, or the reasonable stroll, which takes about an hour.
Within easy striking distance is the Cambewarra Mountain Lookout which is off the Moss Vale Road to the north. On a reasonable day - and that is most days of the year - this offers stunning panoramic views of the Shoalhaven River Valley and the coastline. On a clear day you can see some 50 km of one of the most beautiful coastlines in Australia.
#
"Bourke",34,"a\2\a2_0073.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,049\i
Almost 800 kilometres north-west of Sydney in the banks of the Darling River, Bourke, was once a thriving river port; the highest town on the Darling from which the cargoes of wool could be loaded onto barges and shipped downstream.
Along Mitchell Street you will see The Carriers Arms, once a Cobb & Co Inn and a temporary home to \JHenry Lawson\j in 1892, the doctor's residence, the old wharf, Manston Lodge and St Ignatius Church; all notable examples of late 19th century architecture.
\BDescription:\b Darling River, Bourke \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Bowral",35,"a\2\a1_0026.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 7,929\i
Bowral is where Sydney's worthies went to escape the summer heat in the closing years of the last century. Bowral nestles below Mt. Gibraltar, 109 km from Sydney, and still has some of the stately homes that once belonged to those considered Sydney's elite. There is still a gentrified feel to the town.
Bowral was originally part of a property granted to the explorer \JJohn Oxley\j in 1825. He erected a prefabricated house, Wingecarribee, shipped from England. Later, in 1859, when it was announced that the railway was coming to Bowral, part of the original Oxley estate was subdivided by members of his family. In fact, the railway did not arrive until eight years later.
The village that resulted from the subdivision of the Oxley estate was first known as Wingecarribee after the original house, and 'Wingecarribee' is now the name of the shire. The village later became known as Burradoo, and finally in 1867 Bowral. Once the railway had arrived, the village grew rapidly and well before the turn of the century it was regarded as a fashionable resort. Today Bowral is a busy town with a mix of old-world charm and modern architecture. The Heritage Commission has placed a protection order on the main Bendooley Street to prevent it from being altered.
An historical tour of Bowral designed by the Berrima District Historical Society starts at the Corbeu Gardens, one block to the east of the main street, and takes in 12 sites of interest. Well worth visiting is the Bowral Primary School Education Museum and Gallery which is in a wooden building on Bendooley Street. This features a fully set-up turn-of-the-century classroom - you will be surprised how little schoolrooms have changed - with displays of early school equipment. The museum is open on Saturdays except in the school holidays. The school's most famous pupil was Sir Donald Bradman.
Bradman Oval and the museum celebrate this most famous Australian, although the great Don was not born in Bowral but in Cootamundra. The museum is in Glebe Park which overlooks the Bradman Oval and is opposite his former home in 52 Shepherd Street. This is still a private residence and is not open to the public. Bradman played his first serious game of cricket on the Bowral Oval at the age of 12. In 1925, on the same pitch, he scored 234 for Bowral against a Wingello team that included bowler Bill O'Rielly.
The museum is full of cricket memorabilia, ranging form an oak bat of the 1750s to the bat Bradman used at Headingley in 1934 to score his second highest Test innings of 304. If that is not enough cricket for you, there is also the Bradman Walk, a self-guided tour through Bowral visiting some of the sites associated with the great cricketer.
Bowral is a town of gardens, some magnificently large, and the whole town is full of mature trees. In September there is a tulip festival which is based around the Corbett and Milton Park Gardens.
\BDescription:\b Bradman Cricket Museum \I(Random House - photo by Graham Gittins)\i.
#
"Brewarrina",36,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 2,193\i
Brewarrina is a small town on the Barwon River 95 km east of Bourke. In the early days it was famous for the size of the wool clip loaded at the wharf. The wreck of the steamboat \IWandering Jew,\i which burnt and sank, is still in the river.
The name 'Brewarrina' is claimed to come from an Aboriginal word meaning 'good fishing'. There is an old Aboriginal fish trap in the Darling River, which is a complex arrangement of stone channels with walls. It was in use until the beginning of this century and is still visible. The surrounding countryside depends on grazing and wheat. In the town is a museum showing aspects of Aboriginal life ranging from the Dreamtime to the present day. At Narran Lake, 40 km to the east, there is a wide variety of birdlife and fishing is good with perch, cod and catfish.
#
"Broken Hill",37,"a\2\1_0081.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 21,356\i
'The Silver City Comet' and the 'Indian Pacific' railways service this city where current production from the major operating mines amounts to approximately 2.5 million tonnes each year. \JBroken Hill\j is a place of dry heat and immense, intensely blue skies where low verandahs provide shade. The Flying Doctor Service supplies a unique health scheme to isolated stations.
\JBroken Hill\j owes its existence to the discovery of silver and other precious metals late last century. The legacy of the mining boom can be seen in the splendour of the imposing public buildings that gave a sense of permanence to the city.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Byron Bay",38,"a\2\a1_0023.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 27,565\i
Byron Bay is 42 km north of Lismore, and the most easterly town on the mainland of Australia. In the 1960s it attracted the hippies and there is still a feeling of alternative lifestyle about the town. Its most famous resident is \JPaul Hogan\j, although he spends much time elsewhere.
The name Byron Bay was given by \JCaptain Cook\j in honour of Sir John Byron, who was a brave sailor and the grandfather of the mad, bad poet.
The bay is very popular for swimming, bodysurfing and skindiving. There is great surfing at Watego's Beach on Cape Byron just below the lighthouse. This is considered one of the best surfing beaches on the east coast and is claimed to be the only ocean beach in New South Wales with a northerly aspect.
\BDescription:\b Sunset at Byron Bay \I(Random House - photo by Stuart Fox)\i
#
"Byron Bay - (2)",39,"a\2\a1_0032.jpg","c","0"
The lighthouse, built in 1901, is one of the most attractive in Australia and it is possible to stay in the keepers' cottages, although advance booking is essential, with some cottages being booked a year in advance. The view from the lighthouse is stunning and at the right time of the year it is a good spot for spotting the migrating whales swimming past. On any day you may see dolphins swimming through the totally clear waters below.
\BDescription:\b Byron Bay Lighthouse \I(Random House - photo by Carmen Vila)\i
#
"Camden",40,"a\2\a1_0024.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 33,129\i
Camden was originally called Cowpastures and stands 55 km from Sydney as a dormitory country town. It was here that John and Elizabeth Macarthur on a grant of 5,000 acres (around 2,000 ha) did so much to establish the Australian fine wool industry. Some of their descendants still live in Camden. The family estate at Menangle and their 1821 cottage, Home Farm House, are still standing.
The town, which was founded in 1840, has an Anglican church built in the 1840s which is an excellent example of Gothic Revival. The spire is the most striking feature of the town.
Five kilometres to the north-east is Camden Museum of Aviation which is open on Sundays and public holidays. To get there, go along the Camden Valley Way to Narellan. The museum is off the main road at 11 Stewart Street. It probably houses the largest specialist aircraft collection in Australia.
A little further along the Camden Valley Way is Gledswood Winery. Its main section was built in 1810 as a coach-house and the first vines were planted in 1827. The homestead was built by convicts for James Chisholm. There are conducted tours everyday.
\BDescription:\b \I(Random House - photo by P.J. O'Reilly)\i
#
"Campbelltown",41,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 143,773\i
Campbelltown is now a satellite town of Sydney and also a dormitory suburb. It is 54 km south-west of Sydney. The area was first sighted by Europeans chasing strayed cattle grazing there - escaped cattle that had gone feral - and the whole area was named Cowpastures, although this later became the name for the site of today's Camden.
Settlers began arriving in 1809 and Campbelltown was formally named in 1820 by \JGovernor Macquarie\j, after his wife's family.
The first major building within the town was St. Peter's Church, which was finished in 1824. The town was surveyed in 1827. Glenalvon and Richmond Villa, two of the earliest houses, still stand.
By the 1880s Campbelltown was beginning to see suburban development. In 1888 it became the first country town to have piped water supplied from the Upper Nepean scheme.
#
"Casino",42,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 10,774\i
Casino stands on the banks of the Richmond River 742 km north of Sydney and 30 km from Lismore. It is an important commercial centre, sometimes called the City of Parks because there are 20 within the town boundaries, and it is also known as the Beef Capital. Boats traded this far up the river and the remains of the Irvington Wharf can still be seen. By the river is a plaque showing where the first settlers, Henry Clay and George Stapleton, crossed the river in 1848 and founded the original station around which the settlement grew. The school opposite the court building was finished in 1860, only five years after the town was established. There are many other early buildings in the town, including the post office, hospital, courthouse and school.
There is a small museum in Walker Street which is open only on Fridays and Sundays.
There is good fishing in Cooke's Weir and 20 km west of Casino, on the Tenterfield Road, there are spectacular Aboriginal carvings on the rockfaces.
#
"Central Coast",43,"a\2\ccoast2.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 229,424\i
The Hawkesbury River and Broken Bay, where it enters the sea, are the beginning of the Central Coast.
The Central Coast extends from the Hawkesbury River in the south, some 35 kilometres north of Sydney, to just above Lake Munmorah and Budgewoi in the north. To the west, it takes in Mangrove Mountain and Wiseman's Ferry.
\BDescription:\b Central Coast \I(Webster Publishing)\i.
There was a time when access to the Central Coast was mainly by steam train. Smoky carriages left from Central or Hornsby station and stopped at places such as Gosford, Wyong and Woy Woy from where buses took passengers to Tuggerah Lakes, Avoca, Ettalong, Norah Head and Long Jetty. An expressway has now been built from Hornsby, a northern suburb of Sydney.
\BDescription:\b Lion Island
#
"Cessnock",45,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 44,362\i
Cessnock could be considered the capital of the Hunter Valley. It is 52 km from Newcastle and 185 km from Sydney. Originally its two great products were wine and coal. Although coal mining is being phased down and now the mix is more wine and tourism. The coal was first discovered in the 1880s and the first mine opened in 1891.
The vineyards are among the low hills to the north and the west and some are still owned by families who founded them early in the last century. Although they produce the grapes for perhaps 2 per cent of Australia's wine, they are considered consistently among the best we have to offer, especially the reds. The first vines were planted in 1832 to provide wine for doctors to prescribe for medical purposes, following the Biblical injunction, 'Take a little wine for thy health's sake'. There are now about 30 wineries in the area and they produce some of the greatest reds available in Australia and, arguably, the world.
In the early days Cessnock was a favourite haunt of bushrangers because of its proximity to Sydney on the one hand and the bush on the other.
To the south-east are the Watagan Mountains and State Forest with drivable gravel and dirt roads and many picnic areas and two deer farms.
#
"Cobar",46,"a\2\a30070.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 5,676\i
Cobar is on the slopes of the Western Plains and 706 km west of Sydney on the Barrier Highway which accesses outback areas of the country. It is a town built on mineral wealth - gold in the early days and, more recently, copper. Irrigation started in the 1960s by the CSA copper mine which brings water 135 km from Nyngan and has turned the town, which was previously dry and dusty, into a latter-day oasis with pleasant, tree-lined streets.
In the town the Upper Western Hotel claims that its verandah, over 100 m long, is the longest iron lace verandah in NSW. The local museum was originally a mining office, sold to the council for one dollar on the proviso it was turned into a museum.
Near the Mt. Grenfell homestead 40 km west of Cobar along the Barrier Highway are the Mt. Grenfell Aboriginal cave paintings which can be inspected by previous arrangement.
\BDescription:\b St. Laurence Catholic Church, Cobar \I(Random House)\i
#
"Coffs Harbour",47,"a\2\a2_0033.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 58,337\i
Coffs Harbour is a tourist resort in the centre of a tropical fruit-growing area. It is on the coast nearly 600 km north of Sydney and 427 km south of Brisbane.
The name of the town was originally Korff's Harbour after Captain John Korff, who sheltered here in 1847 and liked the place so much he opened a store in the main street. Over the years the name has been Australianised. The fact that it is the capital of a major fruit-growing area is commemorated by the Big Banana theme park. The World of Agriculture is nearby.
Coffs Harbour started as two towns 3 km apart, which over the years grew together. The harbour, halfway between Brisbane and Sydney, was originally extensively used by the many vessels catering to the coastal trade. In the early days the harbour was considered very dangerous for shipping and was boycotted by ships' captains until the lighthouse was built in 1878.
\BDescription:\b Fishing boats at Coffs Harbour \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Coffs Harbour - (2)",48,"a\2\2_0066.jpg","c","0"
Storyland Gardens, 10 km south of the town, is a small theme park with a giant Old Woman's Shoe, surrounded by fairytale settings. But the major attraction of Coffs Harbour is the wide range of beaches catering for everyone from surfers to small children paddling. There are even some secluded beaches for nude bathing.
Nearby is the Muttonbird Island National Park, which can be reached via a circular drive that starts at the post office, goes east to Beacon Hill Lookout, down to the harbour area and then to the Muttonbird Island nature walk. From there you can come back via the Pet Porpoise Pool and the Park Beach Surf Club development.
\BDescription:\b The Big Banana at Coffs Harbour \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Condobolin",49,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 3,163\i
Condobolin is situated on the Lachlan River, close to Mt. Tilga and is the geographical centre of NSW in the red soil plains district. Condobolin is 464 km west of Sydney. It was founded in the 1840s and one of the early landowners was Ben Boyd, who later founded the short-lived Boyd Town on the far south coast.
Ben Boyd came from Scotland and was one of the most successful squatters in south-eastern NSW and in parts of Victoria. William Lee of Bathurst occupied the 'Condoublin' run in 1844 and in 1848, the property, which was used largely for cattle, was listed as 'Condooblin'.
At the end of 1896, gold was found at the Overflow station (immortalised in 'Banjo' Paterson's poem 'Clancy of the Overflow') north-west of Condobolin. Eventually, when the gold ran out, Condobolin started to become important as a wheat-shipping centre.
Only 4 km to the west lies Lake Condobolin Recreation Area, which was a Bicentennial project and has windsurfing and dinghy sailing and a separate swimming area. The Agricultural Research Station is 10 km to the east and is open to visitors during the week. There are some interesting Aboriginal relics 40 km to the west, where the road passes the burial place of one of the last Aboriginal chiefs in the area. The area produces wool, lucerne, and fruit, all grown on the irrigation scheme.
#
"Cooma",50,"a\2\1_0084.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 9,680\i
Cooma has a population of 7,750, though in winter the population varies wildly from day to day as skiers pour through on their way to the skifields. The town, on the Southern Tablelands of NSW, is at the junction of the Monaro and Snowy Mountains Highways. Cooma is near the NSW-Victoria border and is 114 km from \JCanberra\j, 420 km from Sydney, 97 km from Thredbo,105 km from Charlotte Pass, 98 km from Perisher and 99 km from Mt. Selwyn. Cooma, then, is the gateway to the Snowy Mountains and it is also the administrative centre of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. In that scheme's heyday - the 1950s and 1960s - there were 10,000-odd workers billeted around there.
Cooma is 810 m above sea level. It can be cool even in the summer with temperatures ranging from a maximum of 26 degrees Celsius to a minimum of 11 degree Celsius. In the winter, of course, the weather is decidedly chilly and the thermometer often drops to 1 degrees Celsius.
Lambie Street, which is pretty much unmessed-around-with Georgian design, has been declared a historic precinct, with each of the 21 buildings marked with a plaque. The Royal Hotel, which was opened in 1858, is still performing its original function. Another hotel, the Lord Raglan, which was built some four years earlier, is now an art gallery.
There is a statue commemorating 'Banjo' Paterson's 'The Man From Snowy River' and there is also a memorial to aviation pioneers. This contains remnants of the \ISouthern Cloud,\i an airliner that crashed in the mountains in 1931. This was Australia's first airline disaster and the wreckage was not recovered until some 27 years after the event.
\BDescription:\b Cooma \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Coonabarabran",51,"a\2\a2_0034.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,994\i
Coonabarabran's name is alleged to mean 'inquisitive person' - it is on the road to the volcanic plateau, the \JWarrumbungle\js, which were thrust from the earth some 13 million years ago. Situated 95 km north-east of Gilgandra, the town started life in 1860 and the first buildings were a court and a prison. It was at Coonabarabran that Sam Poo, who has the distinction of being Australia's only Chinese bushranger, was active in 1865. He shot and wounded Constable Ward and was captured, convicted and hanged.
The Anglican church has a window commemorating Greek 'heroes and martyrs' donated by Greek descendants.
\BDescription:\b \JWarrumbungle\js \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Coonabarabran - (2)",52,"a\2\warrum.jpg","c","0"
Coonabarabran has easy access to the \JWarrumbungle\js, which are 33 km away. The last part of the road is gravel track and if you are driving a sedan you should take care. The visitors' centre has maps showing walking trails. The \JWarrumbungle\js offer bushwalking, rock climbing, photography, and nature study.
The Warrumbungle National Park covers 21,004 ha and is one of the most magnificent national parks in New South Wales, with wonderful scenery and prolific fauna and flora.
Between the \JWarrumbungle\j Mountains and the Namoi River is the Pilliga Forest and Nature Reserve which covers 5,400 square kilometres to the west of Coonabarabran and is the main tourist attraction of the area. It has the largest optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. The reason why observatories are found out in the country instead of the city is that the street light pollution from a city the size of Sydney - not the atmospheric pollution - makes night viewing almost impossible. The observatory is open daily and has an absorbing exhibition called 'Exploring the Universe'. The visitors' gallery allows you a close-up view to grasp the awesome size of the telescope.
\BDescription:\b The \JWarrumbungle\js \I(Mel Smith)\i
#
"Coonamble",53,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 4,804\i
Coonamble is 573 km north-west of Sydney. It is unusual in that it is built in an H formed by water from the Castlereagh, a river which sometimes runs underground in dry spells, and two creeks. \JGeorge Evans\j found the site in 1817 and it became a watering place for stockmen.
Now the oldest buildings are the police station and the troopers' stables, which were built in 1870 and are now a museum. The Catholic church is built in the Spanish style.
Yowie Bore is about 20 km north of the town on the Castlereagh Highway and supplies hot water from the bore to five properties to use as stock water. It can be inspected at any time. For ornithologists, nearby Macquarie Marshes are paradise on earth. For boating and swimming there is Warrana Weir.
#
"Cootamundra",54,"a\2\coota6.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 7,457\i
It is here in Cootamundra, 380 km south-west of Sydney, not Bowral, that the world's greatest cricketer, Sir Donald Bradman, was born in 1908. The house where he lived for the first three years of his life at 89 Adams Street is still a private residence.
In 1861, in a survey, this town was referred to as Cootamundry. The NSW Lands Department insisted on using this spelling right up until 1952 although everyone else had used the alternate spelling since the turn of the century. The post office with its tower is an ornamental Office Plaza which also incorporates the old peppercorn tree.
\BDescription:\b \JDon Bradman\j's old house \I(Peter Pigram)\i
#
"Cootamundra - (2)",55,"a\2\coota5.jpg","c","0"
You can go on a walking tour following a brochure available from the tourist office which will take you past the Bradman house, the art and craft centre, the museum and several parks and gardens. Pioneer Park, which is on the southern outskirts of Cootamundra off the Olympic Way, has extensive views of the town and district.
Bethungra Rail Spiral is 23 km south-west of Cootamundra and is a unique and impressive engineering feat. The rail line runs in a spiral around Bethungra Hill, crossing itself and also the south line, while at the same time traversing some of the deepest rail cutting in Australia.
A group of rocks to the north of Cootamundra is called Bushranger's Lookout. This was said to have been used by the notorious bushranger \JFrank Gardiner\j, one of the few in Australian history who was not hanged or shot and who lived to a relatively ripe old age.
\BDescription:\b Refurbished Cootamundra railway station \I(Peter Pigram)\i
#
"Corowa",56,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 8,215\i
Corowa is right on the border of Victoria, 56 km west of Albury. It is a river port and crossing point that acted as a gateway for the diggers heading for the Victorian goldfields.
The people of this area, the Riverina, were great supporters of Federation, possibly for the base reason that it would give easier access to the markets of Victoria and stop the annoyance of passing through customs posts. The initial cause of the problem was that in 1835 Victoria broke away from NSW to become a separate colony. This meant that customs officers were stationed at every crossing place along the Murray River, the natural border between the two colonies.
The citizens of Corowa and Wahgunyah on the other side of the river were particularly affected. A Border Federation meeting held in Corowa courthouse in 1893 was an important stepping stone to Federation as it established the first Border Federation League. A historic conference of the various border leagues was held in July of that year, and together they continued to agitate until the referendum of 1898 which resulted in Federation. Thus Corowa is often and correctly called the birthplace of Australia's Federation.
It was also in this town that the battle against rabbits came to a triumphant conclusion in 1950 when \Jmyxomatosis\j experiments were held just outside the town.
#
"Cowra",57,"a\2\1_0079.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 12,146\i
Cowra is a busy country town on the Lachlan River 331 km west of Sydney. The town is famous for the mass breakout of Japanese prisoners-of-war in August 1944 which resulted in the death of 4 Australian soldiers and 247 Japanese prisoners. Right up until the late 1960s news about this episode was heavily censored and newspapers were strongly discouraged from writing about it.
A memorial cairn commemorating this sad incident is off the Binni Creek Road on the prisoner-of-war camp site.
Now, in peace, there is reconciliation in shape of a Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre opened in 1979. The gardens, in the hills above Cowra, cover 5 ha and are based on the Imperial Garden in Kyoto and designed by the landscape artist Ken Nakajima. The garden follows the flow of the hillside and is a small miracle. The Japanese Cultural Centre has a display of Japanese art and more than 400 carved Japanese dolls.
The Lachlan Valley Railway Society has taken over the disused railway sidings in Campbell Street and is slowly building up a railway museum. Trips are not given on a regular basis, although it is hoped that this will develop. Wine tastings and cellar sales are available at Quarry Cellars on the Boorowa Road.
\BDescription:\b Japanese Gardens at Cowra \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Deniliquin",58,"a\2\a2_0035.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 7,816\i
In 1842, \JBenjamin Boyd\j took up a run on the Edward River in the Riverina and called it Deniliquin. The name is said to be an Aboriginal word meaning 'wrestlers' ground'. It was a good crossing-place on the sandy banks of the river and early names were the Sandhills or the Woolshed. In 1847 a punt service was started across the river and an inn opened the following year. Deniliquin was gazetted in 1850. Taylor's Cottage, built five years later, is still standing. When a bridge across the Edward River was opened in 1861, the two sides of the town were linked.
The setting of the town is naturally beautiful with the Edward River on one side and a chain of lagoons set in parkland on the other. There is a bridge across a creek near the river. This leads to an animal sanctuary. Near the town is the Lawson Syphon where water is diverted under the Edward and into a network of canals used to irrigate the rice crop. This is the centre of the largest irrigation complex in Australia.
The most imposing old building in Deniliquin is the courthouse which was built in 1887 in a style that might be called Victorian Ornate.
The most impressive of the modern buildings is the rice mill, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. The Pioneer Tourist Park and Garden Centre has a series of interesting displays.
\BDescription:\b Banks of the Murray River, Deniliquin \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Dubbo",59,"a\2\a2_0032.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 36,701\i
Back in the 1840s a store was opened on the banks of the Macquarie River by Jean Emile de Bouillon Serisier who built a homestead, which still stands, on his property, Eumulga. The settlement became a stopping place for mobs of cattle being driven south to Victoria, and there are still important stockyards in the area. The settlement became Dubbo, on the Macquarie River, at the junction of the Newell and Mitchell Highways and is 416 km from Sydney, 862 km from Brisbane and 818 km from Melbourne.
Dubbo is a well-designed city with a green heart - Victoria Park, which has 18 ha of gardens, playing fields and wildlife enclosures. The courthouse was built in 1888 in the Classical style with massive columns and correct pediment. At the rear is the former gaol, which stopped holding miscreants in 1966 and is now a museum.
The Dubbo Military Museum on the Newell Highway has a whole range of World War II military equipment in an open air setting.
Near Dubbo is the Western Plains Zoo, the first open-range zoo without bars in Australia. It covers over 300 ha. Opened in 1977, it is a sister zoo to Sydney's Taronga Park. It is administered by the Zoological Parks Board of NSW and its open bush and landscaped exhibits are home to more than 2,000 animals. You can drive around the 6 km sealed road in the zoo, hire a bike or mini moke, or even walk.
Jinchilla Gardens at Brocklehurst, a few kilometres out of Dubbo in the Gilgandra direction, are fascinating. Beautiful gardens have been landscaped out of scrub country and there is an art gallery and craft centre.
\BDescription:\b Soil erosion near Dubbo \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i..
#
"Eden",60,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 3,277\i
Eden is 61 km south of Bega, 486 km south of Sydney and lies on Twofold Bay. It is the main port of the area. Eden started life catering to the whaling fleet and still harbours a large fishing fleet. It has a beautiful bay and coastline with some of the best beaches in NSW. To the north is a reserve protecting bellbirds and lyrebirds which you may hear but rarely see. The Ben Boyd National Park with its famous Red Cliffs borders Twofold Bay to the north and to the south it touches Boyd's Tower. You can camp in the park and there are a number of caravan parks in the area.
Across the bay is one man's folly. This is Boyd Town, built by Ben Boyd to rival Eden. He wanted Boyd Town to be a major town and spent a fortune building a lighthouse, a jetty 100 m long, an imitation-Gothic church and an Elizabethan-style inn. Then his trading ventures went bad and eventually he disappeared on a voyage to the Solomon Islands. His ghost is supposed to haunt the crumbling remains of Boyd Town. While it is true the enterprise failed and all that are left are some ruins and the Sea Horse Inn, it has to be remembered that Ben Boyd did have a national park named after him, which guarantees him some sort of perpetual memorial.
The Whaling Museum records the time when Eden was an important whaling port and includes the skeleton of the notorious 'Tom the killer whale' who lived to a ripe old age.
The carcass was washed up on the shore at Twofold Bay, NSW in 1930 and it is believed that 'Old Tom' was more than 80 years old. Old-time residents of the Eden district knew the whale as a local identity that rarely left the waters off their coast.
#
"Evans Head",61,"a\2\a30068.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,375\i
Evans Head is a tourist and fishing town about 760 km north of Sydney, 10 km east of Woodburn and 55 km south-east of Lismore. The town was named by Captain Thomas Paddon in 1870s after a first lieutenant on a ship he had commanded. Paddon, the first settler in the area, built a hotel at the mouth of the Evans River.
North of the town is the Broadwater National Park with unspoiled beaches and heathland that becomes a blaze of colour in spring. The park provides amazing geological interest with the large dunes that were formed perhaps 60,000 years ago. In nearby Bundjalong National Park on the town's southern edge there are emus, wallabies and koalas, and Aboriginal relics. The park is popular for surfing, boating, picnicking and bushwalking. In the town itself is stunning Razorback Lookout at the top of Ocean Street with 360-degree views.
\BDescription:\b Evans Head fishing port \I(Random House)\i
#
"Forbes",62,"a\2\a2_0031.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 10,138\i
Forbes is a busy commercial centre which is Parkes' sister city and is 35 km south-west of that town on the Newell Highway and 382 km west of Sydney. Forbes was founded in 1860 as a tented gold town which held up to 30,000 people. The first find of gold was made by 'German Harry' Stephens and where he found gold is now a playing field.
Apart from the discovery of gold, this area did not have a promising start. When the explorer \JJohn Oxley\j was traversing it in 1817 he wrote: \I'It is impossible to imagine a worse country than the one we are travelling over, intersected by swamps and small lagoons in every direction, the soil a poor clay and covered with stunted, useless timber.'\i Since then it has much improved.
The town may be named after Sir Francis Forbes, Chief Justice of NSW. It was designed around Victoria Square which contains the courthouse built in 1880, and the town hall which was built a year later. During the gold rush, the Albion Hotel was said to have the biggest bar trade in Australia - more than 100 pounds a day. It later became a coach stop for Cobb & Co. and the tower was used to keep watch for the arrival of the coaches.
Many celebrities are buried in the cemetery at Forbes - bushranger \JBen Hall\j, \JNed Kelly\j's sister Kate Foster and Rebecca Shield, who was a great-grand-niece of \JCaptain Cook\j. \JBen Hall\j, the famous bushranger, was a local celebrity. One of the notorious Gardiner gang who carried out a gold escort robbery at nearby Eugowra, he was shot dead at the age of 28 in May 1865 at Bogan Gate to the north-east of the town. A plaque marks the spot where he was killed. The Forbes Museum, that was once part of the Osborn Hotel, has relics of the bushrangers.
The Lachlan Vintage Village attempts to show in 81 ha what life was like for the pioneers of the district from 1860 to 1900, especially on the goldfields. The entry to the village is through an old woolshed. Many of the early buildings, shops and workplaces of the area have been reconstructed in this area. The village has the Lachlan Diggings which are built on the site of the Forbes goldfield. Here you can try your luck panning for gold in the creek. The village also contains an 1860s farm complete with equipment and animals, \JBen Hall\j's cottage, and the home of the famous Australian poet \JHenry Lawson\j.
\BDescription:\b Town Hall, Forbes \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Forster",63,"a\2\a2_0021.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 14,578\i
Forster is often linked with Tuncurry on the opposite side of the entrance to Wallis Lake, to which it is connected by a bridge. The town was named after the author, squatter and politician William Forster. Tuncurry was known as North Forster until 1875. Originally the two villages were linked by ferry services but the bridge was opened in 1959. Long popular for family holidays, it is situated at the mouth of the Wallamba River and is 328 km north of Sydney. A vintage car museum is 3 km to the south. On Wang Wauk Road is the Grandis, reputed to be the tallest tree in NSW.
The best view of the area is from the Scenic Platform at Bennett's Head.
\BDescription:\b Wallis Lake, Forster \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Gilgandra",64,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 4,844\i
Gilgandra is at the junction of the Newell, Oxley and Castlereagh Highways, and was proclaimed in 1888. It is 66 km north of Dubbo and on the western side of the \JWarrumbungle\js.
Gilgandra was once called the 'windmill town' because of the multitude of mills that used to 'tap' the artesian basin on which it stands. Technology has replaced them, but one of the mills has been left standing as a museum. A pub came first in 1868; the town followed twenty years later. Breelong station on the Mendooran Road was where the Aboriginal Governor brothers and Johnny Underwood first ran amok, eventually murdering nine people and shocking the nation in the year of Federation.
It was from Gilgandra that the famous 'Coo-ee March' of 26 men set out in 1915 after the disaster at Gallipoli, in a drive to recruit more soldiers for World War I. By the time they arrived in Sydney there were 263 men in the contingent. This set an example and many 'coo-ee' marches followed all over Australia.
The privately built and owned Gilgandra Observatory and Display Centre has a 300 mm telescope and an audio-visual display of the US \IGemini\i flights. Orana Cactus World on the Newell Highway has one of the largest private collections of succulent plants and cacti in NSW.
#
"Glen Innes",65,"a\2\a2_0076.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,101\i
Glen Innes is between Grafton and Inverell on the Gwydir Highway, and is one of the great sources for sapphires in Australia, the other being Inverell. Most of the sapphires sold in Thailand are Australian stones that have been heat treated to lighten them.
Glenn Innes has many parks, five of which flank the Rocky Ponds Creek that is lined by willow trees. The Great Central Hotel, which has ornate lacework on its upper verandahs, is on the first land parcel to be auctioned when the town was laid out in 1851.
In the Holy Trinity Church, built in 1867, there is a stained-glass window featuring World War II servicemen. On the highway outside the town is Balancing Rock, a piece of granite weighing hundreds of tonnes and resting on a point measuring just 300 mm.
\BDescription:\b Countryside near Glen Innes \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Gloucester",66,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 4,816\i
Gloucester was founded in 1899 by the Australian Agricultural Co. which, in turn, was founded in London in 1824. Gloucester is a pretty town with a dramatic geological background. It is surrounded by a line of hills known as the 'Bucketts' taken from the Aboriginal name for 'big rocks'. The town is 303 km north of Sydney at the junction of the three tributaries of the Manning River and on the Gloucester River, described as one of the best inland rivers in NSW.
#
"Gosford",67,"a\2\a1_0030.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 144,840\i
Gosford is a scenic town on Brisbane Water - so named in 1825 in honour of the governor - with a fast train service to Sydney 88 km south. It is thus attractive to commuters. Because of its proximity to the ocean, the town enjoys stable temperatures all year round with summer high rarely going above 25 degrees Celsius and rarely below 17 degrees Celsius.
Gosford was originally called the Township at Point Frederick. In February 1839 the town plan was sent to \JGovernor Gipps\j for approval with the town referred to as the Township of Brisbane Water. The governor returned the plan with the town marked as Gosford and with no explanation. It lager emerged that he named the town after the Earl of Gosford, with whom he had served in Canada. In the early days timbercutting was the main economic product of the district but from the 1880s citrus orchards began to dominate the local farms. By 1928-29 the district supplied 34 per cent of the State's citrus crop.
The court building and the prison at Gosford were built in 1848 and are the oldest buildings on the Central Coast. The cottage of the poet \JHenry Kendall\j - built for him in 1836 - still stands, which, it is said, inspired some of his works. The cottage is now a museum containing colonial relics.
Gosford has easy access to Broken Bay and the Hawkesbury, with great sailing and boating, as well as some fine surfing beaches on the coast and the forests of the coastal hinterland; this is a most pleasant spot. Nearby is Old Sydney Town which, despite mixed success, is an excellent and authentic replica of a pioneer settlement with continuous street theatre. The Ferneries, 11 km from Gosford, is a 20 ha area of rainforest with a children's playground, paddle boats and picnic areas. It has kangaroos, emus and peacocks. A large variety of ferns and palms are for sale.
The nearby Australian Reptile Park was one of the first tourist attractions on the Central Coast and has a popular science exhibit. The park supplies venoms (for antivenene) from different snakes to countries all over the world. Immediately to the east of the city centre is the 53 ha Rumbalara Reserve, which is bushland with walking trails and picnic areas.
The glory of Gosford lies in its surrounding beaches - Killcare, McMasters, Copacabana, Avoca, Terrigal, Wamberal and Forresters. Each is different, each attracts a different kind of visitor. All are patrolled at weekends in the summer and daily during the school holidays. Some of the best skindiving in NSW is in the crystal-clear waters along the Central Coast. There are fascinating wrecks off Terrigal.
\BDescription:\b Festival of Arts, Gosford \I(Random House - photo by Stuart Fox)\i
#
"Goulburn",68,"a\2\a2_0075.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 21,293\i
Goulburn is the second oldest inland city in Australia and has some fine old buildings, particularly the courthouse. At 638 m above sea level, it is 197 km south-west of Sydney and 94 km north-east of \JCanberra\j. The name came in 1818 when the explorers Meehan and Hume explored what they named on their maps 'Lake Bathurst and Goulburn Downs'. Henry Goulburn was the under-secretary of the colonies at that time. \JGovernor Macquarie\j passed through in 1820 and camped just east of the current racecourse. The plans for the 'township of the Goulburn Plains' were drawn up in 1828 and the town was gazetted in 1833. In 1863 it was proclaimed a city.
St. Saviour's Cathedral is a Gothic masterpiece designed by \JEdmund Blacket\j and almost completed in 1884, with the tower and spire added in 1988. The cathedral has a magnificent organ with 2,252 pipes and splendid wood carving, but according to the architect's plans it is still not totally completed. The St. Clair History Homestead was constructed in 1848 and has been restored and is used by the Goulburn Historical Society as a research centre and permanent exhibition.
\BDescription:\b Fountain at Goulburn Square \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Goulburn - (2)",69,"a\2\a1_0031.jpg","c","0"
Garroorigang and Hume Dairy was first built in 1857 as an inn but was later a school. It is now the home of Mrs Hume, a descendant of the explorer \JHamilton Hume\j. The Victorian drawing-room is a delight, not having been altered in any way since 1868. It is open to the public. Riversdale is a National Trust property that was built in 1840 and was originally a coaching house. It is open to the public daily. Gulsons Craft Village is located at the historic Gulsons Brickworks and has a number of craft shops.
Another of those uniquely Australian largescale icons is the Big Merino (called Rambo). It stands 14 m high and is on the south side of Goulburn along the Old Hume Highway.
The Bungonia State Recreation Area is about 35 km south-east of Goulburn and is the largest state recreation area in New South Wales. It has bushwalking, caving, climbing, canoeing and some quite spectacular lookouts. Pejar Dam Aquatic Recreation Reserve is 25 km north-west on the Crookwell Road and is reputed to be one of the best trout-fishing areas in the south-east region. It features sailing, windsurfing and canoeing. The Wombeyan Caves are 77 km north-east of Goulburn and there are five tours of the caves. Note that the road to the caves is tortuous and a visit can be a full day's expedition.
\BDescription:\b The Big Merino \I(Random House - photo by Graham Gittins)\i
#
"Grafton",70,"a\3\a2_0030.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 17,110\i
Jacaranda, wheel and flame trees line the streets of this pleasant garden town. Grafton is on the Pacific Highway at the junction with the Gwydir Highway some 665 km north of Sydney, 320 km south of Brisbane and 160 km east of Glen Innes.
Bordering the scenic Clarence River, Grafton is the commercial and cultural centre of the Clarence Valley cane-growing areas. The escaped convict Richard Craig discovered the district in 1831. In return for a pardon and a reward of 100 pounds, he brought a party of timber-fellers to log the cedar trees. John Small arrived as a settler in 1838 and occupied land on Woodford Island. The original town was established in 1839 and was simply known as Settlement. It was renamed Grafton by \JGovernor Fitzroy\j after his grandfather the Duke of Grafton. Two separate settlements developed, one on each side of the Clarence and initially the only connection was by rowing boat, although this was later replaced by a steam punt. A bridge across the river was opened in 1932. Grafton was made a city in 1885 but the town on the opposite bank, South Grafton, was a separate community until 1956, when the two sides were amalgamated.
The trees in this city did not grow by accident. As early as 1866, council by-laws encouraged the planting and preservation of trees, so now Grafton has more than 7,000, of which the most famous are the jacarandas.
The Clarence, once known as the Big River, is the largest river system on the northern NSW coast and, with its tributaries, drains an area of more than 2 million hectares. There is good boating on the Clarence, which also has good fishing. Worth seeing is Schaeffer House Museum, built in 1900 and now totally restored. South Grafton, across the bridge, is a perfect example of a 19th-century NSW river town.
\BDescription:\b Riding the rapids, Clarence River, Grafton \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Grafton - (2)",71,"a\3\a1_0027.jpg","c","0"
Some 25 km south of Grafton on the Pacific Highway is Merino Mac's Australian Agradome. This has trained sheep of different breeds who parade on stage. Kelpie sheepdogs go through their paces, and there is shearing and wool-classing.
Susan Island is in the Clarence River almost opposite Prince Street. Canoes for the trip to the island can be hired. One end of the island is rainforest with walking tracks and the largest fruit bat colony in the southern hemisphere. The southern section of the island has a picnic area and toilets.
The restored Prentice House, built in 1880, houses the Grafton Regional Art Gallery which runs a variety of exhibitions.
The national parks of the Clarence Valley are Yuraygir, Bundjalung, Gibraltar Range and Washpool.
\BDescription:\b Jacaranda trees at Goulburn \I(Random House - photo by Lee Pearce)\i
#
"Griffith",72,"a\3\a2_0022.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 21,594\i
Griffith is the largest town in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. It is 616 km south-west of Sydney and has a reputation for producing wine, rice and, occasionally, illicit substances.
The town was designed by Walter Burley Griffin, who also designed Canberra, and was named after Sir Arthur Griffith, the first Minister for Public Works in the NSW government. The irrigation area is the result of a series of experiments by Sir Samuel McCaughey on his North Yanco estate. The main storage reservoir for the scheme is the Burrinjuck Dam, from which the water flows along the Murrumbidgee. A second dam, Blowering, has been established on the Tumut River and between them the dams can hold 2,654,000 megalitres - roughly five times the amount in Sydney Harbour. When you consider that the explorer John Oxley called this 'the most barren, desolate country' you can see what a miracle irrigation has effected.
Scenic Hill to the north of the city is well signposted and from it you can see the amazing greenery created by the irrigation system.
\BDescription:\b Grape vines \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Gundagai",73,"a\3\gun1.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,726\i
Gundagai is situated north-west of Tumut. The name possibly came from an Aboriginal word meaning 'going upstream', or equally possibly from a phrase meaning 'to cut with a tomahawk at the back of the knee'. No one is quite sure. The original town, which started construction in 1842, was moved from the river bank up the slopes of Mt. Parnassus after the worst flood disaster in Australia's history. In 1852 a wall of water drowned 98 inhabitants - 30 per cent of the population.
The \IGundagai Independent\i reported: \I'On the night of Wednesday, 23 June 1852, about midnight, the river suddenly broke its banks and swept through the town. Whole families perished as the flood waters engulfed their homes. Many people took refuge in the brick hotels and stores, but the raging debris-filled flood waters swept all before them...All through the night, men, women and children clung to trees and roof-tops. Horses and cattle swept against them and struggled to get a foothold. Most of the buildings collapsed and the fugitives drowned. Dawn revealed a terrible spectacle. Hundreds were clinging to trees'.\i
A marker near the longest timber viaduct in Australia - 921 m long and listed by the National Trust - shows where the explorer Sturt made his crossing of the Murrumbidgee River.
Many folk songs have been written about \JGundagai\j, including the bowdlerised one about the dog which, in the original, performed an action described by a different past tense verb form that rhymes with 'sat' but is much less prosaic. The dog committed this foul deed at Five Mile Creek, 5 miles (8 km) to the north of \JGundagai\j. Jack Moses interpreted the incident in a poem and moved it to 'nine miles from \JGundagai\j'. Jack O'Hagan adapted the poem to a song and kept the distance at 9 miles.
There is a statue commemorating the poem which became a song which was sculpted by Frank Rusconi in 1932. And, yes, it \Iis\i nine miles from \JGundagai\j.
Within the tourist information centre in Sheridan Street is Frank Rusconi's marble masterpiece which is the model of a cathedral made up of 20,948 pieces of marble from all over Australia.
\BDescription:\b The dog on the tuckerbox \I(Graham Hamilton)\i
#
"Gunnedah",75,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 12,819\i
Gunnedah is at the junction of the Namoi and Mooki Rivers on the Oxley Highway 476 km from Sydney. The first property established here was originally known as Bulomin but the name changed to Gunnedah and a small settlement grew up around the woolshed. The town was gazetted in 1857.
Gunnedah is a wealthy pastoral and agricultural town and was the home town of Dorothy Mackellar who loved this sunburned country from her family's properties, Kurrumbede and the Rampadells, both of which are near Gunnedah. Mackellar is best known for 'My Country' which all Australian schoolchildren learn at an early age.
There is an equestrian memorial to this splendid lady in Anzac Park. The Water Tower Museum holds the collection of the local historical society, including information about the poet. A well signposted driving tour can be made around the town and its environs.
#
"Hawkesbury River",76,"a\3\hwksbry.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 57,381\i
New South Wales possesses some of the continent's biggest and most reliable rivers. Close to Sydney is the Hawkesbury River, one of the most beautiful of all and comparable in parts to the northern stretches of the Hudson River as it flows through New York state.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Webster Publishing\i.
#
"Hill End",77,"a\3\king0020.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 200\i
Hill End, with a population of 200, was once a major town, now a backwater whose historic buildings are often used as a backdrops for period movies. Hill End is 84 km from Bathurst and 289 km west of Sydney. The village is on totally common land, which means that the access road is sometimes blocked by wandering cows. In 1967 Hill End was declared an historic site, and is now administered by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
You can tell what once stood where because there are markers on the empty sites. St. Paul's Church, built in 1872, is still used.
The last pub remaining in Hill End is the Royal Hotel which dates from 1872. There is a small museum in the hospital that was built at the same date. Some of the shops have been restored and several of the houses are still lived in, but the old glory days have long departed. With its sister town of Tambaroora, Hill End had a population of 20,000 at one time, after the discovery of gold in 1851 made it one of the most profitable diggings in Australia. All the mining done here was alluvial; the right to mine ore had been allocated to a single company that used Cornish miners to attack the reef. In 1860 Hill End was surveyed as a town to accommodate the miners. Early returns were not impressive, but by the late1860s there was enough gold being mined to start another boom and Hill End was swept along on the wave. By 1873 Hill End had 53 hotels and 'a mile of shops'. It was, at the time, the largest inland centre in NSW.
Then came the Holtermann nugget. This was found on 19 October 1872 on the Star of Hope Gold Mining Company's lease. This company had been floated by Louis Beyers and Bernard Holtermann. The nugget was 1.5 m high by 0.5 m wide and weighed 236 kg. Its gold content was estimated to be in excess of 3,000 oz (85 kg). Strangely, the discovery of that immense nugget was the beginning of the end; by 1875 miners had started to drift away and by 1895 Hill End had become a ghost town.
\BDescription:\b Hill End during the goldrush days \I(Jonathan King)\i
#
"Hunter Valley",78,"a\3\1_0080.jpg","c","0"
Further up the coast from the Hawkesbury River is the Hunter River, which flows into the sea at Newcastle. Between Newcastle and the river lies the Hunter Valley, a basin containing some of Australia's finest vineyards and said to be the last place in Australia to dry up in times of drought.
The Hunter Valley, two hours north of Sydney, is a large area of lowland which has a wealth of natural resources. Some of the historic homesteads and grand mansions in the Hunter Valley date back to the early days of the colony. It is the site of the first vineyards in Australia, and these still produce some of Australia's finest wines.
There are more than 40 wineries in the Lower Hunter. Apart from wine production, the Hunter area has a heritage of fine colonial buildings, particularly around Maitland and Morpeth. Once an important inland trading post for the Hunter River Steam Navigation Company, Morpeth's quaint shopfronts, wharves and even the hitching posts along the main street still survive intact.
Centred on the town of Muswellbrook, the wines of the Upper Hunter seem to improve each year. Wineries such as Arrowfield, Petersens and Rosemount, the largest winemaker in the Upper Hunter, have proved that the area can produce exceptional chardonnay, as well as outstanding cabernet sauvignon and shiraz.
\BDescription:\b Hunter Valley winery \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Huskisson",79,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 3,054\i
Huskisson is on the shores of Jervis Bay and 24 km south-east of Nowra. The sands of Jervis Bay are renowned as the whitest in the world, and each Easter Huskisson hosts the White Sands Carnival.
The Lady Denman Heritage Complex is based on the old Sydney ferry the \ILady Denman.\i This was originally built at Huskisson and saw many years of service on Sydney Harbour. On retirement \ILady Denman\i was sailed back to her birthplace and placed in the park at the Heritage Complex which now contains the Museum of Jervis Bay, Science and the Sea. The park is open daily and the museum is open every day except on Monday. Nearby is the Lady Denman Aboriginal Arts and Crafts Centre. Huskisson boasts a shopping centre, a modern RSL club and bowling clubs.
#
"Illawarra",80,"a\3\dfat69.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation 113,503\i
The Illawarra region, just south of Sydney, is a blend of mountains and the sea. Its narrow coastal plains and beaches rise to an escarpment of great beauty.
The bushlands of the Royal National Park burst onto the ocean at Stanwell Park and surround all beaches south.
At Kiama, a blow-hole was discovered by explorer \JGeorge Bass\j in 1797. Rough seas spout water up to 60 metres like a mammoth rock-bound whale. Settled early, the area originally had only sea transport to Sydney.
\BDescription:\b Country surrounding Kiama \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Inverell",81,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 14,899\i
Inverell is famous for gemstones and is known as the Sapphire City of the North. It is the world's largest sapphire producer, producing an amazing 75 per cent of all the sapphires in the world. Again, most of the sapphires sold in Thailand as genuine Thai come from here. Inverell is on the Macintyre River and on the Gwydir Highway.
The name 'Inverell' is Gaelic for 'the meeting of the swans' which is a better name than the original, Green Swamp. Inverell started around a store owned by Colin Ross and became a town in 1858.
Some of Inverell's original wealth came from mining tin, which was originally discovered by Joseph Willis who was also known as 'Penny-weight' Joe. The town was in the centre of what was called Beardie Country because of the bearded bushmen who acted as guides to landseekers in the 1830s. Stephen Henry Roberts wrote in \IThe Squatting Age in Australia\i (1935): \I'Such men...bearded and unkempt, were much in demand at the time, when the rush of capitalists north from the Hunter was setting in. The newcomers wanted, above all things, guides or natives to lead them to unoccupied spots...\iThe district they opened was named after them "the land of the Beardies".'
The town has a mining museum, a sapphire centre and the Green Valley museum. There is also the Gilgai Winery, with tastings and cellar door sales. Fishing and fossicking are available, but for the latter you must have a licence which you can get at the tourist information centre.
#
"Jenolan Caves",82,"a\3\tony1.jpg","c","0"
The Jenolan Caves opened in 1866, and are one of the most famous underground limestone caves in Australia.
Amazing stalactites and stalagmites formations create incredible underground landscapes.
\BDescription:\b \I(Webster Publishing)\i
#
"Junee",83,"a\3\a2_0025.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 5,755\i
Junee is on the Murrumbidgee. It is an important rail town and commercial centre 446 km south-west of Sydney. It now houses Australia's first privately owned gaol. In 1862 a post office was opened here and the following year the village of Jewnee, spelled that way, was gazetted. The design of the town is unusual in that the railway is catered for with an impressive railway station, built in 1883. The name Junee can be taken to mean either 'speak to me' or 'frog'. Gold was worked at the Junee reefs before the turn of the century.
Junee came into its own when the railway line between Cootamundra and Wagga Wagga was opened as the workshops were sited in 1880 at Junee. The name was changed to Loftus in 1883 as a mark of respect to the governor-general of NSW, Lord Augustus Loftus. But the inhabitants kept calling the town 'Junee' and it eventually officially reverted to that name. The town has many fine old buildings on both sides of the railway track that bisect the town. Each side has a main street. Also in the area is Monte Cristo, a fine old historic home more than a century old which was built by Christopher William Crawley. It has now been restored and is open daily. There is a scenic drive to Mount Ulandra.
\BDescription:\b Farmland near Junee \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Katoomba",84,"a\3\sisters.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 16,927\i
Katoomba has been a holiday resort for Sydney since the last century. The three reasons for its growth were coolness in the summer months; clean air for tuberculosis sufferers - there are many health resorts still in the area - and access by railway. On one side Katoomba drops down vertically into the Jamison Valley and on the other side is the Grose Valley.
The Paragon Cafe in the main road is in a time warp of the 1920s and 1930s. Not far away is the popular lookout of Echo Point which has glorious view across to the Three Sisters and the sandstone walls that surround the valley and the blue haze, caused by vaporised gases released by the gums, that gives the area its name.
The best way to see Katoomba is to follow Cliff Drive which is well signposted and starts at the railway station, follows Lurline and Merriwa streets and then follows around the Jamison and Megalong valleys.
Along the drive are many lookouts, of which the most famous is undoubtedly Echo Point. From there you can see the Three Sisters - Mennhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo. This rock formation is very important in Aboriginal legend, although this does not stop rock climbers from clambering all over it. The stone from which these are made is sandstone which is well weathered and crumbly and, as a result, accidents in this area are not infrequent.
To the right of Echo Point you can see the Ruined Castle and Mt. Solitary, and it is possible to pick out many animal shapes on the mountains on the other side of the valley. This is one lookout where a pair of binoculars will prove invaluable.
For those who are energetic and do not have heart problems, the Giant Stairway of nearly 1,000 steps leads to the floor of the Jamison Valley. The easier Prince Henry Cliff Walk leads left towards Leura or right towards the Scenic Railway complex. The Scenic Railway was originally part of a mine and the ride down to the Jamison Valley is reputed to be one of the steepest in the world, although the idea that it is not for the faint-hearted seems more publicity hype than reality.
Cliff Drive ends at Katoomba Holiday Caravan Park on the Great Western Highway.
The Explorers' Tree, on the highway 2 km west of Katoomba, commemorates the crossing of the \JBlue Mountains\j by Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson.
\BDescription:\b The famous Three Sisters at Katoomba \I(Webster Publishing).\i
#
"Katoomba - (2)",85,"a\2\stew2.jpg","c","0"
To the right of Echo Point you can see the Ruined Castle and Mt. Solitary, and it is possible to pick out many animal shapes on the mountains on the other side of the valley. This is one lookout where a pair of binoculars will prove invaluable.
For those who are energetic and do not have heart problems, the Giant Stairway of nearly 1,000 steps leads to the floor of the Jamison Valley. The easier Prince Henry Cliff Walk leads left towards Leura or right towards the Scenic Railway complex. The Scenic Railway was originally part of a mine and the ride down to the Jamison Valley is reputed to be one of the steepest in the world, although the idea that it is not for the faint-hearted seems more publicity hype than reality.
Cliff Drive ends at Katoomba Holiday Caravan Park on the Great Western Highway.
The Explorers' Tree, on the highway 2 km west of Katoomba, commemorates the crossing of the \JBlue Mountains\j by Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson.
\BDescription:\b \I(Webster Publishing)\i
#
"Kempsey",86,"a\3\goolabah.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 26,430\i
Kempsey was named by Enoch Rudder, a Sydney merchant, after the English Town in Worcestershire. Rudder built the first major building in the area, Kempsey House.
Kempsey is 48 km north of Port Macquarie, 461 km north of Sydney and straddles the Macleay River. It is on the Pacific Highway and is the biggest town in the Macleay Valley. Kempsey is the commercial centre for a growing pastoral, tourist and light industrial area.
In the town is the Macleay River Historical Societies' Museum which is open every day and also houses the tourist centre. Nearby Bellbrook is a National Trust classified village. Also in the area is the Macleay Valley Wildlife sanctuary. Kempsey has some interesting old buildings, but primarily it is the position that is advantageous: close to the scenic beauty of the ranges to the west and the coast in the east. Along the coast is Trial Bay with impressive ruins, and Crescent Head, one of the best surfing beaches in NSW. The beaches near Kempsey have patrolled sections which are safe for families. The beaches stretch north from the mouth of the Macleay River to Kempsey Shire's boundary above Middle Head.
\BDescription:\b Near Kempsey \I(Mel Smith)\i.
#
"Kiama",87,"a\3\a2_0023.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 17,706\i
Kiama is where, in 1797, explorer \JGeorge Bass\j anchored his small boat. The town was gazetted in 1838 and is now a minor commercial fishing port - less than half a dozen fishing boats with recreational boats in the great majority - and a beach resort surrounded by a dairying district. The blowhole on the southern end of the bay is well known and a major tourist attraction. Although it is eroding with time, it can still be fatally dangerous, so take care. Nearby is the quaint small harbour and the antique lighthouse. There is a well developed shopping area.
Hartwell, a mid 19th-century house, still has a hitching post and a mounting block outside its coach house. A row of restored timber terrace cottages in Collins street, now used as antique and craft shops and cafes, are protected by the National Trust as they are the only examples of their kind still standing in NSW. Kiama has been a tourist destination since the late 19th century because it is ideally situated for scenic drives to such places as Gerringong and Jamberoo. A wildlife sanctuary is nearby and there is grass skiing.
\BDescription:\b Fishing boats at Kiama \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Kurri Kurri",88,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 13,268\i
Kurri Kurri was a coal town 172 km north of Sydney near Maitland which has become a farming centre. The town came about during of the development of the South Maitland coalfields. Kurri Kurri can be translated as 'man' or 'the very first'.
In 1886, T.W. Edgeworth David, an assistant geological surveyor with the Department of Mines, worked out that the seams in the Lochinvar are dipped away to the south. This discovery led to the establishment of the South Maitland coalfield. As collieries were opened, villages grew up to house the miners.
In 1903 the first land sale took place in Kurri Kurri. Development in the town was rapid. By the following year 180 cottages and places of business had been erected. Mining remained the main occupation of the town until the 1950s, by which time the major pits in the area had closed. As for many other Hunter Valley towns, agriculture took the place of coal.
#
"Leeton",89,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 11,031\i
Leeton is part of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, and was designed by Walter Burley Griffin, the architect who designed \JCanberra\j. It has often won NSW Tourism Awards for 'Tidy Towns' and 'Best Tourist Town'. Leeton is 585 km south west of Sydney, next door to Yanco and about 24 km from Narrandera. Apart from tourism, the town's main occupation is the processing of fruit. There is a large cannery, a fruit juice factory, and a vineyard. There is also a rice mill.
#
"Leura",90,"a\3\a1_0018.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,775\i
Leura is one of the tourist resorts of the \JBlue Mountains\j, somewhat more upmarket than Katoomba. There are great views of the Three Sisters and the Jamison Valley at Sublime Point which is at the end of Sublime Point Road. The Everglades is one of the great gardens of Australia and is classified by the National Trust.
Leuralla, an historic art deco mansion belonging to the Evatt family, has a collection of 19th-century Australian art and a memorial museum to Dr \JH.V. Evatt\j. There is also a toy and railway museum.
Nearby is Gordons Falls Reserve, a pleasant picnic area, with toilets, a gentle walk away from the Pool of Siloam and Lyrebird Dell. There are a number of bushwalks that start from Leura Cascades on Cliff Drive, with a Round Walk that takes about 40 minutes.
\BDescription:\b View from a Leura walk \I(Random House - photo by P.J. O'Reilly)\i
#
"Lightning Ridge",91,"a\3\1_0073.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,522\i
The opal country of Lightning Ridge owes its origins to the discovery there of surface opal in 1902. Prized since the time of the Pharaohs, no two opals are identical.
They range from subtle pastels to rich, deep colours, and their value is determined not only by size and colour but also by their brightness, pattern and shape. Quality black opals are prized above all and this is the only area in the world where they are found.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Lismore",92,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 42,954\i
Lismore is on the banks of the Wilson River inland from Ballina on the Bruxna Highway. It is 787 km from Sydney and 222 km from Brisbane.
It originally became important as a timber-shipping centre. You can still see a few traces of the jetties where the ships that came upriver loaded cedar. Today it is still well known for its timber but the emphasis has shifted to conserving it in the Reserves of Boat Harbour, Rotary Rainforest, and Wilsons Park. A giant cedar log in the small park behind the City Hall commemorates the early cedar-loggers of the Richmond Valley.
To see the town from above, drive to the Claude Riley Memorial Lookout, 3 km to the north-east along the New Ballina Cutting, or to Robinson's Lookout, 2 km south of the city centre. Both offer views of the city, the river and the surrounding countryside.
The Richmond River Historical Society Museum contains a collection of Aboriginal artefacts and pioneer relics.
At the Wilsons River Heritage Centre, which was established during the Bicentennial year of 1988, there is an unusual and interestingly executed walk-through, indoor 'rainforest experience'. A walking track that starts at Albert Park and is 6.5 km long takes you through Wilsons Park, a remnant of rainforest with many trees identified by plaques. Lismore Lake is 2.5 km from Lismore on the Casino road.
#
"Lithgow",93,"a\3\zigzag.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 19,248\i
From the \JBlue Mountains\j west of Sydney, you get to Lithgow by either dropping precipitously down from Bells Line of Road or coming in by way of Katoomba. The town is 140 km west of Sydney.
Lithgow is a coal-mining town, on the fringes of the mountains, that had its start when Thomas Brown discovered coal here in 1841. The town has a splendid main street lined with Victorian business architecture, but as King Coast abdicates, the town seems quieter every year, despite the fact that it now calls itself the City of Greater Lithgow.
The town also has a number of museums and historical sites, but pride of place as a tourist attraction goes to the Zig Zag railway a few kilometres outside town on Bells Line of Road. A steam engine pulls a small train over a breathtaking circuit.
Nearby Capetree produced Dargin's Grey in the 1880s. This was one of the most famous bucking horses in the history of Australia and he was bred at Wallerawang where now stands the power station. Jack Prendergast, one of the most famous riders of the day, said, \I'Why, I believe that if that grey was lying down at his last gasp and anyone got on him, he'd get up and buck himself to death.'\i
Lord Howe Island hosts ancient forest-clad volcanic peaks and a turquoise blue lagoon. Lord Howe boasts the southernmost coral reef in the world and a subtropical climate. Tourism is the major industry. Lord Howe is protected, unspoilt and undeveloped, and it has deliberately restricted its tourist intake to preserve its natural beauty.
Discovered in 1788 and first settled by Europeans around 1834, the island's population still numbers only 300, many of whom are descendants of the original settlers. Life here is very different - there is no television, few street lights, and the bicycle is the main form of transport.
\BDescription:\b \IWebster Publishing\i.
#
"Maitland",95,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 49,941\i
It was in Maitland, in the Hunter Valley in 1923, that the sport of speedway racing was introduced. The town has coal, agriculture, assorted other industries and saleyards. It has become almost a suburb of Newcastle because of its proximity and pleasant aspect. Maitland was started in 1818 by convict cedar-getters and by 1840 was a full-sized town. It contains some historic houses dating from those times.
#
"Mittagong",96,"a\3\a1_0019.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 5,666\i
Mittagong is situated south-west of Sydney near Bowral and Moss Vale and dates back to 1821 when William Chalker, then principal overseer of government stock at the Cowpastures (now called Camden) received a 200 acre (80.9 ha) grant on the Old South Road. He died before he could take up the grant but his widow, after a legal struggle, was able to run the property. There are many of their descendants in the area. In 1988 members of the extended Chalker family built a cairn on the Old South Road, marking the site of the original grant. It is worth going to see; from there you get an excellent view of Mittagong and the surrounding countryside.
At one time it was intended to be an industrial town - it was planned to process iron and steel - but this never came to fruition. In the 1860s there was something of a building boom and many of the sandstone buildings of that period still exists both in the public buildings and as small sandstone cottages. Many can be found in the side streets between the Hume Highway and Lake Alexandra.
Today there is much to see and do; there is a butterfly house and a maze, as well as many natural wonders. There are also many well-planned walks through the surrounding hills, including one to the old Box Vale Mine. There are also several walking tracks around the shore of Lake Alexandra, which was built by damming drainage water from the town and now attracts a wide variety of birdlife.
A day's expedition is to Mt. Gibraltar which is 863 m high and is known locally as the Gib. It is the highest point between the Illawarra coast and the Great Dividing Range beyond the Wollondilly River. The mountain and its several lookouts can be reached by following Oxley Drive from Mittagong.
\BDescription:\b Memorial clock at Mittagong \I(Random House - photo by Grahan Gittins)\i
#
"Moama",97,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 8,445\i
Moama is directly across the Murray River from its sister town of Echuca in Victoria and 822 km south of Sydney. This is paddle-steamer territory, and the restored port of Echuca is interesting.
The towns came into being in 1845 when James Maiden set up a punt service across the river on the Moama side and Henry Hopwood set up a punt and built an inn on the Echuca side.
Moama became a large cattle market supplying meat to the gold-diggers and prospered until the gold dried up. Echuca, thanks to the business savvy of Henry Hopwood, became the railway terminal for the line from Melbourne and eventually this transformed Echuca into Australia's largest inland port.
You can see how all this happened by taking a river cruise, which is readily available. Nearby are the Moira and Barmah forest for bushwalking.
#
"Mollymook",98,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 12,286\i
Mollymook exists mainly because of its surfing beach. This is patrolled daily during the holidays by members of the Mollymook Surf Life Saving Club. Mollymook is 232 km south of Sydney and 2 km north of Ulladulla.
Two further natural attractions are the Bogey Hole, a circular natural rock pool, and Collers Beach, which is reached by way of Golf Avenue and Riversdale Avenue.
#
"Moree",99,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 15,517\i
Moree is situated at the junction of the Gwydir and Newell Highways, 679 km north-west of Sydney on the Gwydir River which flows through the town. Within the town the banks of the river are all reserves and parks.
For those with a slightly macabre turn of mind, a visit to the graveyard is rewarding. The names of some noted residents of Moree and district can be seen on headstones to the left of the main gates. Perhaps the most famous is that of Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, the youngest son of the great author Charles Dickens. Once Mayor of Wilcannia, his fortunes later declined and he died while working for the Lands Office in Moree.
There are a number of museums in the town, but a major reason for a visit is to partake of the waters. The artesian bore that was put down originally for irrigation proved to be too high in minerals to be of much use as stock water or for irrigation. The high sulphur content, however, seems to be good for arthritis and general aches and pains. The Moree Artesian Spa Baths are world-famous and provide two hot pools, an Olympic-sized swimming pool and two toddlers' pools. The water is a constant 40 degrees Celsius.
#
"Moss Vale",100,"a\3\a1_0017.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 5,690\i
Moss Vale is high in the Southern Highlands; this town is an agricultural and industrial centre. It is on land granted originally to the explorer Charles Throsby, who was prominent in the exploration of NSW. His nephew, confusingly also named Charles, came to live in the district with his uncle and built Throsby Park, in which members of the family lived until 1990. This was originally a Georgian house, but over the years bits and pieces have been added. Throsby Park is open on the last Sunday of every month. Nearby is Cecil Hoskins Reserve which has a large amount of birdlife.
Moss Vale is a good base from which to explore Morton National Park, one of the largest parks in NSW. Much of its 154,000 ha is virgin bushland with 55 km of river frontage. The Fitzroy Falls are within 100 m of the car park and cascade 82 m to the valley below. Two planned walking tracks run each side of the escarpment and provide stunning views from a series of lookouts. These are not difficult hikes as the tracks only run about 3 km.
\BDescription:\b Band Rotunda, Moss Vale \I(Random House - photo Graham Gittins)\i
#
"Mudgee",101,"a\3\r1222.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 17,074\i
Mudgee is on the Cudgegong River 69 km north of Hill End. This town is well planned - it was laid out in 1838 and is the second oldest town west of the \JBlue Mountains\j - and has many historic buildings classified by the National Trust, some of which are floodlit at night. The oldest of these is the Catholic presbytery which was built in 1852. St. Mary's Church was started in 1857 and has interesting stencilled decorations.
Mudgee is a town steeped in history of goldmining from the 1860s. Thousands of immigrants moved to the new goldfields west of the \JBlue Mountains\j. Places like Hargraves, Hill End, Gulgong and Windeyer became tent cities overnight. Today the goldfields are quiet.
Mudgee is becoming famous for its rose gardens and now it has a Days of Wine and Roses Festival in September-October every year. Nearby Cudgegong River Park has many bushwalking trails and the Burrendong Dam has facilities for many water sports, as well as camping.
Mudgee is also famous for its wines and honey. Superfine wool and mohair production are two other industries which are showing enormous growth.
\BDescription:\b Mudgee earlier this century \I(Royal Australian Historical Society)\i.
#
"Murray River",102,"a\3\murray2.jpg","c","0"
South of Sydney, the Murray and its tributaries include the Darling, a river that flows down over north-western New South Wales and by another name into Queensland, forming a river system of over 600,000 square kilometres. The system is the basis of vital irrigation systems, including the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and the Riverina.
\BDescription:\b Murray River \I(Readers Digest)\i.
#
"Murray-Riverina",103,"a\3\mrrmbge.jpg","c","0"
The Murray-Riverina was described as a 'barren desolation, a howling wilderness' by \JJohn Oxley\j when he first discovered it in 1817.
The region embraces not only the major inland cities of Albury-\JWodonga\j and Wagga Wagga, the two mighty rivers of the Murray and the Murrumbidgee (Aboriginal for 'never-failing water supply'), but also the staggeringly rich Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.
This irrigation giant has transformed an arid semi-desert into a fertile patchwork of fields and paddocks where food and wine for millions of Australians is produced. Fruit and vegetables, rice, fat lambs and prime cattle thrive here.
Bushrangers \JNed Kelly\j, \JBen Hall\j, Captain Moonlight and \JMad Dog Morgan\j made these districts their stamping ground and preyed on the wealth created by the goldfields. Reminders of the abandoned goldfields and diggings still exist.
\BDescription:\b Murrumbidgee River \I(Peter Luck)\i.
#
"Murwillumbah",104,"a\3\a2_0024.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 8,003\i
Murwillumbah is the centre of the agricultural district of the Tweed Valley, with dairying, banana-growing, sugar production and timber-milling. The site where the town stands, 865 km north of Sydney, was surveyed in 1872, at which time it was variously known as Tweed River Junction, Wollumben or Kynnumboon. The final name chosen was Murwillumbah, which can be translated as 'a place of many possums' or, alternatively, as 'a good camping-ground'. Although the town was named there was little development until 1894 when the railway reached the town, enabling the agricultural potential of the district to be developed. Murwillumbah has been flooded several times and in 1907 a further disaster struck when a fire in the centre of the town razed some 60 buildings. Nevertheless, the town was soon rebuilt. The Tweed River Historical Society Museum in the old Council Chambers has a collection of local historical material which shows how the floods and the fire affected the town.
About 1.5 km to the north is Avocado Land, where you can take an informative tractor train ride through the plantation and buy avocados and other tropical fruit.
Charles Campbell runs the Tweed Valley Tourist Gardens which are 17 km to the north and are open daily. He is known as the 'king of hippies' not because of his leadership of the flower generation but because of the thousands upon thousands of \IHippeastrum\i blooms he has planted in his garden which overlooks the valley down to the coast at Kingscliff.
\BDescription:\b Mt. Warning \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Muswellbrook",105,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 15,562\i
Muswellbrook is in the Hunter Valley 295 km north of Sydney and surrounded by pastoral activities which are somewhat at odds with the large open-cut coal mine in the area. There are eight wineries not far from the town and all are open seven days a week for tasting and sales. There is a private museum at Matt Peel's quarterhorse stud 12 km west. The nearby Wollemi National Park has excellent bushwalking, and there are many excellent scenic drives in the area.
#
"Nambucca Heads",106,"a\3\a2_0028.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 17,610\i
Nambucca Heads is a beautiful spot on the Nambucca River mouth 550 km north of Sydney and 114 km south of Coffs Harbour. It is popular as a stopover for road travellers on the way north, and as a holiday spot in its own right. Placed in the middle of a banana-growing district, it has excellent boating and fishing, with good swimming and nearby surfing spots. There are many attractions within the town and nearby, including the Nambucca Historical Museum and Mary Boulton's Pioneer Cottage.
\BDescription:\b South Beach, Nambucca Heads \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Narrabri",107,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 14,101\i
Narrabri is on the Namoi River. It is the commercial centre for the Namoi Valley and 580 km north-west of Sydney. The town is between the Nandewar Range and the Pilliga Scrub country and in the centre of an extremely successful cotton-growing area. There is an agricultural show in April and Spring Festival in October.
The history of the town is interesting. It began in 1834 when Patrick Quinn and Andrew Doyle established the Nurraby sheep cattle run. A settlement grew up to service the station, and this further grew in the 1870s as free settlement developed in areas previously monopolised by large pastoral runs. A bridge over the Namoi was built in 1880 and the railway came to Narrabri two years later.
The original post office remains in the centre of town much as it was when it was built in 1879 and there are several other buildings from that period. Nearby are scenic drives to Mount Kaputar National Park, which has good bushwalking tracks.
#
"Narrandera",108,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 7,141\i
Narrandera is on the Newell Highway in the Riverina 584 km south-west of Sydney. It is a historic town on the banks of the Murrumbidgee and an urban conservation area.
The town dates back to a station of the same name in the 1840s and one translation of the name is 'the place of lizards'. The town was gazetted in 1863 making it one of the oldest towns in the Riverina. In 1865 it was still not a major town. Rolf Boldrewood described it as 'two hotels, a small store and a large graveyard'. It expanded considerably after the coming of the railroad in 1881.
Much of this history can be seen in the Parkside Cottage Museum which is open from Thursday to Monday and is on the corner from Thursday to Monday and is on the corner of the Newell Highway. The Narrandera Park and Miniature Zoo is also on the Newell Highway and near the shopping centre and adjacent to the tourist information centre, which is a good place to rest and orient oneself.
The local Lake Talbot Aquatic Playground and caravan complex has a 100 m slide, three pools and a waterskiing area. Nearby is an inland fisheries research station and a koala regeneration centre park.
#
"Nelson Bay",109,"a\3\picket.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,766\i
Nelson Bay is the main anchorage for Port Stephens, 60 km north of Newcastle and 226 km north of Sydney. Nelson Bay has good beaches and sheltered sailing. River cruises are available as well as cruises to the Broughton Island group offshore.
\BDescription:\b View from the lighthouse \I(Webster Publishing)\i
#
"Nelson Bay - (2)",110,"a\3\water1.jpg","c","0"
There is also very good fishing in the whole area, with the Myall River also offering extensive boating. Oakvale Farm and Fauna World provide an interesting day's excursion. There are many scenic drives, bushwalks in nearby Tomaree National Park and nude bathing at Samurai Beach.
\BDescription:\b Nelson Bay \I(Webster Publishing)\i
#
"Newcastle",111,"a\3\1_0072.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 133,686\i
Newcastle itself is the biggest industrial city and one of the largest cities in Australia and the second largest in New South Wales. It is situated 171 km north of Sydney and 827 km south of Brisbane.
The site of Newcastle was discovered when Lieutenant Shortland was searching for convict escapees in 1797 and discovered coal. This, together with steel, dominated life in Newcastle up to the mid 1960s.
It is a wealthy city, and it was to the north of Newcastle that the colony spread even before a way had been discovered through the \JBlue Mountains\j into the western Tablelands area.
There was a major earthquake in Newcastle on 28 December 1989, with the loss of lives and many buildings. The city has not yet totally recovered.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"New England Tablelands",112,"a\3\nwengld.jpg","c","0"
The high tablelands of the New England area with its plateaus, deep gorges, spectacular waterfalls, rivers and streams, and vast pastoral holdings in an invigorating alpine climate contrast with the coastal region, a short drive away on the other side of the Great Divide.
At the heart of this region is the university city of Armidale, with its historic buildings including \IBooloominbah\i, built between 1883 and 1888. Fallow deer imported from Indonesia in the 1890s roam alongside wallabies and kangaroos in the Deer Park nearby.
The towns of Glen Innes, Inverell, Tenterfield, Walcha, Uralla and Guyra are scattered across country where giant granite formations known as Devil's Marbles, some 225 million years old, loom up out of paddocks and the bush in the wilderness parks.
Bald Rock near Tenterfield rises up 200 metres, with a solid dome 750 metres long and 500 metres wide. This exposed monolith is said to be the second largest in the world, \JAyers Rock\j being the largest.
\BDescription:\b Boonoo Boonoo, New England Tablelands \I(Readers Digest).\i
#
"Norfolk Island",113,"a\3\8526.jpg","c","0"
When Captain Cook led a landing party onto Norfolk Island in 1774, he saw a unique community of plants and animals, and impressive rainforest dominated by the majestic Norfolk Island pine.
Today in the Norfolk Island National Park you can see something of the character of the island as it was when Cook first landed. The park covers 460 hectares and includes the best of the island's remaining rainforest and some particularly attractive coastline.
Apart from the mountains of New Caledonia, Norfolk and its nearby islands are the highest points on the otherwise submerged Norfolk Ridge, an elongated submarine rise that runs between New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is relatively young, the product of volcanic eruptions about 3 million years ago.
Molten rock, flowing from a volcano near the present Mount Pitt and Mount Bates, formed most of the island today. The relentless force of the sea has eroded the island to only a fraction of its original size and formed a coastline of high cliffs. Volcanic rocks have weathered in the moist subtropical climate to form rich red soils.
\BDescription:\b Nobbs Isle, Norfolk Island around 1890s \I(RAHS)\i.
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"Norfolk Island - (2)",114,"a\3\frost1.jpg","c","0"
Although there may have been more islands along the Norfolk Ridge in the past, plants and animals would still have needed to cross vast distances over water to colonise Norfolk Island. Those species that did manage to establish were able to exploit the island's favourable environment without many of their previous competitors.
Over time, some evolved features better suited to their changed circumstances and at the time of settlement, Norfolk had more than 150 species of plants and animals that were endemic (unique) to the island.
As happens on many islands, aggressive predators and competitors accompanied early settlers and the endemic wildlife suffered. The trusting nature of island birds also made them easy food for hungry settlers, and the removal of forest habitat compounded their difficulties. Norfolk has lost some of its endemic species since settlement. Others are endangered.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Alan Frost\i.
#
"Norfolk Island - (3)",115,"a\3\frost2.jpg","c","0"
With a favourable climate and rich soil, luxuriant subtropical rainforest flourished on Norfolk Island. Although past grazing, logging and competition from weeds have altered the forest in parts of the national park, there are many places where natural forest remains.
Forest dominated by the well-known majestic Norfolk Island pine \IAraucaria heterophylla\i, mainly occurs on the ridges and upper slopes of the park. Tree ferns prefer the moister gullies where they can reach an impressive size. Mixed hardwood forest with trees such as maple \IElaeodendron curtipendulum\i and ironwood \INestegis apetala\i grow on the mid-slopes of the island.
"Northern New South Wales",116,"a\3\d_0049.jpg","c","0"
The 'hippie' settlements of Nimbin and Mullumbimby form compatible rural communities with local farming families. Many settlements in the area have market days for the selling of homemade crafts, foods and clothes.
Many of these localities have been the site of campaigns where environmentalists have fought to save the rainforests. These are areas of glorious scenery, with rich and varied vegetation and rare bird and animal life.
\BDescription:\b North Coast of New South Wales, Thora \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Nowra",117,"a\3\a2_0026.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 21,942\i
Nowra is 13 km inland from Shoalhaven Heads on the Princes Highway. It is the centre for business and tourism for the Shoalhaven Shire, which has a population in excess of 60,000. The city of Shoalhaven, of which Nowra is the centre, extends from Durras to Berry and has more than a hundred ocean, bay and lakeside beaches. The Shoalhaven River at Nowra has excellent fishing, both river and sea. You can cruise the river and Jervis Bay in boats which are for hire. Across the river is the old Shoalhaven River bridge, built in 1881. A second bridge was erected in 1980. Ben's Walk is a track that follows river bank from the Shoalhaven River Bridge to Nowra Creek, which is spanned by a suspension bridge.
Meroogal, a historic house built by Robert Taylor-Thorburn in 1886, is on the corner of West and Worrigee streets. It is now owned by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales, and is open to the public on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A Shoalhaven Historical Museum is open on Saturdays and Sundays, except in the school holidays, when it is open every day.
Waterskiing, canoeing and swimming are popular in the area and there are some very good surfing beaches.
The Royal Australian Naval Air Station, HMAS \IAlbatross,\i is 9 km to the south-west of Nowra and is the home of the Fleet Air Arm. The Naval Aviation Museum at the Air Station has what is reputed to be the finest collection of historic military aircraft in Australia and a good collection of engines, aviation equipment, models, uniforms and memorabilia.
\BDescription:\b Hanging rock over Shoalhaven River, Nowra \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Orange",118,"a\3\a1_0020.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 33,964\i
Orange is on the road between Bathurst and Molong, 266 km west of Sydney, and is on the lower slopes of Mt. Canobolas. It is near the birthplace of A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson - there is an obelisk to commemorate the fact in the centre of town - and is the hub of a major farming area: fruit, cattle, sheep, wheat and pigs all prosper on the red volcanic soil.
This is a most civilised country town which has grown and prospered with the area. The houses on the tree-lined main street as you leave towards Molong are examples of Australian country architecture at its very best. Most visitors will arrive after driving over the \JBlue Mountains\j and then dropping down through Lithgow and on to Bathurst. By the time you get to Orange you have arrived in the true Australian countryside.
This town's prosperity was not just built on farming. Twenty-seven kilometres to the north lie the Ophir goldfields, named after goldfields in South Africa, where the first payable gold in Australia was discovered by Edward Hargraves in 1851. You can still fossick for gold there but the most you can expect are a few traces.
From Orange you can drive up to Mt. Canobolas and then, leaving the car, wander about the marked nature trails. Lake Canobolas and Mt. Canobolas - two separate parks - lie just south-west of Orange and have, respectively, a recreation park built around the lake with a deer park and camping area with hot showers and a 1,500 ha bird and animal sanctuary.
\BDescription:\b Begonia House - Cook Park, Orange \I(Random House - photo by P.J. O'Reilly)\i
#
"Parkes",119,"a\3\a2_0027.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 15,098\i
Parkes was named after \JHenry Parkes\j, known as the 'Father of Federation'. It is an agricultural and business town, often referred to as the 'gateway to the stars' because a huge radio telescope stands nearby. Parkes is 121 km south-west of Dubbo and 364 m west of Sydney. It is the major service centre for the whole of the Lachlan valley.
Most visitors are there to see the radio telescope. Go north on the Newell Highway for 20 km when you will come to Telescope Road which you follow for 6 km and then follow the signs. The visitors' centre is open daily and shows an excellent audio-visual presentation.
The radio telescope is purely for astronomy. It is sited where it is because this is a very low radio-interference zone that has a low recorded average wind speed. The telescope normally operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Parkes has other attractions, including the \JHenry Parkes\j Historical Museum in Clarinda Street and the Motor Museum-Craft Corner on the corner of Bogan Street.
\BDescription:\b Radio Telescope at Parkes \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Port Macquarie",120,"a\3\a1_0016.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 26,798\i
Port Macquarie was settled as a place for convicts in 1821. 'Port' as it is known, is one of the oldest towns in the State. A major holiday resort, it is situated at the mouth of the Hastings River, 423 km north of Sydney. The temperatures range from 25 degrees Celsius maximum to 7 degrees Celsius as a rare minimum. The \JCSIRO\j has stated that Port Macquarie has the most ideal climate in Australia.
In October 1818 the explorer \JJohn Oxley\j reached the mouth of the Hastings River and described the area as '...a beautiful point of land, having plenty of good water and grass, and commanding a fine view of the interior of the port and the surrounding country'. He named the inlet Port Macquarie in honour of then governor of the colony of NSW. Port Macquarie was established in 1821 by a pioneer party of soldiers and convicts, partly to build a forward post from which escaping convicts could be tracked down. It was also seen as a place of severe punishment for those convicts who had, in the opinion of the authorities, committed further offences after their arrival in NSW. Newcastle, which had originally been favoured, had become ineffective because the settled areas had grown around it. Port Macquarie was considered ideal as it was the most northerly point of settlement in the colony, was isolated and could be reached only by sea. But by the late 1820s even this did not hold true and civilian settlement in the area started. From then on there was no looking back, and Port Macquarie eventually became the important town that it is today.
\BDescription:\b \I(Random House - photo by Stuart Fox)\i
Guided tours are organised in Port Macquarie by the visitor information centre. Some of the sights are Port Macquarie Observatory, which allows visitors to look at the stars and the universe by way of the planetarium and telescope; the Hastings District Historical Museum which won the Australian Museum of the Year Award two years in a row.
Macquarie Nature Reserve has a historic visitors' centre. You can picnic in the grounds and visit the Koala Hospital, or see the healthy marsupials being fed at 8.00 am and 3.30 pm.
For non-historical fun there is Peppermint Park near Flynns Beach, which has water slides, mini golf, dodgems and roller blading in landscaped parkland.
Tacking Point lighthouse is the third oldest in the country. Nearby is Lighthouse Beach where, at the southern end, Camel Safaris offer camel rides. Cassegrain's Hastings Valley Winery on the Pacific Highway is open every day for wine tasting and cellar door sales. The Sea Acres Rainforest Centre, Pacific Drives, has a boardwalk 1.3 km long in a 6.2 ha park of coastal rainforest.
Finally, Fantasy Glades is set in 2.5 ha of land and has ghosts, castles, dragons, witches, dwarves, mini cars and train rides.
\BDescription:\b Fantasy Glades at Port Macquarie \I(Nelson and Tanya Hamilton)\i
#
"Queanbeyan",122,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 27,414\i
Queanbeyan is right next door to \JCanberra\j, but in NSW not the ACT. Queanbeyan, on the junction of the Molonglo and Queanbeyan Rivers, has always had a special relationship with the nation's capital. The town, named from a pub run by ex-convict innkeeper Timothy Bear, was proclaimed in 1838 and has grown at a rate of knots since then.
Of interest are the Bungendore Historic Village square which has an exhibition depicting the story of Jacky Jacky, the Aboriginal bushranger; Bywong Mining Town; Rehwinkel's Animal Farm; Queanbeyan History Museum and Byrne's Mill. There are also craft shops, antique shops and a herbal farm. For an overall view of the area drive to the Bungendore lookout, 4 km to the east.
#
"Raymond Terrace",123,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 11,159\i
Raymond Terrace hit its apogee in the 1840s when it was an important wool-shipping centre. It is a largish town in the Port Stephens district 196 km north of Sydney. No one is certain how it got its name, but \JGovernor Macquarie\j referred to it in 1818 and the town site was reserved in 1822. Agriculture started here ten years later; vines were planted and the first wine from Raymond Terrace was produced in 1836. Many of the remaining historic buildings in this town date from its heyday as an important wool-shipping centre in 1840s. Sadly, serious floods in 1857 seriously retarded its progress although some shipping continued until well into this century.
For the visitor the Heritage Town Walk takes in many of the buildings of historical note: the 1838 courthouse which is still being used for its original purpose; the first homestead, Irrawang, which was built in 1830 by James King; the sandstone Church of England and the rectory. Further afield there is Sketchley Pioneer Cottage some 8 km from the town and the RAAF base has an aircraft museum.
#
"Richmond",124,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 8,992\i
Richmond was originally known as Richmond Hill, perhaps after the suburb of London which gave us the song Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill. Richmond is a Macquarie Town on the Hawkesbury and the sister town to Windsor 8 km away. It was gazetted in 1810 on a site above flood level chosen by \JGovernor Macquarie\j.
Richmond has had a connection with aviation from the earliest days. In 1912 W.E Hart moved his flying school here from Penrith and the School of Aviation was established in 1916. This became an RAAF base in 1927 and still operates as such.
The Richmond Estate Winery makes premium wines and has tastings and cellar door sales. In the grounds of St. Peter's Church, built in 1841, there are the graves of many notable pioneers, including \JWilliam Cox\j and Australia's convict chronicler \JMargaret Catchpole\j. The University of Western Sydney is south of Richmond and its foundation stone was laid in 1985.
#
"Sawtell",125,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 10,809\i
Sawtell is a popular family holiday resort with peaceful swimming spots as well as good surfing beaches and quiet creeks. Coffs Harbour is 13 km north, Nambucca Heads is 35 km south and Sydney 569 km to the south. There are comfortable walks through pleasant coastal countryside, including the Sawtell reserve.
Although the town has been gazetted since 1861, it was not until 1920 that a school was opened, at which time the name of the town was either Bonnie Bonville or Bonville Reserve. In 1927 the name was changed to Sawtell by landowner Oswald Sawtell of Dorrigo who purchased the land. The railway came to the town in 1925. In recent years the town has grown very rapidly as a holiday resort.
Just off the Pacific Highway on Lyons Road are the Storyland Gardens. These are open daily during the school holidays and contain a house which is an Old Woman's Shoe set in sweeping lawns and gardens. The owners live in the shoe.
There is white-water rafting on the adjacent Nymboida and Gwydir Rivers.
#
"Scone",126,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 9,518\i
Scone is a small town in the rolling countryside of New England and is the second-largest horse-breeding and thoroughbred centre in the world. It lies 320 km north of Sydney and was first settled in the 1830s by Scots settlers.
The Scone Historical Society Museum has a number of interesting exhibits relating to these early times. At nearby Wingen there is the Burning Mountain, a coal seam that has been smouldering for 1,000 years and, according to geologists, will smoulder for another 2,000. The mountain is easily reached by way of a 2 km walking track. Also at Wingen is the Australian Thoroughbreds Museum.
Water sports are available at Glenbawn Dam nearby. Barrington Tops National Park is only 80 km north-east although the road is sometimes closed by snow.
#
"Singleton",127,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 18,661\i
Singleton is in the centre of the fertile Hunter Valley and 248 km north of Sydney close to the Hunter River. Singleton has a split personality in that on the one hand it is dealing with the huge open-cut coal mines and on the other it still maintains its role of service centre for the surrounding rural area.
There are many things to see here including the largest sundial in the southern hemisphere which was a Bicentennial project. Worth viewing are the gardens of the historic home Townhead which are open to the public and also offer herbs for sale. Nearby is Lake St. Clair with expansive views of the Mt. Royal Ranges.
Singleton is a centre for Hunter Valley winery visits and also an army base. The Singleton army camp includes the Royal Australian Infantry Corps Museum of Small Arms, which is open to visitors from Wednesday to Sunday.
Between Singleton and Muswellbrook on the New England Highway are the Liddell and Bayswater power station which are two of the largest in the southern hemisphere.
#
"Springwood",128,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 5,845\i
Springwood is 72 km west of Sydney and is regarded as the beginning of the central \JBlue Mountains\j tourist area. Starting from Springwood, there are two extremely good bushwalks. One is an easy 90-minute stroll to Birdwood Gully that starts at Bednall Road; the other, which is somewhat harder, starts from Sassafras Gully Road and goes to Sassafras Gully.
Braemar is an early Federation home that is classified by the National Trust and contains the Local History Centre and a community art gallery. Also listed are the Frazer Memorial Presbyterian Church and Springwood Railway Station. In the Springwood cemetery is the grave of Sir \JHenry Parkes\j, the Father of Federation.
#
"Swansea",129,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 7,859\i
Swansea is on the Pacific Highway on the south side of the entrance to Lake Macquarie - or Reid's Mistake as it was originally known - 147 km north of Sydney and 27 km south of Newcastle.
Swansea started life some time in the 1830s as a salt works, when the area was known as Pelican Flats. When the works were closed down the deserted buildings became hideouts for escaped convicts and until the 1840s this area was a favourite hiding-place for runaways and bushrangers. In the 1850s a family of boat builders and boatmen, the Boyds and their relations the Taafes, settled here, attracted by the prospect of gold. Finding little, they quickly turned to fishing and established fish-curing on the lakeside. They were joined by a group of Chinese who also started out as seekers for gold.
In 1861, small farmers moved into the area, which by then had a developing water cargo trade in coal and timber and other associated shipping industries. A school was opened in 1875 and a post office four years later. During this period harbour works were carried out at the bar on the lake. In 1886, a roadway was built across the channel. It was felt that the town would become an important industrial and shipping centre and the name was changed from the whimsical Pelican Flats to the more appropriate Swansea. This was all to no avail; when the railway from Sydney to Newcastle opened in 1889 the sea trade through Swansea disappeared. Now the town is a dormitory suburb for Newcastle and a tourism centre.
#
"Tamworth",130,"a\3\3_0081.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 35,205\i
Tamworth, situated at the junction of two major highways, the New England and the Oxley, hosts the \ICountry Music Festival\i each January. Up to 30,000 enthusiasts converge on the city, which in 1888 was the first in the southern hemisphere to have electricity light the streets.
\BDescription:\b Tamworth Country Music Festival \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Tenterfield",131,"a\3\a2_0080.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,529\i
Tenterfield is 750 km north of Sydney, on the New England Highlands. It is the centre of a sheep and cattle grazing area with orchards, logging and sawmills. There are a number of historic buildings in the area, including Centenary Cottage, built in 1871, which is the local museum. Sir \JHenry Parkes\j made his famous Federation speech in this building in 1889, and the library displays relics relating to the great man. Two national parks and many State forests surround the area. \JCaptain Thunderbolt\j's Hideout is 11 km from town.
Bald Rock National Park has 2,000 ha of natural bushland and the Bald Rock, which is a large granite monolith, can be climbed on its north-east side. The climb is worth it, for it affords panoramic views of Queensland and NSW from the summit. The spectacular Boonoo Boonoo Falls are 32 km north and are accessible by dirt road.
\BDescription:\b Bald Rock, Tenterfield \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Terrigal",132,"a\4\beach1.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 7,493\i
Surfing is the main attraction in this popular resort on the Central Coast about 15 km east of Gosford. To the south there is good bushwalking, camping and fishing at Bouddi National Park.
The Entrance is a very popular holiday spot north-east of Gosford and so named because it is the gateway to Tuggerah Lake; this is popular for Sydney weekenders. This area is a magic place for surfers, but has been increasingly gathering up-market cafes, shops and boutiques. Close to both Sydney and Newcastle, it has clean beaches and sheltered lakeside picnic spots. Pelicans are fed daily in the Memorial Park.
The Entrance offers lake and ocean fishing and all forms of water sports. Lake cruises depart from The Entrance public wharf.
\BDescription:\b The Entrance \I(Webster Publishing)\i
#
"Toronto",134,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 8,500\i
Toronto is a Lake Macquarie township 158 km north of Sydney, which has become something of a suburb of Newcastle. Toronto started when, in 1829, \JGovernor Darling\j granted 1,280 acres (518 ha) on the west shore of Lake Macquarie to the Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld as a site for his Aboriginal mission. Threlkeld served both God and Mammon and later won the right to mine coal; in 1840 the Ebenezer coal mine was opened, in 1844 Threlkeld sold out.
In 1887, the whole of the Ebenezer estate, including the abandoned mine, was purchased by the Excelsior Land Investment and Banking Company, which planned to establish a tourist resort. A town subdivision called Toronto was drawn up and was advertised as 'the Sanatorium of Australia'.
Toronto provides easy access to the Awaba and Heaton State forests, and there is a good back road to the wineries around Cessnock, less than an hour away.
#
"Toukley",135,"a\4\toukley.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 7,240\i
Toukley is on NSW's Central Coast; this quaint spot is between Budgewoi and Tuggerah and 122 km north of Sydney. Quiet lake swimming is, for many, a pleasant alternative to the ocean, and a variety of water sports take place here, including boating and windsurfing. The area has numerous clean sea beaches, with spectacular scenery. Prawning is very popular. Nearby Munmorah State Recreation Park and Red Gum Forest offer good bushwalking.
\BDescription:\b \I(Webster Publishing)\i
#
"Tumut",136,"a\4\a2_0029.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 10,951\i
Tumut is on the Snowy Mountains Highway, 424 km from Sydney, 128 km west of \JCanberra\j, about midway between Sydney and Melbourne and the northern gateway to the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric scheme. It has spectacular mountain scenery and visitors come all year round.
The name comes from the Aboriginal word doomut meaning 'camping ground'. The Tumut River was first reached by the explorers \JHamilton Hume\j and William \JHovell\j in 1824 and European settlement followed four years later. By 1856 Tumut had one school, several slab and bark buildings and three hotels. The bridge across the river, which linked the two isolated hamlets on each side of the river, was built in 1847 and the two hamlets were surveyed as one town in the following year.
Today, the major business is timber, particularly softwood, with 52,520 ha being grown within 25 km of Tumut. On a smaller scale, the Tumut Valley Whip Works is quite famous for its saddles and close by is the largest African violet farm in Australia. Blowering Reservoir and lake, 10 km to the south, have water sports and fishing for trout and perch. Blowering Trout Farm nearby is open to the public.
The Tumut and Goobraganda Rivers offer canoeing, and there is good horse-riding in the area.
\BDescription:\b Fog at Tumut \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Tweed Heads",137,"a\4\a30069.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 66,865\i
Tweed Heads is on the Queensland-NSW border 908 km north of Sydney; this town is firmly in the tourist resort area of the lower Gold Coast. It is set on the Tweed River and offers river cruises, as well as excellent surfing beaches. Tweed Heads has been made into a major resort because of the law - poker machines were legal in NSW when they were illegal in Queensland. Thus very large social clubs were built in Tweed Heads and bus loads of Queenslanders would come over on a regular basis to play the pokies. As a district result the night life and entertainment in Tweed Heads are of a far higher standard than you would expect in such a small town.
The name 'Tweed' was given to the river in 1823 by a member of \JJohn Oxley\j's expedition in the \IMermaid.\i
The world's first laser beam lighthouse, which was opened in 1971, is at Point Danger, half in Queensland, half in NSW. Worth visiting is the Mingungbal Museum and Resource Centre. There are also many nature walks through mangroves and rainforests close by.
\BDescription:\b Tweed Heads from Coolangatta \I(Random House)\i
#
"Ulladulla",138,"a\4\sussex.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 7,381\i
Ulladulla is an Aboriginal word appropriately meaning 'safe harbour'. Ulladulla is 233 km south of Sydney, 68 km south of Nowra and on the Princes Highway.
Nearby Sussex Inlet is good for fishing, both commercial and sport. There is a fishing carnival in May and a Blessing of the Fleet at Easter, a tradition which was brought from Italy by the original members of the fishing fleet. There are surf beaches at Narrawallee Beach, which also has calm water, making it safe for children, in the inlet. Nearby lakes Conjola, Burrill and Tabourie are good for swimming, fishing and waterskiing.
Wardens Head is at the southern point of Ulladulla Harbour and on it is built the lighthouse. From there you can get an excellent view of the coast.
One of the largest indoor fun parks in NSW is Rowen's Funland which has three floors of rides, games, dodgems, slot cars.
Pigeon House Mountain is a rocky outcrop at the south end of Morton National Park and within easy reach of Ulladulla. From some angles it does look like a pigeon house and bushwalkers can easily climb to the top.
\BDescription:\b Sussex Inlet, near Ulladulla \I(Mel Smith)\i
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"Wagga Wagga",139,"a\4\a2_0072.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 55,519\i
Wagga Wagga is on the Murrumbidgee River 470 km from Sydney and 435 km from Melbourne. The area was first settled by the Wiradjuri, the largest Aboriginal tribe in NSW. Wagga or wahga or wahgam in their language means 'crow'.
Early explorers of the area were \JCharles Sturt\j in 1829 and Thomas Mitchell in 1836. The village was planned, the police station and the court of petty sessions all established in 1847, and Wagga was proclaimed a town two years later. Dan Morgan the bushranger terrorised the area from 1863 to 1865.
Wagga is a Riverina centre for business, agriculture, industry and education. The city has many historic buildings, well planned botanic gardens, a zoo and an art gallery. The \JCharles Sturt\j University does much work on soil conservation.
Three historic walks through the city have been put together by the National Trust. These tours take you past many of the buildings which date from 1865. The Wagga Wagga and District Historic Museum is open on weekends, public holidays and school holidays.
Wagga is a city of many gardens and parks, ranging from the 8.9 ha of the Botanic Gardens and Zoo to the formal Shakespearean Garden, and Apex Park on the shores of Lake Albert. There is an outdoor entertainment centre and music bowl which can accommodate a symphony orchestra and has seating for 3,000.
You can drive through the grounds of the \JCharles Sturt\j University which is unique in having its own winery which is open for wine tastings and cellar door sales. On the Sturt Highway towards Narrandera is the Clydesdale Stud and Pioneer Farm which has antique machinery, a pioneer's hut and demonstrations of the Clydesdale horses in action.
The Murray Cod Hatcheries and Fauna Park are on the Sturt Highway and there you might see Big Murray, a 52 kg Murray Cod.
\BDescription:\b Jolly swagman under a Coolibah tree \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
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"Wauchope",140,"a\4\1_0070.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,297\i
Wauchope is the timber town of NSW, 423 km north of Sydney, and 19 km west of Port Macquarie on the Oxley Highway. It stands next to Timbertown. Wauchope is the centre for an area of timber-getting, dairying, cattle and mixed farming. The town was named after the property owned by Captain Wauch which was granted in 1836. This was a busy area in the last century and ships came up the river as far as Wauchope to load with timber. The sawmill, almost certainly not the first in the area, was opened in 1890.
Now the main attraction is Timbertown which has bullock teams, horse-drawn wagons, a steam train and wood-cutting demonstrations. Nearby Bellangry State Forest is known for its timber stands and rainforest.
\BDescription:\b Timbertown \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Wellington",141,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 8,648\i
Wellington was named after the hero of Waterloo. It is on the Mitchell Highway 362 km west of Sydney. The Duke of Wellington was a hero of \JJohn Oxley\j, the explorer who came to this valley in 1817. There was a convict establishment here in 1823 and five years later \JCharles Sturt\j used it as a base for his exploration of the inland river systems.
Thomas Mitchell's later map of the Wellington valley was the first geological map to be published in Australia.
The limestone caves, 9 kilometres from town, are the main attraction of the area and contain what may be the world's largest stalagmite (15 km high) and equally rare cave coral. They were first discovered by Europeans in 1870. Cathedral Cave is open to the public; not so Bone Cave which is open only to scientists and contains many fossils.
The Burrendong Dam, which is 32 km from Wellington, is a recreational area where you can waterski, sail, swim or fish. The Burrendong Arboretum has nearly 160 ha set aside for the cultivation and preservation of native plant life.
#
"Windsor",142,"a\4\a2_0078.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 15,558\i
Windsor is on the Hawkesbury River and is one of the oldest towns in Australia and is 56 km north-west of Sydney on the route that leads to Bells Line of Road over the \JBlue Mountains\j. It was named after the town in London on the River Thames although its original name was Green Hills. In 1794 Lieutenant Governor Grose allowed 22 settlers to begin farming in the district and in that year the first road to Sydney was opened. The site was one of five chosen by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in the Hawkesbury Valley in 1810, and he planned the town square in the following year.
Windsor has many old buildings, many being convict-built structures designed by the great convict architect and former counterfeiter \JFrancis Greenway\j. His greatest achievement is St. Matthew's Anglican Church - the oldest Anglican church in Australia - which was finished in 1822, and the courthouse which was finished in the same year. Note that nearby is the Ebenezer Uniting Church which was built in 1809 and claims to be the oldest church in Australia still holding regular services.
Not far from the town is the Australiana Pioneer Village which contains Rose Cottage, the oldest timber building in Australia and an enormous collection of buggies and wagons. The facilities here include picnic spots and barbecues. The lake has paddle boats. Paradise Gardens at Cattai, 14 km to the north-east, is a children's activity centre with pony rides, Prehistoric World and Enchanted Forest.
\BDescription:\b St. Mathews Church and cemetery, Windsor \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Wingham",143,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 4,407\i
Wingham is the oldest town on the Manning River, 13 km upriver from Taree and 345 km north of Sydney. The town has an unusual Old England feel about it, with a town common and a cricket pitch. It has a small museum run by the Manning Valley Historical Museum which records the life of the town since it was founded in 1843. Thirteen buildings have been classified by the National Trust and most have been restored. They include the Australian Hotel, the bank building, the police station and the courthouse, Gibson and Skinner Butchery and the School of Arts.
Near the centre of the town is the Wingham Brush, a 7 ha park consisting of dense rainforest. Thousands of flying foxes migrate here from Queensland each year. The Brush is next to the Manning River and has picnic tables and boat launching facilities.
#
"Wollongong",144,"a\4\a1_0021.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 177,009\i
\JWollongong\j is on the coast of NSW 80 km from Sydney and 238 km from \JCanberra\j. It is an interesting city, offering some contradictions for the traveller. Often referred to disparagingly as the 'cloud factory', its sister town is the highly industrialised Port Kembla. This is a heavy industrial (steel-making) town. At the same time these urban/industrial areas are surrounded by beautiful countryside, both coastal and mountain. Indeed, \JWollongong\j is locked in by national parks that surround the city, with the result that there is a desperate shortage of building land because the national parks block any possibility of development outwards.
The approach from the north is either through the Great Dividing Range or through the Royal National Park by way of Audley. The route takes in some beautiful coastline. Bald Hill Lookout, where there is a memorial to \JLawrence Hargrave\j, the man on the $20 note, is now a popular spot to hang-glide. These flying machines very accurately reflect the original designs of Hargrave. The approach from the south takes in rolling coastal plains and equally impressive ocean views.
The city itself offers a pretty little harbour and a historic lighthouse (dating from 1872), good surfing beaches, foreshore parks, and Lake Illawara, which is good for prawning, fishing, and sailing. Hire boats are available.
\BDescription:\b Lighthouse at \JWollongong\j \I(Random House - photo by Peter Brennan)\i
#
"Woy Woy",145,"a\4\woywoy2.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 12,255\i
Woy Woy's most famous adopted son is the author and comedian Spike Milligan whose parents moved there from England. Milligan started as a Goon in the BBC radio Goon Show and also wrote most of his scripts. The local motel, the Glades, has a Spike Milligan Memorial Suite.
Woy Woy is 90 km north of Sydney and just south of Gosford. The town used to be a holiday resort for Sydney, but today many Sydney-siders have moved here and commute to Sydney during the week so that it has become more of a dormitory town.
Originally this town was called Webb's Flat after the first European settler, James Webb, who came here in 1834. The railway station was given the name Woy Woy - possibly Aboriginal for deep water - in 1888 after the building of the Woy Woy railway tunnel which is the longest in Australia.
The town became a resort for Sydney in the early years of this century after the railway line was completed. Woy Woy can be used as a centre for exploring the Brisbane Water National Park which is to the south-west and which was created in 1959.
Wyong was once noted for logging, and a ferry service used to operate across the Tuggerah Lakes to service the timber industry which operated in what are now the State forests of Watagan, Onley and Ourimbah. The local museum has a great record of these early days. Wyong is 102 km north of Sydney, 22 km north of Gosford and on the banks of the Wyong River. It is the administrative centre of the Tuggerah Lakes district. The lake system extends from Killarney Vale in the south to the township of Lake Munmorah in the north, and consists of three lakes - Tuggerah, Budgewoi and Munmorah. The biggest lake is Tuggerah and it has the only opening from the ocean, appropriately enough, at The Entrance. There are no sharks in the lakes.
The Tuggerah Lakes, and with them Wyong, have grown to become among the most popular holiday destinations in NSW. Originally the area was strictly for anglers but now it is a resort for all seasons.
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"Yamba",147,"a\4\a1_0022.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,707\i
Yamba is a fishing and prawning town on the mouth of the Clarence River. It is also the largest resort in the Clarence Valley. It is 724 km north of Sydney, 14 km off the Pacific Highway and 62 km north-east of Grafton. Houseboats can be hired at Brushgrove.
To learn about the early history of the town, visit the Yamba Story House which has an excellent photographic record. The name probably means 'edible shellfish'. \JMatthew Flinders\j moored near the estuary in 1799 but the town was not surveyed until 1861.
The main beach at Yamba is patrolled during the summer season and the adjoining rock pool is safe and popular throughout the whole year. Yuraygir National Park, only 5 km south of the town, has swimming, fishing and bushwalking. Lake Wooloweyah, 4 km south of the town along the Angourie Road, is excellent for fishing and prawning. Angourie is famous for its surf, and at Blue Pool there is a popular swimming and picnic spot.
\BDescription:\b Clarence River, Yamba \I(Random House - photo by Stuart Fox)\i
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"Yass",148,"a\4\a2_0074.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 9,128\i
At one time, because of its situation in fertile country on the Yass River, Yass was considered as a site for the Federal capital. Now it is more famous for being the country residence of the American publisher, Rupert Murdoch, when he makes one of his rare and brief visits to the country of his birth. Yass is close to the junction of two major highways (the Hume and the Barton) and is 55 km from \JCanberra\j and 280 km south-west of Sydney. On peak holiday weekends the single main road of the town can create some of the longest traffic jams in NSW. Eventually there will be a Yass bypass.
There are many curious stories told about how Yass got its strange name but almost all of them are rural myth. The most plausible explanation is that it comes from the Aboriginal word yahr meaning 'running water'. The Yass Plains were discovered by the explorer \JHamilton Hume\j in 1824, and he eventually lived here in Cooma Cottage (built circa 1835) until his death. The cottage is listed by the National Trust and is open every day except Tuesdays. Before Hume died he supervised the building of his own tomb which can still be seen in the Yass graveyard.
Many handsome buildings line the wide centre road of Yass and some still have their hitching rails for horses. The ornate ironwork of the period in which these buildings were erected clearly shows the prosperity that this area enjoyed in the last century. The \JHamilton Hume\j Museum in Comur Street shows how Yass rode to prosperity on the sheep's back.
\BDescription:\b Cooma House, Yass \I(Random House - photo by ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Young",149,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 11,046\i
Young is another town created by the desperate pursuit for gold. It is set in the western foothills of the Great Dividing Range about 350 km to the south-west of Sydney. Gold, which gave the town its start in life, has now been replaced with cherries - it is now often called 'Cherry Town'.
Nearby is Lambing Flat, the goldfields where one of the more shameful acts of Australian history took place - the anti-Chinese riots of 1861. The Australian diggers marched behind a flag and proceeded to drive the Chinese from the field and the military had to be called from Sydney to restore order.
The riots were conducted under a strict moral code - no stealing from the Chinese was allowed. On the other hand, burning their humpies, cutting off their pigtails and assaulting them until they left the field were all considered acceptable behaviour. The leader of the riots, William Spencer, was sent to gaol. As a result of the riots, Chinese immigration to Australia was severely restricted by the NSW government, because of the supposed threat of the 'Chinese menace' and this can be considered the origin of the White Australia Policy. You can see the 'roll-up' flag - the roll-up was a kind of call to a miners' meeting or court - carried by the gold miners in the Lambing Flat Historic Museum which contains many other fascinating reminders of this sad episode in the town's history.
#
!,!,!,!,!
2#
131,0
"Victoria - Fact File",1,"a\4\1-0018.jpg","c","0"
\BMap:\b Click here for \JMap of Victoria.\j
\BCapital:\b \JMelbourne\j
\BPremier:\b \JKennett, Jeffrey Gibb\j (LP)
\BSize:\b 227,600 square km
\BLength of Coastline:\b 1,800 km
\BPopulation:\b 4,482,100. Click here for Australian \JPopulation\j details.
\BFloral Emblem:\b Common Heath
\BFaunal Emblems:\b Leadbeater's Possum and \JHelmeted Honeyeater\j
\BHighest Pt:\b Mt. Bogong 1,986 metres
\BFlag:\b Click here for \JVictorian Flag\j
\BAverage Annual Rainfall - Melbourne:\b 658 mm
\BAverage Temperatures - Melbourne:\b January maximum, 25.8 degrees C; July maximum, 13.3 degrees C. Click here for \JClimate of Australia\j details.
\BDescription:\b Victorian Flag \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Victoria",2,"a\4\vic.jpg","c","0"
Victoria, the smallest of all the mainland states, is the most densely populated, producing around one-third of the gross national product.
Its geographical and climatic diversity is such that it has some of the last of the world's temperate rainforest and some of the most inhospitable desert. And, as might be expected, its history has been one of boom and bust.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Gum Tree Graphics.\i
#
"Victoria - (2)",3,"a\4\4_0067.jpg","c","0"
Physically, Victoria is dominated by the end of the Great Dividing Range, the 'backbone' of Australia's eastern states. These mountains sweep across most of the eastern half of the state in a broad horizontal band.
They break just north of Melbourne to accommodate the Hume Highway - the major escape route from Sydney - and reappear in the gentle hills and mountains of the Central Highlands district. Then, just as the Range seems set to fizzle out into a series of scattered volcanic hills, it concludes in a burst of beauty of the Grampians.
\BDescription:\b Serra Ranges in the Grampians \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Victoria - History",4,"a\4\4_0040.jpg","c","0"
European settlement of Victoria got off to a shaky start. In 1803, 400 convicts, soldiers, free women and children left England to find a settlement on the Mornington Peninsula at Sorrento. It was an adventure characterised by a lack of enthusiasm on the part of almost everyone involved.
The sole purpose of the settlement was to keep out the French who were looking around the southern coast of the continent and exhibiting an interest in the area. The English could not understand their interest, but were sure that it was unacceptable.
This first settlement lasted only seven unpleasant months, being ultimately defeated by laclustre leadership and the difficulty of farming the poor, sandy soil.
A second attempt to settle the region was not made until almost 25 years later. Again, it was French interest in the area that prompted the move, but although the land around the site chosen on the shores of Westernport was a little more rewarding, this second expedition fared no better than the first.
Its pioneers barely had time to celebrate the first anniversary of the camp before the huts were abandoned and the cattle turned loose. It seemed to cool the French ardour for the place, anyway.
\BDescription:\b Mornington Peninsula, the place of first settlement in Victoria \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Victoria - History - (2)",5,"a\4\r2624.jpg","c","0"
However, Victoria was not entirely without European inhabitants. While there was no permanent settlement, all along the coast small gangs of men worked as sealers and whalers.
A rough and independent breed, there was no official record of their number. Many were escaped convicts who eked out a precarious life in lonely makeshift huts by trading oil and seal-skins when sailing ships anchored nearby.
The business of the whales was with the sea, yet they were in some part responsible for Victoria's first permanent settlements at Portland and Melbourne. The Tasmanian schooners that traded for kegs of oil and seal-skins took back with them the whalers' stories of vast sweeping pastures, ideal for grazing sheep and cattle.
Such stories found ready listeners in the older colony of Tasmania where most of the best sheep country was already occupied and whose thriving pastoralists were eager to find new, cheap land. The European settlement of Victoria can thus be traced back to three expeditions from the then tiny Tasmanian township of \JLaunceston\j.
\BDescription:\b Whaling (drawing) \I(RAHS)\i.
#
"Victoria - History - (3)",6,"a\4\rsmh32.jpg","c","0"
The first Tasmanians to cross Bass Strait and settle in Victoria were the Henty brothers. They chose Portland Bay for their camp and soon established a whaling station on the coast and sheep runs extending inland for some 100 kilometres.
Expeditions organised by \JJohn Batman\j and John Pascoe Fawkner soon followed to Port Phillip Bay. A settlement began at a 'delightful spot' near the mouth of the Yarra River, where William Street now runs down to the river. Within months, hundreds of sheep were being unloaded and the push into Victoria's interior began in earnest.
All three expeditions were in defiance of the law. The official policy of the British government was to 'confine settlement' in the interests of maintaining effective administrative control. It was fighting a losing battle.
The squatters and their sheep spread out over the land until Victoria was little more than a huge, unfenced sheep run, dotted with homesteads and shepherds' huts. The squatters were eventually granted permission to graze the land, but it was little more than a concession to the inevitable.
The squatters who established their flocks in the rich grazing lands of Victoria's west were originally political rebels. They defied the government in settling the region and were the loudest voices in calling for an independent colony of Victoria.
Once they were accorded legitimate status, however, and had acquired freehold to their vast sheep runs, they became the colony's 'society' and the western districts quickly formed their own 'squattocracy'. Their power was not simply economic. They dominated the Legislative Council of the colony, and made it one of the most fiercely conservative houses of parliament in the English-speaking world.
\BDescription:\b Squatters camping by the old river road \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i.
#
"Victoria - History - (4)",7,"a\4\r2435.jpg","c","0"
The goldrush ended in the 1860s, but its effect was permanent. Not only had the state become instantly populated - a population that now supplied the manpower to work the new industries that grew up everywhere - but the capital, Melbourne, had become the financial and commercial capital of the country and wore its status proudly.
In 1890, Melbourne's first sky-scraper was built. At a staggering 12 storeys, the 'Australian Building' was taller than anything in New York.
The large population and the concentration of wealth set the scene for Victoria's continued growth, and they have ensured that the state remains a major industrial and manufacturing power and that its importance nationally continues to grow.
\BDescription:\b Collins Street in Melbourne (drawing) \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i.
#
"Melbourne",8,"a\4\4_0059.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,283,014\i
More than any other Australian city, Melbourne is enormously diverse. Not only is its population drawn from the most varied cultural backgrounds - a phenomenon reflected in the vast range of ethnic restaurants, markets and clubs scattered throughout the city - but its weather is surely the most changeable of any city in the world - a single day in Melbourne can display climatic extremes that other cities need 12 months to produce.
The beauty of Melbourne's architectural heritage is that it is not just the large public buildings that have been saved; the Victorian domestic architecture remains in the rows of terraced houses and streets of timber workers' cottages in the inner suburbs - the greatest concentration of Victorian architecture anywhere in the world.
Melbourne, according to the Washington based Population Crisis Centre is the world's "most liveable" city. The study considered such factors as cost of living, personal security, amount of green space, and standards of health in 100 cities around the world.
Melbourne has a population of more than 3.5 million people, with more than half either born overseas or their descendants born in other countries. 170 languages are spoken in this city.
\BDescription:\b Restaurant tram on Princess Bridge in Melbourne \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Melbourne - (2)",9,"a\4\4_0049.jpg","c","0"
Many important buildings are now maintained by the National Trust. These include La Trobe's Cottage in The Domain, South Yarra, our first Government House, and the Melbourne Maritime Museum in South Melbourne.
The Old Melbourne Gaol was still in use during the Second World War as a military prison, the remaining cell block has now been preserved by the National Trust as a penal museum. This building has seen more than 100 hangings, including that of the notorious bushranger \JNed Kelly\j.
\BDescription:\b La Trobe's Cottage, the Domain, Melbourne \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Melbourne - Sport",10,"a\4\2_0096.jpg","c","0"
Melbourne is the sporting capital of Australia with events like the Australian Tennis Open, Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final, the Melbourne Cup, the Motorcycle 500cc Grand Prix and the Formula One Grand Prix.
All of Australia stops for three minutes on the second Tuesday in November for the running of the $2 million Melbourne Cup. It is one of the world's richest handicap races and brings a crowd of more than 100,000 each year.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground was home to the 1956 Olympics and is one of the finest sporting arenas in the world. Each September the AFL Grand Final is staged here and is seen by some eight million television viewers across Australia and by more than 80 million around the world.
The MCG staged the first Australian football game, first international cricket match and hosted the biggest baseball crowd anywhere in the world.
The Australian Tennis Open is held each January at the National Tennis Centre in nearby Flinders Park. It precedes the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open. Winners have included Boris Becker, Ivan Lendl, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf and Mary Pierce.
\BDescription:\b Horseracing in Melbourne \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Melbourne History",11,"a\4\batman2.jpg","c","0"
\JJohn Batman\j arrived on the banks of the Yarra River in 1835 and wrote that this would be "a good place for a village". Batman was closely followed by John Pascoe Fawkner in the schooner \IEnterprise\i later that year. Fawkner played a crucial part in giving Melbourne its start.
"Melbourne History - (2)",12,"a\4\17smh.jpg","c","0"
It was the discovery of gold at \JBallarat\j in 1851 which dramatically accelerated Melbourne's growth. Financed by the riches of the goldrush, Melbourne's population grew at a fantastic rate: in 1850 there were 77,500 people but the following year this jumped to 95,000 and by 1860 it had reached 140,000.
The discovery of gold was not an unmixed blessing. At the time, there seemed a real danger of Melbourne disappearing altogether! Whole suburbs of the city were deserted, crime was rife, and to make matters worse, within six months of the news of the first strike, 38 of Melbourne's 40-strong police force had resigned.
For a time, Geelong became the favoured port of the colony because it was closer to the diggings, and the merchants of Melbourne resorted to the underhanded ploy of printing false maps of the goldfields showing them snuggled up close to Melbourne and relocating Geelong on the other side of Port Phillip Bay.
They need not have worried. Lucky diggers instinctively returned to Melbourne to spend their money, and as the gold petered out many of the not so lucky ones came looking for work in the new industries that had developed in the city.
As the 19th Century drew to a close, Melbourne became the birthplace of Australian Federation, with the Federal parliament sitting here before moving to the new capital, \JCanberra\j, in 1927.
\BDescription:\b Panning for gold \I(Fairfax Photo Library)\i.
#
"Alberton",13,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 5,972\i
Alberton became famous because two early settlers, the Martin brothers, imported an elephant from what was then Ceylon to help clear their land. The elephant broke loose and went walkabout, dying several kilometres from the farm.
The township of Alberton is 220 km south-east of Melbourne and is an offshoot of Port Albert. The Victoria Hotel dates from 1890 and Alberton primary school is numbered "1". This is not because it was the first school opened in Victoria but because it came first on an alphabetical list when the schools were numbered.
There are walking tracks through the Alberton West State Forest which is mainly blue gums.
#
"Alexandra",14,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 5,999\i
This farming and holiday centre west of Lake Eildon and 130 km from Melbourne was named after Princess Alexandra, the Princess of Wales. There is an alternative suggestion that it was named after three Alexanders who became rich here in the gold diggings of the 1870s, but this seems dubious. Whichever version is correct the name "Alexandra" is better than the original name of Red Gate Diggings which it was given when gold was found there in 1886. At one stage gold-mining operations in the area extended over 90 sq km.
Alexandra is picturesque with beautiful scenery in and around the town. It is a mountain area and the views can be enjoyed at the many lookouts and picnic areas. There is a golf course and tennis courts available for hire. The Alexandra Race Club holds four picnic race meetings a year and the Speedway holds meetings almost every month.
The town has an old-worlde charm, and the ANZ Bank is classified by the National Trust. The town is the gateway to the Fraser National Park, with other state parks in the area, including Cathedral Range and Eildon State Park. There is a community market on the last Saturday of the month and the town has a Timber and Tramway Museum in the former railway station.
#
"Anglesea",15,"a\4\a2_0006.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,977\i
Anglesea is one of the most attractive towns on Victoria's Great Ocean Road. Anglesea is 44 km from Geelong and 108 km south-west of Melbourne. It was originally a stopover for the mail coaches, and McMillan's House, built in the 1880s and still standing, was one of the inns. Now it houses artists and tourists and the output of the artists' colony can be seen in the area's several galleries.
With the Anglesea River coming down to the sea that this is a scenic area, known for great swimming and surfing. The town is well known for its golf course populated by tame kangaroos.
The 1983 bushfires burned here in the peat below the subsoil. The Anglesea River was diverted around the smouldering area and the result was Coogoorah Park. The park has walking tracks, picnic areas and a flying fox to carry children screaming with pleasure over a waterway. Anglesea is near the Angahook-Lorne State Park - Ironbark Grove, Tree-Fern Grove, Melaleuca Swamp and the Currawong Falls - that abound with flora and fauna and are easily reached from good walking paths.
There are excellent views of Anglesea, Point Roadknight, the ocean and in the distance the Anglesea cliffs from the J.E. Loveridge Lookout. The Anglesea Heathland Cliff Walk passes along the Anglesea cliffs and turns inland through brown stringybark forests. The walk takes 45 minutes and a leaflet is available at the tourist information centre.
\BDescription:\b \I(Random House - photo by Gary Lewis)\i
#
"Apollo Bay",16,"a\4\a3_0009.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 894\i
Apollo Bay is a pretty coastal town on the Great Ocean Road nestling against the tree-clad Otway Ranges 118 km from Geelong and 187 km south-west of Melbourne. It was an important harbour in the last century, but the harbour silted up, restricting its use to the fishing fleet that now has about 30 vessels. The town started when a whaling station was established by the Henty family at Point Bunbury south-east of the town in the 1830s, though there was no serious permanent settlement until 1856 when the town became important in the timber trade. Timber was sawn, dragged to the beach and floated out to ships anchored in the harbour. The village was gazetted in 1860.
Apollo Bay is now a popular stopover for cruising yachts and the whole area offers some fine sailing. It is also a good base from which to explore the Otway Ranges. Shelly Beach is off the Great Ocean Road about 10 km west of Apollo Bay, with picnic facilities and a short walking track. Mariners Lookout, a few kilometres from town, provides excellent views along the coast.
There is an historical museum open on Sundays and school holidays which has a collection showing local history, including the story of some of the famous shipwrecks along the coast. The Bass Strait Shell Museum is open every day of the week.
\BDescription:\b \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Ararat",17,"a\4\a3_0005.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 11,098\i
Ararat was founded in 1839 as the centre of an agricultural community. The town is near the Grampian Mountains and 203 km west of Melbourne. The first settler, Horatio S. Wills, arrived around 1841 and named Mt. Ararat when he wrote in his journal: \I'like the Ark, we rested there'.\i He has another claim to fame in that he was the first Australian to use strychnine to poison dingoes.
An article by 'A.T'. in \IThe Age\i dated 2 June 1945 states that \I"Ararat was not named because of any fancied similarity to the place where the ark is said to have rested, but simply because an early squatter rested there after a weary journey."\i The gold rush in Ararat had a couple of false starts. In 1854, Joe Pollard discovered gold at Pinky Point but the pay dirt petered out. The following year a black American called Black Harry found gold on Blackmans Lead but again it petered out.
In May 1857, the big Ararat rush began when a rich alluvial deposit was found at Canton Lead. At the height of the Canton boom Ararat's population soared to 20,000 and water cost sixpence a bucket.
During the gold rush it was the site of what was known as the Canton Affair, where Chinese who discovered rich deposits were driven off by white miners.
Great Western Vineyards 15 km west of the town were established in 1865. They produced fine dry reds and sparkling white wine. Tours of the cellars and winery may be arranged.
Ararat has the Langi Morgala Museum - the name is Aboriginal for 'home of yesterday' - which contains the L.J. Mooney collection of Aboriginal artefacts and a gallery in fine blue-stone buildings.
\BDescription:\b Monument to the gold rush days, Ararat \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Bacchus Marsh",18,"a\4\a1_0001.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 11,854\i
Bacchus Marsh is on the Werribee River near the Western Highway and 54 km west of Melbourne. Bacchus Marsh no longer lives up to its title. The strange name for this old-established town was given when Captain William Henry Bacchus reclaimed swampy ground and built a two-storey brick house here in 1840. His house still stands in Manor Street. Captain Bacchus was a foundation member of the two remarkable Melbourne institutions, the Melbourne Club and the Melbourne Cricket Club.
The swamp was finally drained by the early settlers, altering the course of the river.
The Border Inn is in the Tudor style; it opened its doors in 1850 and might have provided the first Cobb & Co. coaching stop in Victoria on the service to the \JBallarat\j goldfields. Services in the Holy Trinity Church in the early 1870s were conducted by Andrew George Scott, who later laid aside his clerical garb and took to the roads as bushranger Captain Moonlight.
Bacchus Marsh courthouse was built of local sandstone in the 1850s and is still in use. The Avenue of Honour leading into the centre of town along the old Melbourne Road consists of English oaks, elms and planes that were originally planted in 1884. In 1918, 281 North American elms were added to this original plantation in honour of those who died in World War I.
The Lerderderg Stud was responsible for raising the great racehorse Carbine which won the 1890 Melbourne Cup. Werribee Gorge National Park and Lerderderg Gorge are nearby and are of interest to gemstone fossickers and bushwalkers.
\BDescription:\b Bacchus Marsh, Werribee Gorge \I(Random House - photo by Gary Lewis)\i
#
"Bairnsdale",19,"a\4\a3_0001.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 10,770\i
Bairnsdale is located on the Mitchell River in Gippsland 280 km east of Melbourne and east of Wilsons Promontory, the southern most tip of the Australian mainland. The town was an important river port for river steamers before road transport. It is on the junction of the Princes and Omeo highways, and a good base for touring the Gippsland Lakes and the fascinating dune country behind Ninety Mile Beach.
The town was named after Bernisdale on the Isle of Skye, the birthplace of Archibald McLeod who started his station, Bernisdale, in 1844. The town site was gazetted in 1861 and developed as a port for East Gippsland and for the goldfields on the Nicholson and Tambo Rivers.
In 1920 the town was shaken by the riot that followed the visit of teetotaller and hot gospeller Tennyson Smith. Italian immigrants arrived in the district in the early 1920s and vegetable-growing became important. The town features prominently in the writings of Hal Porter, who grew up here.
Bairnsdale has many sporting facilities and 2 km of gardens running down the main road. It also has one of the better playgrounds in Victoria - Howitt Park, complete with flying foxes - on the Princes Highway. Howitt was the leader of the party that found the remains of the tragic \JBurke and Wills\j expedition. The nearby Mitchell River National Park has good bushwalking.
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church has famous painted murals and ceiling by the Italian artist Francesco Floreani. In winter the district can be up to 6 degrees Celsius warmer than Melbourne on the same day.
\BDescription:\b RSL Monument at Bairnsdale \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Ballarat",20,"a\4\4_0090.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 79,195\i
Ballarat, with a population of well over 60,000, is the state's most important inland city, and the most famous of Victoria's many gold towns.
The best-known attraction is Sovereign Hill, a recreated goldmining town which displays the processes of gold-digging and the secondary commercial life that so quickly sprang up around the goldfields.
From its initial gold find in 1851, the area produced 27 per cent of Victoria's gold by the turn of the century. The initial fields to be exploited were the alluvial fields of Ballarat East. But in the years following, the rich leads buried under the Sebastopol Plateau were to produce enormous yields.
The resulting need for heavy machinery meant a growth in local industries, creating a permanence for Ballarat.
\BDescription:\b Sovereign Hill in Ballarat \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Ballarat - (2)",21,"a\4\pl50.jpg","c","0"
Not only did the Goldfields bring wealth but along with it came turmoil. In fact one of the greatest dramas in Australian history occurred on the \JBallarat\j goldfields. The \JEureka\j Stockade remains the country's only armed uprising against the government in history.
This event on the \JBallarat\j field in 1854, encouraged the development of democracy in Australia, and marks the only civil battle in the country's history. Miners who refused to pay the licensing fee were attacked by troopers.
In the early hours of December 3, twenty-two miners and six of the attackers died and \JEureka\j was the name of the claim upon which the miners built their timber barricade.
\BDescription:\b \JEureka\j flag and monument \I(Peter Luck).\i
#
"Balnarring",22,"a\4\4_0045.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,834\i
Balnarring is on the Mornington peninsula, 18 km north-west of Flinders and 2 km from the beach. The town started as part of a station founded by two brothers, Alfred and Maurice Meyrick, some time in the 1840s. The name is either from an Aboriginal word meaning 'little gum tree' or is of Irish origin, being a version of Ballymerang. This is one of the smallest towns in the Westernport beach area, and is well known for its colony of koalas.
\BDescription:\b Balnarring is on the Mornington Peninsula \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Beaufort",23,"a\4\a30066.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,171\i
Beaufort was founded in 1857 midway between \JBallarat\j and Ararat, and it is claimed that this town is named after Rear-Admiral F. Beaufort, the man who introduced the wind velocity scale. No one knows why; it is equally possible that it was named after a village in Monmouthshire, Wales. While no one truly knows why this name was chosen the change in understandable as the town was originally known as Fiery Creek Diggings.
The town had its moment of glory during a gold rush that started at Yam Holes Creek in 1854. It was, for a very short time, an important field. Thousands of diggers came from Alma and Maryborough. Most soon left for Avoca. Only 200 miners were left in the district by 1912 and mining had totally ended by 1914.
Now Beaufort is a centre for the surrounding pastoral area. The gold miners were in part responsible for the octagonal band rotunda decorated with intricate cast-iron work that stands in the centre of Beaufort. There is a cellar practice room with a staircase leading to the balcony and a clock tower at the top; Victorian architecture at its best.
The Lake Goldsmith Steam Preservation Co-operative Ltd has more than 300 members and their machines are housed in a shed nearby off the Beaufort-to-Skipton Road. The Steam Museum is open on weekends and public holidays.
Beaufort is close to the Mt. Cole State Forest, 25 km west, where there is excellent bushwalking around the base of Mt. Buangor and to its summit.
Beechworth is an historic, honey-coloured gold mining town 270 km north-east of Melbourne and 35 km east of Wangaratta. It has lovely Victorian (as in the State) autumns and fine granite Victorian (as in the era) buildings. Many of these are restored and more than 30 are classified by the National Trust. The town is named after the birthplace in England of a government surveyor. Its original European name was May Day Hills.
The town is rich in history from the goldrush days. Gold was first found by a shepherd just above the present Newtown Bridge over Woolshed Creek. This was followed by the discovery of some fabulously rich fields such as Pennyweight Flat, Madman's Gully, Nine Mile Creek and Woolshed Diggings. By 1857, 400 kg of gold left Beechworth each fortnight for Melbourne.
To understand the famous incident of the Golden Horseshoes you must first understand that the miners in the area around Beechworth were divided into two camps - Punchers and Monkeys. One group worked the banks and gullies, the others worked the alluvial gold and there was intense rivalry between them. At the time Beechworth had a population of 8,000, 61 hotels and a theatre in which international celebrities of the entertainment world performed. The peak digger population on fields in the immediate district was about 22,500 in 1857.
\BDescription:\b Carriage Museum, Beechworth \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Beechworth - (2)",25,"a\4\a3_0006.jpg","c","0"
In 1855 the Monkeys chose Daniel Cameron to represent them. He went to the poll astride a horse shod with gold horseshoes which have since become a symbol of Beechworth. Carping souls insist that the horseshoes were only gilded, others that they were never actually seen. A report published some decades after the event read: \I' About the beginning of 1856, when Beechworth was wallowing in wealth, the first travelling show, known as Tinker Brown's Circus, arrived on the field, and it was announced that a piebald trick horse, called Castor, would appear in the ring shod with gold. During the performance, however, Raynor, the ringmaster, stated that through an unforeseen circumstance the shoes had not been put on'.\i
And Rolf Boldrewood in Robbery Under Arms (1888) wrote \I'...Talking of foolish things, I saw one man that had his horse shod with gold, regular pure gold shoes. The Blacksmith made 'em - good solid ones, and all regular. He rode into the main street one holiday, and no end of people stopped him lifted up the horse's feet to see. They weighed 7 oz. 4 dwt. each'.\i
The Burke Memorial Museum centres around Captain Robert O'Hara Burke, who was with Wills on the disastrous \JBurke and Wills\j expedition. Between 1856 and 1859 he was office-in-charge of police at Beechworth. The museum contains a replica of the main street a century ago, complete with 16 shopfronts. The courthouse was built in 1858 and the Kellys faced trial here; the gaol once housed \JNed Kelly\j and his mother.
\BDescription:\b Beechworth \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Bells Beach",26,"a\4\6_0016.jpg","c","0"
Bellarine Peninsula has some of the country's best surf beaches, including Bell's Beach and Jan Juc Beach. The surf here has the reputation of providing some of the most testing and exhilarating surfing to be found anywhere in the world. The Easter Surfing Carnival held at Bell's Beach is a major event on the international surfing calendar and attracts a large crowd.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy DFAT.\i
#
"Benalla",27,"a\4\a30033.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 8,334\i
Benalla is a small city on the Hume Highway. The explorer Thomas Mitchell crossed the river here in 1836. Last century the town was the focus for the Kelly gang and the courthouse, built in 1864, saw several trials involving the Kelly family, including one in 1877 when \JNed Kelly\j was fined two quid for drunkenness.
The artificial Lake Benalla is on the Broken River. There are public gardens throughout the town and roses abound. Many buildings are classified by the National Trust.
Benalla was a major World War II air force camp and the aerodrome became the headquarters for Victorian gliding in 1948.
\BDescription:\b St Joseph's Catholic Church, Benalla \I(Random House)\i
#
"Bendigo",28,"a\4\a2_0059.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 30,134\i
In the north of the Central Highlands district of Victoria is \JBendigo\j, the third largest city in regional Victoria. \JBendigo\j grew up surrounded by one of the richest goldfields in the world. Extending over 360 square kilometres, it comprised about 35 gold-bearing reefs with a total output of more than 22 million ounces.
The enormous wealth created by the goldrush allowed the burghers of \JBendigo\j to construct buildings in any style they fancied. It seems that their taste ran mostly to the ornate.
These riches built a grand city, one which, today, is often regarded as the best-preserved example of Victorian architecture in the State - and possibly Australia. Certainly \JBendigo\j now has an impressive legacy of the sometimes florid architecture of the times, notably the Shamrock Hotel.
\BDescription:\b Sacred Heart Cathedral \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Bright",29,"a\5\a2_0008.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 11,828\i
Bright is on the Ovens River, 320 km from Melbourne. The town was named after John Bright, an English statesman, in 1862. Its earlier name, when it was a goldfield, was Morses Creek. Alluvial gold mining began in the area in 1853.
The Alpine Club was founded here in 1891 and skiing still plays a major part in the town's life during the winter months. The town is situated in scenically beautiful country in the shadow of the Victorian Alps and is a popular base for winter sports enthusiasts in the season. Bright is a gateway to some of Victoria's finest skiing grounds - Mt. Hotham, Mt. Buffalo and Falls Creek.
In 1939 a major Forestry Commission planting of pines in the area formed the basis for the current timber industry.
\BDescription:\b \I(Random House - photo by Gary Lewis)\i
#
"Broadford",30,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 4,096\i
Broadford is 14 km north-east of Kilmore and is on the Hume Highway close to Mt. Disappointment. The town is in the centre of an agricultural and pastoral area that also has large deposits of kaolin clay used in making porcelain and coating paper.
There is a drive up Mt. Disappointment to the lookout used by the explorers Hume and \JHovell\j. Much of the surrounding area is a State Forest.
#
"Buchan Caves",31,"0","g","0"
The Buchan Caves are among the most spectacular limestone formations in Australia. Some three to four million years ago, the region was covered by sea and abundant in shell fish and coral. This was eventually deposited on the sea bed, solidified and became limestone.
The caves were formed by underground rivers cutting through the limestone, carving out large underground chambers and passages, and then helping to form stalagmites and stalactites.
The Buchan area was inhabited by white settlers in 1840 but it was 1899 before the first detailed survey was carried out.
#
"Buninyong",32,"a\5\a30065.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 12,140\i
Agriculture has been the mainstay of Buninyong since 1838, when the Learmonth brothers started their property, right up to the present day. There was a hiccough when gold was found at Hiscocks Gully on 8 August 1851 - not as big as the later strikes at \JBallarat\j 11 km north, but still significant, as it was the first, and led to the opening of the \JBallarat\j goldfields, luring thousands to the area.
At the time Buninyong was already a sizable town judged by the standards of those days, being indeed the first large inland town in Victoria. The discovery of gold is recorded on the Hiscock Obelisk. During the gold rush there were eight licensed hotels in the borough with the Crown Hotel claiming to have the oldest continuous licence, which dates back to 1842, though in a different building.
The town saw Victoria's first inland boarding school in 1848, and the Ashburner Bookshop opened in 1865. Nearby are the Lal Lal Falls, opposite the site of the old Lal Lal racecourse. The water falls 34 m into the gorge.
\BDescription:\b The Crown Hotel, Buninyong \I(Random House)\i
#
"Camperdown",33,"a\5\a2_0097.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,315\i
Camperdown is on the Princes Highway, just over 200 km from Melbourne, and is the centre of a pastoral district. The local dairy company is the largest co-operative factory of its kind in Victoria. The town was named by Governor La Trobe after the Battle of Camperdown during the Napoleonic Wars in 1797. In 1851, government surveyor Robert Scott, seeking a suitable spot for a town, was delighted by the 'miles of fertile plains, hills and valleys'. Although the town was established in 1853 it was not gazetted until 1859.
There are numerous stylish buildings in the town, including the clocks tower erected by the Manifold family as a memorial to Thomas Manifold who was killed in a hunting accident.
Nearby is Mt. Leura, an extinct volcano with a lookout on the rim of the crater. There are 38 crater lakes in the vicinity, many offering excellent fishing. For example, Lake Bullen Merri near the town has good trout and salmon fishing and water sports.
\BDescription:\b Lake Gnotuk near Camperdown \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Casterton",34,"a\5\a30034.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,808\i
Casterton is on the Glenelg River, 64 km west of Hamilton, and serves an agricultural and grazing district. It was founded in 1840 and the name means 'walled city'. The area is very popular with fossickers and gem seekers, and the surrounding forests are full of flora and fauna.
The explorer Thomas Mitchell called the area Australia Felix because it seemed so friendly and fertile after some of the arid areas he had been exploring.
Castlemaine is 119 km north-west of Melbourne on the Calder Highway at the foot of Mt. Alexander. The town was named after Viscount Castlemaine by his nephew, the chief goldfields commissioner. It was originally a mining settlement and goldfield variously known as Forest Creek or Mount Alexander. Gold was discovered by a shepherd in 1851 and in the rush that followed more than 31,000 people came to the Mount Alexander goldfield by 1857. Many were Chinese and there were five josshouses at the Chinese camp in 1854.
Castlemaine rock (a confectionery that has its roots in English seaside resorts) was first made in a tent in 1853 and is still manufactured locally by the Barnes family.
Agitation Hill was the site for the airing of grievances by miners. The original market building on Mostyn Street is now a museum, open daily, with audio-visual displays and artefacts showing the colourful history of the goldfields.
Cobb & Co.'s first regular run was between Melbourne and the goldfields at Forest Creek near Castlemaine.
Also well worth seeing in Castlemaine is Buda, originally built in 1857 by a retired Indian Army officer and then extended in the 1890s - hence the name Buda - by a Hungarian gold and silversmith, Ernest Leviny. The house and gardens are open to the public.
The Castlemaine Botanic Gardens were designed in the 1860s by Baron von Mueller, a government botanist and director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. They are among the oldest in the State and contain 'Significant Trees' registered by the National Trust.
\BDescription:\b Buda National Trust, Castlemaine \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Charlton",36,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 1,749\i
Charlton is on the Avoca River, at the intersection of the Calder and Borung Highways. Charlton is a centre for wheat, wool and lambs. The Golden Grain Museum housed in the former Mechanics' Institute tells the history of wheat-growing in the area. The tennis club was founded in 1906. Golfing takes place on the 75-year-old course that features a clover leaf design with three arms of six holes each. \JJohn Curtin\j, Prime Minister of Australia during World War II, was educated at the Charlton State School from the age of nine.
#
"Chiltern",37,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 2,628\i
Chiltern was first called Black Dog Creek, then New \JBallarat\j, and finally it was named after the Chilterns, a range of hills in southern England. Chiltern is halfway between Wangaratta and \JWodonga\j and services an agricultural district.
In its glory days Chiltern was a large enough town to have suburbs. Alluvial gold was discovered there in 1855 by refugees from the \JEureka\j incident at \JBallarat\j but the miners intelligently decided not to broadcast the news. Then in 1858 the news broke and the main rush started, with up to 20,000 diggers on the fields by the following year.
Now many of its buildings are classified by the National Trust. Worth visiting are the Arthenaeum Museum which has a goldfields library collection and Stephen's Motor Museum with its motor memorabilia. Lake View in Chiltern was the childhood home of the author Henry Handel Richardson. It is one of the many historic sites around town protected by the National Trust.
#
"Cobram",38,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 6,378\i
Cobram is situated on the Murray River and dates from 1888 when the railway was connected. The name is alleged to come from the Aboriginal cobbera meaning 'head' as it was the head station of a run established in 1845.
Today the area grows peaches, grapes and citrus fruits, and raises beef and lamb. Cobram is well known for the Peaches and Cream Festival held every other Australia Day. Nearby Tyrell's Winery offers tastings and cellar door sales.
#
"Cohuna",39,"a\5\a30032.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,312\i
Cohuna is 32 km east of Kerang and in the centre of the dairy area on the Murray Valley Highway. It is the main access point to the superb Gunbower State Forest, and actually on, as it were, a long island enclosed by the Murray and Gunbower Creek. The forest has magnificent river red gums, abundant animal and birdlife and plenty of walking tracks. Note that the maintained dirt roads in the forest are all based on old river mud and in the wet this becomes so slippery that the only way to get around is with a four-wheel drive vehicle.
The Cohuna Skull, possibly more than 14,000 years old, was found in 1925. Important skeletal finds were made in the Kow Swamp area to the south-east in 1967-73, some of them complete skeletons over 9,000 years old.
\BDescription:\b Gunbower Creek, Cohuna \I(Random House)\i
#
"Colac",40,"a\5\a2_0002.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 9,171\i
Colac is the centre of the south-western district on the Princes Highway and the agricultural district on the shore of Lake Colac. The town started life when Hugh Murray and a party of squatters arrived in 1837. Colac has shady trees, colourful parks and wide lawns, and industries include quarrying and timber milling. Burton's Lookout has fine views of the Gellibrand River Valley and Lake Colac. There is good fishing and a variety of water sports.
\BDescription:\b Looking north from Red Rock, Colac \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Coldstream",41,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 2,156\i
Coldstream just misses being called a suburb of Melbourne by a few kilometres although there is no doubt that it will, by definition, be part of Melbourne in the near future. Coldstream services a grazing and agricultural district with a long history of wine growing.
The nearby St. Hubert's Vineyard was established by Hubert \Jde Castella\j in the early 1860s. By the 1890s it had become the largest in Australia. Yeringberg Vineyard, also nearby, grew rapidly through the 1850s.
These and many other vineyards were attacked by the phylloxera virus at the end of the century and the vineyards fell on hard times. By 1921 there were no vines in the Yarra Valley and it was not until the late 1950s that wine making returned.
#
"Coleraine",42,"a\5\a30035.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,089\i
Coleraine is in the Wannon Valley and 155 km south-west of Melbourne. This historic village is approached from the high tablelands that sweep down into a spectacular valley. It is suggested that the name may be derived from a corruption of Coladjin, the original tribe in the area, although it is also a well known name in Ireland.
There is good fishing at Nigretta Falls and trout and redfin from the Wannon River.
\BDescription:\b Aerial view of Coleraine \I(Random House)\i
#
"Corryong",43,"a\5\a3_0020.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,226\i
Corryong is the Victorian gateway to the Snowy Mountains and Kosciuszko National Park and is close to the source of the mighty Murray River. It is 27 km from the Burrowa-Pine National Park which offers marvellous bushwalking.
Corryong is also the last resting place of Jack Riley, who was manager of Pierce's cattle station at Tom Groggin in the Snowy Mountains and who was claimed to be the original Man from Snowy River. There are, however, many claimants to the title, including Hellfire Jack Clarke, Lachlan Conran, Owen Cummins and Jim Troy. However, Riley who died in 1914, perhaps has the strongest claim, although Paterson disowned all the claimants. He wrote in an article, \I'Looking Backward', ' They have turned up from all the mountains districts - men who did exactly the same ride, and could give you chapter and verse for every hill they descended and every creek they crossed. It was no small satisfaction to find there really had been a Man from Snowy River - more than one of them'.\i
Jack Riley's grave is in the town cemetery and there is a Man from Snowy River museum in the town, complete with Jack Riley's shack and a ski and snowshoe collection dating back to 1870. This is open daily.
\BDescription:\b \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Cowes",44,"a\5\a30026.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,658\i
Cowes is on Phillip Island at the entrance to Westernport Bay, 137 km south-east of Melbourne. This is a very popular holiday resort for the people of Melbourne. It was given its name by the Government Surveyor, Mr Cox, after the resort on the Isle of Wight in Britain. The island is joined to the mainland by a bridge from San Remo to Newhaven, or you can reach it by ferry from Stony Point on the Mornington Peninsula. Cowes is on the north side of the island and has a pleasant, sheltered beach. The south side has surf beaches and Summerland, home of the famous daily fairy penguin parade.
\BDescription:\b Cowes Beach on Phillip Island \I(Random House)\i
#
"Cranbourne",45,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 70,821\i
Cranbourne is on the Gippsland Highway 48 km south of Melbourne and 16 km from Dandenong. The town is named either after a district in Berkshire, England, or after the title of Lord Salisbury's son, the Marquis of Cranbourne. In 1836 the Ruffy brothers arrived, and they later opened the Cranbourne Inn. The town was not gazetted until 1861.
The town developed a major market gardening industry following the arrival of Italian migrants after World War I. Recent growth has been fuelled by the expansion of Dandenong.
The largest meteorite found in Australia weighed more than 3 tonnes. It was found in several pieces at Cranbourne in 1860. More than half is in the British Museum, another major slab is in the National Museum, Melbourne.
#
"Creswick",46,"a\5\a30041.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,836\i
Creswick is 18 km north of \JBallarat\j, and it grew mainly because of the gold rush. At one time there were as many as 60,000 people working the claims. The Creswick station was first taken up in 1842 but it was the gold rush of a decade later that settled its future. The diggers came and went in a few short years but they left behind them a town.
\JJohn Curtin\j, who became prime minister of Australia, was born here. Some of the famous Lindsay family lived here in the last century; Creswick was a setting for \JNorman Lindsay\j's novel \IRedheap\i which was first published in 1930 but was banned under Australia's strict censorship laws until 1959.
The Victoria School of Forestry, the first of its kind in Australia, was established in 1911, partly in the town's first hospital built in 1863.
Nearby is the Forestry Commission nursery and extensive pine plantations have been developed in association with the school.
The Creswick Museum has a magnificent winding staircase and some Lindsay sketches as well as a comprehensive history of the area.
\BDescription:\b School of Forestry, Creswick \I(Random House)\i
#
"Dandenong Ranges",47,"0","g","0"
When the Koories came to the Dandenongs, the forests were already thousands of years old. They named the Ranges \ICorhan warrabul\i - meaning an attractive and desirable place abounding in wildlife - and used the area as a summer hunting ground.
White settlement saw the Koories dislodged and industries such as timber-cutting, farming, goldmining, wine-making and hospitality were introduced. Much of this was to meet the demands of an ever-increasing Melbourne population.
Some of the evidence from these golden Victorian years still exists: at Yarra Glen is the historic Grand Hotel; at Mount Dandenong the original house of \JEdward Henty\j, the state's first permanent white settler; and at Lilydale is the grave of \JDame Nellie Melba\j.
This internationally famous opera singer lived at Coldstream and the Lilydale Historical Museum houses much of her memorabilia.
By the turn of the century the Dandenongs had been irreversibly altered; the state forest was about one-fifth of its original size. More timber passed through Yarra Junction than any other town in the world with the exception of Seattle. Reminders of this past are found in old timber tramlines, the charcoal-making plant at Kurth Kiln and the wood distillation works at Briannia Creek.
In 1900 Puffing Billy began to steam its way through the hills, bringing Melbournians closer to nature.
The railway and the proliferation of motor vehicles made the Dandenongs and Yarra Valley more accessible. This little train, through the support of the Puffing Billy Preservation Society, carries 200,000 passengers each year.
#
"Daylesford",48,"a\5\a2_0001.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 5,679\i
Daylesford is a spa resort some 120 km north-west of Melbourne. Hepburn Springs, 5 km north, is reputed to have waters that possess high therapeutic value. It is claimed that the district that includes Hepburn Springs provides 85 per cent of the natural spa waters in Australia.
The town of Daylesford was originally and charmingly called Wombat, after the pastoral run where gold was first discovered. When gold was discovered, its name was changed to Jim Crow Diggings and then to Daylesford, the name of a parish in Worcestershire, England. Daylesford is a picturesque town set among lakes, hills and forests and the buildings in the town are examples of rock-solid Victorian and Edwardian architecture.
After the gold, the cure. By the 1870s Daylesford was a popular health resort attracting the ailing and jaded of Melbourne. There is an excellent historical museum and botanic gardens on Wombat Hill. The volcanic crater of Mt. Franklin, 10 km north, can be seen from a lookout point in the gardens.
\BDescription:\b Hepburn Springs, Daylesford \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Derrinallum",49,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 280\i
Derrinallum stands beneath the humped Mt. Elephant that rises to 393 m and is the highest of the extinct volcanic cones in the area. The town is on the Hamilton Highway 80 km south-west of \JBallarat\j. Most of Derrinallum was destroyed by a major bushfire in January 1944 which effectively razed the town. All that was left was the Mechanics' Institute, two churches and a handful of business premises.
#
"Dimboola",50,"a\5\a2_0007.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,058\i
Dimboola is a small town on the Wimmera River just over 300 km north-west of Melbourne, 40 km east of Warracknabeal and 35 km north-west of Horsham. The name is from a Sinhalese word meaning 'land of figs' and was provided by a surveyor who had just returned from a trip to Ceylon, as it was called in those days.
The Lowan Sanctuary is at Kiata, 24 km to the west, where the lowans, or mallee fowl, may be seen working on their incubator nests at all times of the year. Besides the Wimmera River nearby you can see Aboriginal canoe trees, scarred red gums from whose bark canoes have been cut out in one piece.
The Ebenezer Mission Station was established in 1859 in Antwerp, north of Dimboola, by Moravian missionaries to cater to the local Aboriginal people. The mission closed in 1903 and the ruins, complete with a small cemetery, are close to the banks of the Wimmera River.
James Little, who died in Dimboola in 1863, had on his gravestone the epitaph:
\ISilent grave, to thee I trust,
This precious pile of worthy dust.
Keep it safe, O sacred tomb,
Till wife or children ask for room.\i
Just south of the Western Highway and reached from Dimboola is the Little Desert National Park, noted for its brilliant display of wildflowers in the spring.
\BDescription:\b Wimmera River, Dimboola \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Echuca",51,"a\5\4_0046.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 9,438\i
The City of Echuca preserves its riverboat era when it was Australia's largest inland port, with over 80 hotels and a large three-decker wharf. Today, much of the giant red gum wharf still stands and paddle steamers, old hotels and government buildings are other remnants of a once thriving riverboat town.
\BDescription:\b Echuca \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Emerald",52,"a\5\a3_0019.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,693\i
Emerald Lake Park is a 50 ha leisure park in the town of Emerald. It is also the terminus of the Puffing Billy train from Belgrave, and contains what is claimed to be the largest working scale model railway in Australia.
Emerald, the first settlement in the Dandenong Ranges, is 11 km south of Monbulk and 16 km east of Ferntree Gully. There was a small and brief gold rush here in the 1850s. During this period Jack Emerald was murdered and a creek was given his name as a sort of memorial. When the town later developed in the 1880s, it took the name from the creek.
Emerald contains one of the largest ornamental plant and fruit tree nurseries on the southern hemisphere, started at the turn of the century by Carl Alix Nobelius.
\BDescription:\b Tulips near Emerald \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Euroa",53,"a\5\a30038.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,315\i
Euroa is located on the Hume Highway 160 km north-east of Melbourne. It is set in a strong agricultural district, with secondary industries that include sawmilling, joinery, clay products and building materials. The explorers William \JHovell\j and \JHamilton Hume\j first came to the district in 1824 and the first European settlers followed in 1838. In 1851 Mrs Eliza Forlonge brought Saxon merinos from Tasmania to the Seven Creeks station and started merino sheep breeding in Victoria. There is a memorial to celebrate this.
There is an important Aboriginal rock painting site in Garden Range to the south-east. Euroa is a good base from which to explore the Strathbogie Ranges.
In 1878 in Euroa, the Kelly gang, in one of its more famous raids, rounded up 50 people, locked them in the local police station, held up the National Bank and decamped with 2200 pounds. One description of the raid runs as follows:
The town contained about 300 inhabitants, a police station, three public houses, and a number of other business places. \JNed Kelly\j drove into Euroa in a hawker's cart up to the front door of the bank, fastened up the horse and entered the bank. Dan [Kelly] drove another cart into the back yard of the bank and [Steve] Hart rode into the same place, and the moment Ned entered by the front door Dan and Steve entered by the back door.
On entering Ned presented the cheque signed by Mr McCauley, the manger of Faithful Creek Station, but as soon as Dan and Hart entered Ned presented his revolver and said, ' I am Kelly; bail up.' Ned got all the cash in use, and then prepared to visit the other parts of the premises.
Mrs Scott, the wife of the bank manager, knew who her visitor was and said, 'Ah, indeed, you are a much better-looking man than the police described you to be.'
'Yes, madam,' said Ned, bowing very politely, ' the cowardly police paint very ugly pictures of every poor wretch whom they drive to ruin by their monstrous modes of persecution, in which they are so much encouraged by their heads. I hope, madam, that you will not be afraid.'
This is from \IThe Reminiscences of Detective Inspector Christie,\i related by J.B. Castieau (Melbourne). Every year in December, the people of Euroa re-enact the Kelly raid in costume.
\BDescription:\b \JNed Kelly\j revisited, Euroa \I(Random House)\i
#
"Geelong",54,"a\5\a2_0060.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 130,036\i
Geelong once rivalled Melbourne in importance - in the eyes of most of its inhabitants it still does - but the superior harbour of Melbourne eventually ensured its dominance. However, it was a close run, especially during the goldrush when Geelong was the favoured port for diggers as it was closer to the goldfields.
You can still see the effects of the goldrush on Geelong in its fine civic buildings and private mansions.
\BDescription:\b Old mill in Alden Lodge Gardens, Geelong \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Goulburn Region",55,"0","g","0"
The Goulburn River was once known to the Koories as the "long river". Today its waters nourish thousands of fruit growing hectares in the Goulburn Valley, which produces 80% of Australia's canned, deciduous fruits.
The Goulburn Valley is a central wine producing region and there are a dozen or more regional wineries in the area.
#
"Grampians",56,"a\5\4_0066.jpg","c","0"
Over 400 million years ago in Western Victoria, the earth rose to form a vast island of mountains called \IThe Grampians.\i It is an island oasis which for millions of years was pounded by the Southern Ocean.
The Grampians National Park is a natural oasis where plants and animals, extinct in other regions, flourish. The Park holds one third of Victoria's fauna. In spring, you can find over 1,000 species of wildflowers covering the peaks and valleys - some do not occur anywhere else.
\IThe Grampians\i (or Gariwerd) are a place of Dreamtime legends and Koorie rock art. Over 4,000 different Koorie rock art motifs have been recorded, although major designs are emu tracks, human figures, hands, bars and straight lines. The oldest hand stencils are over 2,000 years old, while the more recent were painted around the time Europeans settled here.
In 1836, the explorer, Major Mitchell "discovered" this place called Gariwerd, but he named it \IThe Grampians\i, because they resembled mountains of that name in Scotland. Overawed and inspired, he climbed to the highest peak and spent the night on Mount Willam (Mount Duwil), just to witness the sunrise over this island oasis.
The geology of this range of mountains has seen the evolution of 18 wildflower species, including \Iflame grevillias\i and \IGrampians thryptomene\i, which are endemic to the area. The \Itea tree\i, also found in the region, is found nowhere else on the mainland. In spring, banksias, hakeas, grevillias, heath, acacias, and 54 species of orchids flower.
\BDescription:\b Lake Wartook in the Grampians \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Great Ocean Road",57,"a\5\r2626.jpg","c","0"
Before the Great Ocean Road was completed in 1932, the only link between civilisation and coastal settlements was by inland roads or sea. In the early nineteenth century sealing and whaling expeditions left the shores of Apollo Bay, Warrnambool, Port Fairy and Portland. For inbound craft, these southern waters of Bass Strait were one of the main approaches to eastern Australia.
Hundreds of ships were wrecked along this rugged coastline, as convict transports, supply and immigrant vessels ploughed their way through turbulent waters to the new colonies. It was not until 1848, however, that the Otway light was installed to guide these vessels. But this was only after the wrecking of the emigrant ship \ICataraqui\i with the loss of 399 lives, Australia's worst peacetime disaster.
Originally constructed as a memorial to soldiers who died in World War One, the road was etched onto the coastal mountainsides by 3,000 ex-servicemen during the Great Depression.
At Port Campbell, commemorating the 88 ships that went down during the last century and into the early part of this one, this wild, ozone-washed stretch is known as the Shipwreck Coast.
The Lord Ard Gorge, named after the clipper \ILoch Ard\i that foundered off-shore in 1878, has a tiny cemetery containing four graves. Two people survived this tragedy and only four bodies were recovered.
Called " the most inspiring coastal drive in the world," The Great Ocean Road moves along the coastline of the west coast of Victoria.
\BDescription:\b 12 Apostles on the Eyre Peninsula \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Hamilton",59,"a\5\a3_0018.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 9,753\i
Hamilton is the business centre for one of the best fine-wool-producing areas in the world. When explorer Major Thomas Mitchell came through here in 1836, what is now the present town site was an Aboriginal corroboree ground. Mitchell named the river Grange Burn, a name retained for his property by the first settler, Henry Wade, who arrived in 1838. The town was surveyed in 1850 but a few years later for some unrecorded reason the name was changed to Hamilton. The Aboriginal name for the area had been Mulleraterong. Hamilton was an important staging station for Cobb & Co. coaches and was proclaimed a municipality in 1859.
The town is close to Portland, Port Fairy and Warrnambool and is also close to the Grampian Ranges. Hamilton has Big Bales, a wool production museum, with shearing demonstrations. Nearby Lake Hamilton has a sandy beach, offers water sports and is also full of trout. There is an Ansett museum, for this is where Sir Reginald Ansett began his career.
The superb art gallery on Brown Street is well known as being one of the best in any Australian country town. In the Hamilton and Western District Museum there is an Aboriginal 'keeping place' where craft and art works of the local tribes are preserved.
\BDescription:\b Nigretta Falls, Hamilton \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Harkaway",60,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 1,857\i
Harkaway was almost certainly named after one of the great racehorses of England that ran in the 1830s and is still mentioned with awe. The town did not get its title until 1850, but there seems no reason to doubt the connection. Harkaway is off the main highway from Melbourne on the edge of the suburbs just east of Dandenong.
#
"Hastings",61,"a\5\a30024.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 28,742\i
Hastings is a fishing port on Westernport Bay 78 km from Melbourne. It was originally known as King's Creek but was renamed in 1860 either after the town in Sussex, England, or after Warren Hastings, governor-general of India at the time. The township was established in 1860 and has a deep and safe natural harbour. It grew as a base for Westernport fishermen. The Royal Australian Navy base HMAS \IGerberus\i was established in 1933 at Crib Point.
Healesville is a base of the Dandenongs on the Watts River. It has been a Dandenong resort since the turn of the century. It has a pleasantly situated town 60 km from Melbourne at the junction of the Watts River and Graceburn Creek, both tributaries of the Yarra River. Healesville is on the regular Melbourne suburban transport network.
The town was named after Richard Heales, premier in 1860. Nearby New Chum village on the creek was busy supplying diggers' needs because it straddled the route to the Woods Point goldfield in the rush of 1861. Healesville was surveyed in 1864 and took over from New Chum, which by 1866 was deserted.
The railway opened in 1889; tourists started arriving from Melbourne and guesthouses were opened to cater for them. Acheron Way between Healesville and Marysville was opened as a tourist road in 1929. The Colin Mackenzie Sanctuary opened in 1934 and the first platypus bred in captivity was born here in 1943. The poet \JC.J. Dennis\j spent his last 30 years at Toolangi slightly to the north and died there in 1938.
There are some pleasant drives from Healesville, particularly the scenic route to Marysville, and the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary is a prime attraction.
\BDescription:\b Maroondah Highway near Healesville \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Heathcote",63,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 1,507\i
Heathcote is on the banks of the McIvor Creek and was another gold rush creation. The rush led to about 16,000 tents and shanties on the goldfield and some 3,000 Chinese trekked here from Robe in South Australia. The town grew with great rapidity during the gold rush but had started to decline by the 1870s. The hospital, which has been listed by the National Trust, was built in 1859.
Heathcote still evokes a very strong feeling of the past as the wide main street is full of buildings of that time. Nearby is Lake Eppalock, one of the State's largest, and a centre for power boat racing. There are also wineries in the area.
#
"High Country",64,"a\5\bogong.jpg","c","0"
The Koories lived in harmony with this land for thousands of years. They ate possums and Bogong moths -- small brown creatures that migrated to the cooler rock fissures of the High Country to escape the summer heat.
Little remains of Koorie occupation in the High Country. An Axe Quarry at Howqua, campsites around Omeo and implements on the Bogong High Plains are the last reminders.
Eighteenth century explorers setting out to conquer inland Australia encountered rugged mountain country everywhere from the south to the north. This was ultimately known as Australia's Great Divide, a complex series of continuous mountains running parallel with the coast.
\BDescription:\b Bogong National Park \I(Readers Digest).\i
#
"High Country - (2)",65,"a\5\4_0044.jpg","c","0"
At the Divide's southern reaches - within Victoria's High Country - are thousands of hectares of skiing terrain. Victoria's alpine villages are set amid a rugged Australian landscape.
Based on major analyses by the Centre of South Australian Economic Studies, it is estimated that Victoria's alpine resort region is on track to become this country's leading non-capital tourist destination by the year 2003.
Victoria's down-hill resorts in order of size and visitor numbers are: Mt. Buller, Falls Creek, Mt. Hotham, Mt. Buffalo and Mt. Baw Baw.
\BDescription:\b Dinner Plains resort, Victoria \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Horsham",66,"a\5\a3_0017.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 12,552\i
Horsham is the unofficial capital of the Wimmera district and of the area described in 1836 by the explorer Thomas Mitchell as Australia Felix. The first settler was James Monckton Darlot who selected the Brighton homestead and the original township began on the property's borders during the 1840s. It was named after Darlot's home town, which was also the birthplace of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, in Sussex, England. Horsham was surveyed in 1854, but there was little development until 1871-72 when land in the area was opened for agriculture. Horsham became a borough in 1882, a town in 1932 and a city in 1949.
The Rev. H.F. Tucker founded the Utopian villages Horsham No.2 and Wonwondah East in 1892, but both failed and were taken over by the government in 1894.
This well-planned town is surrounded by wheatfields and also has many secondary industries. It is also a good base for the Little Desert National Park and the Grampians. The town has an art gallery, botanic gardens and 'Olde Horsham' with historic displays and a tearoom in an old tram.
\BDescription:\b Aerial view of Horsham \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Inverloch",67,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 2,195\i
Inverloch is on the edge of Anderson's Inlet, the most southerly point in Australia where mangrove swamps can be found. The inlet was named by Samuel Anderson, who settled near the Bass River in 1835. This is wool-growing, dairying, grazing land that is also well known as a tourist area. Anderson's Inlet provides many opportunities for safe boating.
#
"Kerang",68,"a\5\a30037.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,024\i
Kerang is on the Murray Valley Highway 30 km from the Murray River itself, at the end of a string of lakes and marshlands and on the Loddon River. Kerang is an Aboriginal word variously translated as 'cockatoo', 'parasite' or 'moon'.
The town is at the centre of a major birdbreeding area, particularly for the ibis. The marshes of the district are of particular interest to bird-lovers for they are the home of enormous flocks of waterfowl. During the nesting season it is estimated that there are more than 50,000 birds among the cumbungi reeds in the swamps and that in the months between August and April more than 200,000 ibis may be in residence, eating more than 5 tonnes of insects a day.
There is a duck-shooting season when thousands of shooters flock into the area. All lakes in the area are available for water sports, particularly sailing.
\BDescription:\b Smith Lookout Tower, Kerang \I(Random House)\i
#
"Kilmore",69,"a\5\a3_0015.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 8,827\i
Kilmore is 65 km north of Melbourne, and was named in 1841 after the birthplace in Ireland of speculator William Rutledge. The explorers \JHamilton Hume\j and William \JHovell\j had passed through the district and named Mt. Disappointment in 1824. The area was very attractive to squatters because of the rich volcanic soils.
Kilmore is one of the oldest towns in Victoria; the post office was established in 1840 and the first town lots sold in 1842. There were minor gold discoveries in the area in 1851 and 1890. A daily coach service to Melbourne began in 1854 and the town was created a municipality two years later. There is a museum in Whitburgh Cottage which was built between 1853 and 1857. The main road from Melbourne to Sydney, the Northern Highway, was built in 1858 and Kilmore became the first major staging-post for those travelling north from Melbourne.
\BDescription:\b Whitburgh Cottage, Kilmore \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Korumburra",70,"a\5\a30039.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 7,573\i
Korumburra is the home of the giant Gippsland earthworms, which are of interest to zoologists and fishermen and are often found in the vicinity. The village of Korumburra was founded in 1880 and grew after coal mining began at Coal Creek. When mining declined the town relied on dairying for prosperity.
The area around the town is now largely concerned with dairying and farming and a high rainfall makes the rolling hills of the dairy country very green. The last mine at Coal Creek closed in 1958, but more than 30 buildings from the early mining village have been restored as Coal Creek Historical Park. From high points around the town there are wonderful views of the \JStrzelecki\j Ranges and Bass Strait, particularly from Cooks Hill.
\BDescription:\b School at Coal Creek Museum, Korumburra \I(Random House)\i
#
"Kyabram",71,"a\5\a30036.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 5,540\i
Kyabram is in the Goulburn Valley in a fruit-growing area that is extensively irrigated. Victoria's only community-owned fauna and waterfowl park was opened here in the mid 1970s. It has about 60 species including the rare Alpine Dingo. There is also a pottery outlet, a harness-racing training centre, an annual antique aeroplane meeting at Easter and a rodeo in March.
\BDescription:\b RSL Memorial Walk, Kyabram Gardens \I(Random House)\i
#
"Kyneton",72,"a\5\a3_0014.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 8,387\i
Kyneton is a town that never had gold, but it was on the road to the goldfields and it grew, making money by supplying local produce to the goldfields. The Cobb & Co. coaches came through the town on their way to the \JBendigo\j goldfields and the famous \ILeviathan\i coach was driven from Castlemaine to Kyneton.
Kyneton was named after the village of Kineton (now Kingtown) in Warwickshire, England. About 30 of the houses here are classified by the National Trust. The Kyneton Historical Centre is housed in an 1855 building which was formerly a branch of the Bank of New South Wales. A drop-log cottage originally built in 1840 has been re-erected in the grounds. There are pleasant riverside botanic gardens extending over 8 ha stocked with European and North American deciduous trees. The gardens are said to be some of the finest outside Melbourne. There are several wineries in the area.
\BDescription:\b Old mill wheels, Kyneton \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"The Lakes",73,"0","The Lakes - Victoria","vic4m.avi"
Nine thousand years ago, a vast system of rivers, lakes, lagoons and islands was enclosed by 140 kilometres of the most secluded, untouched beaches in the world to create the largest inland waterway system in Australia.
Found on the east coast of Victoria, covering some 400 square kilometres, The Lakes are separated from the sea by a strip of coastline known as Ninety Mile Beach.
The whole area was once a huge bay but thousands of years ago sands deposited by persistent seas helped to form barriers which we know today as Ninety Mile Beach, Sperm Whale Head and Rotamah Island.
\BViddescription:\b The Lakes (Tourism Victoria)
#
"The Lakes - (2)",74,"a\5\lakes.jpg","c","0"
Fed by rivers of the Mountains and Bogong High Plain Ranges, the Lakes comprised a series of broad waterways linked by narrow channels into a chain which extends 90 kilometres down the coastline and 20 kilometres northward towards the mountains.
They are protected from the ocean by a remarkable barrier of sand dunes which form Ninety Mile Beach - the only outlet to the sea being at Lakes Entrance.
The system comprises three lakes, Victoria, King and Wellington. Each lake is different in shape and character, some have extensive foreshore development while others are a maze of unspoilt landscapes. Four navigable rivers, the Latrobe, Mitchell, Nicholson and Tambo feed the lake system and wind their way through rural countryside.
The Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park takes in most of the coastline from Seaspray to Lakes Entrance and includes coastal dunes and part of the Gippsland Lakes system.
The Lakes' waters and undisturbed islands provide a haven for a staggering array of wildlife: black swans, pelicans, herons, dolphins, koalas, kangaroos, possums and even our famous wombats.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Readers Digest.\i
#
"Leongatha",75,"a\5\a30030.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,968\i
Leongatha is a dairy town at the foot of the \JStrzelecki\j Ranges. It is suggested that the name comes from an Aboriginal word for 'teeth'. European settlement started around 1845 and dairying became important in the 1880s and 1890s, especially after the railway opened in the late 1880s.
Now it is a progressive agricultural and pastoral town 156 km south-east of Melbourne and within easy reach of Wilson's Promontory National Park and the south-western end of the Ninety Mile Beach. Nearby is Moss Vale Park with impressive plantations of English trees. There are scenic drives on Grand Ridge Road which leads into the Tarabulga National Park. The town has a good art gallery and museum.
\BDescription:\b Gippsland Hills, Leongatha \I(Random House)\i
#
"Lilydale",76,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 78,475\i
Lilydale is an attractive semi-rural town built on the sides of a valley on the Maroondah Highway 40 km from Melbourne, and is now something of a dormitory suburb. The surrounding land is given over to dairy farming and orchards. \JDame Nellie Melba\j's father David Mitchell lived here, owning a limestone quarry on the hill outside the town. He also had a dairy and bacon factory and grew grapevines.
Coombe Cottage at Coldstream (about 5 km from town) was the childhood home of \JDame Nellie Melba\j. She is buried in the local cemetery. Lilydale was one of the pioneer winegrowing areas of Victoria, with the first vines being planted at nearby Yering in 1838. One theory is that the town was named after the wife of one of the viticulturists, Paul de Castella. It is also possible it was named after a popular song of the day.
#
"Maffra",77,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 10,117\i
Maffra is a picturesque town in the Macalister Irrigation Area named after the town of Mafra, Portugal. It was proclaimed a town in 1875 and the railway came in 1888.
The Glenmaggie Weir, which was opened in 1929 and enlarged in 1958, is 11 km north and is popular for water sports. A forest road running north to Jamieson, closed in winter, passes through stunning scenery on its way to the snowfields and alpine country.
#
"Mansfield",78,"a\5\a30067.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 8,471\i
Mansfield is an inland holiday town close to the northern part of Eildon Weir, not too far from Mt. Buller Alpine Village and 63 km south of Benalla on the Midland Highway. The Mansfield district produces wool, beef, dairy produce and timber. It was settled in the 1850s and named after Mansfield in England or after Edward Mansfield who settled here in 1841. The shire was proclaimed in 1866 and is now the centre of a large grazing district. The graves of three police officers killed by \JNed Kelly\j at Stringybark Creek in 1878 are in the Mansfield cemetery, and there is a monument to them in the town.
The surrounding pretty countryside, set in the mountains, has made it a growing attraction for tourists. Mansfield is also a timber town and it is surrounded by forests. In November the annual Mountain Country Festival is held, with the Great Mountain Race, which attracts the country's best horse-riders. There are scenic drives through the mountains to Whitfield and the Jamieson and Goulburn Rivers, both of which offer trout fishing.
\BDescription:\b Mansfield \I(Random House)\i
#
"Maryborough",79,"a\5\a3_0016.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 7,623\i
Maryborough is on the Pyrenees Highway, west of Castlemaine, and was once a big gold mining town that survived as a rail town and became a developing industrial area. It was originally a sheep town, and is still today surrounded by agricultural land and forest. The town was named after the Irish birthplace of the gold commissioner, although it was first known as Simson's after three Scottish brothers who settled there in 1839. Gold was discovered nearby in 1853 and the rush came in the following year. The local newspaper, the \IMaryborough Advertiser,\i is one of Victoria's oldest newspapers and was first issued in 1854.
There were a series of clashes called the Tipperary Riots between Irish miners and those of other nationalities on Alma field north-west of the town in 1855. A gold nugget of 32,162g was found in 1855 and two years later the town became a borough, servicing 30,000 diggers in the area. Gold mining ceased to be economical in 1918 but by then Maryborough had a strong manufacturing base in the town's secondary industries and is still a busy town today. Tullaroop Reservoir was built in 1959 to supply water for the town and irrigation for the local properties.
There are some interesting buildings to the town, particularly the magnificent railway station which led to Mark Twain describing Maryborough as 'a railway station with a town attached'. On New Year's Day there is an annual Highland Gathering with literary events, music, the national gum-leaf-blowing - only new gums leaves, as a competitor was caught using preserved gum leaves which give a better note - and bird-call championships. There is also the Wattle Festival in September. Pioneer Memorial tower on Bristol Hill has fine views of the surrounding countryside.
\BDescription:\b Maryborough Rail Station \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Mildura",80,"a\5\a2_0009.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 20,432\i
The township of Mildura, a six hour drive from Melbourne, was established as an American-style irrigation colony. It is a well-known town situated in the heart of Sunraysia district on the banks of the Murray River and very popular with tourists. The name is alleged to be Aboriginal for either 'red earth' or 'sore eyes caused by flies'. The Mildura station was held by the Jamieson brothers, Hugh and Bushby, from 1847. They planted grapes that took slight advantage of the potential of the area, but settlement attempts failed due to aridity. \JAlfred Deakin\j invited George and William Chaffey to develop an irrigation system in the 1880s and the first irrigation water was pumped here from the Murray River in 1887.
The first fruits of the region reached Melbourne in 1893. Today, however, Mildura's golden valencia and navel oranges, sweet fleshy melons and dried vine fruits are renowned worldwide. The year-round dry climate and the rich red soil make the Sunraysia district ideal for producing high-quality citrus fruit and grapes under irrigation. The area is still artificially irrigated, still to the design of the Chaffey brothers. Now in the irrigated areas they grow citrus fruit, make wine and produce dried fruit. The growth of vineyards is interesting because Mildura started as temperance settlement and no alcohol was sold here until a hostelry obtained a wine licence in 1906.
\BDescription:\b Grape drying racks at Mildura \I(Random House - photo by Gary Lewis)\i
#
"Mildura - (2)",81,"a\5\a2_0084.jpg","c","0"
A post-World War I publicity campaign devised by Jack De Garis led to the whole district becoming known as 'Sunraysia'. The Australian Balloon Launching Station was established here in 1960 to take part in a NASA study of X-ray and gamma ray astronomy.
There are Murray River trips on a variety of boats including paddle-steamers. On weekdays the \IPS Rothbury\i and the \IPS Melbourne,\i both still steam-powered, have daily cruises and the \IPS Avoca\i has a daily lunchtime cruise. In the area are many wineries to visit, and a selection of attractions for children, including a zoo.
The Mildura Arts Centre is based around the old home of William Chaffey, who started building in 1892 and finished Rio Vista in 1899. It contains a regional art gallery and a theatre. The Chaffey home is built from red brick and Murray pine, and mellowed river red gum was used in its construction.
The Workingmen's Club has, according to the \IGuinness Book of Records,\i the longest bar in the world, being 92 m long and having 27 beer taps. It was built in 1938.
\BDescription:\b Pioneer homestead, Mildura \I(Random House - photo by Gary Lewis)\i
#
"Moe",82,"a\5\a30063.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 16,719\i
Moe has a population of 20,500. This Latrobe Valley coal mining centre is 135 km east of Melbourne on the Princes Highway. Nearby is the former township of Yallourn, which was moved lock, stock and barrel to provide access to the brown coal deposits underneath. The city contains some controversial low-cost housing estates built by the State Electricity Commission in the 1950s. From the hill behind the town site there is a lookout with some information for visitors and views of the vast open-cut mine area.
The odd name comes form the Aboriginal moia or mouay which can be taken to mean 'swamp'. The town is known as Mouay on early maps and was also known, for a time, as Westbury.
The main attraction in Moe is the Gippsland Folk Museum in which a 19th-century community, Old Gippstown, has been recreated on 4 ha of parkland. There are more than 30 buildings which are all authentic and have been collected from the length and breadth of Gippsland and moved here for display. One of the buildings is classified by the National Trust.
Among those displayed are Bushy Park homestead built for Angus McMillan near Maffra in the 1840s and Loren, a two-storey prefabricated iron house made in London and erected in North Melbourne in 1853. There are a number of working displays of old crafts. Old Gippstown is open daily.
A scenic road runs north from Moe to the ghost town of Valhalla, the Baw Baw National Park and then on to Mount Erica from where you can drive across the Victorian Alps.
\BDescription:\b Main street in Folk Museum, Moe \I(Random House)\i
#
"Monbulk",83,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 3,300\i
In the 1890s the Victorian government established three official townships in the Dandenongs. Only Monbulk remains. The name comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean 'hiding place in the hills'. Monbulk lies to the south of the Olidah State Forest and the Silvan Reservoir and to the east of the Dandenong Ranges National Park, with its own Monbulk Recreation Reserve nearby. Monbulk is internationally known for its stone fruits and berries.
It also has a reputation for its flowering bulb farms, established by Dutch settlers. Tulips, gladioli and daffodils are grown throughout the town.
#
"Mooroopna",84,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 30,511\i
Mooroopna is said to be an Aboriginal word meaning 'ghost' or 'deep water'. The town started as a punt crossing on Goulburn River for diggers on their way to the goldfields. The area around Mooroopna is irrigated, producing stone fruits which are processed at the Ardmona cannery.
Close by is Genmill's Swamp, home to pelicans, ibises, swans, egrets, ducks and many other bird varieties.
The Bunurong tribe of Aborigines, largely coastal people, inhabited the Peninsula at the time Australia was discovered by Europeans. A variety of middens and artefacts have been discovered; one large site near Cape Schanck had good fresh water and seems to have been a permanent camp.
The first known white presence in the area came in 1802 when Lieutenant John Murray in the \ILady Nelson\i entered Port Phillip Bay. He was followed just weeks later by Captain \JMatthew Flinders\j in the \IInvestigator\i.
During his 25-day exploration, Murray called the Peninsula after Mornington in Ireland as well as naming Point Nepean, Arthurs Seat and Swan Island.
Just two kilometres west of Sorrento is a cairn which commemorates the first time the Union Jack was used in Australia for the purpose of 'taking possession'. Murray did this in the name of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland.
The following year Lieutenant Governor Collins - along with 299 convicts, 16 convict wives, 50 royal marines and civil staff and the families of 18 free settlers - established Victoria's first white settlement.
The idea was to deter the French from colonising the area but within a year, water shortages and other problems saw Collins and his colleagues resettled in Hobart. Lasting settlements were not established on the Peninsula until the 1840s.
\BDescription:\b Mornington Peninsula \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Morwell",86,"a\5\a2_0058.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 26,461\i
Morwell is a comfortable town lying in the LaTrobe Valley. The name is said to come from the Aboriginal morwillie which can mean 'woolly possum'; a splendid name. It was originally known as Maryvale but changed when the village was founded in 1861 as a supply centre of the Valhalla and Tanjil goldfields. The track from Lang Lang was cut in 1862 as a cattle route and a brown coal seam was discovered by a prospector in 1873. Despite its proximity to power stations, and its industrial nature, Morwell is still an attractive city.
Open-cut mining of brown coal began by the State Electricity Commission (SEC) in 1916. The nearby Hazelwood Power Station opened in 1971 and the new town of Churchill was built to the south to house the increased workforce.
The SEC's visitors' centre is off Commercial Road and has models and displays of the LaTrobe Valley's coal-mining and power generating activities.
There are scenic drives to the Baw Plateau, the highest point in the area, and the beautiful Tarra Bulga National Park is close by.
\BDescription:\b Kernot Lake, Morwell \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Mount Beauty",87,"a\5\a3_0013.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,837\i
Mount Beauty is in the upper Kiewa Valley, close to the ski slopes of Falls Creek and the Bogong High Plains and 344 km north-east of Melbourne. It was originally built in the 1940s as an accommodation town for the workers on the Kiewa Hydro-Electric Scheme.
There are many scenic walks and hikes in the area. An annual race to the top of Mt. Bogong is held in March and called the Conquestation. From Mt. Beauty there are scenic drives to Falls Creek and the Bogong High Plains. Bicycles may be hired and horse-riding trips are available. In winter the plains are used for cross-country skiing. Mt. Beauty Pondage allows all forms of water sports.
\BDescription:\b Mt. Beauty \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Mount Buffalo",88,"a\6\mtbfflo.jpg","c","0"
Mt. Buffalo, 1,400 metres high, was formed by an upthrust of molten rock millions of years ago. The original granite bluff has lost an estimated 1,000 metres through the long process of wind and water weathering. The 35 square kilometre rock is strewn with granite boulders, tors and plateaus.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Readers Digest.\i
#
"Murray River (Victoria)",89,"0","g","0"
The Murray-Darling River belongs to the third largest river system in the world. Forming most of the border between Victoria and New South Wales, this river flows from the mountains high above Corryong to Mildura on its course into South Australia.
An ancient waterway, it combines the melting snows from the Australian Alps and subtropical monsoon rains from Western Queensland. It is far older in origin than even Australia's native people and it was spiritually significant to the Koories.
Captain \JCharles Sturt\j named it The Murray in 1830 after Sir George Murray, colonial secretary of the time. It was then that a new era began, bringing trading steamers, barges and tow boats bustling up the river.
The Murray is navigable from Yarrawonga in eastern Victoria to its mouth at Goolwa in South Australia, some 1240 river miles. The banks of the Murray are lined with massive red gums, billabongs, and sandy beaches.
#
"Myrtleford",90,"a\6\a2_0011.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,314\i
Myrtleford is an old gold town 45 km south-east of Wangaratta. Myrtleford's name comes from Myrtle Creek, a tributary of the Ovens, which was in turn named after the myrtle trees that grow in the area. Gold was discovered nearby in 1853 and many local reefs were mined, mainly by companies rather than individual diggers.
The first alluvial gold mining rush in the district was at nearby Happy Valley in 1856. The town was surveyed and named Myrtleford in 1859 and the railway opened in 1883.
The growth of Myrtleford in recent years has been mainly due to the success of the tobacco industry. Now anti-smoking pressure has made that crop less important and Myrtleford today also grows hops and has the largest walnut groves in the southern hemisphere.
The creek is still popular with gold fossickers. Myrtleford became part of the Shire of Bright in 1866, but dissatisfaction came to a head in the 1950s and a separate shire was formed in 1960.
A lookout at Reform Hill has splendid views of the whole area. There are scenic drives to nearby Lake Buffalo and Mt. Buffalo National Park. Swinburne Reserve, close to the town, has excellent forest walks and a fitness track.
\BDescription:\b Countryside near Myrtleford \I(Random House - photo by Gary Lewis)\i
#
"Nhill",91,"a\6\a3_0012.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,891\i
Nhill was named by the first white men to establish themselves in the district - Macpherson and Belcher - who selected land in 1877. Nhill is exactly halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide and claims to have the world's largest single-bin wheat silo with a capacity of 2.25 million bushels (81,788 cubic metres).
The poet \JJohn Shaw Neilson\j lived here as a young man and there is a memorial to him on the road to Kaniva. The town is surrounded by a number of national parks and wildlife areas and is within easy driving distance of Lake Hindmarsh, 45 km north, the Little Desert National Park and the Little Desert Lodge, home of the mallee fowl. There is a Little Desert Wildflower Exhibition in spring. The road to the Big Desert Wilderness is a dry weather track with camping on the way.
\BDescription:\b Vintage tractor display, Nhill \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Ninety Mile Beach",92,"a\6\90mile.jpg","c","0"
Sweeping for a metric distance of 140 km along the east coast of Victoria, Ninety Mile Beach is really a very long sand dune isthmus enclosing the Lakes in Gippsland, the most extensive inland waterway in Australia. Breakers move in from the sea uninterrupted all the way to New Zealand.
Much of this area is protected by two major parks: The Lakes National Park and the Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park. The only opening in Ninety Mile Beach is at Lakes Entrance where the waters of the Pacific interact with those of the Lakes.
The man-made entrance was nearly completed when a wild storm finished the job in 1889, enabling regular sea travel between Melbourne and Bruthen via the Tambo River.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Readers Digest.\i
#
"Numurkah",93,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 6,813\i
Numurkah is a prosperous town in the Murray Valley 35 km north of Shepparton on the Goulburn Valley Highway. Numurkah's name comes from the Aboriginal word for 'war shield'. The first run in the area was Strathmerton, granted in 1840. The township was surveyed in 1876 and the settlement grew to cater for the increased rural population which received a further boost when the railway from Shepparton was opened in 1881.
Now the town is the centre of many orchards which are the mainstay of the local economy. Numurkah is a short drive from the Murray River, where there are excellent beaches and fishing spots. The town was the centre of the Murray Valley soldiers' settlement area. The climate and the soil together are very good for roses and there is an annual rose festival.
Ocean Grove-Barwon Heads are both pleasant seaside resorts at the mouth of the Barwon River. There is good surfing at Ocean Grove and relaxed swimming in the river at Barwon Heads. Good scuba diving may be found on the rocky ledges of the Bluff, and further out there are wrecks of ships that failed to make the tricky entrance to Port Phillip Bay. Some of the wrecks are accessible to divers.
\BDescription:\b Beach at Ocean Grove \I(Random House)\i
These resorts are both very popular in summer, as they are both close to Geelong 22 km north. Nearby Jirrahlinga has a Koala and Wildlife Sanctuary. North of town the Lake Connewarre State Game Reserve offers good bushwalking.
\BDescription:\b Beach at Barwon Heads \I(Random House)\i
#
"Orbost",96,"a\6\a30027.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,562\i
Orbost is on the Princes Highway 71 km east of Bairnsdale and 310 km south of \JCanberra.\j It is primarily a timber town, but also a business centre on the Snowy River for the surrounding villages and settlements. The name apparently comes from the Isle of Skye in Britain. Orbost was first occupied by Europeans in 1838 but was raided by Aborigines. This led to much tension, further raids and reprisals by Europeans.
The surrounding countryside is spectacular; coastal mountains covered in dense forest. Orbost has been a logging town for a long time and it has some interesting old buildings, but the main attraction is the tree-covered mountainous scenery. The new Rainforest Centre is operated by the Department of Conservation and the Environment and is an excellent source of information on forests and national parks in east Gippsland. It has an interesting audiovisual display explaining the complex nature of the forest ecosystem.
There are many scenic drives and bushwalks in the area. The scenic Bonang Highway threads its way through the densely timbered mountains from Orbost to join the Monaro Highway and on to Delegate in NSW. There is a road to Buchan past the Little River Falls and McKillop's Bridge. It is a short drive on Cape Conran Road to the coastal fishing village of Marlo. All told, these are some of the most scenically beautiful drives in Australia.
The entrance to Phillip Island is the town of San Remo, where you will find the Island's fishing fleet beneath the bridge. The island is also where you can see the fairy penguins on parade at dusk as they make their way up the sand dunes.
As many as 2,000 penguins come ashore every night at Summerlands Beach, as they have done for years. This is Australia's second most popular tourist attraction drawing thousands of international visitors each year.
The island is also a natural home for koalas, which are protected by sanctuaries, and a colony of short-tailed shearwaters is found at the Cape Woolamai Reserve.
Australian and New Zealand fur seals, the Australian sea lion and elephant seals were once populous on the Bass Strait Islands. Hundreds of fur seals have recolonised these rocks, better known as \IThe Nobbies\i.
Linked by bridge to Phillip Island is historic Churchill Island, where birds are in abundance. Royal spoonbills, pied oyster catchers, ibis, gulls and herons are all inhabitants of the island.
Phillip Island is 26 kilometres long and 9 kilometres wide.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy David Ireland.\i
#
"Point Lonsdale",98,"a\6\a2_0086.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,954\i
Point Lonsdale is on the Bellarine Peninsula facing across the Rip to Portsea and the Mornington Peninsula. The lighthouse and pilot boats guide ships through the narrow and often turbulent Rip into the bay. You can view the Rip from a lookout and walk to the lighthouse. Point Lonsdale was named in 1837 after Captain William Lonsdale, the first police magistrate of the Port Phillip settlement.
Below the lighthouse, built in 1854, is Buckleys Cave where the 'Wild White Man' \JWilliam Buckley\j, lived with Aborigines for 32 years after escaping from the settlement at Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula in 1803 where he was serving time as a convict. He eventually managed to rejoin the European community and receive a pardon.
\BDescription:\b Point Lonsdale Lighthouse \I(Random House - photo by Gary Lewis)\i
#
"Port Fairy",99,"a\6\a2_0087.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,467\i
Port Fairy is renowned for its annual music festival. It is a small fishing port 27 km west of Warrnambool. The town dates back to 1835 when it was one of the first European settlements in the State. Originally a whaling station, it is situated on the eastern headland of Portland Bay at the mouth of the Moyne River. Port Fairy is at the end of what is called the 'ship-wreck coast'.
Port Fairy has a good-sized fishing fleet and is a historic town with fifty or so buildings classified by the National Trust. Whaling ships would port in here and the oldest building is a whaler's home. Nearby is a muttonbird colony on Griffiths Island reached by a causeway from the town. The island has a lighthouse. Battery Hill is an old fort and signal station site at the mouth of the river.
Fishing in the area is very good and sailing is excellent. Nearby Mt. Eccles National Park is an interesting drive and has good bushwalking.
\BDescription:\b Early home, Port Fairy \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Portarlington",100,"a\6\a30042.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,553\i
Portarlington is a popular seaside resort and fishing point some 32 km from Geelong on the north-eastern shore of the Bellarine Peninsula and inside Port Phillip Bay. It has a safe beach and good fishing.
The town was named in 1851 after Lord Arlington. At Portarlington there is a fine example of an early steam-powered flour mill built around 1856. The mill stopped grinding grain in 1874 but the owner transformed it into a brick and tile works. The building is a National Trust property and is open to the public. It has historical and educational displays and a number of Aboriginal artefacts.
\BDescription:\b Restored mill at Portarlington \I(Random House)\i
#
"Portland",101,"a\6\a2_0089.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 10,115\i
Portland is 72km west of Port Fairy and 75 km from the South Australian border. This is the oldest settlement in Victoria, established in 1834 by the Henty brothers, thus predating Port Fairy by one year. Portland Bay was discovered by Lieutenant James Grant in the \ILady Nelson\i on the first passage through Bass Strait in 1800. He did not enter the bay but named it after the Duke of Portland. It is possible, indeed highly probable, that whalers knew of it before this date, but the fact is not recorded.
In 1828 the sealer William Dutton visited the area and the following year landed and built a house in which he lived for 12 months. The Henty family arrived in 1834 and began a sheep run and whaling station. In 1837 Captain James Fawthorp brought 700 sheep to the settlement in the Henty's ship \IEagle.\i Soon whalers and sealers were operating out of the bay, but the industry declined between 1840 and 1860. In 1839 the town was proclaimed and in 1855 the municipality was incorporated. In 1950 the Portland Harbour Trust was established to develop a deepwater port. Work started in 1952 and the harbour was finished in 1961 at a total cost of $16 million.
The town has many classified old bluestone buildings, including the old Steam Packet Inn, owned by the National Trust. This is a working port, the only deepwater anchorage between Melbourne and Adelaide. Portland is an important industrial and commercial centre for western Victorian pastoral and agricultural areas with good shopping, good beaches and great fishing. There are some excellent walks - short ones nearby and the 250 km Great South-West Walk which swings out and back in a magnificent loop.
The Cape Nelson State Park has superb coastal scenery and a lighthouse at the tip of Cape Nelson classified by the National Trust but not open to the public. There is a petrified forest and blowholes at Cape Bridgewater.
The 200 km Great South-West Walk goes around the coast to Cape Nelson finishing at Sheoke Road. The track starts and finishes at the Portland Tourist Information Centre: it meanders across the countryside to Nelson, and then doubles back to follow the coastline to Nelson Bay, 5 km south of Portland. It takes about ten days to complete the walk and sixteen camp sites are dotted along the route. The walk can be taken in easy stages.
\BDescription:\b View of Portland \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i.
#
"Queenscliff",102,"a\6\a2_0091.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,124\i
Queenscliff is on the Bellarine Peninsula 31 km east of Geelong. It lies at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay on the western headland. Queenscliff was originally established in the 1850s as a commercial fishing centre and a large fishing fleet is still based on its harbour. The town is opposite the infamous Rip guarding the entrance of Port Phillip Bay from Bass Strait. Queenscliff was established partially as a pilot station to guide ships through the Rip. Fort Queenscliff was built in 1882 to protect Melbourne from what was seen as a Russian threat - it never materialised - and at the time it was the most heavily defended fort in the colony. Now it contains the Australian Army Command and the Fort Queenscliff Museum.
There are many old buildings in the town that give it a great deal of style and colour and these have, in the main, been restored and made decorative. There are some grand hotels, such as the Ozone and the Vue Grand. A Bellarine Peninsula Railway steam train runs to Drysdale on the weekends. The Marine Studies Centre next to the ferry pier has an aquarium displaying local marine life and organises a wide range of nature trips. There are good swimming and surfing beaches in the vicinity and numerous parks and recreation reserves. A passenger ferry and a car ferry operate between Queenscliff and Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula.
\BDescription:\b Fort Queenscliff \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Red Cliffs",103,"a\6\a2_0088.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,193\i
Red Cliffs is 8 km south of Mildura on the Sunraysia Highway. The area was established in the 1890s when the famous irrigation expert \JGeorge Chaffey\j bought 6000 ha of mallee eucalypt country intending it for fruit-growing, but the cliffs at the river bank proved too difficult an obstacle.
The district remained undeveloped until after World War I when, with government assistance, it was cleared by returned servicemen. The soldier-settlement scheme was one of the largest of such schemes in Australia and resulted in a successful dried-fruit industry.
Clearing the land was difficult because of the mallee scrub. 'Big Lizzie', an enormous tractor with a 65-horsepower machine, was used and would remove up to eight mallee stumps at a time. The machine is permanently displayed in the town.
Lindeman's Karadoc Winery to the east of the town is the largest in the southern hemisphere.
\BDescription:\b Grave vines at Red Cliffs \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Rochester",104,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 7,424\i
Rochester is 47 km south of Echuca and 76 km west of Shepparton on the Campaspe River in a rich dairying and tomato-producing area. Rochester started life as Rowe's Camp; by 1854 it had become Rowechester; 11 years later it was changed to Rochester which is said to be after the city in Kent, England but seems more like a natural progression. The town was called Rowe's Camp because Dr John Rowe was the first European settler. The railway from Melbourne opened in 1864 and four years later Random House - no relation to the publisher - was built for the member of parliament W.T Webb. Hubert 'Oppy' Oppermann, the long distance cyclist and politician, was born here in 1904.
The Eppalock Dam on the Campaspe River was completed in 1964 and this provided an increasing water supply for irrigation in the district. There are many lakes and waterways in the area, which makes the town popular with fishermen and water sports enthusiasts. The Mt. Camel Range attracts gem fossickers.
#
"Rosebud",105,"a\6\a30025.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 14,395\i
Rosebud is on the Mornington Peninsula on the Nepean Highway 20 km west of Portsea and 32 km north-east of Frankston. Rosebud is a well developed bayside resort with an aquarium and marine museum. Just outside the town is the Peninsula Gardens Sanctuary. The homestead built by Andrew McCrae in the mid 1840s still stands to the north of the town and has been totally restored and refurnished with correct period furniture, pictures and household items.
The elegant name of the town is said to be derived, with little logic, from the \ISS Rosewood,\i a Greek vessel wrecked off the coast. Other authorities suggest that the vessel was, indeed, named \IRosebud.\i
\BDescription:\b Towards Rosebud, Murray's Lookout \I(Random House)\i
#
"Rutherglen",106,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 3,369\i
Rutherglen is 52 km west of Albury on the Murray Valley Highway and is the centre of Victoria's major wine-growing area. The town was named after the Scottish birthplace of John Wallace, a hotel owner and member of the Legislative Council. This was a boom area during the gold-rush period of the 1850s but agriculture, especially viticulture, quickly became more important. The first vines in the district were planted by Lindsay Brown in 1851. In the same year Seppelts' Clydeside winery was established, followed by Morris' Fairfield in 1859 and Chambers' Rosewood in 1862. In 1874 Campbell's Wines opened up and a few years later the Murray District Vine-growers' Association was formed. A viticultural college was established in 1896, just in time to become involved in research into the phylloxera that devastated the vines in the area in 1899.
Gold and wine between them drew about 25,000 people to the district in its peak years of the 1860s, but the town population had declined to about 500 by 1870.
Rutherglen now produces full-bodied dry red table wines, many delicate white wines and sherry, port and muscat-type wines. The wineries are open to the public for tastings and cellar door sales. The cellars of the 'All Saints' Estate 8 km from Rutherglen at Wahgunyah on the Murray are classified as a building of historical importance by the National Trust.
Three major events take place at Rutherglen each year: the Tastes of Rutherglen in March; Winery Walkabout Weekend in June; and the Rutherglen Wine Show in September. Lake Moodemere is close to the town and has facilities for water sports.
#
"Sale",107,"a\6\a2_0096.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 13,858\i
Sale is a rapidly growing town in Gippsland 83 km east of Morwell and 69 km west of Bairnsdale on the junction of the Princes and Gippsland Highways. It is becoming increasingly prosperous due to the offshore oil in the Bass Strait fields.
The town was named in 1853 after a general, Robert 'Fighting Bob' Sale who had died in a battle on the Indian frontier in 1845. Prior to this it had been known as Flooding Creek. The Kilmany Park homestead was built in the 1840s on one of the first properties established in eastern Victoria. The early settlement grew as it was at a crossing place for the Latrobe River on the route to Port Albert. There was a punt crossing here until the toll bridge opened in 1845.
During World War II, Sale was a major training base for RAAF bomber pilots. The town has boomed since oil and gas fields were discovered on the Gippsland Shelf as it became chief residential and service centre for the project.
The town is strategically located for holiday makers as it has good access to Wilsons Promontory, Lake Welling and Lake Reeve and Ninety Mile Beach 29 km away. A canal connects Sale with the Gippsland Lakes. The town was once a busy paddle-steamer port and cruises are still available on the lakes.
Picnic facilities are common in the town's parks and by the lake. Lake Gutheridge in the city centre has a fauna park and an adventure playground. There is an historical museum nearby. Tours of the RAAF base, home of the aerobatic team, the Roulettes, are available. The road across the Dargo High Plains to the Alpine Highway and Mt. Hotham is an excellent scenic drive.
English author Anthony Trollope, Australia's first serious tourist, visited Sale in the 1870s and described its buildings as 'generally magnificent'.
\BDescription:\b Monastery at Sale \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Seymour",108,"a\6\a2_0093.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 11,690\i
Seymour is on the Goulburn River and the Goulburn Valley Highway, 100 km north of Melbourne in the centre of an agricultural and pastoral district. In 1909 Lord Kitchener visited the area and thought it a good place for an army base. Eventually Puckapunyal was built 8 km away and it is still an important base. It has a tank museum which claims to have one of the largest displays of antique tanks in the world.
The town was named in 1841 by the explorer Thomas Mitchell after Lord Seymour, son of the 11th Duke of Somerset. An inn was built and a punt crossing across the Goulburn River installed in 1839. The town was surveyed in 1841 and the Royal Hotel was established in 1848. This hotel is featured in \JRussell Drysdale\j's painting \IMoody's Pub.\i A severe earthquake, a phenomenon rare in Australia, damaged the town in 1892. The old bridge built in 1891 is preserved as an historical relic.
\BDescription:\b Pioneer cemetery, Seymour \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Shepparton",109,"a\6\a2_0098.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 39,694\i
Shepparton is now Victoria's orchard centre for pears, apricots, peaches and apples. Since the introduction of irrigation to the area in 1912, the region has flourished. Dairy farms, grain crops, sheep, beef, cattle and vegetable growing are the other main forms of agriculture in the Shepparton district.
\BDescription:\b Picking tomatoes, Shepparton \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Sorrento",110,"a\6\a2_0005.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,000\i
Sorrento is on the north side of the Mornington Peninsula 4 km east of Portsea and 20 km west of Rosebud.
As you enter Sorrento there is a small memorial and pioneer cemetery which commemorates the settlement party - Lieutenant-Colonel David Collins, 50 marines, 31 civilians, 299 convicts and 71 wives and children - who landed here at Sullivan's Cove from England in October 1803. They had been sent to frustrate the possibility of a French settlement on the bay. The French did not arrive and less than a year later the project was abandoned and everyone was transferred to Hobart owing to a shortage of drinking water. Among the convicts was \JWilliam Buckley\j who escaped soon after the landing and lived with the Aborigines for the next 30 years as the 'wild white man'.
Charles Gavan Duffy and theatrical entrepreneur \JGeorge Coppin\j named Sorrento after the town in Italy in 1868 and it was \JGeorge Coppin\j who energetically developed the town as a watering place during the 1870s and 1880s. Coppin bought large areas of land and was responsible for bringing the first paddle steamers and tram services to Sorrento. Steam and horse trams ran from the pier to the surf beach.
Sorrento was the site of fashionable holiday homes for the wealthy of Melbourne from the late 19th century and, to a certain extent, it still fulfills that role. The hotels in the Victorian style that were built in that time of local limestone are still standing. The Sorrento was built in 1871, the Continental in 1875 and Koonya in 1878.
There is surfing on the Back Beach which fronts on the Bass Strait, while the beach fronting on to Port Phillip Bay is much safer, calmer and more suited to swimmers.
\BDescription:\b Aerial view of Sorrento \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"St. Arnaud",111,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 2,741\i
St. Arnaud is located on the Sunraysia Highway 63 km north of Avoca and 109 km east of Horsham, and is surrounded by rolling forested hills. The name comes from St. Arnaud Creek which was named after Marechal de St. Arnaud, a French commander in the Crimean War. The area was discovered there in 1855.
Pastoral settlement of the district started in 1838 when a slab woolshed was built on the Tottington run. The gold rush to nearby Carapooee Creek came in 1858 but the gold soon petered out, although deep quartz reef mining in the Lord Nelson mine continued until 1915. The population of the town trebled between 1872 and 1876, when the town acted as the gateway to agricultural land that was opening up to the north.
Many buildings in the town are now classified by the National Trust and are interesting for their wrought-iron lacework. The Melville caves in nearby Inglewood are reputed to be the hiding place of the bushranger Captain Melville between forays. The town has good sporting facilities contained in a sport stadium.
#
"Stawell",112,"a\6\a2_0094.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,339\i
Stawell stands 123 km north-west of \JBallarat\j on the Western Highway and was born in the gold rush of the 1850s and was once called The Reef. Then, as the gold lessened, the name changed to Pleasant Creek. When the gold was gone altogether, and along with it the diggers, the town was renamed after the attorney-general Sir William Foster Stawell, who had earlier been in charge of prosecuting the \JEureka\j Stockade rebels.
When the town was surveyed and proclaimed in 1858; about 20,000 people worked and lived on the surrounding goldfields, and at its peak there might have been nearly double that figure. Although alluvial mining was short-lived, deep quartz mining began somewhere around 1880 and was received in 1981 by the reopening of the Magdala mine.
Big Hill is the landmark of Stawell and the place where gold was first discovered. Bunyil's cave, 11 km south of town in the Black Ranges, contains Aboriginal cave paintings in ochre. The town is the home of the Easter Gift, Australia's most famous professional footrace. The Stawell Athletic Club was formed in 1878, the first Stawell Gift run in that year making it the oldest professional foot race in Australia. There is now a museum and a hall of fame centred around the Easter Gift.
Casper's World in Miniature explains Australia and the Pacific region with small-scale indoor and outdoor models, dioramas and commentary. Famous mines in the area are clearly marked and signposted and visitors can watch gold mining activities at the Stawell Joint Venture. The 1872 town hall has a chiming clock and group of gold miners seen as the hour strikes. Nearby are the Three Sisters, three enormous granite boulders named after the Levi sisters who belonged to a mining family which set up camp in Stawell. Stawell is a good base for tours of the Grampians.
\BDescription:\b Central Park, Stawell \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Strzelecki Ranges",113,"0","g","0"
Paul Edmund de \JStrzelecki\j, the flamboyant Polish Count \JStrzelecki\j explored the region in 1840 and called it Gippsland after Sir George Gipps, Governor of New South Wales. His group of explorers was accompanied by a Koorie, Charlie Tarra, whose knowledge and instinct saved the exhausted group which finally emerged from the ranges at Corinella. In spite of their ordeal, \JStrzelecki\j's reports were favourable and inspired squatters to take up runs.
Soon after, gold was discovered in Gippsland at Omeo, Jordan, Woods Point and Walhalla. When the gold disappeared the settlers began seeking land to farm. This resulted in the proposed clearance of the \JStrzelecki\j Ranges as it seemed that clearing these giant forests meant huge agricultural potential.
90 metre trees were felled by hand. The settlers would then burn off the fallen timber. Devastating fires became common in the ranges. Settlers battled for two generations to try and clear the western ranges. However after a final attempt by ex-servicemen from World War I, grief stricken farmers finally gave up their battle with the land.
The Grand Ridge Road follows the backbone of these ranges for 120 kilometres, where you can still see deserted homesteads -- reminders of the desperate attempts to tame this land.
#
"Swan Hill",114,"a\6\a2_0095.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 9,357\i
Swan Hill was named by explorer Thomas Mitchell because the calls of a flock of black swans kept him awake while camping on a hill in 1836. Mitchell referred to it in his diary as 'this somewhat remarkable and isolated feature, Swan-hill'. Swan Hill lies between Mildura, 217 km away on the Murray Valley Highway, and Kerang, 60 km south-east on the same road.
There was an official campaign to change the name to Castle Donnington but this was ignored by the locals and it remained Swan Hill. In 1853 \JFrancis Cadell\j in his paddle steamer \ILady Augusta\i navigated the Murray from its mouth in South Australia and reached Swan Hill, his farthest point upstream. The boat was welcomed by the whole of the town's population - 12 people. The town grew up around the punt crossing, as it was the only crossing of the Murray within 100 km. For example, Robert O'Hara Burke and William Wills crossed the Murray here in 1860 on their way north. The punt operated until 1896 when its task was taken over by a bridge.
In 1894 Swan Hill was the scene of confrontation between a group of union shearers and 'scabs' brought in on the paddle-steamer \IRodney.\i The shearers are alleged to have set fire to the boat, although this was claimed to be an accident.
\BDescription:\b Murray Downs Homestead, Swan Hill \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Swan Hill - (2)",115,"a\6\a2_0092.jpg","c","0"
On a happier note, there is a memorial in Curlewis Street with a small dog trough beside it. This was paid for by the will of local philanthropist George Bills, who died in the 1920s. Mr Bills left his money to set up drinking troughs throughout the countries of the British Empire, thus perpetuating a splendid old charity, the Metropolitan Cattle Trough and Drinking Fountains' Association, which still exists.
A Shakespeare festival has been held annually at Swan Hill since 1947. The Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement was established in 1961 to recreate the thriving river port of the 1860s to the 1890s. The settlement has an old locomotive, a working blacksmith's shop and an old newspaper office, as well as many other relics of pioneer days. It also now has every evening a sound and light show. In 1973 the \IPS Murray River Queen,\i the largest-ever Murray River paddle-steamer, was launched for tourist operation between Swan Hill and Goolwa.
A number of paddle-steamers have been restored and are in use today. You can cruise on the \IPS Pyap\i or dine on \IPS Gem,\i a stationary restaurant and one of the largest riverboats on the Murray. Tyntynder, 17 km north of the town, has a small museum of pioneering and Aboriginal relics and has conducted tours. Lake Boga, 16 km to the south, has waterskiing, fishing and boating.
\BDescription:\b Pioneer settlement, Swan Hill \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Tatura",116,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 2,778\i
Tatura is 16 km west of Shepparton just off the Midland Highway and 107 km north-east of \JBendigo\j. The name comes from an Aboriginal word meaning 'small lagoon with rushes' although it was earlier called Whim, from the river on which it stands. The village grew up around the river which was a major watering place and the town was proclaimed in 1874.
The Tatura Wheat Export Movement was formed in 1896 to promote the export of wheat to the United Kingdom and the area was noted for its butter for many years. The town has had a cannery of one sort or another since 1919.
#
"Torquay",117,"a\6\a3_0004.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,887\i
Torquay marks the eastern end of the Great Ocean Road, although it does not officially start until you pass under an arch a few kilometres out of town. Torquay is 22 km south of Geelong and is an ideal place to base a tour of the Great Ocean Road and the country behind. Just outside town is Bells Beach, arguably one of the greatest surfing championships held at Easter. At Bells waves can reach 6 metres or more; it is not a surfing beach for beginners. Another surfing beach, nearer to Torquay, is Jan Juc.
The Surf Coast Walk takes 11 hours if you cover the full distance at one go, but it can be taken in easy stages. It follows the coastline from Jan Juc to Airey's Inlet and the tourist information office has leaflets describing the walk in detail.
\BDescription:\b Great Ocean Road, Torquay \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Traralgon",118,"a\6\a30028.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 19,699\i
Traralgon is on the Princes Highway in the Latrobe Valley 160 km south-east of Melbourne. It was settled in the 1840s as an agricultural centre; now it makes paper. It is known that Traralgon is a word of Aboriginal origin but so many different interpretations are offered as to be meaningless. The current favourite is 'crane feeding on frogs', but this may well change. The courthouse and post office were opened in 1886 and the Loy Yang Power Station was built 6 km to the north in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The original township was a rest stop and supply base for miners and drovers, but it is now the centre of the State's paper and pulp industry and a major Latrobe Valley electricity centre. There is a tourist road right through the middle of the Loy Yang complex. The forest to the north is the source of the town's paper-making industry.
\BDescription:\b Victory Park, Traralgon \I(Random House)\i
#
"Tyabb",119,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 1,199\i
Tyabb is said to come from an Aboriginal word which means 'land of many waterholes'. The town is on the Westernport side of the Mornington Peninsula and 6 km from Hastings. Tyabb developed as an agricultural and fruit-growing area, although that is less in evidence today. There are still some large orchards operating and at one near Tyabb, it is possible for visitors to view the fruit-grading, sorting and packing process.
#
"Wangaratta",120,"a\6\a3_0010.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 15,527\i
Wangaratta is at the junction of the Ovens and King Rivers, 40 km from Benalla in the north-west and 66 km from Albury up on the State border with NSW. In 1837 George Faithfull established a run and the spot became a stock and punt crossing. The village started to grow around the crossing. The name comes from an Aboriginal word that means either 'home of the cormorants' or 'a meeting of rivers'; you can make your own choice.
Now Wangaratta is a well planned city with a lot of parkland which retains, most distinctively, a country feel even though the town contains IBM's high-tech factory. The land around the town produces wool, wheat, hops, tobacco and table wine grapes. The body of the bushranger \JMad Dog Morgan\j is buried here but his head was sent to Melbourne for further investigation.
Wangaratta also has the Airworld Aviation Museum which has a collection of 40 vintage flying aircraft and a Holden car collection. It is possible for the visitor to pan for gold in Reedy Creek. There are scenic drives south to King Valley and Paradise Falls and many vineyards operate in the area.
\BDescription:\b Bontharombo, Wangaratta \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Warracknabeal",121,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 3,659\i
Warracknabeal is 60 km north of Horsham and 42 km west of Dimboola on the Henty Highway, on the banks of the Yarriambiack Creek. It is an important business/services centre for the wheat-growing community in this part of the Wimmera district. In 1855 the Scott brothers, Andrew and Robert, established the Warracknabeal run and by the end of the decade most of the nearby countryside had been taken up by sheep farmers. The farmers had great trouble with rabbits and dingoes and were forced to build a rabbit- and dog-proof fence along the 36 km parallel to protect them from invasion by animals from the wild mallee country to the north. The name 'Warracknabeal' possibly comes from an Aboriginal word meaning 'red gums around hollow' but there are no claims that it combines the Scottish family name 'Warrack' and the Gaelic word nabeal said to mean 'ravine'.
From 1896 to 1902 the district suffered the most severe and prolonged drought in its history and the Wimmera-Mallee water supply project was evolved in an attempt to cope with the situation. The town retains many original buildings, including a four-storey water tower that is a bricklayer's triumph. The Agricultural Machinery Museum has a collection of equipment used on farms in the Mallee and Wimmera districts over the past 100 years. The exhibits include a stump jump plough, designed to jump over mallee roots, a Sunshine harvester and giant stationary engines.
Self-guided walk brochures showing the way around the town are available from the historical society. Lake Hindmarsh, the largest natural freshwater lake in Victoria, is 45 km to the east. Victoria's largest wildlife reserve, the Wyperfield National Park, lies 67 km north. It covers 100, 000 ha of arid mallee country, abounding with birdlife - 200 species already recorded - and marsupials. Note that the summer here is dry and hot.
#
"Warragul",122,"a\6\a30029.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 12,924\i
Warragul is on the Princes Highway 31 km west of Moe and 81 km east of Melbourne. The name comes from an Aboriginal word meaning 'wild dog'. The first European settlement in the district was 3 km north of the present town and was known as Brandy Creek. The world's largest earthworm \I(Megascolides australis)\i was discovered at Brandy Creek in 1868, but this was topped by one discovered in 1930 that was more than 4 m long.
The town is at the centre of a rich dairying area that supplies most of Melbourne's milk. It boasts the West Gippsland Arts Centre and the Warragul Vintage Craft Park. The Darnum Musical Village, 8 km to the east, is an old church with a collection of old and modern musical instruments. Also nearby are the Labertouche Wildflower Sanctuary and the nature reserves at Glencromie, Glen Nayook and Toorongo.
\BDescription:\b Civic Gardens at Warragul \I(Random House)\i
#
"Warrnambool",123,"a\6\a2_0082.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 26,776\i
Warrnambool is 262 km south west of Melbourne, on the shore of Lady Bay, where the Princes Highway meets the Great Ocean Road. It is a provincial centre distinguished as the "Nursery of the Southern Right Whale". Off Logan's Beach, female whales calve during Winter.
Warrnambool is the fifth largest regional centre in Victoria. The city has first-rate-sporting and cultural facilities and it has won the prestigious Premier Town Award three times.
The French navigator Nicholas Baudin entered Lady Bay in 1802 and sealers and whalers used the anchorage sporadically during the early years of the 19th century. The first permanent settlers did not arrive until 1839 and the municipality was proclaimed in 1855. Warrnambool was, for a time, a major point of entry for immigrants. Sadly, miscalculations in the design and sitting of the jetties and breakwaters caused both the river entrance and the town foreshore to silt up. The name of the town was originally spelt Warnimble, possibly from an Aboriginal word meaning 'plenty of water'.
\BDescription:\b Hopkins Falls near Warrnambool \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
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"Warrnambool - (2)",124,"a\6\a2_0090.jpg","c","0"
Gun emplacements intended to repel the Russian invasion that Australia feared in the 1880s can be seen near the lighthouse. This is now the site of Flagstaff Hill, a 19th-century maritime village, with a museum and restored ships - the \IRowitta,\i one of the few surviving Tasmanian steamers, and the \IReginald M.,\i a restored sailing vessel, among them - and port buildings of the era. At Logans Beach there is a platform to view the annual visitation of southern right whales.
The lighthouse, cottage and store were built in 1859 by W.K. Paterson and are now classified by the National Trust. The town has a performing arts centre, art gallery, botanic garden (designed 1876) and the Lake Pertobe Adventure Playground.
A colony of fairy penguins live on Middle Island off Pickering point. Many shipwrecks have occurred in the area and there is a shipwreck trail, macabre as it may sound.
\BDescription:\b View from Pickering Point, Warrnambool \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
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"Wilsons Promontory",125,"a\6\4_0061.jpg","c","0"
Wilsons Promontory, 230 km south east of Melbourne, is the southernmost projection of mainland Australia, described by explorer \JGeorge Bass\j as "the cornerstone of this continent called New Holland".
One of the major highlights of Victoria's Wildlife Coast, \IThe Prom\i is a granite headland 30 km long, 50 km wide and bisected by numerous walking trails. At various times over the past 12,000 years it has been an island, isolated from the mainland, on part of a landbridge extending all the way to Tasmania.
\JGeorge Bass\j first explored this coastline in 1798 and concluded that Van Diemen's Land was not connected to mainland Australia. He named Sealers Cove because of abundant seals found on the 15 islands surrounding The Promontory. Hence sealing and whaling industries sprung up almost immediately.
Wilsons Promontory is one place on the Australian coast that is free from suburbs and holiday resorts. It was set aside for a national park in 1898; one of the first in Victoria and now is one of the State's most popular national parks.
The Prom is on route for migratory birds flying via mainland Australia to Tasmania. Bald granite domes are a striking feature of the park, and seals and seabirds inhabit the park's offshore islands.
Because thousands of people come to camp, swim and bushwalk, the park is in danger of being 'loved to death'. One main camping area prevents camping affecting the whole park and a permit system limits the number of bushwalkers visiting remote locations.
Other activities developed on Wilsons Promontory, like timber cutting, tin mining and cattle grazing but they had little affect on this natural wonderland and it remains, even today, virtually untouched.
Over 700 species have adapted to the foreshore, granite peaks, heathlands and hills. Koalas, wombats, wallabies, possums and kangaroos are some of the many animals making their home here. Birds are prolific as well.
The only settlement on Wilsons Promontory is Tidal River, which was a commando training base during World War II. The area was set aside in 1848 as a National Park.
\BDescription:\b \I(Webster Publishing)\i.
#
"Wodonga",127,"a\6\a2_0057.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 29,188\i
\JWodonga\j is part of a twin city arrangement with Albury in NSW, and is being developed as a decentralised region jointly by the NSW, Victorian and Federal Governments. The region was first settled in the 1830s by C.H. Ebden and the Huon brothers, who took up the Bonegilla and \JWodonga\j runs. A township was gazetted in 1852 and called Belvoir but in 1876 the shire was proclaimed and the name changed to \JWodonga\j, an Aboriginal word meaning 'edible nut'.
The town has many historic buildings and there is a folk museum at the Turk's Head Hotel. There is also the Ettamogah Sanctuary with reptiles, birds, and picnic facilities. The paddle-steamer \IPS Cumberoona\i cruises the Murray from Albury. A miniature steam railway runs at Diamond Park and there is a military museum at nearby Bandiana.
\BDescription:\b Local government buildings at \JWodonga\j \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
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"Wonthaggi",128,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 6,446\i
Wonthaggi is on the Bass Highway 86 km south-west of Morwell and about 2 km from Cape Patterson on Bass Strait. It is the centre of the fertile Bass Valley agricultural district, but its primary importance has been as a coal town supplying fuel to the Victorian Railways before the switchover to diesel-electric locomotives. The name comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean 'drag or pull along'.
The presence of coal was known for a long time, with explorer William \JHovell\j discovering black coal deposits at nearby Cape Patterson in 1824. Black coal was mined at Cape Patterson from 1859 to 1864, but the lack of a safe anchorage made shipping it costly and difficult. After the 1870s the Victorian Railways were using coal from Newcastle in NSW. A major strike took place there in 1909 and the Victorian authorities hastily started to mine the Wonthaggi fields. A shanty town sprang up overnight, and thousands of miners lived under canvas until the town was laid out and partly built in late 1910. The mines were closed in 1968.
Within easy driving distance are the beach resorts of Inverloch (12 km east of Anderson's Inlet) and Walkerville, on Waratah Bay.
#
"Yarra Valley",129,"a\6\dfat65.jpg","c","0"
The Yarra Valley has a long history of grape-growing and winemaking dating right back to 1837 when the first vines were planted by Swiss vignerons.
By the 1860s the Yarra Valley was recognised as a premium wine-growing area, a reputation it was to enjoy until the turn of the century. By the 1920s, dairy production became the Valley's major industry and the last of the vines were grubbed out.
By the 1960s, however, the Yarra Valley was ready for a comeback with a rash of plantings and eight of the better known wineries established between 1968 and 1971.
Today the area boasts some 35 wineries and 90 vineyards, and constitutes one of the world's fastest-growing wine regions.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy DFAT\i
#
"Yarram",130,"a\6\a30040.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,006\i
Yarram is on the South Gippsland Highway, 61 km south of Morwell, 72 km south-west of Sale and 14 km from the sea. The name is said to come from an Aboriginal phrase yarram yarram meaning 'plenty of water'. To the north up the Gippsland Highway is Ninety Mile Beach, a spectacular expanse of sand, popular with surfers and fishermen. To the west is Wilsons Promontory National Park.
There are a number of good swimming beaches in the area, of which Woodside and Seaspray are both patrolled. The Tarra-Bulga National Park in the \JStrzelecki\j Ranges is 27 km north.
\BDescription:\b Old Court House, Yarram \I(Random House)\i
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"Yarrawonga",131,"a\6\a30031.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 5,521\i
Yarrawonga is about 40 km east of Cobram on the banks of Lake Mulwala. It is on the Murray and close to the town of Mulwala. Yarrawonga was first settled in 1842 by Elizabeth Hume, the sister-in-law of the early explorer \JHamilton Hume\j. Byramine Homestead, her octagonal-shaped home, is 15 km west of the town and open to the public.
Lake Mulwala was created by the construction of Yarrawonga Weir in 1939, an important part of the local irrigation system. The resultant lake is substantial, with islands, and is the home to a wide variety of waterbirds. Ninety minute cruises of Lake Mulwala are available on the \ILady Murray River\i and there is an aquatic park with water slides.
Eighty years after the event, Yarrawonga is probably best-known for a song composed in the trenches of France during World War I, 'I'm going back again to Yarrawonga', And, as the song has it, 'In Yarrawonga, I'll linger longer.'
\BDescription:\b Lake Mulwala, Yarrawonga \I(Random House)\i
\BPopulation:\b 3,216,500. Click here for Australian \JPopulation\j details.
\BFloral Emblem:\b Cooktown Orchid
\BFaunal Emblems:\b \JKoala\j and \JBrolga\j
\BHighest Pt:\b Mt. Bartle Frere 1,612 metres
\BFlag:\b Click here for \JQueensland Flag\j
\BAverage Annual Rainfall - Brisbane:\b 1,190 mm
\BAverage Temperatures - Brisbane:\b January maximum, 29.2 degrees C; July maximum, 20.6 degrees C. Click here for \JClimate of Australia\j details.
\BAbout the State:\b Click here for the story of \JQueensland\j
\BDescription:\b Queensland Flag \I(DFAT)\i
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"Queensland",2,"a\6\qld.jpg","c","0"
Queensland is the country's second largest state. It has a resident population of two and a half million people and a land mass of just under one and three-quarter million square kilometres.
The Tropic of Capricorn bisects the state 650 kilometres north of Brisbane at Rockhampton while, from south to north, the Great Dividing Range continues the journey it started in Victoria until it peters out in Cape York Peninsula.
Over 60% of in-bound tourists to Australia have Queensland as their primary destination. From the Gold Coast in the south to Cape York in the north, over 60 international hotels and resorts are being developed or constructed to accommodate holiday visitors.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Gum Tree Graphics.\i
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"Queensland - (2)",3,"a\6\v2158.jpg","c","0"
Before the white man came, hundreds of tribes of Aborigines had settled throughout the region. Perhaps half of the country's 250,000 Dreamtime people were living here in self-contained communities - some as small as 50, others over 1,500 strong.
For thousands of years they successfully adapted to an environment that is at times forbidding and severe. These survival skills were not uniform throughout the area.
\BDescription:\b \I(Australian Museum)\i.
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"Queensland - (3)",4,"a\6\2_0012.jpg","c","0"
The greatest diversity of Australian plants, animals and landscapes is found in Queensland. Two-thirds of Australia's native mammals (210 species), three-quarters of birds (613 species), just over half of Australia's reptiles (402) and frogs (115) and about 40% of the vascular plants (8,500 species) occur in Queensland.
The state's climate ranges from tropical to temperate and landscapes vary from desert to reef.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
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"Brisbane",5,"a\6\6_0087.jpg","f","0"
\IPopulation: 1,520,596\i
Brisbane is Australia's third largest city. Its climate is subtropical with an annual rainfall of 1,090 millimetres (most of which falls between December and March), an average of over seven hours of sunshine each day, a humidity level which hovers around 50% for all of the year, and a temperature range from 10 degrees Celsius in winter to 30 degrees Celsius in summer.
There are nearly 200 parks and reserves within 97,200 hectares administered by the Brisbane City Council.
Brisbane has long had a tradition of newness and consequently, unlike Sydney or Melbourne, it has few old buildings of importance. This can partly be explained by the city's long history of building in timber and the fact that in 1864 a fire destroyed many of the city's finest early buildings.
Of interest, however, are the Old Government Houses (built in 1862 when the population was a mere 6,000 people), the Parliament House on the corner of George and Alice Streets (built in 1868 it is a fine example of French Renaissance architecture), St. Stephen's Church in Elizabeth Street (the city's oldest church, it was built in 1850) and St. John's Cathedral and The Deanery in Ann Street.
\BDescription:\b Old style Brisbane architecture \I(DFAT).\i
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"Brisbane History",6,"a\7\qldplmnt.jpg","c","0"
Brisbane, like so many early settlements along the coast of eastern Australia, started life as a penal colony. It is thought that the Ngundanbi and Yagara Aborigines lived along the banks of the river before Europeans settled the area.
In September 1822 the British government instructed the Governor of the colony of New South Wales, the Scottish astronomer and administrator Sir \JThomas Brisbane\j, to send out exploration parties to Moreton Bay, Port Curtis and Port Bowen with a view to finding a suitable place for a new penal colony.
In November 1823 the explorer \JJohn Oxley\j reached the waters of Moreton Bay. Within days of his arrival he chanced upon three escaped convicts - Thomas Pamphlett, Richard Parsons and John Finnegan. The convicts claimed that, while on a woodcutting expedition, they had been swept out to sea.
Their small vessel had floated north and was eventually washed up on the lonely sands of Moreton Island. They had been found by the local Aborigines who had shown them the local source of fresh water. This the convicts duly showed to Oxley who named it the Brisbane River after the governor.
\BDescription:\b Queensland Parliament House \I(Picturesque Atlas).\i
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"Brisbane History - (2)",7,"a\7\8724.jpg","c","0"
Oxley immediately returned to Sydney Town with the news of the discovery. The next year Governor Brisbane sent the explorer back to Moreton Bay accompanied by 29 convicts, 14 soldiers, the botanist \JAllan Cunningham\j, a surgeon and storekeeper named Walter Scott, and the settlement's first military commandant, Lieutenant Henry Miller.
Before the small sailing ship \IAmity\i left Sydney Cove, Brisbane told Oxley: "The \IAmity\i is placed under your orders for the purpose of crowning your late discovery of a large river flowing into Moreton Bay with the formation of a new settlement in its vicinity. The spot which you select must contain three hundred acres of land, and be in the neighbourhood of fresh water. It should lay in the direct course to the mouth of the river, be easily seen from the offing of ready access. To difficulty of attack by the natives, it ought to join difficulty of escape for the convicts".
The first settlement was at Redcliffe on Moreton Bay. Three months later the site was moved to North Quay on the Brisbane River. When Chief Justice Forbes arrived in December 1824 it was decided that the colony should be called \IEdinglassie\i but this was soon rejected for Brisbane, in recognition of the Governor's important role in the founding of the colony.
Of the early settlement, only two buildings still stand - the Old Commissariat Store on William Street which was constructed in 1829 by the hated commandant Captain Patrick Logan, and Observatory Tower on Wickham Terrace which was originally built as a windmill but became a treadmill for punishing recalcitrant convicts.
\BDescription:\b Victoria Bridge, Brisbane \I(RAHS)\i.
#
"Airlie Beach",8,"a\7\a2_0064.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,524\i
The small and prosperous resort and tourist town of \JAirlie Beach\j is 20 km from the Bruce Highway at Proserpine, and it overlooks the Whitsunday Passage and Islands. In 1987 it was incorporated into the larger town of Whitsunday, a paradise for boating and sailing enthusiasts and the most important town on the thriving Whitsunday coast. \JAirlie Beach\j itself was first noted by \JCaptain Cook\j in 1770. The town, whose population increases dramatically during the tourist season, has more than 30 restaurants, 7 major resorts with all facilities, and a great deal of top-grade holiday accommodation. From Shute Harbour, as well as Airlie itself, visitors may tour the outer reef and the islands of the Whitsunday Passage.
Not far from the town is Conway National Park, noted for its butterflies. Its rainforest and wild country, however, are not generally accessible, since the park does not have a great many walking tracks.
\BDescription:\b \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
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"Atherton",9,"a\7\a2_0067.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 10,253\i
Atherton is on the Kennedy Highway 85 km south-west of Cairns and more than 750 m above sea level. Atherton is the best known of the agricultural and farming towns on the tableland that bears its name. It is most famous as the centre of a maize-producing district, and its climate is very pleasant throughout the year.
The town began as a cedar-cutters' camp. It was named for John Atherton, who settled in the district in 1877. By 1900, the Chinese were the driving force in agriculture, and in that year they built a joss house, which remains as the chief record of their dominance and is classified by the National Trust. The Chinese population declined after 1907 as leases expired and were not renewed. Atherton's old post office houses a gallery, museum, visitors' centre and tearooms.
Atherton was a World War II military base with an aerodrome on which was based a squadron of US Flying Fortresses. In the town is the Crystal Cave, a mineral, gemstone and agate museum. There are many scenic drives along the flat plain of the Atherton Tablelands, one of the most picturesque touring areas in the far north.
\BDescription:\b Milla Milla Falls near Atherton \I(Random House - photo by Gary Lewis)\i
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"Atherton Tablelands",10,"a\7\2_0013.jpg","f","0"
The Atherton Tablelands - part of the Great Dividing Range - forms the barrier between the tropics and outback Queensland to the west. The scenic railway, built 100 years ago from Cairns to Kuranda, is the most popular first stage in reaching the tablelands from Cairns.
The tablelands beyond Kuranda are a rich green, for this is some of Australia's most fertile arable farmland. It supports a large tobacco industry, crops of potatoes and onions, and for travellers, pleasant walks along the shores of volcanic lakes.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
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"Ayr",11,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 8,637\i
Ayr is 82 km south of Townsville on the north side of the Burdekin delta. It is a town built on sugar, but it still finds time to cater for tourists.
Although exploration had been carried out, this area was not occupied until the 1870s. The explorer \JLudwig Leichhardt\j passed through the region in the early 1840s and named the main river for Thomas Burdekin of Sydney, who was one of his sponsors. The first European to live permanently in the area was James Morrell, who was shipwrecked on the \IPeruvian\i in the mid 1840s. He spent 42 days on a raft before reaching land and he lived with the local Aboriginal tribes for 17 years. The first settlers were R.W. Graham of Lilliesmere and A.C. Macmillan of Airdmillan, who merged their estates in 1881 to form Burdekin Delta Sugar. Ayre, named after the Scottish birthplace of the premier, Thomas McIlwraith, was proclaimed and named in 1882. The district pioneered commercial rice-growing in Queensland and this is now a major industry in the area. The town was seriously damaged by two hurricanes, in 1903 and 1959.
Ayr is surrounded by intensively irrigated sugar canefields which are the most productive in Australia.
The House of Australian Nature in Wilmington Street contains what is probably Australia's finest collection of butterflies, shells and beetles.
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"Beaudesert",12,"a\7\a2_0063.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 36,349\i
Beaudesert is 64 km south of Brisbane and a major market town serving an agricultural area of dairying, agriculture and beef cattle. It is on the junction of the Mt. Lindsay Highway with a road to the Cunningham Highway and another to the Gold Coast via Tamborine. Beaudesert is the nearest town to the Kooralbyn Valley golf resort.
The town was named after Beau Desert Park in Staffordshire, England. The first European settlers were probably some of the many convict escapees from the Moreton Bay settlement in the 1820s. The first serious European settlement was on Beau Desert Station which was subdivided in the 1860s. The village of Beaudesert was founded in 1873 and proclaimed a town in 1876, which was also the year that the first packhorse mail service reached the town.
Beaudesert is a perfect base from which to explore the Mt. Barney, Lamington, Mt. Lindesay and Mt. Maroon-Mt. May national parks.
\BDescription:\b Old Slab Hut, Beaudesert Museum \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
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"Beenleigh",13,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 7,428\i
Beenleigh grew around its rum distillery, the oldest in Australia, which opened in 1884. It is now developing as an outer area of Brisbane, which is the 38 km to the north. Beenleigh is an attractive town with distinctive bougainvillea-lined streets. Almost exactly halfway between the Gold Coast and Brisbane, it is close to Movie World, Dreamworld and the Wet 'n' Wild Water Park.
Beenleigh was named in 1865 after the birth-place of two early farmers from Devon, England. Robert Johnston settled in the district in 1864 to grow sugar and the sugar mill was built in 1867. Sugar was so successful that by 1885 there were 14 mills near the town and 30 in the district.
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"Biloela",14,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 5,051\i
Biloela is 596 km north of Brisbane, the service centre for an agricultural area of grain, potatoes and cotton. Coal is also mined in the area. The town is situated in the fertile Callide Valley at the crossroads of the Burnett and Dawson highways 142 km south-west of Rockhampton. The name comes from an Aboriginal word 'cockatoo'.
Charles Archer explored the lower Dawson River in 1850 and the town stands on the original Prospect Station that he took up in 1852. Coal was discovered in the area in the 1890s but was not developed until 1944 at the Callide open-cut mine.
A museum of primary industries (a rural theme park called Advance Australia Fair) and a number of the old homesteads in the district, including Greycliffe, are open to visitors. There is boating and swimming at the Callide Dam, built to service the power station.
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"Blackwater",15,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 6,760\i
Blackwater is 816 km from Brisbane and 195 km west of Rockhampton on the Capricorn Highway, and is known as the coal capital of Queensland. Although cattle has always been the traditional industry, it is now better known for coal.
The name of the town comes from the way ti-trees discolour the local waterholes. The explorer \JLudwig Leichhardt\j discovered coal in the district in 1844-45, but serious mining did not take place until 1968. There are now three companies mining in the area, using both open-cut and underground methods. They produce coking coal for export and steaming coal for the Gladstone Power Station.
Many nationalities live here and the town proudly displays what is claimed to be the most varied collection of national flags this side of the United Nations.
Nearby is the Blacktown Tableland National Park with woodlands, forests, heath and deep gorges. It has camping facilities and walking tracks.
#
"Bowen",16,"a\7\horshoe.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 14,411\i
Bowen is a major town in north Queensland, close to Port Denison, halfway between Mackay and Townsville and 1,165 km north of Brisbane. It was the first settlement in north Queensland, it was founded in 1861.
The town was named after George Bowen, the first governor of Queensland. In 1860 it became the first north coast port for the landing of cattle and for the shipment of produce from the hinterland. The North Australia Hotel opened in 1862 and holds the oldest licence in north Queensland. The town has an average of eight hours' sunshine per day, with beneficial effects on its produce. Many Australians know Bowen for the mangoes and tomatoes produced in the area. Bowen is also the base for a commercial fishing fleet that supplies fresh prawns, reef fish, mackerel, scallops and mud crabs. Near the entrance to the town is a salt works that uses evaporation to produce salt - high stacks of salt can be seen from the main road.
There is a signposted Golden Arrow tourist route that starts at the salt works and winds its way around the town. There is a historical museum and a Delta shell display and museum.
\BDescription:\b Horseshoe Bay, Bowen \I(Mel Smith)\i
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"Bribie Island",17,"a\7\a2_0068.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 12,946\i
Bribie Island is connected to the mainland by a bridge across the Pumicestone Passage, a scenic corridor of water running between the mainland and the island. The island is 69 km north of Brisbane.
\JMatthew Flinders\j first explored the island in 1799, and was involved in skirmishes with Aborigines. It was named Bribie's Island in the 1830s after a convict who was given his freedom for catching mud crabs for the officers. He moved to the island with an Aboriginal girl and spent the rest of his life there. The first car appeared on the island in 1919; there were only about 20 houses at the time. Rapid development followed the opening of the bridge to the mainland in 1963.
\BDescription:\b Bribie Island \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Buderim",18,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 7,499\i
Buderim is 99 km north of Brisbane on Buderim Mountain between the Bruce Highway and the coastal town of Mooloolabah. The name comes from the Aboriginal word baddeyam which is said to mean 'honeysuckle'. In 1854 Richard Jones was the first European in the area, and timber-fellers followed. The town was proclaimed in 1869. Ginger was planted in 1916 and Buderim became Australia's main producer and processor. This is also a fruit-growing district with avocados, citrus and strawberries.
Nearby is the Blue Marble Gallery, a pioneer wooden cottage which has been restored inside and out, to the style of 1876.
#
"Bundaberg",19,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 42,842\i
Bundaberg is the southernmost access point to the \JGreat Barrier Reef\j and an important provincial city in the centre of the fertile Burnett River plains. The town is 378 km north of Brisbane and is known mainly for its sugar, producing about one-fifth of Australia's total crop, as well as rum, timber, beef, and avocados. Located on the Burnett River, Bundaberg is a city of parks and botanical gardens. In spring, poincianas turn the streets into a riot of colour.
Many people know Bundaberg as the birthplace of \JBert Hinkler\j, the first man to fly solo from England to Australia in 1928. 'Our Glad', the singer \JGladys Moncrieff\j, was also born here.
The town was named after the local Bunda Aboriginal people, and the first European in the district was the explorer Henry Russell in 1842. Settlers came in 1866 and the first house was built in North Bundaberg in 1867. Sugar-growing was established in the early 1870s using Pacific Islanders who came to work in the canefields. Many sugar mills were built in the 1880s and 1890s, as the industry expanded, and the first rum distillery was built in 1888.
The Hinkler House Memorial Museum in Mt. Perry Road is a repository of aviation history. \JBert Hinkler\j developed his ambition from observing the flights of ibis at the nearby lagoons. Following service in the British air force in World War I, he became, in 1928, the first person to fly solo from England to Australia. In 1984, Hinkler's house in England was dismantled and reconstructed in the Bundaberg Botanic Gardens.
Hummock Lookout has excellent views over the city and the canefields. The Bundaberg Rum Distillery has tours for visitors. Gramophone enthusiasts may inspect a splendid collection of Edison Gramophones at Boyd's Antiquatorium. Avocado Grove is a peaceful area where peacocks roam subtropical gardens.
About 25 km north of Bundaberg are 27 strange craters said to be 25 million years old; their story remains a mystery.
There are tours to view migrating humpback whales from mid August to mid October, and cruises to Lady Musgrave Island, an uninhabited coral cay, on most days.
#
"Cairns",20,"a\7\6_0074.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 106,563\i
Queensland's most northerly city, some 1,766 kilometres from Brisbane, is the tourist gateway to far north Queensland with its fertile southern tableland, \JGreat Barrier Reef\j resorts and wonderful rainforests.
\BDescription:\b Surrounding rainforests of Cairns \I(DFAT)\i
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"Cairns - (2)",21,"a\7\5_0083.jpg","c","0"
With an international airport, and 60,000 or so inhabitants, the city of Cairns has grown around Trinity Bay. It started life as a port handling tin and gold from inland mines. The oldest parts of the city are found around the harbour area, along the Esplanade and Wharf Street. Here, the many old buildings have wide verandahs to provide shade from the hot sun.
The harbour itself is famous as the base for the local fishing industry. Above all else, Cairns is a marlin fishing centre, attracting game-fishermen from all over the world. Marlin feed about 50 kilometres offshore and are prized for their fighting qualities.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Caloundra",22,"a\7\a1_0008.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 53,434\i
Caloundra's name comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean 'beautiful place' or 'place of beech trees'. Either will do; both are appropriate. Caloundra marks the beginning of the Sunshine Coast which stretches north to Noosa Heads. It is a resort of estuaries and beaches at the northern end of the Pumicestone Passage and is dedicated to tourism.
Being the closest resort to Brisbane (less than 100 km north off the Bruce Highway), Caloundra attracts large numbers of holiday makers. Dicky Beach is named after the \IDicky\i which grounded in 1893 and remains a rusting landmark. Caloundra Harbour is safe for fishing and for small boats, and the Pumicestone Passage, a state marine park between Bribie Island and the mainland, has sheltered water for fishing, waterskiing and sailboarding. Caloundra is also well placed for trips to the Glass House Mountains or to the nearby national parks.
On display at Seafarer's Wharf is a two-thirds-scale replica of \JCaptain Cook\j's \IEndeavour.\i There is an air museum at the Caloundra Aerodrome. Within easy driving distance are Opals Down Under and the Suncoast Crayfish Farm, just north of the Caloundra turnoff.
\BDescription:\b Glasshouse Mountains south of Caloundra \I(Random House - photo by Stuart Fox)\i
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"Cape Tribulation",23,"a\7\mel4.jpg","c","0"
\JCaptain Cook\j said after his ship \IThe Endeavour\i was holed on a reef in 1770, \I"I named...the...north point Cape Tribulation because here began all our troubles".\i
Tropical rainforest and coral reef, the world's two most complex ecosystems, meet at the beaches and rocky headlands of Cape Tribulation. Scientific interest has focused on rainforest where primitive flowering plants hint at the evolutionary past.
The area also houses endemic and threatened mammals such as the Thornton Peak rat, Daintree River ringtail possum, and Bennet's tree kangaroo. Estuarine crocodiles are present in most creeks and in the Daintree and Bloomfield Rivers.
The Cape Tribulation National Park is 16,959 square hectares. The area contains a rich mosaic of vegetation ranging from coastal mangroves, swamps and rainforests, to upland rainforests and heathlands.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Webster Publishing.\i
#
"Cape York Peninsula",24,"a\7\2_0021.jpg","c","0"
Cape York Peninsula is a vast area made up of numerous national parks and reserves. Most northern reserves are in the coastal and hinterlands. The area is remote and can be dangerous to travellers due to the box jellyfish between October and May, and the estuarine crocodiles in the rivers, creeks, and lagoons.
The Peninsula is a region of great beauty; of swamps, great rivers, rich forests and some of our most fascinating and rare life-forms. It is also a region of monotony, with endless unvarying woodlands and plains.
Cape York is a huge, sparsely populated area that has little land-based economy since the goldrush ended on the Palmer River. Bauxite at Weipa and cattle are the only activities of any note. Travel is difficult and only advisable in late winter and early spring.
\BDescription:\b Cape York Peninsula where the Pacific Ocean meets the Indian Ocean \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Cape York Peninsula - (2)",25,"a\7\dfat44.jpg","c","0"
Biologically, the Peninsula is a region of great importance. Its plants and animals are an interesting mixture of endemics and species such as the cuscus, palm cockatoo and pitcher plant, which are shared with Papua New Guinea but not found elsewhere in Australia. The Peninsula is also rich in the history of the Aboriginal people who have lived here for thousands of years.
Dominating the cape are four major river systems - the Jardine, the Archer, the Mitchell and the Normanby. They flow west and north across broad lowlands from the Great Dividing Range which closely follows the east coast.
Near the tip of Cape York, the Great Divide terminates in a series of low hills and ridges. In this area, one of Australia's great perennial rivers, the Jardine, is largely incorporated in the Jardine River National Park. Other significant National Parks of Cape York are Iron Range, Archer Bend, Rokeby and Lakefield which together have a total area of approximately 12,800 square kilometres.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy DFAT.\i
#
"Cape York Peninsula - (3)",26,"a\7\6_0084.jpg","c","0"
The contrast of seasons and landscapes is reflected in the diversity of fauna and flora on Cape York. The area contains 156 species of reptiles, 49 species of frogs, 310 species of birds and 81 species of mammals. These numbers sometimes increase as a result of scientific research.
The tip of Cape York Peninsula is about 150 km south of Papua New Guinea, with many islands in between. This has been a landbridge in the past providing a corridor for the movement of animal and plant species. Many are common to both continents and birds and insects still move freely across Torres Strait.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Charleville",27,"a\7\6_0086.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,513\i
Charleville is on the banks of the Warrego River, 640 km west of Brisbane and 212 km north of Cunnamulla on the Mitchell Highway. It is the service centre for a rich pastoral district. Charleville proudly calls itself the heart of the mulga country, and the trees provide welcome shade.
The explorer \JEdmund Kennedy\j came to the Warrego in 1847, and fifteen years later William Landsborough camped nearby when searching for \JBurke and Wills\j. By the end of the century, Charleville was a thriving centre, with ten pubs (always an indicator of prosperity) and about 500 bullock teams. Cobb & Co. built their coaches here; the last on Australian roads ran from Yuleba in the east, to Surat, in 1924.
Charleville also holds an important place in Australian aviation history. It was here that Qantas (the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services) began in 1922. And three years earlier, Ross and Keith Smith landed with engine trouble 19 km north of the town on the first London-Sydney flight.
\BDescription:\b Main street in Charleville \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Charleville - (2)",28,"a\7\a30047.jpg","c","0"
Charleville acquired early fame from an experimental rain-making project that didn't work. In 1902, a 5 m-long 'vortex gun' was used with gunpowder to fire at the sky to make rains come. They did not. One of the guns may still be seen alongside the highway south of the town.
Charleville was named after a town in Country Cork, Ireland. The first European settlers arrived in the district in 1862 and the town was gazetted in 1868. In the 1890s, 500 bullock teams passed through the town each wool season to link stations with the rail terminus at Charleville.
There is a historical museum in the restored Queensland National Bank building, which was built in 1880, and there is a 'Weary Willie' swagman statue in the main street. The National Parks and Wildlife Service has a research centre in Charleville and the town also has a Flying Doctor base, a School of the Air, a pastoral research laboratory, winter cattle sales, picnic races and an annual Booga Woongaroo Festival in September.
\BDescription:\b Wills Street in Charleville \I(Random House)\i
#
"Charters Towers",29,"a\7\a1_0009.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 8,893\i
Charters Towers is in hot, dry country on the road and rail line to Mt. Isa. It is 135 km south-east of Townsville, 430 km from Cairns and is in the Burdekin River Valley. The main industry in the surrounding Dalrymple Shire is cattle-raising.
Charters Towers was once a gold rush town when it had a population of 30,000. The first gold find was made by an Aboriginal boy named Jupiter who was looking for horses that had bolted. During the boom, which lasted from 1872 to 1916, there were about 100 gold mines in the area and the same number of pubs. 'Breaker' Morant lived here in 1884. In March of that year he married Daisy May O'Dwyer, but he soon left her and a string of bad debts.
The town was named after William Charters, the gold commissioner. In the 1890s the residents called Charters Towers 'The World' and this was confirmed when \JDame Nellie Melba\j came to perform at the Theatre Royal. The prosperity brought by gold resulted in classical Australian Victorian architecture, and much of it, decorated with verandahs and lacework, remains. The town has more National Trust properties than any other place in Queensland.
\BDescription:\b Charters Towers \I(Random House - photo by Stuart Fox)\i
#
"Chinchilla",30,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 5,841\i
The name given to this town on the western edge of the Darling Downs, about 350 km west of Brisbane and 870 km north-west of Dalby has nothing to do with fur. In 1847, the unfortunate explorer \JLudwig Leichhardt\j gave this name of the area from an Aboriginal word jinchilla, which is said to mean 'cypresses'. The streets of the town are certainly tree-lined, but the main industry of the area is farming, particularly grain, sheep and cattle.
The museum has a working steam sawmill, and also features the first ticket issued by Qantas. The two carbeen trees at the gates are claimed to be 250 years old.
About 40 km to the north of the town is the Barakula State Forest, Queensland's largest commercial plantation. And enthusiastic fossickers may find petrified wood, fossils and gemstones not far from Eddington, 20 km to the south-west. The Cactoblastis Hall at Boonarga 8km east is certainly the only building in the world named after an insect; at one stage one-third of Queensland's farming land was ruined by the prickly pear. Nothing could eradicate the pest until the cactoblastis beetle was imported from South America.
#
"Cleveland",31,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 10,939\i
\JGovernor Gipps\j once seriously considered making Cleveland, 30 km south of Brisbane, the capital city of the new colony of Queensland, but decided against the idea when he and his party found that the most direct route to the settlement was over mud flats.
Francis Bigge, an optimistic entrepreneur, was convinced that Cleveland was about to be the capital, so he built the Grand View Hotel to house the huge numbers of holidaymakers he was sure would come. They never turned up, and his hotel was given the title of Bigge's Folly. It has now been restored.
Cleveland Cape and Bay were named by Captain James Cook in 1770 after either the Duke of Cleveland or John Cleveland, secretary to the Admiralty. The courthouse was built in 1853 and Ormiston House in 1862 by Captain Louis Hope, who pioneered the Queensland sugar industry at nearby Ormiston. The first Queensland sugar-cane-crushing and boiling works was established here in 1864 but closed three years later.
The courthouse was built by Francis Bigge in 1853; it became the first police station and courthouse and is now a restaurant. The wooden lighthouse at Cleveland Point was first built in 1847 and it has now been restored.
#
"Cooktown",32,"a\7\a1_0010.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,777\i
Cooktown has had its moments in history, and it seems destined to have many more. It is named after Captain James Cook who, on his way up the east coast of Australia in 1770, beached the \IEndeavour\i here to repair damage to the hull done by a coral reef. Just over a century later, the Palmer River area became the site of a gold rush, and Cooktown became its centre. By 1874, Cooktown had a floating population of about 30,000. Thousands of men arrived by ship at Cooktown, picked up supplies and headed for the goldfields. Before long there were 65 hotel licences issued and about 30 more applied for. There were 32 stores, 20 eating places, bakers, butchers, tradesmen, banks and a newspaper. Today only three hotels are left from the heady days of the gold rush. Now the town's main industry is tourism, but even here there is controversy.
To get to Cooktown you can drive, if you have a four-wheel drive vehicle and an experienced driver, via the controversial Daintree-Bloomfield Road. On that run, Cairns to Cooktown is about 212 km, but this road creates serious dispute because 32 km of it was slashed virtually parallel to the coast through virgin rainforest from Cape Tribulation of Bloomfield in 1984. The road cuts nearly 200 km off the trip from Cairns to Cooktown and arouses ire among conservationists. No doubt more controversy lies ahead.
In the town the James Cook Historical Museum has a collection that traces Cooktown's two centuries of history.
\BDescription:\b Cooktown \I(Random House - photo by Stuart Fox)\i
#
"Coolangatta",33,"a\7\a2_0070.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,618\i
Coolangatta is usually bracketed with the town of Tweed Heads, its twin on the other side of the NSW border. All the typical Gold Coast attractions are to be found in both towns. At Point Danger is the \JCaptain Cook\j Memorial and Lighthouse. Coolangatta's airport, which services the Gold Coast, must have one of the most scenically beautiful locations in Australia.
Coolangatta is a friendly, laid-back town compared with the rest of the Gold Coast, but it is impossible to totally separate them because, from Tweed Heads northwards, there is a 35 km strip of beaches and ribbon development. The coast has been a holiday spot since the turn of the century, but it has boomed since World War II. The whole strip is the most thoroughly commercialised resort in Australia. More than 2 million visitors a year come to the Gold Coast, most of them Australian, but there are a growing number of Japanese. Japanese companies now own 40 per cent of the hotel rooms.
Coolangatta at the southern end of the strip is older, quieter, cheaper and less garish. The Gold Coast Highway runs right along the coastal strip, leaving the Pacific Highway just north of Coolangatta.
\BDescription:\b Beach at Coolangatta \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Daintree",34,"a\7\6_0085.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 150\i
The rugged, cloud-capped coastal range behind Mossman has a variety of rainforest types. The Mossman River has carved a deep gorge through the granite range and this provides the only ready access. The uplands harbour the newly-described cinnamon ringtail possum.
In 1988, the Daintree area became the eighth Australian property to be listed by the \IUNESCO World Heritage Committee\i because of its outstanding natural values. Most of the area is rugged, uninhabited and is a largely inaccessible mountainous area on the eastern slopes of the Mount Carbine Tablelands. The high rainfall here feeds the Daintree and Mossman Rivers.
Several types of forest are found in the park. These vary from the tall dense forests of the lowlands and fertile, sheltered river valleys, to more open forests on the drier, north-western slopes and stunted forests on the exposed mountain tops.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Daintree - (2)",35,"a\7\2_0007.jpg","c","0"
The wildlife around the water includes the brilliant blue Ulysses butterfly, and the Cairns birdwing - the duller female is Australia's largest butterfly. Although rarely seen, mammals in the area include tree-climbing kangaroos and musky rat-kangaroos (the smallest of the kangaroo family). Feral pigs are also a threatening presence, disturbing native vegetation and animal life.
In the forest, intense competition for light between plants forces trees to stretch high on tall leafless trunks. Light penetrates the crowded leafy canopy so, by contrast, vegetation on the forest floor is sparse. Various palms and ferns are among the few plants that can grow in such dim conditions.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Dalby",36,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 9,517\i
Dalby was named after a village on the Isle of Man and is 84 km north-west of Toowoomba, one of the towns on the Darling Downs. The village started in 1842 as a river crossing and the town was proclaimed 12 years later. Dalby was of major importance to the railways and eventually became the junction of five railway lines. At one time the district was overrun by prickly pear, but this was settled by the introduction of the cactoblastis caterpillar in 1920. Growth through the 1890s was restricted by dependence on very large sheep runs, but these were eventually broken up. From the 1950s dry-land farming techniques and large-scale cropping led to vast expansion and the district now produces one-third of the Queensland wheat crop.
Explorer Henry Dennis came here in 1841, and his campsite is marked by an obelisk in Edward Street. Another cairn celebrates the sterling work of prickly pear eradication done by the cactoblastis caterpillar. Boating and waterskiing enthusiasts will enjoy Lake Broadwater, 29 km away.
#
"Emerald, QLD",37,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 13,312\i
Emerald is an attractive town 260 km east of Rockhampton at the junction of the Capricorn and Gregory Highways. It is a centre for cattle and farming, including grain, oilseeds, soybeans and cotton. It is said that the name was given because of the colour of new grass after fire and then a few days of rain on the original (1860) station Emerald Downs.
The town has a most splendid 'gingerbread' railway station that was built in 1901 and is classified by the National Trust. The station was important to Emerald's development because in the late 1870s it became the rail junction for the Central Highlands.
The town has been swept by four devastating fires - in 1936, 1940, 1954 and 1968 - and most of the town's old buildings, except for the station, were destroyed. In the late 1940s, Emerald was one of the towns suggested as the capital for the proposed breakaway state of Capricornia, but nothing came of the idea.
#
"Fraser Island",38,"a\7\6_0076.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: less than 100\i
The Fraser Coast is one of Queensland's most popular holiday destinations. The island itself is a unique combination of environments. Its sheer size and beauty, together with its colourful history and Aboriginal heritage have made it a popular place for visitors to explore.
It is the largest sand island in the world, (124 km long and covering an area of 181,000) hectares, and one of Australia's World Heritage sites. The island encompasses an amazing variety of landscapes, long surf beaches, cliffs and gorges in shades of orange, red, yellow and pure white sand, dense rainforests, desert-like sandblows, freshwater lakes, streams, basalt headlands, and salt pans with mangrove forests.
Scientists believe Fraser Island has developed over a period of approximately 800,000 years. Its sand comes from the tablelands of northern New South Wales, washed into the sea by the big rivers of that area, and strong sea currents carry it north.
Sand is the island's foundation, but water is its life force, giving rise to the island's vast tracts of forest. Fraser Island has an abundance of freshwater in its many lakes and crystal clear creeks and streams. Clear mirror lakes and the peat coloured perched lakes are some of the largest of their kind in the world.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Fraser Island - (2)",39,"a\7\6_0089.jpg","c","0"
Water has meant the creation of rainforests, growing in sand and surviving on nutrients from the breakdown of other plants.
Towering satinay and brush box are among the forest giants, some over a thousand years old. The variety of vegetation on Fraser Island ranges from mangroves to kauri forests and wallum heathlands that fill with wildflowers in the early spring.
The beaches and forests are the habitat of more than 230 species of birds - one of the largest and most varied bird communities in Australia. Isolation from the mainland has also ensured the purity of the island's dingo population.
Listed as a World Heritage site in December 1992, Fraser joins the ranks of the \JGreat Barrier Reef\j, Uluru and Kakadu National Parks as being of universal significance as the largest coastal dune system and sand island in the world and for its special environments.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Fraser Island - Aboriginal History",40,"a\7\2_0018.jpg","c","0"
It was more than 5,500 years ago that Aboriginal groups first began living on K'gari, the island we know today as Fraser Island. The island was inhabited by one aboriginal tribe called the \IBadtjala\i people.
The \IBadtjala\i have a Dreamtime legend of the island's creation, a tale, which by tradition, is passed verbally between the generations but has been recorded in print by one of the \IBadtjala\i descendants, Olga Miller, in Fred Williams' history of Fraser Island, \IWritten In Sand\i.
The legend refers to the god, Barrel, who sent Yindingie and his assistant K'gari to make the land for the people. Together they made a beautiful place, too beautiful for K'gari to want to leave.
She persuaded Yindingie to let her stay, not as a spirit, but as an island with beautiful forests and lakes like mirrors for her to see into the sky. Then he made the people to keep her company and happy.
By the end of the nineteenth century the population of Fraser Island Aborigines had been decimated. The mission established on Fraser, control of which transferred from the Government to the Anglican Church, survived till 1904. With the closing of the mission, Aboriginal residents were sent to mainland reserves where their lives were rigorously controlled and their freedom and rights curtailed.
The plight of the island's original inhabitants has been an unhappy one since the arrival of European settlers, but the proposed management plan for the region sets out to create a better future.
The desired outcomes include having the history, culture and aspirations of Aboriginal people recognised and respected; to provide opportunities for Aboriginal people to have meaningful involvement in the management of public lands within the region.
Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Region have between 450 and 500 recorded Aboriginal archaeological sites ranging from midden heaps to ceremonial bora rings, burial grounds, canoe tree, stone artefacts and fish traps constructed from rocks and stones.
All Aboriginal archaeological sites on the island are protected by law and some are of sufficient significance to be listed on the \IRegister of the National Estate\i.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Gatton",41,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 14,730\i
Gatton is in what is referred to as the 'salad bowl' district on Lockyer Creek, halfway between Ipswich and Toowoomba and 96 km west of Brisbane on the Warrego Highway. The area specialises in small-crop farming, dairy, beef cattle, pig- and calf-raising and sawmilling.
Gatton began as a centre for several large stations established here in the 1840s and soon became the changing point for the Royal Mail coaches. The town was surveyed in 1848 and attracted German migrants who cleared the land and created the small and extremely productive farms. The Queensland Agricultural College was founded here in 1897 and has some fine livestock, including Brahman bulls.
The small town of Helidon, known for its spa water, is 14 km west of Gatton.
#
"Gladstone",42,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 26,454\i
Once a small port used for shipping coal, Gladstone has developed into the world's largest centre for aluminium processing and a significant port for shipping coke and steaming coal.
Like the sugarcane towns throughout Queensland, Gladstone has suffered from a dramatic fall in world prices for energy and natural resources, but no doubt the gently cyclical trend in these things will bring prosperity and growth in the future. Gladstone is also the embarkation point for Heron Island.
#
"Gold Coast",43,"a\7\6_0078.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 315,036\i
Between Southport and the southern border at Coolangatta is Queensland's most populous tourist area - the Gold Coast, including Surfers Paradise. Over three million visitors come to the Gold Coast each year to enjoy its 35 kilometres of sun-drenched golden beaches.
For Australia, this is an atypical resort. Our beach life usually consists of small pockets of commercialisation set in the midst of vast stretches of deserted coastline. The developers have created an artificial, perhaps alien, environment with their highrises crowding the coastal strip.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Goondiwindi",44,"a\7\a1_0013.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,374\i
Goondiwindi is 200 km west of Toowoomba, right on the Queensland/NSW border on the Cunningham Highway (which continues from Newell) and on the Macintyre River. The name is said to come from the Aboriginal word goonawinna which means 'resting place of the birds' or 'droppings of ducks or shags'. The second seems more likely, as there are many white rocks in the region. The district is an irrigated cattle- and grain-growing region. The town has several distinctive buildings, including the Victoria Hotel and the old customs house by the ferry crossing, now a museum.
The first European in the area was the explorer \JAllan Cunningham\j in 1827. In 1864 floods killed 30,000 sheep. The customs house was established when Queensland became a separate colony in 1859; with the separation, the bridge over the Macintyre River was the chief border crossing for cattle moving from Queensland to NSW. The town was occupied by a border patrol to prevent illegal trading with NSW. The railway opened in 1908, leading to renewed growth. The town's most famous export is probably the racehorse Gunsynd, the 'Goondiwindi grey' whose sculpture stands in Apex Park. Boobera Lagoon, not far out of the town, is a wildlife sanctuary.
\BDescription:\b Cotton bales near Goondiwindi \I(Random House - photo by Stuart Fox)\i
#
"Great Barrier Reef",45,d_0081.jpg,c,0
The reef is the largest complex of coral reefs and islands in the world. In the complete system to the Papua New Guinea border there are about 3,400 reefs. The Great Barrier Reef Region is a recognised area of the Reef which has the tip of Cape York as its northern boundary. Within the Region, there are about 2,900 reefs including 760 fringing reefs.
There are some 300 reef shingle islands and cays; about 100 of them permanently vegetated. There are also about 600 continental or high islands often with fringing reefs around their margins.
The Region covers about 350,000 square kilometres - an area greater than that of Victoria or Great Britain.
The Reef is home to an astonishing diversity and abundance of life forms. There are around 400 different types of hard and soft corals, about 400 molluscs (clams, snails and their kin), and countless thousands of different sponges, worms, crustaceans (crabs, shrimps and their relatives), echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and their relatives) and other less familiar creatures.
This immense variety of invertebrate life forms provides a backdrop to some 1,500 species of fish of all descriptions.
The Reef is also a breeding ground for a number of rare and endangered animal species. Humpback whales come from the Antarctic to give birth to their young in Reef waters. Six of the world's seven species of turtles breed on the Reef, and dugong make their home among the sheltered seagrass beds.
\BDescription:\b Fish of the \JGreat Barrier Reef\j \I(Webster Publishing)\i.
#
"Great Barrier Reef - Dangers to the Reef",46,"a\7\gbrcrown.jpg","c","0"
The greatest threat to the marine park could be the crown-of-thorns starfish. This large prickly starfish attacks living coral, turning it into white skeletons. Outbreaks occurred long before European settlement indicating they are a natural event, pruning the reef, encouraging new growth.
\BDescription:\b Crown-of-thorns starfish \I(GBR Marine Park Authority).\i
#
"Great Barrier Reef - How Reefs Are Formed",47,"0","The Great Barrier Reef","introgbr.avi"
The living, growing portion of a coral reef is a thin veneer on the surface of the cemented limestone skeletons of millions of dead corals and the remains of limestone producing (calcareous) plants. The reef cement is partially formed by encrusting algae, and partially by chemical precipitation from the water.
Coral polyps with the help of single-celled plants \I(Zooxanthellae)\i living within them, convert dissolved limestone from the water into hard limestone. Polyps build their communal limestone homes into a multitude of shapes and sizes to produce the complex and beautiful coral colonies we see underwater.
Coralline algae and calcareous sponges grow between the old coral colonies and help to cement them into solid reefs.
Reefs are not all the same shape and size. Three major types of reefs are found on the \JGreat Barrier Reef\j: ribbon reefs, fringing reefs and patch reefs. Ribbon reefs occur in the northern part of the \JGreat Barrier Reef.\j They are relatively narrow walls on the edge of the continental shelf and form a broken barrier with passages between the individual reefs.
Fringing reefs may develop off the sloping sides of continental islands or along the mainland coast. Patch reefs are usually round or oval and grow like platforms on the continental shelf.
As well as these fairly common reef types, there is a bewildering range of others. For example, plug reefs are triangular in shape with the point towards the ocean, while deltaic reefs are cut by channels and resemble river deltas. Other shapes may develop in response to particular combinations of geological, meteorological and biological conditions.
As a reef develops, wave action and storms may smash corals along its edge, throwing the resulting rubble up onto the reef. Further water movement, tumbling, and the action of boring organisms reduces some of the pieces to coral sand.
Much more sand is made directly by calcareous green algae and tiny forams (single-celled animals with calcareous shells), and by the crumbling of encrusting red algae. The sand is often swept off the reef into a lagoon or back-reef, but a visible sandbank (or cay) may form on the reef, exposed at low tide.
Such cays appear on many reefs, shifting, growing larger or washing away at the whim of the sea, tide and wind. If the cay enlarges with the accumulation of more coral debris, it may become a resting site for seabirds.
When the cay is built up to the point where it remains exposed above the sea at all times, seeds may germinate and vegetation will appear. In this way a vegetated cay may develop.
\BViddescription:\b The Great Barrier Reef (David Ireland)
#
"The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park",48,"a\7\gbrma.jpg","c","0"
The marine park covers 98.5% of the \JGreat Barrier Reef\j Region and is divided into four major sections: the Far Northern; Cairns; Central; and Mackay/Capricorn. Each of these sections has its own zoning plan.
The object of zoning is to divide the Reef into logical ecological units and to separate potentially conflicting uses while allowing most activities to continue at a level which the resources of the Reef can support.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy GBR Marine Park Authority.\i
#
"Green Island",49,"a\7\gbrgreen.jpg","c","0"
Green Island is a small, well-vegetated cay supporting a resort, theatre, underwater observatory and aquarium. The fig trees, arenga palms, pandanus and native almond trees house a surprising range of marine and terrestrial birds.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy GBR Marine Park Authority.\i
#
"Gympie",50,"a\7\a30045.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 10,791\i
Gympie is a major provincial city servicing in the Cooloola region. It is on the Mary River, 182 km north of Brisbane along the Bruce Highway.
The town was made by a spectacular gold rush in 1867 which, it is said, saved Queensland from bankruptcy because at the time agriculture had been devastated by drought. A gold prospector, James Nash, struck it rich at Gympie and reported the find to the Maryborough police station in October in 1867. The town acquired its present name after the diggers made painful contact with the stinging nettle bush that grew profusely along the banks of the Mary River, and adopted the Aboriginal word for the vegetative pest - gimpi gimpi - as its name. The town was initially called Nashville after the original prospector, but the Aboriginal name won out.
In 1868 a canvas town sprang up on what was Queensland's most important goldfield, and it soon had a population in excess of 25,000. Gold provided employment until 1925, although the first rush was over in 1893 when floods covered 20 mines. This was a rich field that lasted until dairying and agriculture had become well established.
The Creek Gold Fossicking Park at Deep Greek gives visitors the chance to strike it lucky, if not rich, using pick, shovel and pan to fossick for gold in the traditional way, after obtaining a fossicking permit. The Gympie and District Historical and Mining Museum on Brisbane Road, near Lake Alford, has a comprehensive display of old gold mining equipment that has been restored to working order, as well as agricultural dairying exhibits. In the grounds is the cottage of \JAndrew Fisher\j, Labor prime minister of Australia three times between 1907 and 1915. Also in the grounds is the only remaining mine building from the gold mining days, the original house of the Scottish Gympie Gold Mining Company.
Borumba Dam, 51 km south-west via Imbil and Imbil Forest Drive, has watersports and bushwalks and there are scenic drives to Mothar Mountain, which has a rock pool.
\BDescription:\b Town park at Gympie \I(Random House)\i
#
"Hervey Bay",51,"a\7\6_0058.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 42,391\i
Hervey Bay is 34 km north-east of Maryborough and 289 km north of Brisbane. It is a large area of water shielded by Fraser Island. It is also the name given to the string of seaside resorts along the southern shore of the bay, which include Gatakers Bay, Toogoom, Howard and Torquay.
The bay was named in 1770 by Captain James Cook after Captain Hervey, later Earl of Bristol. \JMatthew Flinders\j landed in the area in 1799 and Andrew Petrie and Henry Russell discovered the strait from Wide Bay in 1842.
Hervey Bay, which has had rapid growth as a holiday resort area from the 1960s was proclaimed a city in 1984. Water sports and recreation are the most prominent features of Hervey Bay as a tourist attraction. Because there is no surf, even small children can go swimming. Fishing is also very popular, and visitors may hire boats and catch fresh yabbies for bait. The 1 km pier at Urangan is a favourite fishing spot. Hervey Bay also has an aquarium and a shark show. From early August to mid-October, humpbacked whales may be seen in the bay as they return to Antarctica after calving in northern waters. They stop to rest in the bay before completing their journey. There are day trips to Fraser Island.
\BDescription:\b Whale at Hervey Bay \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Hinchinbrook Island",52,"a\7\mel2.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 15,579\i
Hinchinbrook is Australia's largest island national park. This rugged continental island, 35 km long and 12 km wide, rises 1,121 m to Mt. Bowen. Separated from the mainland by the Hinchinbrook Channel, Hinchinbrook Island National Park contains Queensland's most extensive mangrove forests.
On the western side, rainforest grows on steep hillsides and the coastal plain is dissected by deep mangrove-lined creeks. The undulating eastern side is covered in dense shrublands, open woodland and patches of rainforest.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Webster Publishing.\i
#
"Ingham",53,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 5,057\i
Ingham is a major sugar and sightseeing town with a strong Italian and Spanish Basque cultural background. The town is near the mouth of the Herbert River, on the Bruce Highway 113 km north of Townsville and 1,484 km north of Brisbane. The largest sugar mill in the southern hemisphere, owned by CSR, is sited here, with the sugar being shipped from Lucinda 29 km to the north, which has a surprising jetty nearly 6 km long. The town is named after William Bairstow Ingham, an early sugar planter, and its prosperity is founded on sugar cane planted round Ingham in the early 1870s. The region produces more than 3 million tonnes of sugar cane a year.
Lee's pub in Ingham lays claim to being the original 'pub with no beer' immortalised in Dan Sheahan's ballad sung by \JSlim Dusty\j. The story is that American troops, stationed here in 1942, drank it dry after victory in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
Nearby is Wallaman Falls National Park, noted for its spectacular jungle scenery, excellent swimming and picnic spots and the Wallaman Falls which are 30 m high.
#
"Innisfail",54,"a\7\a2_0062.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 8,520\i
Innisfail has been called the Green Heart of the North. It is on the Johnstone River, 90 km south of Cairns and 1,629 km north of Brisbane. This is essentially a sugar town - it produces one-fifth of Queensland's sugar - but bananas and other tropical fruit are grown, beef cattle are raised and wood milling is important.
In 1873 the Queensland government sent an expedition to investigate this region. The leader of the expedition, George Elphinstone Dalrymple, spoke highly of the future prospects of the region for tropical agriculture. A company was found which took up land on the Johnstone River, the biggest plantation being on the Innisfail Estate.
The Nerada tea plantation is 28 km west of Innisfail. For swimming and camping there is Ella Bay and Flying Fish Point and a good road leads up to the Atherton Tableland. An excellent place to begin exploring the islands of the \JGreat Barrier Reef\j, Innisfail is also a bushwalking centre; Mt Bartle Frere, Queensland's highest mountain, is close by, with a hiking track to the top. Walking tracks in the Johnstone River Gorge lead to several waterfalls.
\BDescription:\b Tea plantation near Innisfail \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Ipswich",55,"a\7\a30048.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 73,299\i
Ipswich is the oldest provincial city in Queensland. It is a major industrial centre with coal mining, earthenware works, sawmills, abattoirs and foundries. The town is 44 km south-west of Brisbane on the way to Toowoomba and Warwick and set in the hills around the Bremer River.
Ipswich was established in 1827 as a limestone-mining settlement run by convict labour - hence its earliest name of Limestone Hills. Fifteen years later, Governor Brisbane changed its name to that of the town in Suffolk, England. It was an important river port for Darling Downs produce in the 1840s and a regular steamer service from Moreton Bay was established in 1846. This remained until the railway was extended from Brisbane in 1876 to take out the enormous coal deposits in the region.
Historic buildings in the Ipswich area include St. Brigid's Church at Rosewood, which is almost 80 years old and the largest wooden church in the South Pacific.
\BDescription:\b Technical College Building Ipswich, built in 1897 \I(Random House)\i
#
"Iron Range",56,"a\7\ironrng.jpg","c","0"
This wilderness park on far northern Cape York Peninsula contains the largest remaining area of lowland rainforest in Australia. The area is home to many wildlife species not found outside the Cape or New Guinea, for example, the eclectus parrot, palm cockatoo and spotted cuscus.
Other species such as the great palm cockatoo, green python and many plants are also found in New Guinea. They demonstrate the close relationship between the regions. Other unusual species are insect-eating pitcher plants, bulbous antplants, the mangrove nypa palm and more than 50 species of orchid.
Apart from the rainforest, heath, paperbark forest, open woodland and coastal vegetation also grow in the park. The rugged Janet and Tozer Ranges dominate the park's western boundary.
Aborigines lived in the area until the mid-1920s. The park's history includes explorer \JEdmund Kennedy\j's ill-fated 1848 expedition, gold mining and World War II installations.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Readers Digest.\i
#
"Kingaroy",57,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 11,141\i
The town made famous by peanuts and Sir Joh \JBjelke-Petersen\j, the former premier of Queensland, Kingaroy is 225 km north-west of Brisbane and is both the capital of the Australian peanut industry and the commercial centre of Queensland's rich South Burnett District.
The name comes from an Aboriginal word kinjerroy meaning 'red ant'. The first European settlers were Henry Russell and C.R. Haly in the 1840s.The town's business section was established in 1902, but there was little growth until the railway opened in 1904. Peanut growing began in 1924.
The giant peanut silos dominate the town. Kingaroy claims to be the 'Baked Bean Capital of Australia'; 75 per cent of the crop for the Australian baked bean industry is grown in the district. There is a Bicentennial Heritage Museum and a splendid view of the area from Mt. Wooroolin scenic lookout 3 km west. The Bunya Mountains National Park is 56 km to the south.
#
"Lake Eacham And Lake Barrine",58,"a\7\mel3.jpg","c","0"
On the Atherton Tableland behind Cairns are some of Queensland's most scenic rainforest parks. Lake Eacham and Lake Barrine are lakes in extinct volcanic craters surrounded by lush tropical rainforest.
\BDescription:\b Lake Eacham \I(Webster Publishing)\i
#
"Lizard Island",59,"a\7\16_0047.jpg","c","0"
Lizard Island is 27 km off the Queensland coast, and 93 km north-east of Cooktown. Lizard island is made up of granite ridges, high peaks and rocky headlands contrasting with a broad central valley, sheltered bays and white beaches.
The Island is continental, almost surrounded by fringing reefs which are part of a marine park. Sixty per cent is covered in woodland while the remainder supports a mixture of swamp, mangroves, grasslands, heath and rainforest.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy QLD Department of Environment and Heritage.\i
#
"Mackay",60,"a\7\airlie.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 23,052\i
Some 975 km north of Brisbane and 196 km south of Bowen, Mackay is the sugar capital of Australia. The town's economy, however, also depends on other kinds of farming, mainly dairying, grain and tropical fruits, as well as timber and seafood. Its prosperity was sealed in 1939 when it became a major port after a breakwater was built.
Its historic buildings are typical: Town Hall, Commonwealth Bank, courthouse, the police station, the old National Bank and the Customs House.
In 1860 Captain John Mackay drove 1,200 head of cattle to the valley of the Pioneer River. By the end of 1863, there were eight large pastoral leases, stretching along the coast from Sandringham Bay north to St. Helens Bay and west to the Great Dividing Range.
To meet these squatters' needs, Rockhampton merchants began supplying them by sea and Mackay was designated a port of entry and clearance in February 1863. A village quickly sprang up. Sugar was first planted in 1865, and in the following year a mill was built. In that same year Mackay became a town. By the mid 1880s there were 30 mills crushing cane and Mackay became the pre-eminent Australian sugar district, a position it has never lost.
Tourism in Mackay is a growth industry, with cruises to Brampton, Lindeman and Hamilton islands, as well as the \JGreat Barrier Reef\j and the Whitsunday Islands.
Mackay has numerous beaches, such as Town, Blacks, Bacasia, Illawong, Lamberts and Shoal Point. There is a 'Hibiscus Coast' drive to Mt. Jukes Lookout. Nearby is Cape Hillsborough National Park, and Eungella (pronounced Young-gella) National Park is 84 km west via Marian and Mirani. A scenic climb here gives a spectacular view of the Pioneer Valley.
\BDescription:\b \I(Mel Smith)\i
#
"Magnetic Island",61,"a\8\16_0048.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,027\i
Magnetic Island is a granite-based island of 518 ha rising to 497 metres at its highest point. Situated near Townsville, it provides a popular retreat for residents and visitors.
The island, 11 km at its widest with a coastline of 40 km, was named by Captain James Cook in 1770 when he believed the magnetic compasses on his ship \IEndeavour\i were being affected by the land mass. The granite headlands and bays of coral and granite sand were non-magnetic, though more and more people have been attracted to its shores for more than a century.
Today, while almost half of Magnetic Island is national park, island settlements like Picnic Bay, Nelly Bay, and Arcadia Bay are urban offshoots of Townsville as well as popular holiday centres.
Inland from a score of secluded bays, the national park landscape is very rugged with large granite boulders and rock faces among vegetation ranging from open forest to rainforest.
Magnetic Island rock wallabies are commonly seen on steep slopes in the early morning. During daylight hours, koalas may be found slumbering in trees near The Forts. Along the beaches you will see gulls, terns, sandpipers and dotterels - and overhead listen for ospreys, brahminy kites and white-bellied sea eagles.
Swamphens, Australasian grebes and black ducks are associated with freshwater habitats.
Terrestrial birds include doves, pied currawongs and yellow-bellied sunbirds.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy QLD Department of Environment and Heritage.\i
#
"Mareeba",62,"a\8\a1_0014.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 18,188\i
Mareeba is the largest town in the Artherton Tableland and the centre of Australia's main tobacco-growing district. The town is 30 km north of Atherton and 1,781 km north of Brisbane. The name 'Mareeba' comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean 'meeting of waters' and this is where the Barron River meets Granite Creek.
The explorer John Atherton, who was the first European to thoroughly explore the tableland, was the first settler in this area in 1880. There is a rodeo every July, which has been immortalised in song by \JSlim Dusty\j. Nearby is Granite Gorge, 2.5 sq km of a chaotic profusion of boulders and walls and underground creeks inhabited by rock wallabies.
\BDescription:\b Rodeo at Mareeba \I(Random House - photo by Stuart Fox)\i
#
"Maroochydore",63,"a\8\a2_0065.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 84,227\i
Maroochydore is a commercial and tourist centre at the mouth of the Maroochy River and at the centre of the Sunshine Coast 112 km north of Brisbane. The name comes from an Aboriginal word marutchi, said to mean 'where the black swan lives'. An alternative theory is that the name Maroochy is made up of two Aboriginal words, muru and kutchi meaning 'red bill'.
Maroochydore grew up on the site of the river mouth timber mill where the paddle steamers once loaded up on their way to Brisbane. The town was established in 1900 and experienced rapid growth as a holiday resort from the 1960s onwards.
The river provides a safe bathing area, while the beaches are known for their surf. There is a profusion of avian wildlife - pelicans, swans and seagulls. The yacht harbour, beach and pilot station are at Mooloolaba, 5 km south, and Fairytale Castle is at Bli Bli 10 km north. Mooloolah River National Park is 10 km south but access is difficult. Nostalgia Town, which is near the airport, looks at the funny side of history. Cruises up the Maroochy River take you to Dunethin Rock through sugar canefields.
\BDescription:\b Sunset at Maroochydore \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Maryborough, QLD",64,"a\8\a1_0012.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 24,868\i
Maryborough is 260 km north of Brisbane, close to Hervey Bay, Tin Can Bay and Fraser Island. It is an unusually well-planned provincial city, with many attractions accessible to visitors by car, by boat (cruises on the Mary River) or on foot. The town, in an area that produces sugar, grain, fruit and vegetables, timber and dairy products, was officially proclaimed a port in 1859 and a municipality in 1861.
Andrew Petrie and his party explored the Wide Bay district for grazing land and sailed up the Mary River in 1842. The village was founded in the following year. The wharf and wool store were built on the river in 1847.
Maryborough's climate is subtropical, with warm moist summers and mild winters. The city has some fine examples of early Queensland colonial architecture. Maryborough was a major point of entry for migrants from Europe and this is reflected in the old buildings to be found in the Wharf Street area - the customs house, bond store, warehouses, banks and shops, hotels and boarding houses - many of which are being restored. Teddington Weir is 15 km south and Tuan Forest is 24 km south-east.
\BDescription:\b Maryborough \I(Random House - photo by Stuart Fox)\i
#
"Mooloolaba",65,"a\8\a30046.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,100\i
Mooloolaba, part of Maroochydore, is a very popular holiday spot 121 km north of Brisbane and one of the safest harbours on Australia's east coast.The town's name comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean 'place of the schnapper fish'. The harbour is the base for a prawn and fishing fleet and also shelters a large fleet of yachts. The annual Sydney-to-Mooloolaba yacht race and the race to Gladstone are classics, attracting a big local and overseas field.
The Wharf Complex has an 80 m underwater tunnel which is an aquarium. There are safe swimming beaches and there is also a surf beach at Alexandra Headland.
\BDescription:\b Mooloolaba \I(Random House)\i
#
"Moranbah",66,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 6,525\i
Moranbah is 200 km west of Mackay and is the service town for the BHP/Utah coal mines at Goonyella. The town was established in 1969 as a residential area for the coal mines. The airport and explosives factory were built in the 1970s. Goonyella was the first open-cut coal mine established by Central Queensland Coal Associates in 1972. The town expanded in the 1980s with development of the Riverside coal mine to the north. Coal is railed to Hay Point at Mackay for export.
#
"Mossman",67,"a\8\6_0073.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,771\i
Mossman, further north, is a sugar-growing centre. A small town, just south of the Mossman River, it is built on a plain covered with cane. In sharp contrast, however, is Mossman Gorge, about eight kilometres west. It is cool and wild, with picnic spots.
This is the southernmost part of the Daintree Rainforest which forms a huge national park. The rainforest is spectacular and covers over 50,000 hectares. Mountains and valleys are covered in a lush green tropical growth which supports an exotic array of wildlife.
Rivers and streams cut through the dense vegetation on their way to the sea, and the forest extends to the very edge of the Pacific.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Mount Isa",68,"a\8\a1_0011.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 22,866\i
The city of Mount Isa, 118 km west of Cloncurry, 1,876 km west of Brisbane and 320 km away from the Gulf of Carpentaria, is north-west Queensland's biggest city, as well as its most significant commercial and industrial centre, mainly because it has one of the largest silver-lead mines in the world.
Silver was discovered there in 1923 by John Miles and the prospecting leases were named Mount Isa, a corruption of the name of the Mount Ida goldfield in Western Australia. After World War II copper became the main source of profit. Deep lodes were discovered in 1958, and this is now one of the largest and most mechanised underground mines in the world.
The mines were closed by an industrial dispute over wages in 1964-1965 and at one stage martial law was proclaimed. Now Mount Isa is the world's largest single lead producer, second largest silver producer, and in the first ten for copper. It has excellent amenities and facilities in the otherwise hot and monotonous spinifex and cattle country surrounding it.
The artificial Lake Moondarra, 20 km north, is a popular spot, and so is Lake Julius, 80 km further on. The attraction of Lake Julius include fishing and waterskiing, as well as workings of an abandoned mine and caves with Aboriginal paintings.
\BDescription:\b The mining town of Mt. Isa \I(Random House - photo by Stuart Fox)\i
#
"Nambour",69,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 10,355\i
Nambour is the home of the Big Pineapple, even though the main concern of the town is sugar. The Sunshine Plantation, to the south of Nambour, has a 15 m fibreglass pineapple at the entrance, and it is one of the biggest and best known in an area where such oddities are common. Nambour is 106 km north of Brisbane on the Bruce Highway. Sugar trains cross the main road of the town on a regular basis.
Nambour has been a sugar town since the 1860s when the former miners from the Gympie goldfields settled here. The name is an Aboriginal word for 'red flowering ti-tree'. Sugar became the main crop in the 1890s and the local mill has operated since 1896. Pineapples, macadamia nuts and other tropical fruit have more recently become important.
There are scenic drives to the Glass House Mountains in the south and to the Blackall Ranges in the west.
#
"Nerang",70,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 19,113\i
Nerang is a small town set back from the Gold Coast on the Nerang River in an area of wonderful natural scenery. The town is 65 km south of Brisbane, directly to the west of Surfers Paradise, and is the gateway to the Gold Coast hinterland. The name comes from an Aboriginal word meaning 'little'. The town was surveyed by the government in 1865 and a jetty was built for cedar-cutters. The first steamer came up the Nerang River in 1866 and the hotel was built in 1872. When the railway opened in 1889 it was quickly found that tourism was more profitable than agriculture. Nerang enjoyed explosive growth in the 1970s due to its proximity to Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
There are excellent scenic drives to the Nerang State Forest, which has good bush trails. Nearby are Springbrook, the Purlingbrook Falls and the English Gardens.
#
"Noosa",71,a\8\mel6.jpg,g,0
\IPopulation: 29,378\i
Between the popular Sunshine Coast resorts of Noosa and Sunshine Beach is an elevated rocky headland covered in heath and coastal rainforest. The area around Noosa is a national park and Noosa Heads is a popular holiday destination.
As early as 1879, early settlers had the foresight to declare Noosa a Town Reserve. In 1930 two small reserves were gazetted to preserve pockets of rainforest. Additions and amalgamations of reserves has resulted in a 1580 ha national park - small by comparison with many parks, but valuable for nature conservation.
#
"Oakey",72,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 3,425\i
Oakey, the airport for Toowoomba, was a large Air Force training base during World War II. It is on the Warrego Highway 29 km from Toowoomba and 157 km west of Brisbane.
Oakey was named for river oaks on the creek when it was settled by Europeans in the 1840s.
Visitors interested in the old Australian industry can visit the Jondaryan Woolshed north of Oakey. Built in 1859 and using as many as 88 blade shearers, it has now been restored, and holds demonstrations of blade shearing. The Museum of Army Flying has a large collection of working historic aircraft. For the best view of the town and the surrounding countryside, drive to Gowrie Mountain Lookout. Not far to the north-west is the Acland Coal Museum.
#
"Proserpine",73,"a\8\tony14.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,034\i
Proserpine was named by the explorer George Dalrymple after the Roman goddess of fertility. It is a small sugar town on the coast close to the Whitsundays. Proserpine is 1,099 km north of Brisbane, on the Bruce Highway between Mackay to the south and Bowen to the north. It is a stepping-off point for visitors making for Airlie Beach, Shute Harbour and the islands of the Whitsunday Passage.
A folk museum displays the fashions and furnishings worn and used by the district's pioneers and a wildlife sanctuary contains crocodiles, cassowaries, a reptile house and a walk-through aviary. Cedar Creek in the rainforest hills behind the town has hiking trails through ferns and orchids.
The islands of the Whitsunday Passage can be seen from Conway National Park, and the views are often breathtaking.
Rockhampton is Australia's beef capital. The farmland of the region supports an astonishing number of cattle and is remarkable for breeds like the Brahman which can tolerate the tropical climate. Rockhampton has interesting colonial architecture and is significant, too, as the marker for what locals call Capricornia.
The eponymous tropic has been the focus for a separatist movement since the middle of the 19th century, but today the political zeal has waned as internationalism has become the major source of economic development.
#
"Roma",75,"a\8\a1_0015.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,569\i
The wife of the first governor of Queensland - Lady Diamantina Roma, wife of George Bowen - gave her name to this flat spot in the State's west. Roma is on the Warrego Highway, 261 km west of Dalby, with the Carnarvon Highway going south to St. George and north to Injune and the Carnarvon Gorges.
When Queensland became a colony separate from NSW in 1859, Roma was the first gazetted settlement. In 1872 Harry Redford, often alleged to be the fictitious Captain Starlight in Robbery Under Arms, was found not guilty in Roma's courthouse of stealing 1,000 head of cattle, running them over uncharted land to Adelaide (and he survived, where Burke and Wills did not) and selling them. He was actually guilty of the crime but the jury acquitted him in admiration for his droving feat.
A vineyard was planted in 1863 by S. Bassett. It is now the oldest and largest in the State.
\BDescription:\b Roma \I(Random House - photo by Suzanna Clarke)\i
#
"Sarina",76,"a\8\grass.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 9,394\i
Sarina lies 37 km south of Mackay and 939 km north of Brisbane on the Bruce Highway. The town, firmly in sugar-cane country, is one of the gateways to north Queensland. The first pastoral lease was taken up here by Henry Bell in 1865 and other selections soon followed, although the expansion of the industry was hampered by the lack of safe sea access later provided by Mackay.
Nearby is Cape Palmerston National Park and there is a series of fine beaches in the area - Armstrongs, Campwin, Grasstree, Half Tide, Perpetua Point, Salonika and Sarina. These are sometimes collectively referred to as the 'Sugar Coast'.
\BDescription:\b Grasstree beach, Sarina \I(Mel Smith)\i
#
"Southport",77,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 22,059\i
Southport is the commercial centre of the Gold Coast and lies at its northern end, 73 km south of Brisbane and 5 km north of Surfers Paradise.
The area is designed to entertain and captivate the visitor. Sea World Marine Park is the star of the town and the attractions are as good as most similar shows overseas and better than all but a very few. Sea World has a waterski display, monorail, paddle-steamer, a ride through Lasseter's Lost Reef which is a good as anything at Disneyland, and much more.
Nearby are the marina and Southport Yacht Club. Just along the road is Fisherman's Wharf, a complex of shops and restaurants.
Southport's beginnings were much less exotic than its current, modern appearance. The town was surveyed in 1874 and named after a resort in Lancashire, England. The road from Brisbane was opened in 1875 and the Southport Hotel built in the following year. There was extensive development after building restrictions were lifted in 1952. The town became part of the City of the Gold Coast in 1959.
#
"Stanthorpe",78,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 9,596\i
Stanthorpe, 225 km south-west of Brisbane and in the so-called 'Granite Belt' (part of the ranges separating Queensland and NSW), is among the highest towns in Queensland, being 811 m above sea level). This means that the town is relatively cool in summer.
Stanthorpe is well-known as a wool-producing centre, though agriculture is probably its most celebrated industry. In the area are grown apples, pears, plums, peaches and grapes.
The town started in 1857 as an isolated coaching station. In 1871 tin was discovered on Quart Pot Creek and this resulted in some very rich claims.
In the 1870s there was a daily Cobb & Co. service between the town and the diggings. Fruit-growing and market-gardening developed in the 1870s. There was one great moment at Stanthorpe that could only happen in Australia. The prime minister, W.M. (Billy) Hughes, was speaking on the issue of conscription at the railway station in 1917. The station master, who had opposing views, started the train, and the prime minister had to run to catch it.
Storm King Dam is nearby and is popular for canoeing and waterskiing, and Mt. Marlay has excellent views of the town and district. Sundown National Park is a wilderness area with a camping ground on the Severn River in the south-west corner of the park. Girraween National Park, with spectacular granite outcrops and wildflowers, is popular for walking, rock-climbing and camping.
#
"Sugar Coast",79,"a\8\16_0050.jpg","f","0"
The coast between Maryborough and Bundaberg is sometimes known as the Sugar Coast. The brilliant green fields of sugarcane stretch from here more than 1,000 kilometres north past Cairns. Fraser Island is the main tourist attraction of the area, while Lady Elliot Island, off the coast from Bundaberg, is the most southerly coral cay of the Great Barrier Reef.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy QLD Department of Environment and Heritage.\i
#
"Sunshine Coast",80,"a\8\16_0051.jpg","f","0"
\IPopulation: 156,136\i
North of Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast stretches from Caloundra in the south to Double Island Point in Cooloola National Park in the north. The character of the Sunshine Coast is very different from that of the Gold Coast.
The resident population rises by between 10% and 15% per annum here, but the people are not all involved in service industries. Tropical fruit plantations provide some 100,000 tonnes of pineapple for Brisbane's canning industry. Macadamia nuts are another important crop, and there are cottage industries of arts and crafts.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy QLD Environment and Heritage.\i
#
"Thursday Island",81,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 2,652\i
Thursday Island is the very tip of Australia, the most northerly administration centre off the tip of the Cape York Peninsula in the Torres Strait. It is 2,817 km north-west of Cairns, and measures 3 km by 2 km. The Europeans are in a minority among the native islanders. There is an excellent harbour.
The island is believed to have been named by Captain \JWilliam Bligh\j. By 1883 there were over 200 pearling vessels based here and new pearl beds were being developed. Sadly, the pearl industry was ruined by disease in 1970. The fort on Battery Point was built in 1891-1892 when a Russian invasion was feared.
#
"Toowoomba",82,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 86,532\i
Toowoomba is Queensland's largest inland city and the commercial centre for the Darling Downs. The city has a very full cultural and social life with many galleries and museums. There are also several historical buildings and sites, and the area abounds with scenic drives.
Toowoomba, 138 km west of Brisbane and the point that marks the beginning of the Darling Downs, started life as a village in 1849, near a significant staging post for teamsters and travellers. It was known as the Swamp. The Aborigines called it t'wamp bah or 'place of large stinging insects'.
Toowoomba was a municipality from 1860; a town from 1887; a city from 1904. In 1861 Queensland's first telegraph service linked Toowoomba with Ipswich and Brisbane. The town hall, said to be the first in Queensland, was built in 1862. A large foundry was established in 1871, its main success being Southern Cross and Simplex windmills.
There are several attractive scenic drives in the district. Visitors can drive to Spring Bluff and Murphys Creek, and make the 100 km circuit to Heifer Creek.
#
"Townsville",83,"a\8\6_0082.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 87,288\i
Townsville - Australia's largest tropical city is 374 km south of Cairns. One of Queensland's major universities is sited here. The commercial success of Townsville is based on its port which acts as a conduit for mining and agriculture from the vast hinterland.
Indeed, Robert Towns - its founder - saw the need for a port for the beef industry and dairy products of the great inland cattle stations. However, like the rest of Queensland, tourism is the business focus of today.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Warwick",84,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 10,393\i
Warwick is on the Darling Downs 162 km south-west of Brisbane and 82 km south of Toowoomba. In 1840 the Leslie brothers arrived from the south and established a sheep station at Canning Downs. Warwick was established as a township site in 1849, making it the first town, after Brisbane, in what became the colony of Queensland. The town began to grow after the railway came from Ipswich in 1871, and Warwick became a city in 1936.
Warwick is on the Condamine River, 453 m above sea level, and the surrounding rich pastures support many famous horse and cattle studs. Leslie Park and Jubilee Gardens are famous for their superb displays of roses. The Pringle Cottage was built in 1863 and is now a museum.
Leslie Dam 15 km west is popular for water sports and picnics. Queen Mary Falls National Park is 45 km east and Main Range National Park is 50 km north-east.
#
"Whitsunday Group of Islands",85,"a\7\6_0058.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 18,282\i
The major city here is Mackay, which shares with Townsville access to the Whitsundays. Access to the Whitsundays is from Shute Harbour to the north of Mount Conway National Park.
Whitsunday Island is home to the unadorned rock wallaby and an important rookery for brahminy kites, ospreys, white-bellied sea eagles and peregrine falcons. The Proserpine rock-wallabies live on Gloucester Island.
The surrounding waters and fringing reefs are marine parks. Migrating humpback whales visit these waters mid-year and it is believed that the Whitsundays may be an important whale breeding and mating area.
\BDescription:\b Humpback whales are common to the Whitsundays \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Winton",86,"a\8\73098.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,736\i
In 1895 A.B 'Banjo' Paterson visited Robert McPherson's Dagwood Station near Winton in central Queensland. One version relates that Paterson was driving with McPherson to Winton in a buggy when they passed a nomad carrying his swag. McPherson said, 'That's what we call Waltzing Matilda in these parts'. By the time the buggy had arrived in Winton the song was basically finished and was given its first public airing that night. Another version has Paterson hearing the phrase at dinner at the station. However, \JHenry Lawson\j had used the phrase 'waltzing matilda' in the Bulletin two years earlier.
Winton is 173 km north-west of Longreach on the Landsborough Highway at the start of the Diamantina River. The town is a major centre for the giant road trains that bring cattle from the Channel country. There is a swagman statue near the swimming pool and the Quantilda Pioneer Museum. Combo Waterhole is 141 km south-east of the Landsborough Highway and the Opalton gemfields are 115 km to the south.
Yeppoon is a popular coastal resort 40 km north-east of Rockhampton and 767 km north of Brisbane on the shores of Keppel Bay. The so-called Capricorn Coast extends south from Yeppoon, and tourism predominates. An 8,000 ha Japanese development, the Capricorn International Resort, is north of the town, and Great Keppel Island tourist resort is 13 km offshore. Nearby is Cooberrie Park (15 km north), a flora and fauna reserve. The rare Byfield fern can be found in the Byfield State Forest, which is 17 km further to the north.
\BDescription:\b Catamaran coming from Yeppoon \I(Mel Smith)\i
#
!,!,!,!,!
4#
60,0
"South Australia - Fact File",1,"a\8\1-0017.jpg","c","0"
\BMap:\b Click here for \JMap of South Australia.\j
\BCapital:\b \JAdelaide\j
\BPremier:\b John Olsen (LP)
\BSize:\b 984,377 square km
\BLength of Coastline:\b 3,700 km
\BPopulation:\b 1,471,000. Click here for Australian \JPopulation\j details.
\BFloral Emblem:\b \JSturt\j's Desert Pea
\BFaunal Emblem:\b Hairy-nosed \JWombat\j
\BHighest Pt:\b Mt. Woodroffe 1,440 metres
\BFlag:\b Click here for \JSouth Australian Flag\j
\BAverage Annual Rainfall - Adelaide:\b 530 mm
\BAverage Temperatures - Adelaide:\b January maximum, 28.5 degrees C; July maximum, 14.9 degrees C. Click here for \JClimate of Australia\j details.
\BAbout the State:\b Click here for the story of \JSouth Australia\j
\BDescription:\b South Australian Flag \I(DFAT)\i
#
"South Australia",2,"a\8\sa.jpg","c","0"
South Australia takes up 12.81% of Australia's land mass, covers an area of 380,000 square kilometres and has 3,700 kilometres of coastline. It is the driest state in the driest continent in the world.
Mediterranean in climate, some 7% of the state's land is given over to national parks, game reserves and recreation and conservation parks. It alone shares boundaries with all the other mainland states.
It was the first Australian state to give women the vote, to appoint a woman to the police force, and to admit women as university undergraduate students. Another first was its appointment of a woman to an Australian Supreme Court bench and as a university chancellor.
\BDescription:\b \I(Gum Tree Graphics).\i
#
"South Australia - History",3,"a\8\rvrtrrns.jpg","c","0"
Only free men and women came from England to the colony. They purchased Crown land instead of gaining tracts free, and brought out labourers to help them work it. They, in turn, toiled diligently to acquire the money to set up farms of their own.
Fortunately, they saw no evil in the grape, and planted vines along with their cereal crops. South Australia is now the largest producer of wine in Australia.
The early settlers were thrifty, setting value on hard work rather than the licentious habits and intrigues of their eastern state compatriots.
\BDescription:\b Adelaide from River Torrens \I(Picturesque Atlas).\i
#
"South Australia - History - (2)",4,"a\8\sahist.jpg","c","0"
Hard work was also a virtue esteemed by early Lutheran peasants escaping religious persecution in their native Prussia. They arrived under the protection of leading colonialist George Fife Angas two years after the proclamation of the colony in 1836.
Their influence on the state's eating and drinking habits, on its architecture and music, particularly band music, was considerable. It is still very much in evidence today in regions such as the Adelaide Hills and in the \JBarossa Valley\j, South Australia's best-known wine producing area.
South Australia also differs from other states in the absence, until recently, of a long-time Asian population. Chinese coolies were smuggled ashore last century at Robe, on the coast south of Adelaide, but their sights were set firmly on the rich gold diggings of \JBallarat\j and \JBendigo\j. They made hazardous journeys overland to avoid the 10 pound poll tax then required at the well-policed Victorian ports.
\BDescription:\b Glenelg \I(South Australian Archives).\i
#
"South Australia - History - (3)",5,"a\8\7552.jpg","c","0"
Afghan camel train drivers ferried supplies to the northern outback stations and helped to build the telegraph line from Adelaide to Darwin.
\BDescription:\b Camel trains used to link Darwin and Adelaide \I(RAHS)\i.
#
"Adelaide",6,"a\8\8_0009.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,079,184\i
Thanks to its imaginative founder, Colonel \JWilliam Light\j, Adelaide is a well-planned city, bordered by the Mount Lofty Ranges to the east and by gulf waters and long sandy beaches to the west.
Colonel Light, who still points an imperious finger at the city below from his pedestal on Montefiore Hill in North Adelaide, designed the inner business district as a one-mile square and then encircled it with 700 hectares of parkland.
Conventional sight-seeing is made easy in tree-lined North Terrace. Side by side are the Museum, the Public Library, the Art Gallery, the Conservatorium of Music, and the faculty buildings of the University of Adelaide.
Also located along this boulevard are Government House, the Casino and Parliament House, behind which is the Adelaide Festival Centre on the banks of the Torrens River.
\BDescription:\b Aerial view of Adelaide \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Aldinga",7,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 3,541\i
Aldinga is a small seaside town 45 km from Adelaide. The name comes from an Aboriginal word that has one of several meanings - 'much water', 'good place for meat', 'open, wide plain', or 'tree district'. In the 1860s Aldinga was a thriving town with six inns; now there is only one. The town is located on what is called the Wine Coast with many wineries nearby. It was off the coast near here that the \IStar Of Greece,\i a grain ship, was wrecked in 1888 and 17 lives were lost. Artist Ivor Hele lived here.
#
"Angaston",8,"a\8\a2_0037.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,952\i
Angaston is a quaint old town famous for the Yalumba winery. It is in the \JBarossa Valley\j close to Nuriootpa on the Sturt Highway 55 km north of Adelaide. The town was originally known as German Pass but the name was officially changed to Angaston when George Fife Angas lodged a plan of the town at the Adelaide Central Registry Office in 1857. His agents had chosen the land in the \JBarossa Valley\j in 1841. The town has a range of handsome buildings and its main street is lined with Moreton Bay fig trees. It lies 92 m above the floor of the \JBarossa Valley\j.
In 1847 Johann Henschke established a winery to the south-west at Keyneton. Two years later Samuel Smith, a churchgoing brewer from Dorset in England, founded the Yalumba Winery. The name is said to come from an Aboriginal word meaning 'land all around'. He planted the vineyard on land purchased from his employer, George Fife Angas. By 1863 the vineyard was producing 14,000 litres of wine a year. In 1859 William Salter established the Saltram vineyard, the first Australian vineyard to export wines in serious quantities.
Wine is not the only product of the area; there are several stone fruit orchards and the fruit is glazed and dried in the district.
\BDescription:\b Collingrove Homestead, Angaston \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Barmera",9,"a\8\a30052.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,278\i
Barmera is 221 km north-east of Adelaide on the shores of Lake Bonney, where Donald Campbell made an attempt on the world water-speed record in 1964. An obelisk on the foreshores commemorates this attempt. The name of the town comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean 'water place' or 'lake dwellers' or, possibly, it is a corruption of Barmeedjie, the name of a group of Aboriginal people in the area.
Lake Bonney was discovered in 1838 by Charles Bonney and Joseph Hawdon when driving cattle along the Murray on the way to Adelaide. In 1850 Napper's Old Accommodation House was built at the mouth of Chambers Creek and its ruins are now classified by the National Trust. The village itself was not founded until 1922 and it became a town seven years later. Barmera is now the centre of the Riverland's irrigation area, with fruit as the main product. Tourism and country music are also important in the area.
\BDescription:\b Sunset on Lake Bonney, Barmera \I(Random House)\i
#
"Barossa Valley",10,"a\8\8_0011.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,991\i
The \JBarossa Valley\j is one of the most well known and productive wine districts in Australia. 50 kilometres from Adelaide city, the valley varies from between 3 to 11 kilometres wide, and its length stretches approximately 30 kilometres.
This wine district has provided work for winemakers and their associate counterparts since 1847, when the first vines were planted at Jacob's Creek by Johann Gramp. It produces over half of Australia's good quality wines.
Most of the first settlers in this area were Silesians, Prussians, and Brandenburgers, who journeyed there to hide from religious persecution. They built the area into a prosperous place for future foreign settlers to come, and the \JBarossa Valley\j today is still dominated by strong Germanic tradition.
\JBarossa Valley\j holds a seven day Vintage Festival every second year to celebrate the success of the grape harvest, and the spirit of the valley.
\BDescription:\b \JBarossa Valley\j \I(South Australian Tourism).\i
#
"Berri",11,"a\8\a2_0038.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,752\i
Berri is on the banks of the Murray River 236 km north-east of Adelaide. The name of the town is said to come from an Aboriginal word berri-berri meaning 'wide bend in river'. The explorer \JCharles Sturt\j explored the district in 1830 and the town began as a stop with a woodpile on a portion of the Cobdogla Station for the riverboats and paddle steamers that plied the Murray River in the last century. The irrigation scheme was developed in 1910. The town of Berri was gazetted in the following year, and its main industry is now fruit products.
The Berri Estates has fruit-packing sheds, a fruit-juice factory and canneries. The Berri Estates Winery at Glossop, 13 km west of Berri, is one of the biggest wineries in the southern hemisphere. On the road to Renmark 4 km out of Berri is the Big Orange, which has exhibits telling the story of the area. Next door is the Riverland Display Centre which has vintage cars and motorcycles.
\BDescription:\b Murray River crossing at Berri \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Birdsville",12,"a\8\6_0033.jpg","c","0"
The legendary Birdsville Track stretches from Marree to Birdsville in south-western Queensland. On either side are huge stock runs such as Muloorina, Mirra Mitta, Cowarie, Etadunna, Dulkaninna and Clifton Hill. If the Birdsville Track can ever be said to have a steady flow of traffic, it is in September when the Birdsville Races are held.
Unlike their forebearers, the station people today live in some style, but their children's early education is still courtesy of the School of the Air and their urgent medical needs are dependent upon the Flying Doctor Service, both of which are run from Port Augusta at the head of Spencer Gulf.
\BDescription:\b Birdsville Pub \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Bordertown",13,"a\8\a30059.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,235\i
Bordertown is 18 km from the border with Victoria and 275 km south-east of Adelaide. It is strategically situated at the junction of roads from Adelaide and Melbourne and from the Riverland to the lower south-east of South Australia and the south-west of Victoria. It was named because of its position near the colonial border on the route from Adelaide to the Victorian goldfields, although in earlier days there was a dispute about the exact position of the border. The town grew up on the banks of the Tatiara Creek where the men used to camp. Bordertown is in the Tatiara district - an Aboriginal word said to mean 'good country'. The gold from the Victorian diggings came this way under escort from Castlemaine and \JBendigo\j to Adelaide. There are bronze plaques attached to granite boulders at various places along the escort's route.
The town was proclaimed in 1845 and grew when it became an important supply centre for the Victorian goldfields. The Woolshed Inn was opened in 1859 and the railway from Adelaide on its way to Melbourne was opened in 1886. Robert Hawke, prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, was born here in 1929.
Burra is in the Bald Hills range 156 km north of Adelaide and is one of Australia's oldest mining towns. The name comes from the Hindustani word burra, meaning 'great'. The story is that copper was discovered by shepherds in 1845 and the mine opened later that year.
Burra consisted of the original mining company town and an attendant group of government-sponsored villages, each with its own characteristics. The English lived in Hampton, the Scots in Aberdeen, the Welsh in Llywchwr and the Cornish in Redruth. In time the villages merged to form Burra. In 1851 this was the largest town in South Australia outside Adelaide. The copper was taken from Burra by mule and bullock train over 80 km to Port Wakefield, although later in 1870 a wooden tramway was built and horse-drawn trams were used. The copper ran out in 1877.
The Miners Arms Hotel was opened in 1847 and the Paxton Square miners' cottages, built two years later, have been restored by the National Trust. The old post and telegraph office built in 1860 is still standing and Redruth Gaol, now a National Trust property, was built in 1856.
\BDescription:\b Restored mining buildings at Burra \I(Random House)\i
#
"Ceduna",15,"a\8\a2_0071.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,559\i
Ceduna is 786 km from Adelaide near the junction of the Flinders and Eyre Highways. It is the last town on the Eyre Highway before you face the long stretch of the Nullarbor heading towards Western Australia. Ceduna faces the Great Australian Bight and the islands of Nuyts Archipelago. To the north is the Yumbarra Conservation Park.
The name Ceduna is said to come from an Aboriginal word ehedoona which means 'to sit down and rest'. The local story is that that town was named after the police horse Ceduna which belonged to Trooper Peter Hansberry, the first officer in 1900 at the Murat Bay police station. The names Ceduna Plain and Ceduna Hut and Well appear on Lands Department maps as early as 1867.
The original township of Denial Bay was established in the 1840s 13 km from the present town and ruins still remain. The name Denial Bay was given by \JMatthew Flinders\j, during his voyage in the \IInvestigator\i in 1802, because from the sea the bay appeared to have prospects of penetrating some distance into the interior of the country. Further investigation showed this access was denied, hence the name. The village on its present site was founded in 1896 and surveyed in 1900.
Now Ceduna is a fair-sized town on Denial Bay with good deep-sea fishing. It is the centre for a large grain growing and pastoral area.
\BDescription:\b Jetty at Ceduna \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Clare",16,"a\8\a2_0036.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,929\i
Clare is 136 km north of Adelaide, set in the beautiful, tree-clad Clare valley surrounded by vineyards. It was known earlier as the Twins, Inchiquin or Gleeson's Village but became Clare Village in 1846 and this was later shortened to Clare. The explorer Eyre passed through the Clare district twice, in 1839 and 1840. Later in 1840, J.A. Horrocks made a detailed exploration.
The town site was settled in 1842 by Irishman Edward Gleeson, who built the Inchiquin homestead. He planted the first vines. Soon after, Gleeson laid out a village nearby, which he named Clare after his home country in Ireland.
The first town hall was built in the 1840s and the police station and courthouse in 1850. Clare was proclaimed a municipality in 1868.
The town grew initially as the service centre for a wheat-growing area but suffered somewhat when it was bypassed by the railways in the 1880s. The place of wheat was taken by wine and the Stanley Wine Company was established in 1894, and Wendouree Cellars in 1895. More than 30 buildings in Clare are listed by the National Trust.
\BDescription:\b Martindale Hall, Clare \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Coober Pedy",17,"a\8\6_0034.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,184\i
1,000 kilometres north-west of Adelaide, Coober Pedy supplies a large part of the world's opal. Opal was discovered at Coober Pedy in 1915; today it is Australia's largest and oldest opal mining town, and known the world over for the unusual underground lifestyle its inhabitants have been forced to adopt to escape the fierce summer heat.
To escape the dust and heat, they live underground, and even the churches are in dugouts. Miners come from many countries to take their chance at striking it lucky.
\BDescription:\b Underground house in Coober Pedy \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Coober Pedy - (2)",18,"a\8\8_0016.jpg","c","0"
\JCoober Pedy\j is on the main Stuart Highway; its most notable feature is the moon-like landscape of opal mines, holes in the ground dug by several generations of miners and simply left there untended after being discarded.
\BDescription:\b Opal blowers at \JCoober Pedy\j \I(South Australian Tourism).\i
#
"Crystal Brook",19,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 2,135\i
Crystal Brook, 200 km north of Adelaide and 27 km south-east of Port Pirie, is the service centre for an important farming and dairying area. It was first discovered by a European in 1840 when the explorer Edward Eyre came upon a creek which 'so forcibly reminded me of the beautiful bubbling brooks at home that I at once named it the Crystal Brook'. The town, established in 1874, is just off the main highway, and this has allowed it to maintain quite a rural air.
Bowman Park, 5 km east of the town, covers 45 ha of bushland and contains the ruins of the original Bowman homestead, which was built in 1874 and was the base for one of the largest sheep stations in South Australia. It is near Edward Eyre's original Crystal Brook north of the town. Bowman Park has barbecue and picnic facilities.
#
"Elizabeth",20,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 25,852\i
Elizabeth was planned as a satellite city of Adelaide and has now become more of a suburb, though it is 27 km north. The town, named after the present queen, was first proclaimed a city in 1964. It covers about 2,092 ha, more than a quarter of which is parkland, which makes it a most pleasant, green city. In the surrounding countryside there are market gardens and poultry farms.
#
"Eyre Peninsula",21,"a\8\8_0019.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,859\i
Eyre Peninsula was named after and explored by Edward \JJohn Eyre\j in 1840. He travelled the treacherous and rugged peninsula on horseback, through an untamed land which today still remains relatively untouched.
The Eyre Peninsula is a vast region stretching from Whyalla in the east, to the Western Australia/South Australia border in the west. The area is approximately 1,000 kilometres wide and as much as 400 km deep.
In a north-south direction, Eyre Peninsula stretches from the Gawler Ranges to Port Lincoln. The Spencer Gulf borders the eastern edge of the Peninsula.
The Peninsula contains incredibly diverse landscapes, from the Nullarbor Plains desert, the rugged Gawler Ranges, the sheltered and unsheltered shores of the Great Australian Bight, the limestone caves, to the harbour towns of Port Lincoln and Whyalla.
\BDescription:\b Eyre Peninsula \I(South Australian Tourism).\i
The southern Eyre Peninsula encompasses the towns of Tumby Bay, the sheltered waters of Coffin Bay, and the city of Port Lincoln in Boston Bay. In stark contrast to the sheltered waters of the Spencer Gulf, the West Coast is exposed to the full force of the Southern Ocean. This rugged coast is punctuated by a number of bays and inlets.
To a large degree, Eyre Peninsula's agricultural economy relies on the annual summer harvest of the wheat. Farmers of the Eyre Peninsula produce 10% of Australia's wheat crop, and this is one of the main agricultural industries of the area.
Once the wheat is harvested, it is transported to Port Lincoln and Thevenard, and shipped out all over the world. A far cry from the early days when tiny ketches used to be loaded from wagons in small ports dotted all around the Peninsula.
\BDescription:\b Wheat is the Eyre Peninsula's main source of agricultural economy \I(DFAT).\i
The ocean yields a bountiful harvest, so much so, that the Eyre Peninsula boasts one of the biggest commercial fisheries in the country. Bluefin tuna, striped tuna, Southern rock lobster, Western king prawn, whiting, shark, garfish, snapper and salmon are amongst the most popular commercial species.
The famous Coffin Bay oyster, the abalone and the scallop are three of the shellfish which are harvested commercially in the Eyre Peninsula water. Port Lincoln is the home of one of Australia's largest commercial fisheries.
The third dimension of the Eyre Peninsula economy is tourism, because of the area's tranquil atmosphere and mediterranean climate.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy DFAT.\i
#
"Eyre Peninsula - Flora and Fauna",25,"a\8\6_0059.jpg","c","0"
Eyre Peninsula is rich in flora. Late winter to early spring is the best time for wild flowers. The Port Lincoln Mallee flowers profusely, usually cream coloured, but occasionally a pink form occurs. Many species of these multi-stemmed small trees occur in the area.
Correas put on a good show at around the same time in coastal areas. Many small orchid species flower at this time of the year. Templetonia and Melaleucas are also represented, some with cream bottlebrush flowers and others, smaller pink flowered species.
Male sheoaks have a golden brown sheen and look remarkably different from the usually grey-green. Pink Boronia and Native Currant are abundant. Edible fruits form from November onwards.
On the coastline of the Eyre Peninsula, white bellied sea eagles and ospreys make their home. It is also home to the pied and sooty oyster catchers, silver and pacific gulls which are commonly found on beaches. Five species of cormorant inhabit rocky outcrops and islands. Rock parrots are also common on many islands and in foredunes.
The Sir Joseph Banks Group of Islands is the major South Australian breeding ground for the beautiful Cape Barren goose. The group is rich in wildlife, both above and below the water.
Common and bottle-nosed dolphins inhabit the coastal waters. Sea lions reside and breed in the area, and a small group of New Zealand fur seals live near Cape Wiles. Australia's only known mainland colony of breeding sea lions live near Streaky Bay.
\BDescription:\b Seals resting on beaches of the Eyre Peninsula \I(DFAT).\i
In the Northern part of the region, the Gawler Ranges abound with flora and fauna. Countless red kangaroos, western grey kangaroos, euros and emus inhabit this wilderness. Over 140 species of birds have been recorded here.
The Gawler Ranges are probably best known for the wedge-tailed eagle, and the Sturt desert pea, first sighted here by Edward \JJohn Eyre\j on his 1839 explorations.
The hairy nosed wombat is found in large numbers on the West Coast of the Eyre Peninsula, particularly around Elliston and Lock, and further out on the Nullarbor Plain.
Western grey kangaroos are common in the area and are usually observed at dawn and dusk. Sadly, many of our native mammals disappeared from the peninsula earlier this century; pygmy possums, dunnarts, hopping mice and bush rats are still around, but rare.
\BDescription:\b Western Grey kangaroos are very common in the Gawler Ranges \I(Webster Publishing)\i
Arkaroola, a small town in the north of the Gammon Ranges, was named after the legend of Arkaroo. Arkaroo, according to the Adnjamathanha people, was a giant serpent who indented a path for the Arkaroola Creek with his body, when he went back to the mountains after quenching his thirst in the salt lakes. Today Arkaroola is a privately-owned wildlife sanctuary.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Readers Digest.\i
#
"Gawler",28,"a\9\a2_0061.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 16,656\i
Gawler, the western gateway to the \JBarossa Valley\j, was one of the first major settlements north of Adelaide. It is 44 km north-east of Adelaide in a busy agricultural area, close to Clare Valley and the wineries of the Adelaide Hills. The town was named after George Gawler, governor and resident commissioner in South Australia from 1838 to 1841. The site was chosen by Colonel \JWilliam Light\j in 1837 and the town laid out two years later. Shipments from the mining areas passed this way and Gawler became an overnight stop for coaches and bullock teams.
Gawler was incorporated as a municipality in 1857 and the town hall was built in 1878. The Gawler railway station is the oldest public building in the town, built of local stone soon after the Gawler-Adelaide railway link was made. Owned by the National Trust, it houses a telecommunications museum and room furnished in the style of bygone days.
\BDescription:\b Blackboys in Para Wirra Park, Gawler \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Goolwa",29,"a\9\a30054.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,018\i
Goolwa is at the mouth of the Murray River on Lake Alexandrina, 83 km south of Adelaide and 19 km from Victor Harbor. Australia's first public railway, horse-drawn, was opened in 1854 to connect with the Murray steamboat system, thus connecting river traffic at Goolwa with the ocean port at Port Elliot. This was Australia's first example of an integrated transport system.
The name Goolwa comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean 'elbow' - describing the shape of the bend in the river around Hindmarsh Island - or 'yesterday'. Sealers from Kangaroo Island were probably the first European to visit Goolwa, possibly as early as 1828.
Seawater is prevented from entering Lake Alexandrina, Lake Albert and the River Murray by a barrage 632 km long. Small craft enter through a lock. Goolwa still has its past traditions of shipbuilding, trade and transport, but is now a growing tourist and holiday centre, and the paddle steamers on the river as a tourist attraction are a link with its past.
\BDescription:\b Goolwa Jetty \I(Random House)\i
#
"Kadina",30,"a\9\a2_0069.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,536\i
Kadina is the largest town on Yorke Peninsula, 150 km north-west of Adelaide and 52 km north-west of Wakefield. The name of the town comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean 'lizard plain'.
The town was proclaimed and the telegraph to Adelaide opened in 1862 and the Wombat Hotel was opened in the same year. Kadina was made a municipality in 1872 and connected to the railway six years later. It had a boom copper-mining period in the late 19th and early 20th century.
A number of interesting buildings of the Victorian period give the town character, and the area has some good scenic drives and walking tours. The Wallaroo Mines are 1 km west of the town on the Wallaroo road. It takes half an hour to stroll around the complex including the impressive ruins of the engine building.
\BDescription:\b Matta House, Kadina \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Kangaroo Island",31,"a\9\6_0030.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,227\i
Kangaroo Island is Australia's third largest island. It is approximately 145 km long by 60 km wide and is largely an untouched wilderness hosting some wildlife that no longer exists on the mainland.
Captain \JMatthew Flinders\j discovered Kangaroo Island in 1802 when he landed near Christmas Cove. In 1803, however, the French explorer, Captain Baudin, landed at what is now called Frenchman's Rock, and one of the sailors carved the words (when translated) "Expedition of discovery by Captain Baudin in the \IGeographe\i 1803".
The island was settled in 1836 by the South Australia company with the purpose of establishing Australia's free colony and to start a new colony between the Bight and Port Phillip Bay.
There have been many shipwrecks along areas of the coastline of the island due to the full force of the Southern Ocean. More than 40 ships have been lost along the coast since 1847.
Tourism, farming and fishing are the stable industries of the island's economy. Grain, stock, and merchandise left and entered Kangaroo Island via Emu Bay up until the 1930s.
\BDescription:\b Kangaroo Island - Seal Bay \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Kangaroo Island Wildlife",32,"a\9\dfat21.jpg","c","0"
Having separated from the mainland nine thousand years ago, Kangaroo Island has retained many plants and animals no longer found elsewhere. Because of this abundant unique flora and fauna, plus the undisturbed rivers and coastlines, much of the island has been preserved in National and Conservation Parks.
Early this century (1920s) there was a genuine concern that species such as the koala and platypus would disappear from mainland Australia, so they were introduced to Kangaroo Island where they were presumed to be safe. You can still see these animals here today.
\BDescription:\b Kangaroo Island wildlife \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Kangaroo Island Wildlife - (2)",33,"a\9\dfat20.jpg","c","0"
Kangaroo Island has a varied plant and animal life, being the home to many birds, native plants, and animals. The rare glossy black cockatoo (often confused with the yellow-tailed black cockatoo), for example, can now only be found on the island.
It is also the home to pelicans, fairy penguins, platypuses, koalas, Kangaroo Island kangaroos, echidnas, brush-tailed possums, snakes, and lizards.
Kangaroo Island has approximately 700 native species and 150 introduced species of plants. You can find more than 400 species in the Flinders Chase National Park. There are a number of endemic species on the island, such as \ITetrathecas\i and the prickly \IPetrophila\i. You will also find more than 60 different species of orchid.
Ligurian honey bees were introduced onto the island in 1881, and are used as a genetic pool for hives on the mainland. Kangaroo Island is one of the few places in the world where there is a pure strain of the docile bee.
Because of the purity of the bees, it is illegal to import any other kind of bee. Any bee products (honey or wax) are also prohibited from the island.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy DFAT.\i
#
"Leigh Creek",34,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 1,378\i
Leigh Creek is in the Flinders Ranges 156 km north of Hawker and 119 km south of Marree. It was named after Harry Leigh, the head stockman for Alexander Glen, who took up a cattle run in this part of the country in 1856. The first major coal discovery in South Australia was made here in 1888 but only small quantities were mined in the early years. Open-cut mining begun in 1944, largely because supplies of coal from other states kept being interrupted by industrial disputes. This huge open-cut mining operation is South Australia's only coal source. Now the mines supply nearly 2 million tonnes of coal a year to the power stations at Port Augusta.
About 60 km to the east are the Gammon Ranges, a wilderness area suitable for experienced bushwalkers. Nearby lakes Eyre, Torrens and Frome may look, on a map, like major expanses of water but in reality they are dry salt pans, although in heavy rain they may occasionally fill.
#
"Loxton",35,"a\9\a2_0066.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,836\i
Loxton, one of the largest of the Riverland towns, is surrounded by vast areas of vineyards. It is 255 km east of Adelaide and 20 km south of Berri.
Loxton is often called the garden city and much of the parkland of this town is the result of volunteer work by the community. The winery and the distillery are operated as a co-operative, crushing more than 20,000 tonnes of grapes annually and even the local hotel is community-owned. The town has tree-shaded streets, craft shops and art galleries.
Much of the district's early history is captured in the Loxton Historical Village, a recreation of an early 1900s farming town, built on the riverfront.
From Berri, the Murray River makes a large loop south of the Sturt Highway. Loxton is the bottom of this loop and the Katarapko Game Reserve occupies much of the area within the loop. There are two-hour river cruises on the MV \IRiver Rambler\i and Penfolds Winery, which is nearby, is open daily.
\BDescription:\b Murray River flood marks \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Mannum",36,"a\9\a30058.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,069\i
Mannum is a picturesque town overlooking the Murray River 84 km east of Adelaide. The Aboriginal name for the area was Manyum or Manumph. The explorer Captain \JCharles Sturt\j passed the town site on his 1830 voyage down the Murray River in a whaleboat. The paddle steamer \IMary Ann,\i under Captain William Randell, was built in Mannum and sailed to Goolwa in 1853.
Port Mannum was established in 1864 at the end of the road from Adelaide and soon became an important river port. Wheat from the eastern Mt. Lofty Ranges was transported upstream to NSW and Victoria. David Shearer set up a farm machinery works in Mannum in the 1880s and designed and built Australia's first steam car in 1898.
Nearby, the Halldon Road Bird Sanctuary has pelicans, ducks, swans and other water birds. The Cascade Waterfalls are 11 km from Mannum on Reedy Creek.
\BDescription:\b Murray River at Mannum \I(Random House)\i
#
"Millicent",37,"a\9\a2_0039.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 7,247\i
Millicent is a prosperous town in a pastoral area, 50 km from Mount Gambier and 404 km south-east of Adelaide. The area started as a swamp, but a massive drainage program begun in 1865 turned the swamp into wheat country. George Glen settled in this district in 1851 and three years later married Millicent Sophia Short, daughter of the first Anglican bishop of Adelaide. Mrs Glen gave her name to the town.
There is an excellent National Trust museum which has the reputation of being one of the best regional museums in Australia. The exhibits trace the development of farm implements and machines from the 1840s. There is also a historical and maritime museum.
\BDescription:\b Shell Gardens at Millicent \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Moonta",38,"a\9\a30057.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,723\i
Moonta is a dignified town of solid stone buildings on the Yorke Peninsula 167 km north-west of Adelaide. With Kadina and Wallaroo, the three towns form what is known locally as the Copper Triangle, or little Cornwall. The name Moonta comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean 'impenetrable scrub'. Copper was discovered in 1861 and the town was surveyed the following year and named the year after that. The Cornwall and Royal hotels and the post and telegraph office all date from the 1860s. An 1860 miner's cottage is listed by the National Trust. The Mines School, also listed by the National Trust, opened in 1891 in a former Baptist church built in 1866. The school once had more than 1,000 students; the building now houses the largest country museum in the State.
The mines at Moonta were abandoned in 1923 following a slump in copper prices and rising labour costs. The Poona mine has since been reopened. Ruins of Richman's and Taylor's mine and Hughes Engine Pumping House still remain. In the town more than 30 buildings are listed by the National trust. Moonta today is a popular seaside resort and the restored buildings of its past are now used to house restaurants and craft shops.
\BDescription:\b Old miners' cottages at Moonta \I(Random House)\i
#
"Mount Gambier",39,"a\9\8_0022.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 22,037\i
Mount Gambier is the commercial centre of the South East. Built on the slopes of an ancient volcano, it is alternatively known as \IBlue Lake City.\i
Mount Gambier's major industries are timber, dairy products, especially cheese, vegetables and wool. Mount Gambier is known for its crayfish and Coonawarra wines. Of volcanic origin, it is encircled by man-made pine forests.
\BDescription:\b Cave Gardens, Mount Gambier \I(South Australian Tourism).\i
#
"Mount Gambier - Blue Lake",40,"a\9\8_0006.jpg","c","0"
The Blue Lake occupies one of the extinct craters after which the city was named. Every November, the waters change from a dull grey to a deep blue and remain so for several months.
The circumference of the lake is over three kilometres and the surrounding cliffs rise to seventy six metres, forming a limestone bowl. The lake is the city's source of water.
Many stories circulate about the reason for the changing colour of the lake. At the height of its intensity, the blue is maintained whether conditions are clear or overcast.
\BDescription:\b Blue Lake \I(South Australian Tourism).\i
#
"Murray Bridge",41,"a\9\a2_0047.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 15,893\i
Murray Bridge, settled in 1850, is South Australia's largest river town. It is 78 km east of Adelaide, to which it is linked by a freeway. It was initially known as Edward's Crossing after the first European settler who arrived there in 1850. The village was founded in 1866 with the name of Mobilong and the road bridge over the Murray River was opened in 1879. The town grew from the date the bridge was completed: although it was popularly known as Murray Bridge, it was still officially Mobilong until the municipality was proclaimed in 1924.
Murray Bridge was an integral part of the important Murray River transportation system. Today it looks over a broad section of the Murray, and offers excellent water sports facilities and a wide range of river cruises supported by very good accommodation. The town is named after what is thought to have been the first bridge to span the Murray River.
\BDescription:\b Punt at Murray Bridge \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Murray River (South Australia)",42,"a\9\8_0005.jpg","c","0"
The Murray River is part of the largest river systems in the world. In sheer volume, the citrus fruits, grapes and vegetables that are produced along the Murray is enormous.
Last century, paddlesteamers plied its full length, carrying wool, wheat and goods to and from the settlements along the Murray's banks, sometimes as far as the Darling junction. But gradually, the railway took away the business; and the river never quite made it as a highway of trade.
Then came irrigation. Introduced to the Riverland in 1887 by Canadian \JGeorge Chaffey\j, it transformed the northern section of the Murray into a lush paradise.
First Renmark appeared, followed by community-based settlements at Pyap, Lyrup, Berri, Barmera, Loxton and Waikerie. Soon the Riverland had become South Australia's Orchard. It remains so today.
The Murray River carries six main species of fish - catfish, silver perch, European perch or redfin, golden perch or scallop, European carp and Murray cod. Murray cod can grow up to two metres in length and are protected at all times of the year. Freshwater yabbies can be caught but freshwater crayfish are protected.
The Murray River National Park consists of Katarapko Creek, Lyrup Flats, Bulyong Island and Eckert Creek. The floodplain is considered important for the preservation of red gum and black box woodland habitat.
Katarapko Creek, a minor branch of the River Murray is across the river from Loxton. Many protected species nest and live on the island, including doves, sulphur-crested cockatoos, sacred kingfishers, striped honey-eaters, regent parrots, crimson rosellas, blue-faced honeyeaters, pied butcher-birds, pelicans, ibis and darters.
\BDescription:\b Mouth of Murray River \I(South Australian Tourism).\i
#
"Naracoorte",43,"a\9\a2_0046.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,674\i
Naracoorte was established privately in 1847 on the only land rising above the plain, 337 km south-east of Adelaide and 100 km north of Mount Gambier. When settlers first reached this area in the 1840s they called it Mosquito Plains. George Ormerod, who had settled in the district in 1842, established a private town known as Kincraig in 1847. The government town of Naracoorte was laid out north of Kincraig two years later. In 1865 the government decided to take over the vacant allotments in Kincraig, against the strenuous protests of the inhabitants, and build a police station, post office and courthouse. The railway came to Naracoorte in 1876 and the town became a municipality in 1924. The first regional art gallery in South Australia opened here in 1968. The name Naracoorte is said to come from an Aboriginal word narra-coorta meaning 'wide pool', 'large waterhole' or 'running water'.
Naracoorte is now the centre of a thriving primary production area that produces beef cattle, sheep and wheat. It is also famous for its limestone caves in the Naracoorte Caves Conservation Park, 11 km to the south-east. Fossil Cave has one of the richest fossil deposits in the world, including specimens of animals of the Ice Age.
\BDescription:\b Straun House, Naracoorte \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Nuriootpa",44,"a\9\a2_0045.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,321\i
The largest and busiest town in the \JBarossa Valley\j and its commercial centre, Nuriootpa is 74 km north-east of Adelaide at the northern end of the valley. Nuriootpa is possibly the most consistently mispronounced and misspelled town name in Australia, with variations constantly being used. The name Nuriootpa comes from an Aboriginal word meaning 'meeting place' or 'rock of the giant'. It was called Greenock Creek when in 1843 William Coulthard opened a hotel built of red gum slabs to serve bullock drivers en route from Adelaide to Kapunda and Burra. A town slowly grew around the hotel, although it was not surveyed for 11 years. In 1931 Kaiser Stuhl opened as the only co-operative winery in the \JBarossa Valley\j and a viticultural research station was established seven years later.
Now Nuriootpa is, of course, the scene of a number of famous wineries: Penfolds, Wolf Blass, Elderton, Old Stockwell. All have tastings, sales and winery tours. Situated on the banks of the Para River it has many parks and picnic spots.
\BDescription:\b Kaiser Stuhl Winery, Nuriootpa \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Oodnadatta",45,"a\9\8_0015.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 230\i
This tiny town is one of the few remaining outback towns that remains relatively untouched by progress. Its name stems from the Aboriginal \IUtnadata\i meaning 'blossom of the mulga'. The long cattle track that followed the trail of explorer \JJohn McDouall Stuart\j into Australia's dead heart bears its name.
Oodnadatta was an important railhead between 1891 and 1929, when the section of track to \JAlice Springs\j was completed. Until then, camel train was the main form of transport to the central Australian settlement.
The Oodnadatta track crosses the dingo fence. The world's longest protecting wire fence, it extends more than 3,000 kilometres across the centre of Australia to keep dingoes from crossing into the pastoral zones of the south.
Oodnadatta is the starting point for trips into the Simpson Desert. The road from the town to the Stuart Highway and Cadney Homestead passes through the Painted Desert, or the Arckaringa Hills.
\BDescription:\b Oodnadatta Train Station \I(South Australian Tourism).\i
#
"Peterborough",46,"a\9\a30053.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,878\i
An historic railway town at the edge of the Flinders Ranges, Peterborough is 253 km north of Adelaide and surrounded by grain-growing and pastoral country. Originally the town was named Petersburg after Peter Doecke, the first selector on the land on which the town was later established, but anti-German feeling during World War I resulted in the name being anglicised. Peterborough grew on its reputation as a railway junction. Eventually three different rail systems met here and Peterborough was almost unique in the world in having three railway gauges, narrow, standard and broad, depending whether the line was going to Port Augusta, \JBroken Hill\j or Adelaide.
\BDescription:\b Steamtrain between Orroroo and Peterborough \I(Random House)\i
#
"Port Augusta",47,"a\9\8_0008.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 14,244\i
The city of Port Augusta sits at the apex of the Spencer Gulf and is known as the crossroads of Australia. In the history of white settlement, the site was charted by \JMatthew Flinders\j in 1802 and was developed early on as a major port of export for the outback's wool, wheat and minerals, with regular shipping until 1973.
The town is now a major shopping, government, and commercial centre for the far north. Its main industries are the ETSA powerhouses and Australian National Railways.
\BDescription:\b Port Augusta, sight and arial lands \I(South Australian Tourism).\i
#
"Port Lincoln",48,"a\9\8_0002.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 12,182\i
Port Lincoln has a population of approximately 13,000 people. It has the largest commercial tuna fleet in Australia, and fishing is one of its major industries.
Boston Bay, Port Lincoln's harbour, was first discovered in February 1802 by \JMatthew Flinders\j, in his ship HMS \IInvestigator\i. The converted collier \IInvestigator\i dropped anchor in Boston Bay and Flinders named the spot Port Lincoln after his native Lincolnshire in England. Only several days earlier Flinders lost eight seamen near Memory Cove, whilst searching for water.
Port Lincoln was initially considered as the alternative site for the State's capital, but was subsequently rejected by Colonel \JWilliam Light\j in 1836 in favour of Adelaide. Lack of fresh water supplies was a major determining factor.
The first settlers arrived in March 1839 aboard the \IAbeona\i, the \IDorset\i and the \IPorter\i. There is a historic plaque at the First Landing site to commemorate that event.
Boston Bay is one of the largest unprotected natural harbours in the world, with an area that is five times greater than Sydney harbour.
\BDescription:\b Port Lincoln \I(South Australian Tourism).\i
#
"Port Noarlunga",49,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 5,290\i
Port Noarlunga is 6 km from Old Noarlunga and 32 km south of Adelaide on the coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula. There is good swimming in the quiet stretches of the nearby Onkaparinga River and Old Noarlunga has many historic buildings, including the Horsehoe Mill built in 1844 and the Jolly Miller Hotel built in 1850. The name of Noarlunga is said to come from an Aboriginal word meaning 'fishing place'. Port Noarlunga was a private town laid out in 1853 as a feeder port for Old Noarlunga and it was not gazetted until 1923.
Port Noarlunga is now effectively regarded as a suburb of Adelaide. There is excellent fishing in the area with bream, salmon, sand whiting, mullet, mulloway, tommy ruff, garfish and drummer.
#
"Port Pirie",50,"a\9\8_0014.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 13,960\i
Port Pirie has a population of approximately 15,000. This is the mid north region's largest centre. It has always played a crucial role in the state's economy. Broken Hill silver, lead, and zinc deposits have provided significant earnings for the city for generations, while grain from its hinterland has been shipped from the port for over a century.
\BDescription:\b Port Pirie \I(South Australian Tourism).\i
#
"Renmark",51,"a\9\a30055.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 7,835\i
Renmark, Australia's oldest irrigation settlement, was founded in 1887 by a joint agreement between the state government and the Chaffey brothers, formerly of Canada. Renmark also pioneered the establishment of Riverland community hotels, which are run by a board elected by the people. Profits are used for community improvements.
\BDescription:\b Renmark \I(Random House)\i
#
"Roxby Downs",52,"a\9\a2_0041.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,670\i
This is a new town, 580 km north-west of Adelaide, built to accommodate the employees of a mining project at Andamooka. Access to the town is by road off the Oodnadatta track. The town taps the Great Artesian Basin via a 110 km pipeline for its water supply. Drinking water is produced in a desalination plant. There is a missile park just down the road at Woomera. It is possible to tour the mining operation.
\BDescription:\b Roxby Downs \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Strathalbyn",53,"a\9\a2_0043.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,856\i
Strathalbyn is on the Angas River 57 km south-east of Adelaide, and, as the name suggests, it has a strong Scottish background. The name comes from the Gaelic word strath meaning 'wide valley' and the second part is a derivation of the word 'Albion'. Dr John Rankine led Scottish settlers to this district in 1839. The Glenbarr homestead was built for Rankine in 1842 and St. Andrew's church was established two years later. Copper was mined and smelted from 1848 until 1914.
The police station, built in 1858, and the courthouse, built in 1865, are now part of a National Trust museum. Argus House was built in 1867 and 1868 as the offices for \ISouthern Argus,\i the first country newspaper in South Australia. The tramway to Goolwa and Victor Harbor opened in 1869 and the railway from Adelaide in 1884. The town centre is a conservation area and Strathalbyn has been classified a heritage town. Just a few kilometres north-west of Strathalbyn is Anthonys Hill Historic Reserve, which covers about 150 ha. It is the site of a small sandstone rock shelter where human figures are painted in red ochre on the walls and ceiling. They are unusual examples of cave decoration so far south; they are painted mainly in profile.
\BDescription:\b Countryside at Strathalbyn \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Streaky Bay",54,"a\9\8_0004.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,925\i
Streaky Bay is a small coastal community, with wheat, barley, wool and lamb farming being the main activity on the land. Also cattle, pigs and poultry contribute to a lesser extent to the general economy of the area.
Before the establishment of the agricultural and fishing industries in Streaky Bay, the locality had already had a long and colourful past. The first recorded sighting was made by Dutch explorer Peter Nuyts, who reached this point in 1627 in the \IGulden Zeepard.\i
However it was left to \JMatthew Flinders\j in 1802 to really explore the southern coast. He named Streaky Bay after the bands of colour in the water made by the seaweed.
The next notable event in the area was in 1839, when Edward \JJohn Eyre,\j the eminent explorer, established a base about 3 km from Streaky Bay which he used as a depot for his overland explorations to Point Bell and in 1840 to Albany. The site of this depot became known as Eyre's Waterhole, and can still be seen today.
Granite mining is now a significant industry here. The other major industry is fishing, and Streaky Bay owes much of its prosperity to the sea. The most valuable catches in this area are the famous King George whiting, Southern rock lobster, abalone and shark.
Many other species of fish abound in Streaky Bay waters, including salmon, snapper, garfish, snook, tommy ruffs, flounder, trevally, squid, blue, sand and mud crabs, razorfish, scallops and other varieties of whiting. Oyster farms are also being developed.
Wheat growing began in the 1880s and by 1906, 31,000 bags of wheat and 470 bales of wool were exported from Streaky Bay by sea. By this time a telegraph office had been established and regular mail deliveries were made from Port Lincoln. Streaky Bay was now really established as a functional trade centre.
\BDescription:\b Streaky Bay \I(South Australian Tourism).\i
#
"Tanunda",55,"a\9\a2_0044.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,235\i
Tanunda, 70 km north-east of Adelaide, is one of the oldest towns in the \JBarossa Valley\j and is the heartland of German culture in South Australia.
Tanunda is said to come from an Aboriginal word meaning 'many birds on a creek', 'water-hole' or 'abundance of wild fowl', although the town was originally known as Langmeil. The first vines in the area were planted in 1847 and the Tabor Lutheran church was built in 1849. The post office, now a museum, was built in 1866 and the Chateau Tanunda winery was founded as a company in 1889 and was later bought by the Seppelt family.
The old market square, Goat Square, is classified by the National Trust and is surrounded by century-old cottages. There are many wineries in the area including Hallets, Rockford, Krondorf, Hardy's Seigersdorf and Orlando, and cellar door sales and tastings are available at many of them and tours at some. For children, there are Storybook Cottage and Whacky Wood.
\BDescription:\b Chateau Tanunda Winery \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Venus Bay",56,"a\9\a30060.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,500\i
Venus Bay is a popular seaside resort just off the Flinders Highway, close to Port Lincoln on the western side of Eyre Peninsula and 621 km west of Adelaide. The harbour is almost totally landlocked, with a small entrance. The harbour was sighted by the explorer \JMatthew Flinders\j in 1802, but the small but navigable entrance was not discovered until 1848 when the schooner \IVenus\i became the first European vessel to sail through it. Pastoral leases in the area were taken up in that late 1850s and the town, then called Parkin, was surveyed in 1864. In 1940 the name was changed to that of the bay.
The township is on a sandy beach and behind it rises Eyre Peninsula, protecting it from the force of the Southern Ocean. A small prawning fleet works from the harbour. The Calpatarina Conservation Park is 20 km north-west. Venus Bay Conservation Park includes Cape Weyland and the islands in the bay.
\BDescription:\b Sea lions at Venus Bay \I(Random House)\i
#
"Victor Harbor",57,"a\9\8_0025.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 8,656\i
The population of Victor Harbor is approximately 5,300. This is South Australia's largest town and is also the premier holiday resort for the south coast.
This town was once put forward by \JGovernor Hindmarsh\j to be the capital of South Australia, but Colonel Light, who planned the city of Adelaide, rejected this idea altogether.
When Victor Harbor was originally settled in 1837, it was to situate the whaling industry. It was also used as a major port of export for the Murray River trade for a short time, until tourism became one of the major industries of the town.
\BDescription:\b Victor Harbor \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Wallaroo",58,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 2,289\i
Wallaroo is the main shipping port on Yorke Peninsula, 150 km north-west of Adelaide. The name is said to be a corruption of the Aboriginal phrase wadla waru. The town itself had a sizable Welsh population, a number of whom came from the copper-smelting town of Swansea in South Wales. Welsh masons were responsible for the huge square stack of Hughes chimney at the smelter. Many of the buildings of the boom period of the 1860s are listed by the National Trust. The mines were closed when the copper started to run out in 1923 and Wallaroo became a grain-exporting port.
The Welsh-built 'big stack', built in 1861 and one of the great chimneys of the copper smelters, is still standing. Wallaroo has become the main port for the export of wheat and barley and the import of phosphate rock for making superphosphate fertiliser.
In the old post office, built in 1865, there is a maritime museum, open on Wednesdays, weekends and school holidays, which explains the history of the port by means of charts, old photographs and model of ships. The old railway station is now a restaurant.
#
"Woomera",59,0,g,0
\IPopulation: 1,809\i
Woomera is approximately 180 km north-west of Port Augusta. It was named from an Aboriginal word meaning 'spear-throwing stick'.
The nearby Woomera Rocket Range was jointly built by the British and Australian governments under the UK/Australia Joint Project which ran from 1947 to 1980. The rocket range is 35 km north-west of Woomera and was set up to test rockets and missiles. The European Launcher Development Organisation used this site in the 1960s and 1970s for rocket trials and NASA used it for space-tracking. The RAAF currently uses the rocket range for testing aircraft and weapons.
Woomera has only been open to tourists since 1982 and the town is run by the Department of Defence. The town's population has changed drastically since the 1960s when it had over 6,000 people.
#
"Whyalla",60,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 23,644\i
Whyalla is South Australia's largest provincial city and is situated on the coast of the Upper Spencer Gulf. It is also the northern gateway to Eyre Peninsula.
\JMatthew Flinders\j originally named the most eastern point of this city Hummock Hill in 1802. It developed as a community from 1901 and Whyalla was renamed in 1914, after the population grew to become South Australia's second largest city.
The BHP Company had a major influence on the town's development. When iron ore was discovered in the Iron Knob area in the late 1890s, a tramway was built from the mine to Hummock Hill. Ore was transported to barges for shipment across the gulf to the smelters at Port Pirie where it was used as flux.
Whyalla's first big leap forward did not occur until 1939 when a blast furnace producing pig iron for the foundry market was established. A shipyard and deep water harbour were also built - the shipyard closing in 1978 with a fine reputation of quality ship building.
The second boom period, and by far the biggest, began in 1958 when BHP announced a fully integrated steelworks would be established. It opened in 1964.
BHP was the city's main employer but in recent years there has been a diversification of industry including clothing manufacture, salt processing, and the establishment of the SANTOS complex and shipping terminal at Port Bonython and locomotive rebuilding.
#
!,!,!,!,!
5#
54,0
"Western Australia - Fact File",1,"a\9\1-0019.jpg","c","0"
\BMap:\b Click here for \JMap of Western Australia.\j
\BCapital:\b \JPerth\j
\BPremier:\b \JCourt, Richard Fairfax\j (LP)
\BSize:\b 2,525,500 square km
\BLength of Coastline:\b 12,500 km
\BPopulation:\b 1,679,000. Click here for Australian \JPopulation\j details.
\BFloral Emblem:\b Mangle's \JKangaroo Paw\j
\BFaunal Emblems:\b \JNumbat\j and \JBlack Swan\j
\BHighest Pt:\b Mt. Meharry 1,245 metres
\BFlag:\b Click here for \JWestern Australian Flag\j
\BAverage Annual Rainfall - Perth:\b 868 mm
\BAverage Temperatures - Perth:\b January maximum, 29.7 degrees C; July maximum, 17.4 degrees C. Click here for \JClimate of Australia\j details.
\BAbout the State:\b Click here for the story of \JWestern Australia\j
\BDescription:\b Western Australian Flag \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Western Australia",2,"a\9\wa.jpg","c","0"
Western Australia occupies one-third of the Australian continent, or nearly four times the area of the US State of Texas, with a 12,500 kilometre coastline.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Gum Tree Graphics.\i
#
"Perth",3,"a\9\mel8.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,295,132\i
Perth today is a city known as the hive of millionaires, a place of energetic growth and vigorous youth. The capital of Western Australia, situated on the Swan River, was so-named when Dutch navigators of the 17th century first saw black swans, previously believed to be mythical birds.
\BDescription:\b Perth - Kings Park \I(Webster Publishing).\i
#
"Perth - (2)",4,"a\9\4_0022.jpg","c","0"
The city of Perth nestles by a kilometre-wide expanse of the Swan River, which spreads out like a lake or harbour, edged by expensive suburbs and white sand beaches.
Perth is the sunniest of all Australian cities, averaging eight hours of sunshine a day, with the average summer temperature of 29 degrees Celsius and a mild 18 degrees Celsius in winter. The metropolitan area has 19 beaches which stretch along the coast from South Fremantle to Mullaloo in the north.
Close to the city is King's Park, 400 hectares of bush, gazetted by early governors as a park for the people, most of it is still in its natural state of wilderness, remaining a cool and peaceful escape for city workers. Many a civic battle has been fought to keep it that way.
\BDescription:\b Fremantle, part of Perth's metropolitan area \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Perth History",5,"a\9\wahist.jpg","c","0"
Captain \JJames Stirling\j, who established Western Australia on the banks of the Swan River where Perth now stands, reported in his original survey that the climate, soil and water supply were excellent for a colony. He was wrong, but the band of settlers, workers, officials and soldiers he led there in 1829 did not realise it.
They dreamed of establishing a colony free of convicts, close to the gold and spices of the East, which would soon be wealthy in trade and agriculture. Those dreams were shattered by their failure to understand the country and they spent the first 20 years in a bitter battle to survive.
Even the arrival of convicts in the 1840s did little to make Perth more than a struggling colonial outpost. By 1861, the population of all Western Australia was only 15,000.
The wealth, when it did come, came from inland and underground. Gold was discovered at Murchison in the 1890s. It and vast quantities of iron ore contribute most to the wealth of Perth and Western Australia today.
\BDescription\b: A country town in Western Australia at the turn of the century \I(Battye Library, WA).\i
#
"Albany",6,"a\9\mel9.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 15,282\i
Albany was the state's main port during the whole of the last century, until the brilliant engineer C.Y. O'Conner created Fremantle Harbour, enabling big ships to enter the mouth of the Swan. Although Albany's importance waned, much produce is still exported from the port.
\BDescription:\b Two People's Bay, Albany \I(Webster Publishing.)\i
#
"Australind",7,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 4,407\i
This town, the site of an experiment that failed, lies just north of Bunbury, of which it is now dormitory suburb. The name comes from a combination of 'Australia' and 'India' because it was intended that the region would trade with India, notably by breeding and selling horses to the Indian Army.
The town was originally known as Port Leschenault, but 40,470 ha were bought by the Western Australian Company of London in 1840 with the intention of establishing a settlement according to the land-purchasing and land-use principles of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a British economic theorist. Nearly 500 settlers arrived in 1841 and the town was renamed Australind. Sadly, the soil was too sandy for serious agriculture and the scheme failed only two years later.
Because settlers had no place to pray at Australind they gathered on Sundays at a workman's cottage. In 1915 the Church of England bought the building and it was blessed by Bishop Goldsmith. Now known as St. Nicholas' Church and measuring 7 m by 4.6 m, it is the smallest church in Australia that is still in use. Henton Cottage, now a gemstone and rock museum, was built in 1843.
#
"Bridgetown",8,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 3,713\i
This is a picturesque town on the Blackwood River and the South Western Highway about 277 km from Perth and 46 km east of Nannup. Bridgetown is the commercial centre for the region and was first settled in 1857. The two first families were called Hester and Blechynden, and in 1862 John Alnutt began growing fruit in the district, thus starting what is now a successful industry.
The home of John Blechynden can be seen on the banks of the Blackwood River; it was built in 1862 from the local timber and clay. A later discovery of tin at Greenbushes about 15 km north added to the prosperity of the area. The Gregory Tree north-east of Boyup Brook bears the survey marks of the explorer A.C. Gregory when he traversed the area in 1840.
Bridgetown was originally known as Geegelup, but the surveyor-general preferred the name Bridgetown because it was near a bridge. On the other hand, it has been claimed that the name comes from the first ship to land cargo at Bunbury.
#
"Broome",9,"a\9\mel11.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 9,768\i
The pearling town of Broome provides the gateway to the rugged Kimberleys. Broome recalls romantic days of pearling fleets, a once-busy Chinatown, and Japanese divers whose remains are buried in a Japanese cemetery with natural stone graves.
Little pearling is done by luggers these days, the market for pearl shells having been destroyed by plastic manufacture. But cultured pearls are a vital industry at Kuri Bay further north.
\BDescription:\b \I(Webster Publishing.)\i
#
"Bunbury",10,"a\9\a2_0019.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 27,680\i
Bunbury is the commercial and port centre for the south-west of Western Australia. It faces the Indian Ocean between Perth and Albany and is on the junction of the Collie and Preston Rivers on Leschenault estuary 180 km south of Perth. The town was originally named Port Leschenault by Louis de Freycinet, who explored the area in the ship \IGeographe\i in 1803. Dr Alexander Collie and Lieutenant W. Preston reported on the area in 1829 and land was developed for crops sold to American whalers who sheltered in Koombana Bay.
The town was laid out in 1836, named after Lieutenant H.W. St. Pierre Bunbury who had explored the district. St. Mark's Anglican Church at the nearby hamlet of Picton was built in 1842, and is the oldest church in WA.
This is a major centre of the woodchip industry, which has destroyed much forest.
\BDescription:\b Bunbury Lighthouse \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Busselton",11,"a\9\a2_0018.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 13,528\i
Busselton is a pleasant seaside town on the shores of Geographe Bay, 238 km south of Perth. It is the centre of a rich agricultural and timber-getting district which is one of the oldest established in Western Australia.
The explorer Nicholas Baudin visited the coast near Busselton in 1801. Vasse, one of his crew members, lost his life in the surf and the River Vasse which enters the sea nearby was named for him. In 1832 the Bussell family, headed by John Garrett Bussell, moved from Augusta on Flinders Bay to the south-east and established a run called Cattle Chosen. A village grew up round the Bussell homestead - it still stands - and the town was proclaimed in 1837.
St. Mary's Church was built in 1844 and is the oldest stone church in Western Australia. The first timber mill in Western Australia was established at Quindalup to the south-west in 1854. The Busselton jetty, which was 2 km long, was once the longest timber jetty in Australia. Work on it began in 1865 but it was not completed until 1961. It was partially destroyed by a cyclone in 1978.
Busselton is one of the most popular holiday resorts in Western Australia. Its summer climate is pleasantly mild and it lies near good ocean beaches, with excellent fishing and crabbing in season. The Yallingup Caves are 38 km south-west.
\BDescription:\b Wonnerup House built in 1834, near Busselton \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Carnarvon",12,"a\9\a2_0016.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,388\i
Carnarvon faces Bernier Island and the Indian Ocean and is 481 km north of Geraldton and about 900 km north of Perth. The town is named after Lord Carnarvon who was Secretary of State for the colonies from 1866 to 1874. There were European settlers in the district in 1876 and the town was proclaimed in 1886 as a service centre for the pastoral industry in the local Gascoyne district.
This is a high-tech area; the satellite tracking station of the Overseas Telecommunications Commission, the base of Radio Australia and a space vehicle tracking station operated by NASA (from 1964-1974) are all in the Brown Range 12 km behind the town. Nowadays Carnarvon's prosperity is partly due to the prawning industry and to the success of the irrigated fruit and vegetable farms near the mouth of the Gascoyne River.
The Dutch navigator \JDirk Hartog\j was probably the first to examine the coast in 1686. He landed on the island in Shark Bay south of Carnarvon that now bears his name. The English explorer \JWilliam Dampier\j followed in 1699 and reported that the country seemed barren and useless (thus setting a tradition as the first whingeing Pom).
\BDescription:\b OTC satellite dish at Carnarvon \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Carnarvon - (2)",13,"a\10\a2_0017.jpg","c","0"
In 1830 the explorer George Grey discovered and named the Gascoyne River for his friend Lieutenant J. Gascoyne of the Royal Navy. No settlers came until the 1870s when Aubrey Brown, J.H. Monger and C.S. Brockman moved sheep into the Gascoyne area and established stations. The township of Carnarvon was surveyed in 1883.
In 1950 a whaling station was established and continued operations until 1962, by which time the disappearance of the whales had made it uneconomic. It was replaced by the prawning industry.
Carnarvon has a 'One-Mile Jetty' - almost 1,500 m long - with a toy train running its length and a rather bumpy ride. Pelican Point, 5 km south-west, is a popular swimming and picnic spot.
\BDescription:\b OTC satellite dish at Carnarvon \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Collie",14,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 9,026\i
Collie is a coal-mining town 47 km east of Bunbury, 210 km south of Perth and on the Collie River. The mines here are Western Australia's only source of coal, with most of it being used in Bunbury and at the nearby Muja Power Station.
As a general rule, mining towns are unattractive with their slag heaps and pollution, but Collie is an exception. It is set in the midst of forest country and cleared farmlands that produce wool, beef, butter, oats and fruit. The town also has many well-designed public and commercial buildings.
The town is named after Dr Alexander Collie who was surgeon on the \ISulphur\i and later Perth's surgeon. He visited the Collie River in 1829. There was an influx of Welsh migrant miners in 1897 and the town was named Collie in that year. West Collie and Collie Cardiff began as separate mining villages but were incorporated as one.
#
"Coolgardie",15,"a\10\1_0048.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 5,659\i
Gold was discovered at \JCoolgardie\j in 1892, and by 1896 it had grown to be the third largest town in the State, with a population of 15,000 and 10,000 living in surrounding centres.
\JCoolgardie\j today has only relics of its former glory in the impressive public buildings that line the wide streets. These are today maintained as museums to tell of the first mineral boom that brought prosperity and people to the state.
Most goldmining sites are now ghost towns with no inhabitants, or only a few old prospectors fossicking for specks of the elusive metal. The exception is \JKalgoorlie\j, 38 km from \JCoolgardie\j, which is still a busy thriving city.
\BDescription:\b A gold nugget \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Dampier",16,"a\10\a2_0015.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,810\i
Situated on King Bay 60 km west of Roebourne, Dampier was the first of the large iron ore ports for the Pilbara. It serves the Paraburdoo and Mt. Tom Price mines. The town site is open to visitors, but permits are needed from Hamersley Iron to inspect the works and port facilities. A popular centre for sailing, boating and fishing, Dampier attracts tourists as well as locals.
The town was built in 1965 by Hamersley Iron as an iron ore port. The first iron ore shipments to Japan began in 1966. In 1975 Cyclone Trixie hit the port and repairs cost $2 million.
Dampier faces the islands of the Dampier Archipelago. These were named after English buccaneer \JWilliam Dampier\j who was, in 1699, probably the first European to sight the region. He landed west of the mouth of the Fitzroy River at an area he named Cygnet Bay after his ship. He made two visits and reported the area as 'desolate'.
\BDescription:\b Loading iron ore at the jetty at Dampier \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Denham",17,"a\10\monkey1.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 943\i
Opposite Carnarvon and 481 km north of Geraldton and 833 km from Perth lies Shark Bay, named by \JWilliam Dampier\j in 1699 after he caught a 3.4 m shark there. Shark Bay is the site of the first known European landings on the Australian mainland by \JDirk Hartog\j in 1616. The first pearling base on the West Australian coast was established here in 1850, but eventually the pearlers moved on to Broome.
Shark Bay is a series of islands and semi-enclosed gulfs divided by Peron Peninsula. With 1,500 km of coastline and covering 30,000 sq km, it is half land and half sea. It has been included in the World Heritage list.
Denham is the nearest town to Shark Bay, on the west side of the Peron Peninsula. It is the westernmost town in Australia. It is also the town for access to the miracle of Monkey Mia.
Monkey Mia is an odd name - nobody knows the origin - for a remarkable place. The place is a magnet for visitors because of the dolphins that swim in the shallows and seem quite attached to human beings.
\BDescription:\b Monkey Mia near Denham \I(Mel Smith)\i
#
"Denmark",18,"a\10\a2_0014.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,899\i
Denmark is named not after the country, but after a surgeon colleague of the explorer Thomas Wilson who gave the town its name in 1839. The town is 414 km south-east of Perth, 66 km east of Walpole and 56 km east of Nornalup. It lies at the foot of Mt. Shadforth beside the Denmark River and close to Wilsons Inlet which stretches 27 km inland.
The area was first spotted by Europeans in 1627 when the Dutch ship \IGulden Zeepaard,\i en route to Indonesia, ran too far south and travelled along 1,700 km of Australia's coastline. That was an accident, but the discovery was carefully recorded on Dutch maps of the day.
In 1829 the colony's surgeon-superintendent, Dr Thomas Wilson, explored the area with an Aboriginal guide named Mokara, two convicts, a soldier and another man from Albany. He named what is now the Denmark River after a fellow naval surgeon.
This is now very much a tourist area, but in the 1930s the farmers in the area had a hard time of it.
Denmark is in an area of rugged coastal scenery but it also has quiet sheltered beaches with hills, forest and farmland all within easy reach.
\BDescription:\b Bridge at Denmark \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Derby",19,"a\10\30_0099.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,515\i
Derby is famous for its Prison Boab Tree, in whose bulbous trunk natives were held. The longest cattle trough in the southern hemisphere was seen at Myall's Bore; and Derby also has an Aboriginal settlement with its own store, where paintings and carvings are sold.
\BDescription:\b Boab tree \I(Peter Jarver).\i
#
"Esperance",20,"a\10\4_0013.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 12,316\i
Esperance was the starting point in the 1890s for the thousands of men who arrived by ship from the eastern states to make their way to the rich gold discoveries at \JCoolgardie\j, \JKalgoorlie\j, Norseman and elsewhere in the north and north-east.
Large wheat, sheep and cattle properties now extend east of Esperance, beyond which are extensive national parks preserving the area's fragile flora and fauna.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Exmouth",21,"a\10\turq.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,058\i
Exmouth is just above the Tropic of Capricorn at the far end of the Cape Range National Park and on the north-west side of the Exmouth Gulf. Captain Phillip Parker King named it after Viscount Exmouth, an admiral in the Royal Navy, when he surveyed the gulf in 1818 in the \IMermaid.\i
Exmouth became an Allied submarine base during World War II, and there was a Japanese air raid here in 1943. The town was revived by a search for oil which began in 1951. Some oil was found at Rough Range in 1953, though not in commercial quantities. However, it initiated widespread interest in petroleum exploration and the oil search in the region intensified through the late 1950s.
Then, in 1967, it was reconstructed as a model town by the Commonwealth and Western Australian governments. It was designed to act as a service centre for the United States Navy's radio communications base at North West Cape. This did not happen without controversy.
\BDescription:\b Turquoise Bay, Exmouth \I(Mel Smith)\i
#
"Exmouth - (2)",22,"a\10\birdhide.jpg","c","0"
The fishing in Exmouth Gulf and on the open coast is probably the best in Australia. Exmouth also has fabulous beaches. Nearby is Cape Range National Park and Ningaloo Marine Park and the whole of the interior is covered with rough tracks used for oil exploration which are suitable for rugged four-wheel drive vehicle travel.
This town has grown from being little more than a crossing because of several factors: increased Aboriginal settlement, increased mining by BHP at Cadjebut and an increase in tourism attracted by the local National Park at Geikie Gorge. The town is on the Fitzroy River in the Kimberleys 301 km west of Halls Creek, 2,538 km north-east of Perth, 400 km east of Broome and 270 km inland from Derby.
The town was named for the road crossing of the Fitzroy River which had been named by Captain Stokes after Captain Robert Fitzroy in 1838. The area was originally explored by Alexander Forrest in 1879 and three years later Gogo station was founded by the Emanuel brothers. Relationships with the local Aboriginal people have always been uneasy, and marked with violence. The telegraph office was attacked and burned by Aborigines in 1894. The following year there was a pitched battle between Aboriginals and a police patrol in Geikie Gorge.
The Western Australian government later took over 36,400 ha nearby to form the Fitzroy Pastoral Research Station. In 1967 the Geikie Gorge National Park was established. The name was given in 1883 when Edward Hardman, the first geologist to examine the Kimberley district, appropriately named the gorge after the famous British geologist Sir Archibald Geikie, although for a time it was known as Devils Pass.
This is one of the most colourful and spectacular of accessible river gorges in northern Australia, second perhaps only to the Katherine River Gorge in the Northern Territory. The park is small, 8 km by 3 km. During the Wet the river rises nearly 17 m, and the campsite by the river can then be 7 m below water. In the Dry, the river becomes a series of waterholes. The ranges through which the gorge cuts a path are a fossilised coral reef 350 million years old.
The area around the gorge has an abundance of wildlife, good bushwalking, rock climbing and fishing. There are a number of big permanent waterholes in the area, several in the national park itself, that sustain a great variety of fish and wildlife. Large sharks and sawfish that have adapted themselves to live in fresh water are often caught in the reaches, and freshwater crocodiles, which are protected by law, are common. It is reassuring to know that the Johnston crocodile is a fish eater that has never been known to attack human beings or land animals.
#
"Fremantle",24,"a\9\4_0022.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 24,834\i
Fremantle became really famous as Australia's headquarters for the defence of the America's Cup. Up until that time it had been a port with Victorian style and a quiet backwater atmosphere. The Cup challenge brought a complete renovation of the city and almost all of the buildings were brought back into pleasing style and harmony. To this day it attracts sailors from all over the world, and although the port may not be a major shipping centre, there is a busy sailing and fishing harbour surrounded by restaurants and cafes. Fremantle is still a major fishing port and is considered Australia's most valuable fishery.
The town was named by Captain \JJames Stirling\j after Captain Fremantle of the \IChallenger,\i one of the three ships that brought the first European settlers to Western Australia in 1829. This was the earliest of Western Australian towns, for the town site was proclaimed and surveys made in 1829. By 1832 it was already a town of well-ordered streets, and it became the port for the colony in Western Australia. Fremantle was proclaimed a city in 1929.
The road to Perth was built in the 1830s and St. John's Anglican Church opened in 1843. There was a convict depot established in 1850 and work started on the present gaol in the following year. The first bridge over the Swan River was opened in 1866. The port and town boomed with the gold-rush trade of 1890-1914.
\BDescription:\b Fremantle \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Fremantle - (2)",25,"a\10\4_0028.jpg","c","0"
Fremantle is 19 km from Perth and could be considered a suburb, though it has a noticeably different style and pace of life. The city has many old buildings, though often they are only facades. The Port was designed and built by C.Y. O'Connor, who is buried in the local cemetery. The Maritime Museum was built in the 1860s and is Gothic Revival architecture at its best. Not far from the museum is the Sails of the Century boat museum.
The Round House was built in 1830 and is said to be the oldest building in Western Australia. Fremantle Market is an impressive building which now caters to visitors. Port Leighton and South beaches are good for swimming and there are ferries daily to Rottnest Island.
\BDescription:\b Fremantle \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Geraldton",26,"a\10\4_0025.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 20,221\i
The port of Geraldton is the target for holidaymakers in winter, where you can visit the legendary Abrolhos Islands; named by the Dutch navigator Houtman and scene of many wrecks during the 17th and 18th centuries. Spanish coins, pottery and other artefacts have been recovered by divers and are housed in Geraldton, Perth, and Fremantle museums.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Harvey",27,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 15,578\i
Situated in the midst of agricultural land 150 km south of Perth, Harvey is on the edge of a coastal plain. It stands right against the Darling Ranges and is only about 30 km from coastal beaches. One of the first European visitors was surveyor John Roe, who visited the district on an expedition to the Russell Ranges and Esperance Bay in 1848. The town was settled in the 1890s.
The surrounding area today is well irrigated and prosperous. A Big Orange Tourist Park has wildlife, a fruit market and train rides. The beaches at nearby Binningup and Myalup are excellent for swimming, boating and fishing. Nearby are Yalgorup National Park and Logue Brook Dam.
#
"Kalgoorlie",28,"a\10\a2_0012.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 29,588\i
This city, with its associated town of Boulder, is the capital of Western Australia's gold mining, and in pre-metric days it was referred to as the richest square mile in the world. It is also an important pastoral district. The town is 569 km east of Perth. Kalgoorlie is one of those unique places in Western Australia that has a history and yet is not a ghost town. The name comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean 'silky pear'.
Originally the town was known as Hannans after \JPaddy Hannan\j, the first discoverer of gold, who struck it rich in 1893. After that the goldfield's prosperity came and went in cycles. The easily won alluvial gold was worked out by 1894 and the bigger companies moved in.
There were disputes in 1897 over the distinction between alluvial and other mining claims. Alluvial mines were restricted to 3 m in depth, and an effigy of the minister for mines, E.H. Wittenoom, was hanged and burned. Gold production peaked in 1903 but the mines started up again in 1931 when gold increased in price. There was another decline from 1942 and another upswing in the 1950s followed by a decline again from 1963 and closure of many mines on the eastern goldfields.
\BDescription:\b Old gold mine at Kalgoorlie \I(Random House - photo by Gary Lewis)\i
#
"Kalgoorlie - (2)",29,"a\10\4_0026.jpg","c","0"
Gold was replaced by a nickel boom in the area in the 1970s and two years later \JKalgoorlie\j had the only commercial nickel smelter in Australia and the second of its kind in the world.
The town was surveyed and proclaimed in 1895 and the first local newspaper, the \IWestern Argus,\i was established in that year. Many buildings from 1895 to 1905 survive. At the turn of the century when more than 8,000 people were riding bicycles in the district, the machine was known as 'the ship of the desert'.
There are several museums and the Hainault tourist mine is well worth a visit. The surrounding countryside, stripped of its vegetation by the early miners, is forbiddingly ugly. The summer climate is extremely hot.
Among the town's attractions are the School of Mines and Museum, \JPaddy Hannan\j's Tree which marks the spot where Hannan found gold, \JPaddy Hannan\j's Statue and the Golden Mile Museum and collection of local gemstones.
\BDescription:\b \JKalgoorlie\j \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Karratha",30,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 11,325\i
Karratha was developed on Nickel Bay - on some maps spelt Nickol - as a regional centre for Hamersley Iron and a dormitory town for Dampier, 20 km away. The name comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean either 'good country' or 'soft earth' and was originally used as the name of a homestead on a lease granted in 1866, one of the first granted in the north-west. The town faces out to the Dampier Archipelago, a tangle of inshore islands in the Indian Ocean - Legendre, Dolphin, Rosemary and Enderby islands, and Cape Bruguieres.
Karratha station was bought by Hamersley Iron as a farm in 1966 and was used to breed Santa Gertrudis cattle. The town was established by the company and the Western Australia government in 1969. It became the centre for iron ore personnel, government employees and those working on the north-west shelf natural gas project. It has what is arguably the best shopping centre in the north-west.
#
"Katanning",31,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 4,685\i
This is a busy agricultural town in the south-west of the State. Katanning is 186 km north of Albany and on the Great Southern Highway 56 km south of Wagin. It is a service town for the surrounding pastoral district. The area is noted for the quality of its merino wool, and the Great Southern Sheep-breeders' Association holds its annual stud sales here.
The first Europeans to visit the area were the governor \JJames Stirling\j and the surveyor-general, John Septimus Roe, who passed through here in 1835. The town was laid out in 1898, is well planned and has many attractive buildings. The name possibly comes from the Aboriginal word kartannin meaning 'big meeting place'. In the early 1970s a group of Malay Muslims came to the town, making it truly multicultural. Katanning had the first free lending library in the State. Its inland swimming pool was one of the first in Western Australia.
The Old Mill Museum is a fine example of Victorian industrial design. The Stirling Range National Park is about 80 km south.
#
"The Kimberley",32,a\10\dfat71.jpg,c,0
In the Kimberley you will find the modern town of Kununurra that was created to serve construction of the great Ord River Dam, which holds eight to nine times as much water as Sydney Harbour.
\BDescription:\b Ord River Irrigation Project \I(DFAT).\i
#
"The Kimberley - (2)",33,a\10\30_0100.jpg,c,0
On the highway linking East and West Kimberley is old Halls Creek where the first payable gold in Western Australia was discovered in 1855. A modern town has been built in a more suitable location a few miles away, but interesting ruins of the old township remain.
\BDescription:\b \I(Peter Jarver).\i
#
"Kununurra",34,"a\10\a3_0022.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 4,061\i
Kununurra is the major centre for the Argyle diamond mine, the biggest of its kind in the world. Kununurra is also the administrative and residential centre of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme. It is in the Carr Boyd Range on Lake Kununurra, north of Lake Argyle and close to the border between Western Australia and the Northern Territory. It is surrounded by some of the most spectacular scenery in Australia - large lakes, rugged mountains and abundant wildlife.
The name of the town comes from an Aboriginal word eununurra which is said to mean 'big water' and applies to the Ord River. In 1945 the Kimberley Research Station was established near the Ivanhoe homestead to investigate the area's agricultural potential. The report was favourable and this led in 1955 to the launch of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme.
The Ord River Dam created Lake Argyle, which holds eight to nine times the amount of water in Sydney Harbour and is one of the largest artificially created lakes in the southern hemisphere. Wildlife here is prolific.
The town is a centre for tourism in the area. It offers ground tours to the Bungle Bungles, the Mitchell Plateau and Kalumburu, and flights over these areas.
\BDescription:\b Outlet on Ord River Dam \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Mandurah",35,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 40,476\i
Mandurah is a popular holiday resort 60 km south of Fremantle. The name comes from an Aboriginal word mandjar apparently meaning variously 'trading place', 'watering place', or 'meeting place of tribes'. The main attraction of the resort is Peel Inlet where the waters of the Murray, Serpentine and Harvey Rivers all enter the sea. This is an enormous inland waterway with over 150 km of shoreline. Peel Inlet was named after Thomas Peel, a pioneer settler who arrived in 1830. It is a wonderland of birdlife and the fishing is excellent.
Mandurah was founded in 1895. The town was developed as a resort area in the 1970s but there have been major pollution problems in Peel Inlet, although these now appear to be under control.
Hall's Cottage in Mandurah was built in 1845 by two of the town's early settlers and is open to the public. Christ Church, built in 1870, is decorated with hand carvings. Lakes Clifton and Preston lie 20 km to the south and are long and narrow and run parallel to the coast. They are attractions for birdwatchers.
#
"Manjimup",36,"a\10\a30061.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 10,258\i
Manjimup is 128 km south-east of Bunbury and 309 km south of Perth. The name comes from two Aboriginal words manjin, meaning 'edible root of bulrush' and up, 'watering place'. The area was first settled by Europeans in 1856 as a camp for timbercutters who worked the then extensive karri forests in the district.
The first European settlers, Thomas Muir and his family, came to the area in 1856 and took up land 32 km east of the present site of Manjimup. Other early pioneers were George and Sarah Giblett and their eight children who followed in 1862. They built a home, a mill and a school.
The town was proclaimed in 1910 and the railway arrived in the following year. In the late 1950s there was a serious attack of the moth known as the jarrah leafminer and by 1974 large areas of the forest were damaged. In the middle of this it was decided, despite strong conservationist protests, to establish a woodchip industry.
Despite this, area surrounding Manjimup still has some splendid areas of forest with many sights and there is a regional timber park and a timber museum. At Manjimup there is the 74 m King Jarrah tree which is perhaps 1,200 years old.
About 23 km from Manjimup on the main road that continues to Davidson Road stand the Four Aces, four giant karri trees in a clearing. The tallest is about 80 m high and they are thought to be between 300 and 400 years old.
\BDescription:\b Jarrah trees at Manjimup \I(Random House)\i
#
"Marble Bar",37,"a\10\a2_0013.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 383\i
Marble Bar is famous in Australia as being the hottest town in the country, although its reason for existence is that it is the administrative centre for the shire of East Pilbara. For once popular belief is correct, for meteorological records show that Marble Bar is consistently the hottest town in Australia, while a good though unsuccessful argument has been made to give the accolade to Mt. Tom Price 160 km south-west. During the summer, Marble Bar has high temperatures of over 38 degrees Celsius for days on end. In 1923-24 the mercury recorded 160 days in a row with heat over the old century mark.
Marble Bar is 200 km east of Port Hedland and the sea. The town was named after a red-and-white-banded bar of jasper across the Coongan River, 5 km west of town - a popular swimming spot - which, in 1908, was mistaken for marble by C. Crossland, one of the early European settlers. Jasper is a colourful cryptocrystalline variety of quartz and when there is water in the river you can see this band gleam like marble.
The town was established on gold mining. In 1891 Francis Jenkins discovered gold in the vicinity, as he and his party prospected near the Coongan River. Huge nuggets, such as the 'Bobby Dazzler' of 413 ounces, were found but, by the early 1900s, the best of the gold was gone and so were the gold miners.
The second gold rush came in 1936. The Comet gold mine, on top of a hill 11 km south of \JMarble Bar\j, was founded in that year by Tommy Starr who called the spot Halley's Comet because he said it was a 'once in a lifetime' strike. At one time the mine employed 120 workers and it was working until 1955.
At its peak, the town of \JMarble Bar\j had a population of 5,000, but in time this shrank to a few hundred. The town has historic stone buildings dating back to the late 1800s. The old government buildings were constructed in the late 1890s and housed the post and telegraph services. Today they are used by the police, mining registrar, courthouse and the community welfare department. The Country Women's Association centre was built in 1908 of local stone. Originally a private home, it stands opposite the State school.
Despite its extremes of climate, the country around \JMarble Bar\j is in some places very beautiful, with a wide range of flora and fauna and colourful and unusual rock formations. The low ranges near the town and to the east of the Oakover River are scenically delightful, particularly in late winter when masses of desert wildflowers are in bloom.
\BDescription:\b Jasper rocks at Marble Bar \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Merredin",38,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 3,830\i
Merredin is the largest town and commercial centre in the eastern wheat belt. It is a junction on the \JKalgoorlie\j-Perth rail link 160 km west of Northam and 235 km from Perth on the Eastern Highway. Sandalwood cutters were active in the area for many years. During the gold rush a shanty town grew up around the shanties of miners who rested by a waterhole on their way to the goldfields.
The name of the town is said to come from an Aboriginal word meaning 'the place of the meritt tree' a tree which was thought to provide good wood for making spears. When the \JKalgoorlie\j railway arrived in 1893, the houses in the town were moved 3 km to the track, and the area was surveyed and proclaimed a town.
Merredin has a huge horizontal wheat silo, the largest of its kind in Australia, that holds 220,000 tonnes.
Nearby are some interesting towns such as Bruce Rock, 50 km south, which was named from a large granite outcrop east of the town used as a depot by sandalwood cutter John Bruce. There are also a number of wildlife reserves in the vicinity.
#
"Narrogin",39,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 5,494\i
Narrogin, officially founded as a town in 1895, is 200 km south-east of Perth and 74 km north of Katanning on the Great Southern Highway. It is a service centre for the agricultural country that surrounds it, and a major railway junction. The name is said to come from an Aboriginal word gnargajin meaning 'waterhole'. It is thought that European residents moved into the area in the 1860s and there is a ruined homestead on Chuggamunny Hill, said to have belonged to the first settler, John Stephens. The first vineyard in the area was planted in 1876, the railway arrived three years later and the first hotel was built the year after that. The area has plantations of mallet trees, the bark of which contains a high percentage of tannin used in tanning processes.
In November Narrogin hosts a three-day event horse competition, which is a national event. The courthouse was built in 1894, originally as a school, and now contains a collection of historic artefacts. There is a scenic drive to Lions Lookout which has panoramic views over the countryside. There are many unusual rock formations in the area.
#
"Newman",40,"a\10\a3_0023.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 5,627\i
A company town built by the Mt. Newman Mining company, Newman is 430 km south-east of Port Hedland on the Great Northern Highway. This company ships ore to Port Hedland and the two towns are connected by a 430 km railway said to be the longest privately owned railway in the world. Tours of the Mt. Whaleback mine facility are available to tourists. The homestead and the mountain nearby - and eventually the mine and the town - were named after Aubrey Woodward Newman, an early explorer who died of typhoid in 1896.
Newman was built as a company town but from 1981 the company, with government assistance, gradually handed over responsibility for the town to the local shire.
Nearby is Radio Hill Lookout which has panoramic views over the area. Swimming and barbecues are popular at the Ophthalmia Dam, which is 15 km north of the town on the Great Northern Highway.
\BDescription:\b Open cut mine at Newman \I(Random House - photo by ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Northam",41,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 6,560\i
Northam is in the centre of the Avon Valley and 98 km east of Perth on the Great Eastern Highway. It is an attractive rural town servicing farms in the eastern wheat belt. Northam is also a major depot for the railway and an important link in the goldfields water scheme.
Northam was named by Governor Stirling after a village in Devon, England. The first settlers were colonists led by Ensign Robert Dale, and the first European farmers had settled in the Northam district in the 1830s, as they are mentioned inland grants of 1830-31.
The town was gazetted from 1833 to 1835 and more intense settlement of the district began in 1836. The steam flour mill was built in the following year. The railway was opened in 1886 and extended to the goldfields in the mid 1890s. The establishment of the railway yards and the money created by the gold rushes to the Yilgarn, Eastern and Dundas fields led to prosperity. The pedestrian suspension bridge across the Avon River is the longest in Australia.
The town has many old stone houses and the railway station is now a museum. The oldest residents of the town are the swans, whose ancestors were, it is claimed, brought from England by Oscar Bernard, the early Russian settler and later mayor. A number of homesteads can be viewed in the area, but the gem of them all is Buckland House at Irishtown north of Northam; this is probably the finest Victorian homestead in Australia, containing an unrivalled collection of antique furniture.
#
"Paraburdoo",42,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 2,218\i
Paraburdoo is 1,536 km north-east of Perth and 380 km south of Port Hedland on rugged access roads. The town was named after a nearby station founded by the McGuire family. The name is thought to have come from the Aboriginal word piru and pardu which mean 'meat' and 'feather'. The town was developed between 1970 and 1972 by the Hamersely Iron Company in connection with iron ore mining. The whole operation, including the railway to Tom Price and from there to Dampier, was put in mothballs for a few months but finally came into production in 1973.
#
"The Pilbara",43,"a\10\4_0017.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 40,509\i
The Pilbara was first settled in the 1860s by pastoralists who took up huge leases, often of 400,000 hectares and more. After the sheep came a mild goldrush, but the present-day mineral wealth of the region has resulted in the creation of new towns such as Dampier, Point Samson and Port Hedland, resulting in the decline in importance of the original centre.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"The Pilbara - Hamersley Range",44,"a\10\4_0007.jpg","c","0"
The former asbestos-mining town of Wittenoom is ideal to see the dramatic gorges of the Hamersley Range - gorges which carry cascading waterfalls after the rains, and which drop sheer for hundreds of metres. Cliffs of changing colour and shadows play over the fiery red, orange, purple, brown and gold coloured stone, terminating far below in tranquil, ice-cold pools.
\BDescription:\b The Pilbara Hamersley Range \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Port Hedland",45,"a\10\a3_0021.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 12,304\i
Port Hedland is an iron town about halfway between Darwin and Perth on Highway 1 and 625 km south of Broome. The town was named after Peter Hedland, pearler and captain of the cutter \IMystery,\i who explored Mangrove Harbour in 1863. There was early pastoral development in the district from 1863 and a town of sorts was founded as a pearling base - one of the main fishing and pearling centres until the rise of Broome - but Port Hedland was not declared as a town until 1896.
The port grew as minerals were discovered. First came the gold rush in the 1870s, then tantalite mining began at Wodgina, 60 km south, in 1905. The railway to \JMarble Bar\j opened in 1912, bringing tin from mines to the port. In 1953 manganese from Woodie Woodie was shipped for the first time. Then came the iron ore discovery in the Pilbara in 1964, with the first ore carrier being loaded in 1969. The port, which is arguably the busiest in Australia, is now on Finucane Island, which is 12 km long and 1.5 km wide, connected to the mainland by four long causeways over tidal creeks. South Hedland on the mainland has developed as a suburb and satellite town.
The birdlife is profuse, with bustards, eagles, cockatoos, galahs, ibises and pelicans. Pretty Pool is the place to swim, picnic and fish.
\BDescription:\b Salt stockpiles at Port Hedland \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Rockingham",46,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 41,890\i
Rockingham is 45 km south of Perth at the end of Cockburn Sound and is an area of combined coastal suburb and seaside resort. It was named after one of Thomas Peel's ships that was wrecked here in 1830. The settlement was already marked as 'Rockingham' on an English map by 1839. It was briefly considered as the site for the capital of the colonial area. Captain Fremantle found the Challenger Passage into the salt water of Cockburn Sound in 1829 and it was used by all ships entering the port. When the inner harbour of Fremantle opened in 1897, Rockingham, as a port, started to decline. Now the sheltered waters offer good fishing, swimming and small-boat sailing.
Rockingham is also close to Garden, Green and Penguin Islands offshore, and Penguin Island has a small colony of sea lions.
#
"Roebourne",47,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 13,862\i
Roebourne, north of Karratha on the North-West Coastal Highway, is sometimes referred to as the Gateway to the Pilbara. The town was established in 1864 and was to have been the capital of the north-west. It was named after John Septimus Roe, the State's first surveyor-general.
The town much benefited from the Pilbara gold rushes of the 1880s, during which time the hospital, post office, courthouse, gaol, police barracks and tramline to Cossack were built. Some of these buildings are now classified by the National Trust. For a time Roeburne was administrative centre of the Murchison and connected to the port of Cossack, and later to Point Samson, by tram.
#
"Rottnest Island",48,"a\10\4_0018.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 508\i
The island of Rottnest, was named by the Dutch navigator Vlaming because of its inhabitants; unique nocturnal marsupials called quokkas, which he thought were strange rats.
In the last century, the island was a penal settlement, which did little to make it popular either with those who lived there or with would-be travellers.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Tom Price",49,"a\10\a30062.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,634\i
Tom Price is 81 km north of the iron ore town of Paraburdoo and 1,553 km north-east of Perth. In 1952 and 1953 the miner and entrepreneur Lang Hancock made aerial surveys over the area and claimed to have found a major iron ore deposit. Exploration was later undertaken after the Australian government in 1961 had lifted its export embargo. In the following year Mt. Tom Price was discovered to have a huge iron ore deposit, probably the largest in the world, and this led to the founding of Hamersley Iron, which has had a profound effect on the destiny of Western Australia.
After the discovery of the iron ore the towns of Tom Price and Dampier were built and the railway connecting them was finished very quickly. Trains over 1.5 km long carry the crunched-up iron ore 283 km to the deep-water port of Dampier for shipping to Japan.
Nearby is the Karijini National Park. A walking trail from Tom Price to the Mt. Nameless Lookout enjoys spectacular scenery.
\BDescription:\b Open cut mining at Tom Price \I(Random House)\i
#
"Wave Rock",50,0,g,0
Spectacular Wave Rock is near Hyden, 350 km south-east of Perth, and is a very popular tourist attraction, with many travellers going out of their way to visit. The rock itself is the overhanging north wall of the granite hill Hyden Rock. As its names suggests Wave Rock resembles a huge breaking wave - in fact it is 15 metres high. The rock is the result of over 3000 million years of weather and the coloured streaks on the surface were caused by minerals washing down over the rock.
A 60 cm high retaining wall was built at the top of the rock in the 1950s in order to channel rainwater into a reservoir. This reservoir services the nearby town of Hyden - a small town with a population of only about 200 people.
#
"Wickham",51,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 1,973\i
Wickham is a company town built by Cliff's Robe River Iron Associates. The town is 40 km north of Karratha, 10 km south of Point Samson and 1,570 km north of Perth. It was named after J.C. Wickham of HMS \IBeagle\i who surveyed the coast between 1838 and 1841. Work started on the town in 1970 and it is still owned and run by the company. Wickham is the sister town to Pannawonica and the iron ore mined there is processed in Wickham before being transported to the wharf at Cape Lambert. This, incidentally, is the highest and longest ocean wharf in Australia.
There are excellent views of town from nearby Tank Hill and excellent game fishing at Point Samson. Nearby Roebourne is the oldest town in the north-west, and has some interesting old buildings.
#
"Wyndham",52,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 7,712\i
Wyndham is the most northerly town and port in Western Australia. It is 3,229 km north-east of Perth on the Cambridge Gulf that runs into the Timor Sea, although its sister town of Wyndham East is on the Great Northern Highway.
Until 1985 the meatworks was Wyndham's main industry. This was closed down and the town now operates as a service centre for the pastoral industry, mining and tourism. The town was originally called Anton's Landing but was renamed Wyndham by explorer \JJohn Forrest\j after the son of Governor Broome.
The Flying Doctor base for the Kimberley region was established here in 1935. Wyndham was attacked by Japanese aircraft in 1942, but there were no casualties.
There are many Aboriginal rock paintings in the area. There is also a prison tree, a hollow tree in which Aboriginal prisoners were locked up en route to court. The Five Rivers Lookout offers wonderful views over the Kimberley. The Grotto, a rock-edged water hole near the town, is a shaded, cool oasis.
#
"Yallingup",53,"a\10\yllngp.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: less than 100\i
Yallingup, on the coast, has long been renowned for its caves and surfing beach. The Lake Cave and Mammoth Cave, with its stalactites and stalagmites, are lit. Now the region is the centre of a new and exciting wine-growing district.
\BDescription:\b \I(Webster Publishing.)\i
#
"York",54,"a\10\a2_0020.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,902\i
York was to be named Yorkshire after the English county because the pioneers saw in the terrain some resemblance to the downs of Yorkshire, but the name was shortened. The town is 95 km east of Perth. This is farming country and the Balladong Farm, which opened in 1830, is the oldest in inland Western Australia. The town site was declared in 1831 and the town was gazetted in 1836, so it is the oldest inland town in Western Australia.
Wool was a major industry; the cost of freight to Fremantle was more expensive than the freight to London. The town served as a convict depot in the 1850s and in 1859 was the third largest town in WA. New prosperity came with the discovery of gold on Yilgarn field in 1889, as York was the closest town. By the 1970s York had become popular with Perth people as a weekend retreat.
\BDescription:\b Settler's house built in 1835, York \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
\BPopulation:\b 472,600. Click here for Australian \JPopulation\j details.
\BFloral Emblem:\b \JTasmanian Blue Gum\j
\BFaunal Emblem:\b \JThylacine\j (unofficial) or Tasmanian Devil
\BHighest Pt:\b Mt. Ossa 1,617 metres
\BFlag:\b Click here for \JTasmanian Flag\j
\BAverage Annual Rainfall - Hobart:\b 627 mm
\BAverage Temperatures - Hobart:\b January maximum, 21.5 degrees C; July maximum, 11.5 degrees C. Click here for \JClimate of Australia\j details.
\BAbout the State:\b Click here for the story of \JTasmania\j
\BDescription:\b Tasmanian Flag \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Tasmania",2,"a\10\tas.jpg","c","0"
Tasmania has fewer than half a million people in an area almost twice the size of Switzerland. Its population is approximately 452,800 and its size is 68,000 square kilometres.
An estimated 47 per cent of its land is clothed in native forest. They range through a dozen different types from the sometimes dense rainforest of the west to the open, drier bushland of the east.
More than 30 per cent of the land mass is now secure in World Heritage areas, national parks and reserves, which is higher than in any other state. There are more than 150 national parks, heritage and wildlife reserves. Tasmania has been described as being probably the most thoroughly mountainous island on the globe.
Tasmania's air is probably the cleanest in the inhabited world. One of the world's six baseline air monitoring stations is perched on the headland of Cape Grim in the north-west. Tasmania also has a lot of fresh water which is the source of hydro-electricity power.
Hobart's drinking water travels 82 km, passes through eight power stations, and helps to generate 15 million units of electricity but it is still pure by the time it is consumed.
Tasmania is a state of islands - more than 20 of them. Ten or so are inhabited. King island, in Bass Strait produces some of Australia's best dairy foods and beef. Maria Island in the East is a National Park, but used to be one of Britain's least brutal convict prisons.
Tasmania is also rich in ancient and endemic forms of wildlife. Some animals, which are rare or extinct in continental Australia still flourish here. Others have evolved as distinct subspecies, such as the Bennets wallaby and the Tasmanian devil.
The Tasmanian tiger is believed by some to be extinct. Tasmanian devils and other small mammals such as quolls and native cats are nocturnal.
The most visible bird found only in Tasmania is the long-legged, green-brown and flightless native hen.
Among Tasmania's 22 mammals are all the world's remaining predatory marsupials; the rare and endangered orange-bellied parrot; and a living fossil - a freshwater shrimp which has remained unchanged for more than 200 million years.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Gum Tree Graphics.\i
#
"Tasmania - (2)",3,"a\10\8_0027.jpg","c","0"
The compact diversity of Tasmania is a great contrast to the rest of Australia. Less than two hundred kilometres will take you from a sandy seashore, through intensively-farmed towns, across rivers, into eucalypt forest, up a mountain, into rainforest, onto a highland plateau of alpine lakes and treeless moors, down forest-clad slopes, into subalpine grazing country punctuated with Georgian style houses, and through stone villages from European settlement.
\BDescription:\b Fishing in the Tasmanian highlands \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Tasmania - (3)",4,"a\10\11_0004.jpg","c","0"
With more than 30 per cent of Tasmania listed with UNESCO as a World Heritage area, this is official recognition that it is one of the planet's great natural and cultural treasures.
Tasmania has Australia's last great wild river system, and its deepest lake, and mountain ranges that date back 100 million years. Tasmanian rainforests contain some of the world's oldest living things - Huon pines which have been growing for 2000 years.
\BDescription:\b Russell Falls (Mount Field National Park) \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Tasmania History",5,"a\10\r0702.jpg","c","0"
The Tasmanian island left the rest of the Australian continent more than 13,000 years ago, as a land bridge across Bass Strait was submerged in the great meltdown which ended the last ice age. Plants, land animals and people began a period of separate, secure and isolated development, which continued uninterrupted until December 2, 1642.
That morning, a party of heavily armed Dutchmen stepped cautiously ashore, on the orders of their commander, \JAbel Tasman\j, becoming the first known visitors to do so since the bridge disappeared all those thousands of years ago.
When the British seized the island it was occupied- and had been for perhaps 50,000 years. Tasmanian tribal aborigines were a race apart. Plump-faced, stocky, with woolly hair which they often dressed with red ochre.
They were shorter than their continental counterparts and without their most effective weapons, the boomerang and the spear throwing woomera.
\BDescription:\b Last Tasmanian Aborigines \I(RAHS)\i
#
"Tasmania History - (2)",6,"a\10\smh11.jpg","c","0"
Within months they were waging an undeclared war, which ended in a few short years with the crushing of aboriginal resistance and the destruction of their way of life. With the death of the last tribal Aborigine in 1876, school history books declared that the unfortunate Tasmanian aborigines had ceased to exist - a deception which continued for almost a century.
Today thousands of Tasmanians of aboriginal descent have rediscovered their pride of race and are piecing together their previously suppressed heritage.
When the Europeans settled in Tasmania, land was given out by the Government. Land grants benefited the affluent and the influential. They built houses from locally-made bricks and sandstone, using convict labour to recreate the flush-faced structures of their land.
Tasmania's rural heritage was based on the good sense of paying cash for the best Saxon merinos - and for the first class care which allowed them to survive a three-month delivery voyage.
By royal charter, King George IV gave the syndicate much of the best land in Tasmania's far north west: 350,000 acres, mostly heavily forested and unsuitable for sheep. The Van Diemen's Land Company poured money in search of woolly profits which never materialised. Today the VDL is Australian owned.
\BDescription:\b White men attacking Aborigines \I(Fairfax Photo Library).\i
#
"Hobart",7,"a\10\8_0035.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 195,795\i
From the crest of Mt. Wellington, Hobart - Australia's smallest capital - sprawls far below. With a population of 185,000 in the Greater Hobart area, this city sprawls over 3,340 square kilometres. 'The mountain' protects Hobart from the excesses of the wild weather flung at western shores. It has been known to snow on Christmas Day on Mt. Wellington, while the city below basks in the sun.
Life in Hobart has always revolved around the waterfront, especially after the first permanent settlement was established here in 1804. Hobart has the second lowest rainfall of any Australian capital city.
\BDescription:\b The city of Hobart with Mt. Wellington in the background \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Hobart - (2)",8,"a\10\8_0032.jpg","c","0"
Hobart's intricate waterfront consists of sandy beaches, weather-worn sandstone coves, shallow estuaries and swampy bird havens as well as cliffs, reefs, and coastal parks.
The city's buildings and suburbs nestle round the hills that demarcate the fingers of river valleys and twisting estuaries. Hobart city's business centre is situated at Sullivan's Cove, one of Australia's most intact, older waterfronts.
This mingling of styles is illustrated in Sullivan's Cove, with its elegant architecture of nearly two centuries of waterfront activity. Older buildings flank the cove.
The northern arm has some examples of early architecture, as well as the vibrant restoration given to the old IXL jam factory, which has been converted into the new Tasmanian School of Art. Opposite is Salamanca Place, a row of sandstone warehouses.
\BDescription:\b The picturesque scenery of Hobart viewed from a yacht on the harbour \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Beauty Point",9,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 1,137\i
A small resort popular with anglers and sailors, Beauty Point is 42 km north-west of \JLaunceston\j on the western shore of the Tamar River. This was the first deep-water port in the area, originally constructed to serve the Beaconsfield gold mine in the 1879 gold rush. In the town is the Australian Maritime College, the home port to the training vessel \IWyuna.\i
The name of the town very possibly comes from a prize bull, Beauty, owned by a local farmer in the 1890s. Nearby is the small town of Greens Beach, at the mouth of the River Tamar right on the edge of the Asbestos Range National Park.
#
"Bridgewater",10,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 8,684\i
Bridgewater is 19 km north of Hobart on the northern side of a causeway across the Derwent River. The causeway, which is 1.3 km long, and was begun in the 1830s by about 200 convicts who had been sentenced to secondary punishment. An astounding 2 million tonnes of stone and earth had been moved by hand barrow by 1849 when the first bridge was opened. The town was born with the completion of the causeway and the opening of a new road to Brighton.
The railway opened in 1876 and the present bridge was built in 1946. Black Snake Inn at the southern end of the causeway was built by convicts in 1833, as was the old watchhouse at Granton, now a museum housing relics from the convict days.
#
"Bruny Island",11,"a\10\8_0031.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,100\i
Bruny Island is inhabited by approximately 500 residents whose main occupation is mixed farming. Bruny has much evidence of a long period of Aboriginal settlement, which was rudely disturbed by European whalers and sealers in the early 1800s. Queen Truganinni, the last full-blooded Tasmanian Aborigine, who died in 1876, was born here.
Bruny contains several reserves under the auspices of the Department of Lands, Parks and Wildlife. Mutton-birds and penguins are common here, and vegetation varies from eucalypt forests and woodland to rainforest and heath with a variety of wildflowers.
The nation's oldest lighthouse is found at Cape Bruny.
\BDescription:\b A view of Bruny Island showing the Bruny Island lighthouse \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Burnie",12,"a\10\a2_0052.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 20,505\i
Burnie is Tasmania's third largest municipality 326 km north-west of Hobart and 152 km west of \JLaunceston\j on Emu Bay at the mouth of the Emu River. The town was named in 1828 after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Co. The area was sighted by \JGeorge Bass\j and \JMatthew Flinders\j in 1798 and the original village was established in 1829 on Blackman's Point, now part of the port area.
Later it became a timber port, but it grew slowly as the Van Diemen's Land Company released land at high prices. The town was proclaimed in 1866 and five years later saw a spurt of growth with the opening of an enormously rich tin mine at Mt. Bischoff near Waratah, which came into production in the early 1870s. A tramway - later a railway - was opened from the mine to Burnie and the town expanded as a port.
\BDescription:\b Burnie Inn \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Burnie - (2)",13,"a\10\a2_0053.jpg","c","0"
The breakwater was built in 1890 to improve the safety of the harbour and the Emu Bay Railway, the only privately owned rail company in the State, was extended in 1900 to serve mines in the Zeehan-Rosebery area and gain more trade for the port. Associated Pulp and Paper Mills opened a factory here in 1938, based on timber from 128,000 ha of private forest and cutting rights over all land within 24 km of the Emu Bay railway. This company effectively controls the production of almost all paper in Australia.
The port of Burnie now handles 17 per cent of the State's sea trade.
\BDescription:\b Farmland near Burnie \I(Random House - photo by ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Campbell Town",14,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 820\i
Cambell Town was named in 1821 by Governor Lachlan Macquarie after his second wife, Elizabeth Campbell. It was one of the garrison posts set up between Hobart and Launceston. In 1820 Saxon merino sheep were introduced, and the area began as a fine-wool-growing district. The first high-grade wool was exported in 1822 and the following year the district produced more than 1,000 bales. In 1847 Queen Victoria was presented with a fine merino wool carriage cloak, woven from the Wanstead property clip.
The shearers' cottages on the View Point estate were built in 1860 by Robert Gatenby, and feature delicate barge-boarding on the gables. The town's red-brick bridge was built by convicts between 1836 and 1838.
The first telephone call in the southern hemisphere was made in 1857 between \JLaunceston\j and Campbell Town. Alfred Biggs, a schoolmaster, made the pair of telephones from Alexander Graham Bell's drawings.
#
"Deloraine",15,"a\10\a2_0049.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,098\i
Deloraine lies in the shadow of the Great Western Tiers 228 km north of Hobart, halfway between Devonport and \JLaunceston\j. It is Tasmania's largest inland town and the centre of a fertile red-soil dairying and mixed farming district. It is a convenient base for visits to the lakes area to the south; being so close to the Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair area, and even closer to a number of impressive waterfalls and shorter walking tracks, Deloraine is fast becoming a major bushwalking centre.
\BDescription:\b Waterfall at Deloraine \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Deloraine - (2)",16,"b\1\a2_0048.jpg","c","0"
The first land grants in Deloraine were made to individual settlers in 1825 and then to the Van Diemen's Land Company in 1826. In 1831 the area was surveyed by Thomas Scott, who named it after the character Deloraine in the poem \IThe Lady of the Last Minstrel,\i written by his relative Sir Walter Scott. The town was founded in the 1840s and connected with \JLaunceston\j by rail in 1871.
Deloraine is classified as a historic town and many of its Georgian and Victorian buildings have been faithfully restored.
\BDescription:\b Berry's Museum, Deloraine \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Derby, Tasmania",17,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 210\i
Derby is on the Tasman Highway, 34 km from Scottsdale in the north-east. In 1874, tin was discovered in Derby and this little township flourished throughout the late 19th century. The first tin came from the Brothers mine sunk in 1870 and a track was cut to the coast at Boobyalla. The Briseis Mine, named after the 1876 Melbourne Cup winner, was started two years later and became the richest tin mine in the north-east.
On 4 April 1929 the Briseis dam broke and the town and the mine were flooded. Fourteen people died and the mine, the largest and deepest hydraulic tin mine in the southern hemisphere, never went back into full production. Now Derby is a classified historic town, and some of the old mine buildings, along with the old school, are now part of the excellent Tin Mine Centre. This has a mine museum of old photographs and mining implements, and a recreation of an old mining shanty town. There is a cheese factory on the Tasman Highway near Winnaleah where visitors are welcome and cheeses are for sale.
#
"Derwent River",18,"b\1\8_0028.jpg","c","0"
The Derwent River begins in the centre of Tasmania and flows down to Hobart in the south-east of Tasmania.
\BDescription:\b Derwent River \I(Tasmania Department of Tourism).\i
#
"Derwent Valley",19,"b\1\11_0006.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 9,862\i
The Derwent Valley was settled in 1808, and is today the centre of Tasmania's hop-growing industry. New Norfolk is the main town of the Derwent Valley.
\BDescription:\b Derwent Valley \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Devonport",20,"b\1\11_0003.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 23,814\i
Devonport, located in Tasmania's north, has developed into an important industrial and agricultural town.
The architecture in Devonport reflects typical examples of well preserved historical Tasmanian architecture.
\BDescription:\b An example of some architecture in Devonport \I(Tasmania Department of Tourism).\i
#
"Evandale",22,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 772\i
This town is at the junction of the Frankford road and the Tamar Highway 20 km south-east of \JLaunceston\j and 199 km north of Hobart. The town is the centre for an agricultural/pastoral area with spectacular scenery and an interesting history. Evandale, declared a historic village, has not greatly changed since the 1840s.
The town was named in 1836 after the first Tasmanian surveyor-general, George W. Evans. Settlers from Norfolk Island took up land in the district in 1816 and the town was founded in 1829, although some buildings date from 1809.
It has been suggested that one of the many hundreds of convicts who laboured at Evandale in its early days was \JNed Kelly\j's father.
The town holds the World Pennyfarthing Championships on the last Saturday in February.
#
"Fingal",23,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 428\i
Fingal, 74 km south-east of \JLaunceston\j in the Esk Valley, is a pretty town with an imposing backdrop provided by Ben Lomond 30 km away. The town is the centre of the State's coal production. Fingal was named in 1821 after the town in Ireland and established as a convict station seven years later. The district's substantial homesteads were made possible by the cheap convict labour force. The Malahide homestead was built in 1828 for William Talbot, and Killymoon in 1848 for Frederick von Steiglitz. The Talbot Arms (now the Fingal Hotel) was built around 1852. Coal was discovered in the area in the mid 19th century and a railway built in 1886 to service the Fingal Valley coalfields. Production reached 300,000 tonnes in 1959 and mining is still active.
Nearby, the Evercreech Forest Reserve contains what is possibly the world's tallest white gum, 89 m tall. This tree and others near it are known as the White Knights and thought to be more than 300 years old. They are registered by the National Trust.
#
"Flinders Island",24,"b\1\flndrsis.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 924\i
Flinders Island and the rest of the Furneaux Group lie at the eastern end of Bass Strait. Some 65 by 28 kilometres in size, Flinders and the nearby islands were discovered in 1773 by Captain Tobias Furneaux, a member of \JCaptain Cook\j's party.
In the early 1800s the first settlement was made by sealers. From 1833 to 1847, a settlement of Wybalenna was created to house the already dwindling Aboriginal population who had been rounded up throughout Tasmania and transported here.
In 1833, in one of the most shameful episodes in Australian history, the remaining full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal people, about 160 in all, were forcibly settled at Wybalenna on Flinders Island. Only 45 were alive when the settlement was abandoned in 1847, and they were moved to Oyster Cove.
Today, all that remains of this tragic episode are the cemetery and the chapel, restored by the National Trust and open to visitors. The nearby museum displays a variety of Aboriginal artefacts, as well as old sealing and sailing relics.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Readers Digest.\i
#
"Flinders Island - (2)",25,"b\1\a2_0051.jpg","c","0"
Today, the 1,000 or so inhabitants are engaged mainly in farming, fishing, tourism and mutton-birding. The mutton-bird, known as the short tailed shearwater, migrates to this region every September, and is hunted for its oil and food value. The island scenery is rugged and dramatic and contains Mt. Strzelecki National Park.
\BDescription:\b Fishing trawler at Flinders Island \I(Random House - photo by Richard Eastwood)\i
#
"Franklin",26,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 462\i
This is the oldest township on the Huon River, 45 km south-west of Hobart and 6 km from Huonville. Franklin is a timber-milling town and in 1804 was the first site to be settled west of the Huon. It was named after Governor Sir John Franklin, who took up a property of 259 ha on the banks of the river. His wife Lady Jane Franklin encouraged settlement in the area and the town contains excellent examples of early colonial buildings.
Timber-milling has always been an important local industry and orchards and dairy farming are the other main industries. The town contains three churches constructed around 1860 and also has a museum that displays a collection of apple-industry artefacts.
#
"Franklin River",27,"b\1\11_0007.jpg","c","0"
The main artery of the south-west is the Franklin River. It snakes some 125 km before merging with the Gordon River. The rivers host an abundance of wildlife from mountain trout and platypus, to kingfishers.
The area these rivers cover is untamed, remote and noted for its wild weather. The landscapes of the region present dramatic contrasts. Steep, rugged ranges rise from the flat plains. The coastal cliffs drop sheer to the sea; sandy beaches are white and unspoilt.
\BDescription:\b The Franklin River \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Franklin River - (2)",28,"b\1\a1_0005.jpg","c","0"
Canoeing is a very popular activity on the Franklin River. It was first canoed in 1958 by John Hawkins and John Dean and through the work of these pioneers, there are now detailed maps of the Franklin, and ratings of the trouble spots.
\BDescription:\b Franklin River \I(Random House - photo by Stuart Fox)\i
#
"George Town",29,"b\1\a2_0050.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 6,929\i
George Town is on the mouth of the Tamar, 53 km north-west of \JLaunceston\j, 250 km north of Hobart. Founded in 1811, it was the first European settlement in the north of the island. It was intended to be the principal settlement but eventually that honour fell to \JLaunceston\j. The town was named after George III by Governor Lachlan Macquarie.
The first party of European settlers in northern Tasmania landed here in 1804 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson and the event is recorded on a monument on the town's Esplanade. It states that Paterson, having sailed from Sydney on HMS \IBuffalo\i with a commission to establish a settlement in northern Van Diemen's Land, was driven ashore by a fierce gale and landed at the mouth of the river on 5 November 1804.
A permanent settlement was established in George Town in 1811 and the administration of the area was handled from here until 1824, when it was passed to \JLaunceston\j. By 1825 a signalling system was in operation to rely shipping news from Low Head north of George Town to \JLaunceston\j, 64 km inland.
A beacon was set up on Low Head and a pilot station built in 1833. A roll-on, roll-off cargo terminal was established in 1958 and two woodchip mills and freezer stores were set up in the 1970s.
The Grove, built probably in the 1820s as the house of the port officer, has been restored. Refreshments are available and lunch is served by staff in period costume. The Old Watch-house, built in 1843 as a gaol, is a folk museum. The nearby ghost town of Lefroy is full of memories of earlier, more hectic times. There is good surf at Low Head, a winery at Pipers Brook, and Bell Bay has an excellent maritime museum.
\BDescription:\b Seacat at George Town \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Hadspen",30,"b\1\a1_0002.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,334\i
Hadspen is 10 km west of \JLaunceston\j and 193 km north of Hobart. The Bass Highway now bypasses the town, which has become a quiet backwater. It is famous for its association with the Reibey family. The story started in Sydney with \JMary Reibey\j, who was a convict. On release, she became a successful business-woman. Her second son, Thomas Haydock Reibey II, was granted land in Tasmania, which included the current site of Hadspen. His son, Thomas III, was the district's main landowner. He was a defrocked archdeacon.
Entally House was built in 1819 and 1820 by Thomas II but its heyday was when it was owned and run by Thomas III, a social entertainer on a grand scale. It is one of Tasmania's best known historic houses and is now owned by the National Trust. The house, which has its own chapel and a collection of horse-drawn vehicles in its stables and coach house in beautiful grounds, is open to the public.
\BDescription:\b Hadspen Historic House \I(Random House - photo by Richard Eastwood)\i
#
"Huonville",31,"b\1\a30049.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,524\i
Huonville is in the centre of the largest apple-producing area in Tasmania, 37 km south-west of Hobart. The area used to be a major producer of Huon pine. It was first shipped to London in 1829. The wood was eventually commercially exhausted, although there are still large and protected stands on the Gordon River. Now the Huon has become Tasmania's best known apple-growing district.
The Huon River was named in 1792 after Capt Huon de Kermadec, second-in-command to d'Entrecasteaux. The village was founded in 1843 and the first commercial apple shipment was sent to London in 1864. A bridge over the Huon River was built in 1876, opening the area to the south.
Huonville is now the main service centre for the Huon Municipality and is still concerned mainly with apples and timber. A deep-water port has been developed to service fruit and timber shipments, and Australian Paper Mills Ltd has established a wood pulp mill.
\BDescription:\b Apple picking at Huonville \I(Random House)\i
#
"King Island",32,"b\1\3_0031.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,797\i
King Island is at the western end of Bass Strait, it offers 145 kilometres of unspoiled beaches, sand dunes and rocky cliff scenery.
King Island's European origins are rooted in the sealing trade of the early 1800s, and the population was later boosted when the post-war soldier resettlement scheme rapidly increased numbers of people coming to settle on the island.
Today, the island supports 2,500 people who earn their livelihood from agriculture, fishing, mining of scheelite and kelp harvesting.
\BDescription:\b The coast of King Island \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Kingston",33,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 12,907\i
Kingston Beach, 12 km south of Hobart, is the research headquarters of the Commonwealth Antarctic Division. The building is open on weekdays and admission is free. The road from Kingston runs down through Blackmans Bay to Piersons Point and around the base of Mt. Louis, which rises to 213 metres. There are good beaches in the area including Blackmans Bay which has a blowhole. Piersons Point gives fine views of North Bruny Island and across Storm Bay to the Tasman Peninsula.
Browns River is named after the Scottish botanist Robert Brown who, in 1804, made his way through the bush on foot from where Hobart is today to the present site of Kingston. The early settlers were supplied by boat, but in 1835 the inland road to Hobart was opened. Kingston soon became a popular holiday spot with the people of Hobart. The town received a substantial influx from the Netherlands after World War II. Now Kingston is effectively a suburb of Hobart.
#
"Latrobe",34,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 2,551\i
Latrobe, in its glory days, was a busy city and a major northern port that exported timber and produce to the mainland during the Victorian gold rushes. In that period of the 1850s, it had three newspapers, a number of shipyards and ferries plying the Mersey. Now it is a quiet town 273 km north-west of Hobart.
The town was named after Charles Joseph La Trobe, the administrator of Tasmania from 1846 to 1847. He was later the lieutenant-governor of Victoria. The first European settler came here in 1826 and the village was founded in 1850.
Frogmore, a homestead just outside the town and now a host farm, was built in 1880 and is listed by the National Trust. The courthouse, built in 1883, is now a museum. Latrobe was the largest town in the north-west coastal region in 1881, and in 1888 the English cricket team played a match in Latrobe. The United Australian Axemen's Association was formed in Latrobe and the first 'world championship' axemen's carnival was held there in 1891 with more than 1,000 pounds in prize money.
#
"Launceston",35,"b\1\8_0038.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 66,747\i
For two decades after Colonel William Paterson struck camp near the mouth of the river and claimed the land for Britain in 1804, the colonial administration wavered over its choice of a permanent site for the northern capital. Launceston was eventually chosen.
Convict labour formed the city and built many of Launceston's elegant buildings, while rural settlers established farms and orchards. Constant skirmishes raged between the pioneers; Aborigines who were losing the fertile hunting grounds they called \IPonrabbel,\i and escaped convicts who had become bushrangers.
Exploration ranged beyond the colony. In 1835 Launceston innkeeper Fawkner and \JJohn Batman\j embarked on the voyage of discovery on which he founded Melbourne.
Ships built on the river transported apples, pears, timber and minerals to mainland Australia and Europe, returning with new settlers ready to face the challenge of shaping this outpost of the British Empire.
The movement to end the transportation of convicts started in Launceston and discovery of gold and tin created a rush of new settlers. No longer a penal settlement, commerce and agriculture brought new confidence to the city, and mining generated the wealth to build majestic civic and commercial buildings which now provide the city with its distinct character.
\BDescription:\b The city of Launceston \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Launceston - (2)",36,"b\1\chris3.jpg","c","0"
Development of classic parklands provided recreation and the magnificent Cataract Gorge was made accessible to citizens through the difficult construction of pathways and pleasure gardens.
With a thirst for progress the river was cleared for navigation of larger ships, bridges were built, and the country's first municipal hydro-electric station at \JLaunceston\j powered new industries and illuminated the city.
Through changing fortunes, an unbroken entrepreneurial spirit has kept \JLaunceston\j prospering. Today, demand for fine natural produce has again created international markets for quality, specialised enterprises producing unique wine, food and crafts.
Longford is on the Esk River, 23 km south of \JLaunceston\j, 188 km north of Hobart and the centre of a rich and well established agricultural district. It is classified by the National Trust as a historic town.
Longford was named after a country in Ireland by the surveyor Roderic O'Connor. The district was first settled by Europeans in 1813 when immigrants from Norfolk Island were given land grants in the district by Governor Lachlan Macquarie and the area became known as Norfolk Plains. The road between Longford and \JLaunceston\j was built in 1813 for the price of one cow. By 1818 enough wheat was cultivated to allow export to Sydney and later Melbourne.
Longford Wildlife Park is a conservation area about 14 km from the town which consists of 70 ha of bush and pasture and has kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas, Cape Barren geese, wild ducks and native birds.
\BDescription:\b Windmill near Longford \I(Random House - photo by Richard Eastwood)\i
#
"Maria Island",38,"b\1\mariaisl.jpg","c","0"
Maria and Bruny Island were first sighted by \JAbel Tasman\j in 1642. Maria Island is presently uninhabited and was proclaimed a national park in 1972. It was set aside mainly for the breeding of wildlife and abounds with kangaroos, emus and Cape Barren geese which were introduced in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
It was a penal colony from 1825 to 1852, and several original buildings still stand, adding historical interest to the island. Within its 260 square kilometres, this tranquil island presents a variety of vegetation and animal life.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Readers Digest.\i
#
"New Norfolk",39,"b\1\3_0029.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 5,822\i
This historic town is at the centre of Tasmania's hop-growing country 33 km north-west of Hobart on the banks of the River Derwent. The whole town is registered with the National Trust. New Norfolk was first settled in 1803 and became an important hop-growing centre.
The town was given its somewhat misleading name by a group of settlers who arrived here from 1807 onwards from the abandoned colony of Norfolk Island. The first group, 34 islanders, arrived in the \ILady Nelson,\i and within a year 544 Norfolk Islanders had arrived. They were each granted four acres of land for every year that they had spent on Norfolk Island, and were guaranteed free rations for a year.
In 1811 the site of the town was chosen by Governor Lachlan Macquarie and named Elizabeth Town in honour of his wife. By 1825 the settlement was doing so well that the government, the Executive Council of Van Diemen's Land colony, recommended that Elizabeth Town should become the site of a new capital instead of Hobart. The expense of shifting civil servants from Hobart caused the plant to be dropped. In 1827 the name of the town was changed to New Norfolk and the area was proclaimed a shire in 1863.
The Bush Inn is claimed to be the oldest continuously licensed hotel in Australia, the licence having been given to Mrs Ann Bridger in September 1825. The first rainbow and brown trout in Australia were bred in 1864 in the Salmon Ponds at Plenty, 11 km west of New Norfolk.
\BDescription:\b River Derwent near New Norfolk \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Penguin",40,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 2,876\i
Penguin was named in 1861 after the fairy penguins that live in rookeries nearby. It is 296 km north-west of Hobart at the base of the Dial Range State Forest and has many interesting National Trust buildings. The Dial Mountain Range is 5 km from town and there are panoramic views from the summit of Mt. Montgomery. The Gunns Plains Caves are an interesting excursion, as is the Ferndene Gorge south of town. Despite the name, you will be lucky to catch sight of the fairy penguins, which have become rare, although from November to March you may see them around Johnsons Beach near the caravan park.
Penguin was founded in 1858 and the town proclaimed in 1888. The town is the centre of a pastoral, dairying and market gardening district and has largely been settled by Dutch migrants since World War II.
#
"Perth, Tasmania",41,"b\1\a30050.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,573\i
Perth is near the banks of the South Esk River, 13 km from \JLaunceston\j and 180 km north of Hobart. The town was named by Governor Lachlan Macquarie after the city in Scotland where he had recently been a visitor. Macquarie selected the site for the town in 1821 and it was here, in that same year, that a ferry over the South Esk River and a road to \JLaunceston\j were established.
A hotel, now the Jolly Farmer Inn, was built in 1826 and the town proclaimed ten years later. A bridge was built to replace the ferry in 1842, the largest convict-built bridge in Tasmania, but this was destroyed by flood in 1929. A replacement bridge was built in 1931, only to be washed away again in 1971 and reconstructed yet again. Perth is now very much a commuter town for \JLaunceston\j.
\BDescription:\b South Esk River, Perth \I(Random House)\i
#
"Port Arthur",42,"b\1\5_0001.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: less than 200\i
Port Arthur was originally the site of the biggest colonial convict settlement in Australia. It housed more than 12,000 prisoners in complete isolation.
The Port Arthur ruins remain the most popular tourist attraction in Tasmania.
\BDescription:\b Port Arthur \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Port Arthur - (2)",43,"b\1\chris4.jpg","c","0"
Many of the buildings erected at the time of the convict settlement still remain standing today.
On April 28 1996, Port Arthur was the scene of the world's worst-ever massacre by a single gunman. Martin Bryant killed 35 people and injured others with a semi-automatic rifle.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Webster Publishing\i
#
"Port Sorell",44,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 1,494\i
Port Sorell, not to be confused with Sorell elsewhere in Tasmania, nestles into the hills alongside the Rubicon Estuary near Devonport 286 km north-west of Hobart. The town is both a resort and a fully protected nature sanctuary. It is the oldest town on the north-east coast, founded in 1822 and named after Governor Sorell. It started as a busy port but was soon left behind by Devonport. In the early part of this century the town suffered extensive damage by bushfires, losing many of its early buildings. There are good walks in the area and sheltered swimming, boating and fishing.
#
"Queenstown",45,"b\1\8_0033.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,368\i
Queenstown; where once giant blackwood, huon, celery top and myrtle trees thrived, is now a bare and barren undulation poisoned by fumes from the mine's woodfired furnaces, and barely able to support even the toughest weed.
Logging to supply wood fuel for the copper smelters started the dramatic decline; bushfires wiped out the little growth remaining; and the ceaseless soot and fumes from the smelter finished the job.
In recent years, the decline in mining activity has enabled some pioneering plants to make a bold comeback on the fringes of this man-made moonscape, but their battle to survive has only just begun. The Queenstown Council has decided that the bizarre landscape is a tourist attraction and they feel justified in killing off the new growth.
\BDescription:\b The city of Queenstown \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Rokeby",46,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 3,490\i
Rokeby, 8 km west of Hobart across the mouth of the Derwent River and 2 km east of Lauderdale, overlooks Ralphs Bay and Mt. Augustus, which is 163 m and should more properly be called a hill. It is very much a commuter town for Hobart and is nowadays almost a suburb of that city. The town was first settled in 1803, and the first apples exported from Tasmania were sent from here. It was also at Rokeby that the first wheat in Tasmania was grown.
There are still reminders of that early period, especially Rokeby Court, Rokeby House and St. Matthew's Church. The organ in this church, which is still in use, came from England in 1825 and was originally installed in St. David's Cathedral, Hobart.
#
"Rosebery",47,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 1,637\i
Rosebery is on the Pieman River 303 km west of Hobart, on the Murchison Highway that runs between Queenstown and Burnie on the north coast. The town was probably named after a mining company, in turn named after the then British Prime Minister Lord Rosebery. It is of macabre interest to know that the Pieman River may have been named after Alexander 'The Pieman' Pearce, who was imprisoned for selling food not fit for human consumption, escaped, and maintained his strength by eating his fellow escapees. He was recaptured and hanged for his sins in 1829.
Gold was discovered in the area in 1893 an a zinc-lead ore body in 1894. Three years later the main Primrose Mine was opened and copper discovered. The Emu Bay railway from Burnie was extended through Rosebery to Zeehan, 27 km south, in 1901 and used to carry the ore.
Today the powerful Electrolytic Zinc Company operates a smelter outside the town and is responsible for much employment in the area and many amenities in the town.
Behind the town is Mt. Murchison which rises to 1,275 m. Montezuma Falls, the most spectacular falls in Tasmania, are 5 km to the west and accessible by walking or by four-wheel-drive vehicle.
#
"Scottsdale",48,"b\1\a30051.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 2,020\i
Scottsdale is the centre of a rich agricultural and forestry area in the north-east of Tasmania, 263 km north-east of Hobart. It is the largest town in this relatively undeveloped corner of the State.
Initially the area was known as Cox's Paradise after Thomas Cox, first European settler, and was also called Heazleton, Heazlewood and Ellesmere. The town was eventually named after James Scott, the government surveyor who explored much of north-eastern Tasmania in the early 1850s. It became Scottsdale by local request in 1893. The first district sawmills were built in 1862 and the railway from \JLaunceston\j arrived in 1889.
At Nabowla, 21 km west of Scottsdale, is the Bridgetown Lavender Farm. It is open daily from Boxing Day until the third week in January. 21 km north of Scottsdale is the popular beach resort of Bridport. The Weldborough Pass, on the highway to St. Helens, goes through magnificent mountain forest.
\BDescription:\b Mt Barrow near Scottsdale \I(Random House)\i
#
"Smithton",49,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 3,495\i
Smithton is 413 km north-west of Hobart, 16 km south-west of Stanley and the centre for the Circular Head industrial area. It also services a rich agricultural district. Timber is also an important industry. The town was named after Peter Smith, an early settler. Much of Circular Head is reclaimed swamp. While draining the swamp many bones of ancient animals were uncovered, including a giant wombat, a marsupial rhinoceros, and a kangaroo as big as a donkey.
In 1825 the colonial government granted the Van Diemen's Land Company land in six separate localities of north-western Tasmania for a farthing an acre annual rental, which at that time was 468 pounds a year in all.
The historic township at Stanley is an interesting drive and there are good bushwalks at the Arthur Pieman Reserve, which takes in spectacular coastal scenery. Nearby Marrawah has excellent surfing. There are cruises by launch on the Arthur River.
#
"Sorell",50,"b\1\a1_0007.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 3,199\i
Sorell, not to be confused with Port Sorell, is 26 km east of Hobart on Pitt Water, a resort and retirement town in the centre of a rich and well developed pastoral and agricultural area. The town, founded in 1821, was named after Lieutenant-Governor William Sorell. Three years later it had its moments of excitement when the whole town was bailed up by bushranger \JMatthew Brady\j.
\BDescription:\b Scots Church, Sorell \I(Random House - photo by Richard Eastwood)\i
#
"Strahan",51,"b\1\a2_0054.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 597\i
Strahan is the gateway to the magnificent, if unpredictable, waters of Macquarie Harbour, site of one of the most ill-famed convict outposts in the Empire. It is also the gateway to the lower reaches of the Gordon and Olga Rivers among others.
For many years it was the only way out for the copper ores from Mt. Lyell Mine at Queenstown. It has been said that on the evening of the official opening of the road into Queenstown from Hobart, there were only three sober men in town, and they would not have been sober if the town's supply of beer hadn't run out.
Originally a Huon pine timber milling town, Strahan's growth was boosted by the copper boom at Mt. Lyell Mine. Today, it handles the freight to and from Queenstown and is used by crayfish, abalone and shark fishermen, but the use of the harbour is limited by the formidable bar at Hell's Gates, the mouth of the harbour.
The town also became the unwitting headquarters for the battle to save the Franklin River from being dammed. This single event has possibly done more to centre attention on the diminishing wilderness and natural beauty of the rest of the island than any tourist campaign run by the government at any time.
\BDescription:\b Strahan Wharf \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
#
"Tasman Peninsula",52,"b\1\11_0002.jpg","c","0"
The Tasman Peninsula is where \JAbel Tasman\j landed in 1642. This area contains some of the most historic European examples of architecture in Tasmania.
\BDescription:\b Tasman Peninsula \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Ulverstone",53,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 9,923\i
Ulverstone is near the mouth of the Leven River 279 km north-west of Hobart. It is an increasingly popular tourist destination and is well equipped. James Fenton began farming on the Forth River in 1840 and later wrote the early \IHistory of Tasmania.\i Paling splitters were in the area from 1848 working to supply the Melbourne market, and the town, named after a town in England's Lake District, was established in 1852.
Australia's first axemen's contest was held here in the early 1870s. Dame \JEnid Lyons\j was born here in 1897.
For a children's holiday the resort is well equipped with an outer space playground and a giant water slide. South of town, many beaches provide safe swimming. There is fishing in the estuary and river and interesting walks and scenery in nearby Leith and at Turners Beach. Goat Island is a rocky outcrop off the coast which can be reached on foot at low tide. Nearby is Leven Canyon, a magnificent gorge with a number of walking tracks. The Nietta eucalypt forest is about 32 km south. Just 30 km south is the Gunns Plains Cave Reserve where you can tour the spectacular wet cave.
#
"Westbury",54,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 1,292\i
Westbury is 16 km east of Deloraine, 34 km west of \JLaunceston\j and 345 km north-west of Hobart. The town was created in 1828 and a municipality in 1863. In the original survey there were more than 200 km of streets laid out for the planned city, which was to be the gateway to north-west Tasmania. The first hotel was the Commercial, now called the Olde English Inn, licensed in 1833. Many Irish military pensioners settled in the district in the early 1850s.
Westbury, which has the air of an English village complete with village green, has been declared a historic town. Facing the green is a group of buildings built in the early 1840s, now a property managed by the National Trust and called The White House. The Olde English Inn, built in 1833, is now privately run and contains a fine antique collection.
#
"Wynyard",55,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 4,679\i
Wynyard is a small town on the coast at the mouth of the Inglis River 345 km north-west of Hobart. It is at the centre of a successful dairy farming area and is a growing tourist area. It was first called Table Cape or Ramsay but in 1857 was officially named after Major-General E.B. Wynyard, commander of the British forces in New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand. The area was settled by Europeans in the 1840s, the village was founded in 1841 and became a town in 1861. Table Cape Lighthouse was built in 1888 and the railway opened in 1912. The oldest marsupial fossil found in Australia was discovered at Fossil Bluff 7 km from town. The soft sandstone here features numerous shell fossils deposited when the level of Bass Strait was much higher.
There is good trout fishing, both fly and sea fishing. Table Cape Lookout with its light-house has superb panoramic views. About 20 km to the west is Sister Beach, which is 8 km long. It is part of Rocky Cape National Park. Also in the park is the 10 ha Birdland Native Gardens, which has information on more than 60 species of birds native to the area. You can also visit a number of waterfalls in the park.
#
"Zeehan",56,"b\1\a1_0003.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 1,132\i
Zeehan was named after \JAbel Tasman\j's ship by \JGeorge Bass\j and \JMatthew Flinders\j in 1798 and is now a classified historic town. It is 296 km north-west of Hobart and 38 km from Queenstown. The finding of silver-lead in the area in 1888 changed it from a quiet backwater to a boom town. It was Tasmania's third largest town with 29 hotels catering for a population claimed to have been 10,000 - but probably half that - at the height of the boom.
In 1890 the small exposed port of Trial Harbour was considered inadequate to handle mine traffic and a railway was built to connect Zeehan with the port at Strahan. The railway closed in 1960. Smelters were built in 1898 and closed in 1913 after the mines began to fail. The School of Mines was built in 1894 and is now a pioneers' museum with an excellent small collection of mineral specimens from the Tasmanian mines and from overseas. The Gaiety Theatre opened in 1898; it was once the largest in Australia and presented Enrico Caruso and \JDame Nellie Melba\j.
Now Zeehan is the main town servicing the reopened Renison Bell tin mine.
\BDescription:\b Henty Dunes near Zeehan \I(Random House - photo by Richard Eastwood)\i
#
!,!,!,!,!
7#
20,0
"Australian Capital Territory - Fact File",1,"b\1\flag0151.jpg","c","0"
\BMap:\b Click here for \JMap of New South Wales\j and the Australian Capital Territory.
\BCapital:\b \JCanberra\j
\BChief Minister:\b Mrs K. Carnell (LP)
\BSize:\b 2,359 square km
\BLength of Coastline:\b 35 km
\BPopulation:\b 301,000. Click here for Australian \JPopulation\j details.
\BFloral Emblem:\b Royal Bluebell
\BFaunal Emblem:\b Gang-gang Cockatoo
\BHighest Pt:\b Mt. Bimberi Peak 1,911 metres
\BFlag:\b Click here for \JAustralian Capital Territory Flag\j
\BAverage Annual Rainfall - \JCanberra\j:\b 633 mm
\BAverage Temperatures - \JCanberra\j:\b January maximum, 27.7 degrees C; July maximum, 11.1 degrees C. Click here for \JClimate of Australia\j details.
\BAbout the State:\b Click here for the story of the \JAustralian Capital Territory\j
\BDescription:\b The Australian flag was born out of a national competition when the Union Jack British flag was no longer suitable following Federation. The seven-pointed Commonwealth star in the lower left represents the six States and the Territories. The other five stars represent the Southern Cross constellation.
#
"National Coat of Arms",2,aussie.jpg,g,0
The first official Coat of Arms granted to Australia was made by King Edward VII in May 1908. It was composed of a shield of white and blue enclosing a cross of St George with five six-pointed white stars. The shield was supported by an emu and a kangaroo. The motto 'Advance Australia' was at the base.
In 1912 a number of alterations were made to the Coat of Arms and subsequently approved by King George V.
The new design included a shield with six parts, each containing a representation of the badge of a State.
The Coat of Arms belongs to the Commonwealth and is used for official business only.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Gum Tree Graphics\i
#
"Canberra City",3,"b\1\3_0041.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 307,692\i
Canberra, Australia's national capital, is a growing city of more than 300,000 people, famous for its parks, gardens and nature reserves as well as its museums, galleries, and casino. As home of the national Parliament and seat of Government, Canberra has an international flavour with almost 80 diplomatic missions, many built in their national style.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Canberra City - (2)",4,"b\1\tony33.jpg","c","0"
Although a relatively new city founded on 12 March 1913, \JCanberra\j has a number of historic buildings, dating from the early 19th century, reflecting the district's pastoral origins, as well as Aboriginal sites of significance.
The national capital area is centred around Lake Burley Griffin, named after the American architect Walter Burley Griffin, who won the international design competition for the city in 1912.
Parliament House is the reason for \JCanberra\j's existence and the focal point of the Parliamentary Triangle which was opened on May 9, 1988.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Canberra - National Gallery",6,"b\1\3_0075.jpg","c","0"
The National Gallery of Australia, located on the foreshore of Lake Burley Griffin, was opened in 1982 and houses the National Collection of art. The gallery has a continuing exhibition program, including major collections from museums and galleries overseas.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Canberra - National Library",7,"b\1\tony28.jpg","c","0"
The National Library's rich collections of books, paintings, newspapers, films, photographs, manuscripts, maps, music and oral history recordings are the most extensive in Australia.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Webster Publishing.\i
#
"Canberra - Old Parliament House",8,"b\1\tony26.jpg","c","0"
The Old Parliament House was the seat of the Australian Government from 1927 to 1988, where history was made.
\BDescription:\b \I(Webster Publishing).\i
#
"Canberra - High Court of Australia",9,"b\1\6_0065.jpg","c","0"
The High Court of Australia, situated on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin, within the Parliamentary Triangle, is one of \JCanberra\j's prestige public buildings. It is home to the highest court in the Australian Judicial System and contains three court rooms, justices offices, administrative wing and a huge seven storey high public hall.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Canberra - War Memorial",10,"b\1\tony37.jpg","c","0"
The Australian War Memorial is the nation's tribute to its 102,000 war dead, whose names are listed on the Roll of Honour. In the Hall of Memory, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier commemorates all Australians who gave their lives for their country - in the armed forces or in non-combatant roles.
The Australian National Botanic Gardens is a living museum of Australian native plants with more than 6,000 species. Features include the Rainforest Gully, the Rockery, Eucalypt Lawn, Mallee Shrubland, Aboriginal Trail and the Tasmanian Garden.
Telecom tower rises 195 metres above the summit of Black Mountain and provides 360 degree views of \JCanberra\j and the surrounding countryside.
\BDescription:\b Telecom Tower on Black Mountain \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Canberra - Royal Australian Mint",13,"b\1\tony29.jpg","c","0"
The \JRoyal Australian Mint\j produces all Australian currency. It also contains a coin museum.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Webster Publishing.\i
#
"Canberra - Australian National University",14,"b\2\5_0065.jpg","c","0"
The Australian National University is a teaching university and a centre for original research in the Humanities, the natural, physical and social sciences.
NASA's Tidbinbilla tracking station is one of three around the world. There are continuous programs in the theatrettes, memorabilia of early space missions, models and the most up-to-date space news.
\BDescription:\b Tidbinbilla Tracking Station \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Institute of Sport",16,"b\2\5_0020.jpg","c","0"
The world class facilities of the Australian Institute of Sport are used extensively by past, present and future champions.
The Institute provides facilities and assistance, including sports science and sports medicine services, to potential elite athletes.
Aboriginal people have lived in the Canberra area for at least 21,000 years. Throughout this long period, Aborigines changed their cultures and ways of life many times.
The evidence of Aboriginal history falls into three major categories. The first type consists of the history recorded by Aborigines themselves either as Dreaming stories or as oral history.
The second type, ethno-historical evidence, consists of historical records, and includes accounts of Aboriginal cultures written by white explorers or early settlers.
The third type of evidence is archaeological evidence. This includes sites associated with the history and cultures of Aboriginal people, as well as the objects found there.
\BDescription:\b \I(ANM)\i
#
"Canberra European History",18,"b\2\smh13.jpg","c","0"
Europeans first moved into the \JCanberra\j region just thirty-two years after the landing in Australia of the First Fleet in 1788. One early \JCanberra\j landowner, John Palmer, actually travelled with the First Fleet, as the purser on board the naval ship \ISirius.\i His son, George Thomas Palmer, and his brother-in-law, Robert Campbell, were to play even more vital roles in the history of \JCanberra\j.
Within seven years of the first European crossing of the \JBlue Mountains\j in 1813, men searching for grazing land for fine wool sheep had camped near the site of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, climbed Black Mountain and gazed at the site of the future Australian capital.
There was some controversy when \JCanberra\j was chosen to become the national capital of Australia in 1908.
Debate over where the capital city should be after Australia's Federation in 1901 was marked by bitter rivalry between the state capitals, particularly Sydney and Melbourne.
Sydney was always seen as the birthplace of the nation because it was the first city to be colonised, Melbourne had consistently grown in importance to become the country's political heart. The national Parliament actually sat in Melbourne after 1901 until the provisional Parliament House was opened in \JCanberra\j in 1927.
\BDescription:\b Prince of Wales dedicating foundation stone on slope of Capital Hill, before the building of Parliament House in 1920 \I(Fairfax Photo Library).\i
#
"Canberra European History - (2)",19,"b\2\smh17.jpg","c","0"
After many months of debate about where the capital should be located, a compromise was found: the capital could be in New South Wales, but had to be at least 100 miles from Sydney. And so came the birth of \JCanberra\j, a name descended from the Aboriginal word "canberry" meaning meeting place.
An international competition was held for the design of the new city in 1911. Boycotted by British architects who objected to this form of adjudication, it drew 137 design entrants and was won by Walter Burley Griffin, a 35 year-old landscape architect from Chicago.
Griffin was delighted with the chosen site because of the symmetrical arrangement of hills around the valley and because a river flowed through the middle. This meant he could plan an artificial lake.
\BDescription:\b Proposed Federal Capital Site \I(Fairfax Photo Library).\i
#
"Canberra European History - (3)",20,"b\2\6_0064.jpg","c","0"
The fact that the site had always been a sheep station at the time did not deter him. Others afterwards referred to \JCanberra\j as "a damn fine sheep run ruined". Despite this, Burley Griffin set out to create a city which he believed would stand as a tribute, not only to Parliament and the new Federation, but to all Australians.
Burley Griffin's plan focused on the man-made lake he had first envisioned and he proposed that \JCanberra\j's most important buildings would be constructed either around or very close to the lake, later named Lake Burley Griffin after its designer.
The new Parliament building is set on Capital Hill, the site on which Walter Burley Griffin originally planned a "people's building". Burley Griffin wanted a "meeting place" for Australians which would dominate a parliament building below it.
Although Burley Griffin's wish was not entirely granted, the new Parliament House more than likely meets some of his criteria for a true "people's building". It has a public theatre, exhibition area, restaurant and galleries in both the Senate and House of Representatives from which tourists can see Parliament in session.
But was it worth the billion dollars?
\BDescription:\b Opening of Parliament House \I(DFAT).\i
\BMap:\b Click here for \JMap of Northern Territory.\j
\BCapital:\b \JDarwin\j
\BChief Minister:\b S. Stone (CLP)
\BSize:\b 1,346,000 square km
\BLength of Coastline:\b 6,200 km
\BPopulation:\b 171,400. Click here for Australian \JPopulation\j details.
\BFloral Emblem:\b Sturt's Desert Rose
\BFaunal Emblems:\b Red \JKangaroo\j and Wedge-tailed Eagle
\BHighest Pt:\b Mt. Zeil 1,510 metres
\BFlag:\b Click here for \JNorthern Territory Flag\j
\BAverage Annual Rainfall - \JDarwin\j:\b 1,651 mm
\BAverage Temperatures - \JDarwin\j:\b January maximum, 31.8 degrees C; July maximum, 30.4 degrees C. Click here for \JClimate of Australia\j details.
\BAbout the Territory:\b Click here for the story of \JNorthern Territory\j
\BDescription:\b Northern Territory Flag \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Northern Territory",2,"b\2\nt.jpg","c","0"
The Northern Territory is 1.3 million square kilometres. The 'Red Centre' which is situated geographically in the centre of Australia, is the place that the Northern Territory is famous for. It is vast, remote, savagely beautiful and mostly untouched.
It is red earth and long distances, punctuated by \JAlice Springs\j, \JAyers Rock\j and \JTennant Creek\j. There are incredible gorges hidden among the folds of the MacDonnell Ranges, and you will find some of the oldest rivers in the world, such as the Finke River.
The Northern Territory is referred to in two distinct areas; the Top End (north) and the Centre (south). The Top End has a dramatic coastline, large areas of tropical woodlands, rugged escarpment country, deep gorges and rivers, pockets of lush rainforest, billabongs, and vast wetlands.
In contrast, the Centre is a low rainfall area of vibrant red sands, vast deserts and jagged mountain ranges, with the occasional waterhole or gorge.
At the Top End, temperatures vary from 16 to 34 degrees Celsius depending on the season. Up here, there are only two seasons: 'the wet' and 'the dry'. The wet season lasts from October to May.
About 170,000 people live in the Northern Territory. They live in Darwin, Katherine, \JAlice Springs\j and the tiny bush towns tracing the path of the overland telegraph line down the Stuart Highway. Others work the mining camps and cattle stations.
Many Aborigines have retained close ties with the land, remaining near their birth sites, sacred ground to which they will return to die.
\BDescription:\b An Aboriginal stockman \I(DFAT).\i
Despite early European contact, the vast distances of the interior made for agonisingly slow settlement. Dutchman Jan Carstensz arrived in 1623 in his boat the \IArnhem,\i a tiny wooden vessel which gave its name to Arnhem Land.
But long before this, Malay seafarers hunted trepang, a sea-slug still prized on Asian dinner tables, along more than 1,500 kilometres of the territory's coast, parts of which remain uncharted to this day.
The social impact of these fishermen can still be seen in the customs of the coastal Aboriginal communities, in their Dreamtime tales and in their art.
\BDescription:\b Nourlangie Rock - Kakadu \I(Peter Jarver).\i
#
"Northern Territory History - (2)",6,"b\2\pl28.jpg","c","0"
European links with the territory remained tenuous until the 19th century when \JMatthew Flinders\j charted sections of the coast on his 1803 circumnavigation of Australia.
The colonials behaved with all the social grace and flair for violence of the latter-day Spanish conquistadors. Aboriginal men were killed, the women were raped and children were scared off into the bush in a chapter of Australian history largely forgotten in social studies classes.
French interference and rapid spread of Dutch trade hastened the first attempt at permanent British settlement. Captain Gordon Bremer took possession for Britain (as part of the colony of New South Wales) of that part of the country between 135 degrees and 129 degrees longitude, still the Northern Territory's western boundary.
The settlement of Port Essington, launched on 20 September 1824, was short-lived. After three days, it was moved to Fort Dundas on Melville Island. Failure turned to farce as this settlement was also scrapped, along with the following attempt at settlement at Raffles Bay.
\BDescription:\b \JMatthew Flinders\j circumnavigation of Australia \I(Peter Luck).\i
#
"Northern Territory History - (3)",7,"b\2\pl56.jpg","c","0"
No further attempt was made until Bremer and Captain Owen Stanley selected a site at Port Essington and named it Victoria. Like its predecessors, the new settlement languished and was finally abandoned in 1849.
Ludwig Leichhardt was the first of the overland explorers. In 1844, he set out from Brisbane and trekked around the Gulf of Carpentaria in search of an overland route to Port Essington - a journey which covered more than 5,000 kilometres and lasted more than 14 months.
But it was John MacDouall Stuart who opened up the territory in the 1840s and 50s. By 1862, he had conquered the continent from north to south. In so doing, Stuart and the pastoralists paved the way for South Australia's claim over the land, which at this stage was still part of New South Wales.
\BDescription:\b Statue of John McDouall \I(Peter Luck).\i
#
"Northern Territory History - (4)",8,"b\2\7_0039.jpg","c","0"
In 1863, the British gave the land to South Australia. The territory's first government resident, Colonel Boyle Travers Finniss, was appointed in 1864 and sent to establish a northern gateway at the mouth of the Adelaide River.
This attempt was abandoned two years later and it was not until Surveyor General George Goyder arrived in 1869 that a successful site was established at Palmerston in Port Darwin. Palmerston survived, and under the federal government which took control in 1811, it became Darwin, the territory's capital, now with a population of 73,000.
\BDescription:\b Darwin today \I(Peter Jarver).\i
#
"Northern Territory History - (5)",9,"b\2\pl65.jpg","c","0"
The Northern Territory attained self-government on 1 July 1978, and since then a new wave of hope has embraced this savage environment. Mining and tourism are now riding high on the crest of an economic boom.
The Overland Telegraph Line was completed in 1872. It was during the building of this communications line that gold fever struck the territory. The Chinese influence from the goldrush days is still apparent around Pine Creek and Adelaide River.
\BDescription:\b Overland telegraph station outside \JAlice Springs\j \I(Peter Luck).\i
Aboriginal cultures of the centre region have been nurtured by the distance and isolation that is the very essence of the Red Centre. Aborigines live in either the urban environment of \JAlice Springs\j or in one of the many small townships scattered throughout Central Australia.
Aborigines have a wealth of accumulated knowledge, which encompasses the history, the understanding and the knowledge of an ancient country.
Permission to visit Aboriginal communities must be obtained from the Land Council offices in Darwin, \JAlice Springs\j or the Tiwi Islands.
\BDescription:\b Barunga Festival near Katherine \I(Peter Jarver).\i
The Aborigines are a people of two times. They have accepted some of the ways of the 20th century while retaining a unique and ancient culture. It is generally accepted that the first Aborigines arrived in Australia about 40,000 years ago, though some researchers argue that the first arrivals could have crossed from Asia about 120,000 years ago.
Since 1829, when the British declared Australia 'an unoccupied waste', the number of Aborigines has declined dramatically.
Their traditional lifeline was severed by the encroaching pastoral industry, early massacres and an abysmal standard of living. Women were bought and sold for alcohol and opium, and the family unit was destroyed when the government of the day decided to split up mixed families.
Between the 1880s and 1950s, thousands of half-caste and part-Aborigines were taken from their parents to be trained in missions, compounds and special schools.
\BDescription:\b Wardaman people paintings \I(Peter Jarver).\i
In 1962, all Aborigines received the right to vote. In 1964, they became full Australian citizens and restrictions on alcohol consumption and cohabitation were removed.
In the same year, the Pastoral Award stipulated that all Aboriginal stockmen were sacked. The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act recognised in 1976 the traditional ownership of Aboriginal reserves and the right of Aborigines to apply for title over freehold Crown land.
Today, about 50% of the Northern Territory is either owned by Aborigines or subject to Aboriginal land claims.
\BDescription:\b Aboriginal Rangers - Arnhem Land \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Adelaide River",13,"0","g","0"
\IPopulation: 356\i
Adelaide River played an important role during the war. After the bombing raid on Darwin, 19th February 1942, Adelaide River became the centre of military activity as the Australian and American headquarters were relocated there, along with camps, hospitals and Army farms.
#
"Alice Springs",14,"b\2\2_0002.jpg","f","0"
\IPopulation: 20,000\i
Alice Springs originated, as many of the towns along the Stuart Highway did, through the need for an overland telegraph to assist Australia with its communications to the world.
Today the Historical Reserve based around the Old Telegraph Station is the Territory's finest existing dedication to the engineering feat and manpower associated with the inception of the telegraph line.
\JAlice Springs\j has entered the world's consciousness via novels, television and movies. In the face of great odds it has flourished far from the 'civilised' east coast purely upon its own will to survive, with precious very little support from the harsh and breathtaking landscape.
Some of the surrounding natural wonders include Standley Chasm, Ellery Creek Big Hole, Redbank, Glen Helen and Ormiston Gorges.
Aboriginal people of Central Australia have had to face the challenge of maintaining their cultural traditions amid an increasingly changing cross-cultural world, and this is reflected in their art and craft.
Desert arts and crafts are vibrant, diverse and reflect artistic expression closely linked to traditional stories, designs, motifs, techniques, country, special sites and religion.
They embrace traditional and contemporary media including wooden weapons, carvings, sand painting, textiles and pottery which in recent decades have been enthusiastically acclaimed around the world.
Aboriginal people have been the custodians of this land for 40,000 years or more. They have the understanding and the knowledge of a harsh country.
\BDescription:\b Women of the Lajamanu clan perform a dance sequence at Barunga \I(Peter Jarver).\i
#
"Arnhem Land",16,6_0040.jpg,c,0
\IPopulation: 1,293\i
Kakadu's ancient neighbour - Arnhem Land, covers a further 94,000 square kilometres. Arnhem Land is home to many Aboriginal clan groups with as many as 40 separate languages spoken. It is a special area of ancient traditions and culture with an untouched landscape.
Because the land is protected and the home of many Aboriginal people, access is restricted and a permit for entry is required.
Escarpments, deep gorges and gullies, forest woodlands, floodplains, crocodile inhabited rivers and tranquil billabongs, all provide a natural haven for massive numbers of some of Australia's most unique flora and fauna.
\BDescription:\b Arnhem Land Coast \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Arnhem Land - (2)",17,"b\2\7_0019.jpg","c","0"
Its western boundary is formed by an escarpment, rising to 300 metres above the forest woodlands and floodplains.
Further east, the escarpment falls to extensive floodplains, crossed by crocodile-inhabited rivers and open woodlands that host many unique flora and fauna resources.
The escarpment has been heavily eroded with deep gorges and gullies that flood during the monsoon season but become tranquil billabongs during the dry winter months of May to September.
The escarpment and its outliers have numerous caves and rock overhangs that have provided seasonal shelter for upwards of 2,100 generations of the ancestors of today's custodians of this area of the Territory. Many of the shelters record the stories of creation and many other aspects of the people's daily lives.
In the rock shelters the famous 'X-ray' artstyle, so called because of the attention given to internal details, is believed to have reached its highest level of expression.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Peter Jarver.\i
#
"Ayers Rock",18,"b\2\7_0066.jpg","c","0"
Aboriginal history and culture stretches back in time for thousands of years. For Aborigines, Uluru (Ayers Rock) is at the very core of their existence. Uluru is situated in Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park, and rises 318 metres with a circumference of 8 kilometres. It is considered to be one of the natural wonders of the world.
Aboriginal art of the region - the most commonly recognised being the 'dot' painting style of the Western Desert people, is one of the most recognisable artistic styles of the Aboriginal people.
\BDescription:\b The rising sun causes the Rock to glow brilliantly and at the same time highlights its layered nature \I(Peter Jarver).\i
#
"Ayers Rock - (2)",19,"b\2\7_0064.jpg","c","0"
Depending on the time of day, position of the sun and atmospheric conditions, Uluru's vast build metamorphoses through various shades, from glowing reds and soft oranges to lilacs.
European presence in the Centre has not been long, but ever since Uluru was called '\JAyers Rock\j' and described by explorer W.C. Gosse as 'the most wonderful natural feature I have seen', the region has developed an aura of fascination for travellers the world over.
Back in the 19th century, camels were just about the only way to reach the Centre.
Just 80 km north of Darwin lie Bathurst and Melville Islands, otherwise known as Tiwi Islands. The home of the Tiwi, they have lived on these islands for thousands of years with apparently little contact with mainland Aboriginal people.
In 1911 the Catholic Church established a mission on Bathurst Island. Today, Nguiu is the main township and a progressive community of approximately 1,200 people. Milikapiti and Pularumpi are the two principal communities on Melville Island. Both have a population of 300.
Together Bathurst and Melville islands cover approximately 8,000 sq. kilometres. In fact, Melville Island is the second largest island off the Australian coast, only Tasmania is larger.
In 1824, near where Pularumpi stands today, it became the location of Fort Dundas, the first European settlement in north Australia. Bathurst Island's history includes being the first Australian soil to be strafed by enemy aircraft. Tiwi, Matthias Ulungura, captured the first Japanese prisoner of war, a pilot who crashed on Melville Island. All this took place in 1942.
\BDescription:\b The Tiwi people's Art Centre on Bathurst Island \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Daly Waters",21,"b\2\pl86.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 298\i
Daly Waters has the distinction of being Australia's first international airfield, when in the 1930s it was a refuelling stop for QANTAS.
The famous Daly Waters Pub began its life at that time to service the airline passengers. This historic pub claims to be the oldest in the Territory with its liquor licence being continuous since 1893.
\BDescription:\b \I(Peter Luck)\i
#
"Darwin",22,"b\2\7_0041.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: 69,081\i
Darwin's population is approximately 78,000. Closer to Jakarta than it is to any other state capital, Darwin is the most ethnically diverse city in Australia, with a history of development dating back to Aboriginal habitation and then much later to Chinese, South-east Asian and European migration. The mix of nations (more than 70) contributes greatly to the city's social fabric.
Surrounded on three sides by water, Darwin's harbour is twice the size of Sydney Harbour.
\BDescription:\b Fannie Bay in Darwin is home to the sailing fraternity during the many months of excellent yachting weather \I(Peter Jarver).\i
#
"Darwin - (2)",23,"b\2\7_0040.jpg","c","0"
Isolated atop Australia's sunbleached north where the outback meets the Arafura Sea, Darwin is the country's fastest growing capital. It is a marriage of slick city architecture and an ancient, rugged land.
The Chinese still own vast portions of the town, but the central business district, like most of the population, moved to the northern suburbs following Cyclone Tracy. The period since has been one of unprecedented growth. In 1987, the population reached 76,400.
\BDescription:\b Darwin's Central Business District \I(Peter Jarver).\i
#
"Darwin - (3)",24,"b\2\7_0013.jpg","c","0"
More lightning flashes are recorded at Darwin Airport than anywhere else in the world. Between October and December, some 40,000 flashes are usual, compared with about 11,500 in Brisbane and 30,000 in the Florida Keys.
The temperature ranges between 18 and 33 degrees Celsius which probably contributes to the statistic of Darwin ranking high among the world's beer-drinking capitals.
\BDescription:\b An afternoon storm discharges a dramatic lightning strike to the sea close to Darwin \I(Peter Jarver)\i.
#
"Darwin - History",25,"b\2\7_0043.jpg","f","0"
Darwin's history includes being bombed in WWII, and being totally devastated by Cyclone Tracy in 1974.
The coastal regions of the Top End have long welcomed visitors to their shores. Macassans from Indonesia traded with coastal Aborigines for hundreds of years. Then in the 1870s, the discovery of gold drew substantial numbers of Chinese settlers.
Darwin played a frontline role in World War II and commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of its bombing in 1992. More than 300 people died in the 60 Japanese air raids.
Natural disasters have also struck, with equally devastating effects. On Christmas Eve, 1974, Cyclone Tracy all but destroyed the town. More than 100 people died, and many more were missing. And during the three months that followed, the population fell from 47,000 to 25,000 as a result of the country's biggest peacetime evacuation.
\BDescription:\b The first courthouse and police station in the Northern Territory were built in Darwin in 1884. Used as naval headquarters from 1924 they now serve as the Administrator's office. \I(Peter Jarver).\i
Aborigines comprise more than 25% of the population of the Northern Territory, and one in three non-Aboriginal territorians is born overseas. Many of Darwin's Aborigines still look to the harbour and the bush to supplement their diet.
Aboriginal communities are scattered throughout the north. Some of the better known, such as the Tiwi people, live on Bathurst and Melville Islands.
\BDescription:\b A Darwinian Aboriginal resident \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Gulf Region",27,"b\2\7_0022.jpg","c","0"
The McArthur River is the heart of this region and alive with fish, birdlife and crocodiles. The region's two primary industries are cattle and fishing.
\BDescription:\b A young saltwater crocodile \I(Peter Jarver).\i
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"Kakadu",28,"b\2\7_0055.jpg","c","0"
Kakadu National Park encapsulates 19,000 square kilometres, with incredible natural and cultural treasures that have allowed it to be classified as a World Heritage sight.
It has been described as an area of 'outstanding universal value' in the aspects of history, science, anthropology, aesthetics and conservation. Aboriginal people and their culture have thrived there for 60,000 years.
The \IGagadju\i are the local Aboriginal traditional owners of much of the region. The tradition of painting on protected rock surfaces reached its height in this area and two of Kakadu's most renowned rock formations feature extensive galleries of paintings. Ubirr houses some of the world's oldest surviving paintings.
The seasons in this zone are usually described as wet or dry, but for the Aboriginal people of the region there are six. Each season is heralded by changes in the weather, wildlife activity and landscape; some are subtle while others are dramatic.
\BDescription:\b Kakadu \I(Peter Jarver).\i
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"Kakadu - (2)",29,"b\2\7_0054.jpg","c","0"
Over 200 kilometres from north to south and 100 kilometres east to west, Kakadu includes approximately 20,000 square kilometres of the Alligator Rivers Region in the tropical north of Australia.
Kakadu is unique because almost the entire drainage basin of a large river (the South Alligator River) lies within the boundaries of a national park; and within this basin are found most of the major habitat types of Australia's Top End.
From the range of habitats stems a remarkable abundance and variety of plants and animals. Many are rare or occur nowhere else, and species new to science continue to be discovered.
The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has Properties judged to be of outstanding universal value. Kakadu is unusual in that it qualified for World Heritage listing on the basis of both its natural and its cultural values.
\BDescription:\b Twin Falls in Kakadu National Park \I(Peter Jarver).\i
#
"Kakadu - (3)",30,"b\2\5_0003.jpg","c","0"
Kakadu is one of the few places where the original inhabitants maintain personal and spiritual links with traditional lands.
There is firm scientific evidence that the first Australians have lived with the land that is Kakadu for at least 25,000 years and possibly 40,000 to 50,000 years. Aboriginal people know they have been part of the land from the beginning; since legendary ancestors in human and animal form fashioned the landscape and all living things.
Kakadu contains a wealth of archaeological and rock art sites which provide insights into Aboriginal culture and the environmental changes witnessed through the generations.
Aboriginal people are willing to share their knowledge and understanding of the land in the hope that visitors will learn to appreciate the importance of Kakadu and share the responsibility for its protection.
\BDescription:\b Aboriginal man in preparation for a corroboree \I(DFAT).\i
#
"Kakadu - (4)",31,"b\2\6_0027.jpg","c","0"
Along the coast and river estuaries, mangroves mark the tidal zone where plants and animals contend with exposure to salt. About 20 species of mangroves occur in Kakadu. Mangrove forests are the nurseries for many fish including Barramundi.
At Point Farewell at the mouth of the East Alligator River, lines of different species of mangroves grow according to their tolerance to inundation by tidal salt water.
\BDescription:\b The Wetlands of Kakadu \I(DFAT).\i
Aboriginal people of the region recognise an annual cycle of at least six seasons. Gunumeleng is the pre-monsoon season of hot weather which becomes more and more humid. Along the creeks the air is heavy with the scent of blossoming paperbark trees which in the evenings attract colonies of feeding fruit bats.
Thunderstorms build in the afternoons and scattered showers bring a tinge of green to the parched earth. As the streams begin to run, 'old water' washes into the permanent billabongs from stagnating pools, causing localised fish kills.
Waterbirds disperse as surface water and new growth becomes more widespread. Barramundi move out of the waterholes, and downstream to the estuaries. It is time for people to move camp from the floodplain, to shelter from the violent storms of the wet season.
\BDescription:\b Paperbark trees in a Kakadu swamp \I(Peter Jarver).\i
Kakadu's most renowned scenic wonders are the Nourlangie Rock and Ubirr Rock art galleries, Yellow Waters billabong, the sandstone escarpment, and the Jim Jim and Twin waterfalls which only flow after the rains in the summer season.
The gateway to the Gulf and Victoria River regions, and just 106 kilometres away from the Never Never land of Mataranka, Katherine is a thriving town with a population of 9,200 people.
Katherine is undergoing dramatic changes as the town prepares to be invaded by the Australian Air Force. Hundreds of new homes, new schools, hospitals and playing fields are springing from the red dust on the edge of town.
Katherine Gorge, 30 km away from Katherine's town centre, is part of Nitmuluk National Park and is 13 separate gorges of the extended system through which the Katherine River flows. The sheer red cliffs on either side of this river change colour throughout the course of the day. At dawn and dusk, they glow intense shimmering shades of orange and red.
With its steep-sided ravines, flowing waterways and Aboriginal art, it is a peaceful haven in the dry season. In the wet season, the quiet gorge becomes a steep mountain track of rapids throwing themselves off the cliff faces and diving into ravines.
The Aboriginal connection with the Dreamtime and ancient traditions is evident in this area, in particular at Corroboree Rock and Emily and Jessie Gaps.
The caterpillar beings of Anthwerrke originated in Emily Gap, possibly the most important place in the East MacDonnell region. These creative ancestors of the Arrernte people helped shape the landscape of \JAlice Springs\j.
The European history of the East MacDonnells presents itself both at the Arltunga Historical Reserve, once the site of a goldrush, and at Ruby Gorge Nature Park, where miners once mistook garnets for rubies.
The West MacDonnell Ranges are considered to be among the oldest in the world. This is where prehistoric creatures once roamed. The Finke River, regarded scientifically as the oldest water course in the world, winds gently through the spine of a mountain and forms permanent waterholes where, according to the Western Aranda, the first human being was born.
These ranges hide a wealth of gorges and waterholes within its crags and curves. Initial impressions suggest a harsh, dry landscape where rain rarely falls but closer inspection reveals a wealth of lush natural water sources and a surprising array of wildlife.
\BDescription:\b Western MacDonnell Ranges \I(Peter Jarver).\i
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"Mataranka",37,"b\3\mel13.jpg","c","0"
\IPopulation: less than 200\i
Situated 110 km south of Katherine, Mataranka is known as the capital of the Never Never country. It is said that those who live in and love the area can never leave it. Jeannie Gunn made the area famous in her book \IWe of the Never Never\i.
\BMataranka Thermal Pool\b
Found in Elsey National Park this is the Territory's biggest bath, Mataranka Thermal Pool. This natural pool is a constant 34 degrees Celsius and flows 30.5 million litres each day. You are able to swim in the pool and people do so all year round. The surrounding rainforest feeds from the thermal spring's deep source.
\BDescription:\b Mataranka Thermal Pool \I(Webster Publishing).\i
#
"Olgas",38,"b\3\7_0069.jpg","c","0"
Approximately 50 kilometres from \JAyers Rock\j is Mt. Olga/Kata Tjuta (meaning 'many heads'), another significant feature of Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park. The tallest peak, Mt. Olga, is more than 200 metres taller than Uluru.
\BDescription:\b The Olgas (Kata-Tjuta) \I(Peter Jarver).\i
The Simpson Desert is east of \JAlice Springs\j beyond the MacDonnell Ranges. The term 'desert' is somewhat misleading as the Simpson is filled with colour and wildlife. This is a region alive with vegetation and rocky landmarks as well as a range of animals including wild camels, inquisitive emus and dingoes.
Various Aboriginal communities live throughout the desert, from Santa Teresa to Ampilitwatja, Titjikala to Apatula. These Aborigines maintain the integrity of their cultures, while keeping an eye on the environment.
\JTennant Creek\j has a rich mining history and a diverse Aboriginal and European culture. The township has a population of 3,500.
The creek was discovered by \JJohn McDouall Stuart\j in 1860 and named after John Tennant of Port Lincoln in South Australia. It became the site for the Overland Telegraph Station, built in 1872.
Last century is one of the most important points for the Telegraph Line. The original building still stands and is protected within a permanent reserve. However, it was not until gold was discovered in the area in the early 1930s, that the township of \JTennant Creek\j sprang up seven miles south of the creek itself.
The population in the area then grew steadily with Australia's 'Last Great Goldrush'. Gold has played a pivotal role in \JTennant Creek\j ever since, with some of Australia's richest gold mines including the Poseidon owned 'White Devil' mine, currently Australia's highest-grade gold supplier.
\JTennant Creek\j is an outback town in the heart of the Barkly Region. One of the biggest industries in the area is gold mining.
Natural attractions of the area include The Pebbles and the Devils Marbles.
The Devils Marbles are a collection of precariously balanced gigantic granite boulders. Just 104 km south of \JTennant Creek\j, Aboriginal mythology says they are the 'Eggs of the Rainbow Serpent'.
The Victoria River starts at Kalkarinji in the south and meanders to the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. The colours here are different to other territory landscapes with a dominance of blues and purples. The Victoria River was discovered by the explorer Gregory and navigated by Stokes in the 1800s. The site was named after Queen Victoria by Capt J. C. Wickham of the \IBeagle,\i who reached here in 1839.
Boat cruises are available on the Victoria River.
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"External Territories",1,"0","g","0"
The external territories of Australia are: Norfolk Island; the Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands; the Australian Antarctic Territory; The Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands; the Territory of Christmas Island; the Coral Sea Islands Territory and the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands.
#
"Jervis Bay Territory",2,"b\3\jervis2.jpg","c","sail10"
\IPopulation: 5,000\i
The Jervis Bay Territory comprises 70 square kilometres on the southern shore of Jervis Bay, about 195 kilometres south of Sydney. The Territory was accepted by the Commonwealth in 1915 under the \IJervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act 1909\i which stated that the seat of government (the Australian Capital Territory) should have access to the sea.
Eighty per cent of the Territory is National Park with the balance consisting of land used for Defence purposes, Aboriginal land at Wreck Bay, a few private leases and other Commonwealth land.
\BDescription:\b Jervis Bay \I(Readers Digest)\i
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"Booderee National Park (formerly Jervis Bay NP)",3,jervis.jpg,c,0
\IFormerly Jervis Bay National Park\i
Booderee National Park was renamed in early 1997 after the Federal Government handed it back to its traditional owners.
On 4 March 1992, 6,300 hectares of Territory land and waters was proclaimed as a national park under the \INational Parks and Wildlife Act 1975.\i The bulk of this land was previously known as Jervis Bay Nature Reserve and was supplemented with lands previously managed in sympathy with the reserved area.
Approximately 700,000 people visit this park each year. It has a unique natural environment, including a richly diverse natural vegetative cover, relatively undisturbed plant communities supporting varied natural fauna, attractive recreational areas and pristine marine waters.
The most common activities undertaken in the Territory include camping, bushwalking, diving and boating.
\BDescription:\b Booderee National Park (formerly Jervis Bay National Park \I(Readers Digest)\i.
#
"Norfolk Island As a Territory",4,"a\3\frost1.jpg","c","0"
Norfolk Island, discovered by \JCaptain Cook\j in 1774, is situated approximately in latitude 29 degrees 02'S, longitude 167 degrees 57'E, 1,676 kilometres east of Sydney. Its total area is approximately 3,455 hectares, the island being about 8 kilometres long and 5 kilometres wide.
The coastline which is 32 kilometres long, consists of almost inacessible cliffs rising from the waters edge, except at Kingston in the south and the landing place at Cascade on the northern side.
The climate is equable, the average daily maximum temperature varying between 16 degrees C and 28 degrees C, and the average annual rainfall is 1,350 millimetres. The resident population is about 2,000.
The island served as a penal station from 1788 to 1814 and from 1825 to 1855. In 1856, 194 descendants of the Bounty mutineers were transferred from Pitcairn Island.
The island's major economic activity is tourism. Regular air services to the island are available for those who seek a quiet holiday in surroundings of beauty and historic interest.
\BDescription:\b Norfolk Island \I(Alan Frost)\i
#
"Heard Island and McDonald Islands",5,1_0006.jpg,g,0
Heard Island, about 43 kilometres long and 20 kilometres wide, is the largest of a group of southern Indian Ocean islands about 4,100 kilometres south-west of Fremantle.
The first landing on Heard Island was in 1955. Permanent ice covers almost the entire island and seals, seabirds and penguins are abundant. The McDonald Islands group is not permanently covered with snow and these islands, too, are home to many seals, seabirds and penguins.
In December 1947, the first of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) set up a scientific station on Heard Island. Various scientific and meteorological investigations were conducted until the station was closed in March 1955 following the establishment of Mawson station on the Antarctic mainland.
The McDonald Islands are 43 kilometres to the west of Heard Island. They are small, rocky and precipitous. The first known landing on McDonald Island, the largest of the group of that name, was by ANARE expeditioners on 27 January 1971.
Heard Island is widely regarded as one of the last Antarctic habitats remaining free of introduced organisms and is thus of significance as a benchmark for ecological studies. In January 1988, introduction of the Environment Protection and Management Ordinance under the \IHeard Island and McDonald Islands Act 1953\i put in place the framework for sustained conservation of the islands.
In 1990 the Territory was nominated by Australia for consideration by the World Heritage Committee for World Heritage listing.
#
"Australian Antarctic - Australian Authority",6,"a\6\31_0017.jpg","c","paddle0"
An Imperial Order in Council of 7 February 1993 placed under Australian authority all the territories and islands, other than the French Terre Adelie, south of 60 degrees S latitude and between 45 degrees E and 160 degrees E longitude, a total land area of 5.8 million square kilometres, or about the size of Australia less Queensland.
The Order came into force with a proclamation issued by the Governor-General on 24 August 1936, after the passage of the \IAustralian Antarctic Territory Acceptance Act 1933.\i
The boundaries of Terre Adelie were definitively fixed by a French decree of 1 April 1938 as the islands and territories south of 60 degrees S latitude and between 136 degrees E and 142 degrees E longitude.
\BDescription:\b Penguins are common in the Antarctic \I(David Ireland)\i
#
"Australian Antarctic - Mawson and Davis",7,31_0013.jpg,c,sealion0
On 13 February 1954, Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions established the first permanent Australian Antarctic station on MacRobertson Land at latitude 67 degrees 36'S and longitude 62 degrees 53'E. The station was named Mawson in honour of the Australian Antarctic pioneer Sir Douglas Mawson.
Mawson is the longest continuously operating station in Antarctica. Studies on cosmic ray physics, climate change, geomagnetism, seismology, meteorology, atmosphere physics, glaciology and geology are conducted in and around Mawson.
Seabirds such as emperor and Adelie penguins, Antarctic petrels, snow petrels, cape petrels, southern giant petrels, Wilson's storm petrels and Antarctic fulmars can be found here in abundance.
Temperatures at Mawson can range from 10║ C in January to -36║ C in winter.
A second Australian continental station was established in 1957 at latitude 68 degrees 35'S and longitude 77 degrees 58'E and was named Davis to commemorate Captain John King Davis, second-in-command of two of Mawson's expeditions and master of several famous Antarctic ships.
Davis is situated south of Mawson in the Vestfold Hills - the largest ice-free area in Antarctica. Penguins, elephant seals and Weddell seals are common to this area.
Studies conducted at Davis include palaeontology, botany, geomagnetism, geology, snowdrift observation, atmosphere physics, geomorphology, biology, climate change and meteorology.
\BDescription:\b Seals are common in the Antarctic \I(David Ireland)\i
On 4 February 1959, Australia accepted from the United States Government custody of Wilkes station which had been established two years earlier at latitude 66 degrees 17'S and longitude 110 degrees 32'E.
Wilkes was subject to inundation by snow and ice and was closed on 19 February 1969 when activities were transferred to Casey, a new station built nearby.
Casey was named in honour of Lord Casey, former Governor-General of Australia, in recognition of his long association with Australia's Antarctic effort.
Casey is right on the edge of the huge Antartic ice cap and is an area of rocky islands and peninsulas. An Antarctic Meteorological Centre was established at Casey in 1993. This provides satellite images to the World Meteorological Centre in Melbourne and is the centre for climate research.
\BDescription:\b Seal swimming underwater \I(David Ireland)\i
#
"Australian Antarctic - Science",9,1_0006.jpg,c,0
Australian science in Antarctica deals mainly with the Antarctic ecosystem, the region's natural phenomena, and atmospheric and space studies. Disciplines include marine science, land-based biology, meteorology, cosmic ray physics, upper atmosphere physics, glaciology and earth sciences.
In addition to its three permanent continental stations (a fourth permanent station is on the Tasmanian territory of Macquarie Island), Australia conducts its Antarctic science from summer bases at Bechervaise Island near Mawson; Edgeworth David in the Bunger Hills; Scullin Monolith, Marine Plain in the Vestfold Hills; Law Base in the Larsemann Hills; Dovers on the shores of Beaver Lake; Magnetic Island; Rauer Islands; Sansom Island; and Commonwealth Bay.
The summer bases consist of fibreglass huts that are easily moved and reassembled on different sites.
The number of people on the continental territory varies from about 70 in winter to 200 in summer.
In 1981-82, a program for redeveloping Australia's Antarctic stations began. It is now well advanced and the first of the new stations to be completed - Casey - was opened in 1988.
Specific legislation has been enacted which puts into effect Australia's obligations under various international agreements, many of which relate to environment protection. Adoption of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty in October 1991 enabled a comprehensive environment protection regime for all Antarctica to be put in place. Under the Protocol, Antarctica has been designated a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science.
\BDescription:\b Penguins are popular in the Antarctic \I(David Ireland)\i
#
"Cocos (Keeling) Islands",12,"0","g","0"
The Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands comprises a group of 27 small coral islands in two separate atolls in the Indian Ocean, 2,768 kilometres north-west of Perth.
The Territory's administrative community, airport and animal quarantine station are located on West Island, the largest island, about 10 kilometres long. The Cocos Malay community lives on Home Island. The main atoll is low-lying, flat, thickly covered by coconut palms and surrounds a lagoon which has an anchorage in the northern part but which is extremely difficult for navigation.
The climate is equable and pleasant, usually being under the influence of the south-east trade winds for about nine months of the year. However, the winds vary at times and meteorological reports from the Territory are particularly valuable for those engaged in forecasting for the eastern Indian Ocean. The temperature varies between 21 degrees C and 32 degrees C, and the average yearly rainfall is 1,998 millimetres. There are occasional violent storms.
The islands were discovered in 1609 by Captain William Keeling of the East India Company, but were uninhabited until Alexander Hare and John Clunies-Ross established small settlements at different points on the main atoll in 1826 and 1827 respectively. Clunies-Ross secured sole possession in 1831 and the islands were declared part of the British Dominions in 1857.
In 1878, responsibility for the supervision of the islands was transferred to the Government of Ceylon and eight years later, to the Government of the Straits Settlements.
In 1903, the islands were incorportated in the Settlement of Singapore but were attached again to Ceylon during World War II while Singapore was under Japanese occupation.
By mutual agreement between the British and Australian Governments and confirmed by complementary legislation, the islands became an Australian territory in 1955. The Australian Government purchased the Clunies-Ross interests in the Territory in 1978, except for the family home and grounds.
#
"Christmas Island",13,"b\3\dfat61.jpg","c","0"
Christmas Island is an isolated peak situated in the Indian Ocean, latitude 10 degrees 25'S, longitude 105 degrees 40'E, 2,623 kilometres north-west of Perth. Christmas Island covers an area of about 135 square kilometres. It consists of a central plateau varying in height from 250 metres above sea level at the eastern side of the island to 150 metres on the western side.
The climate is tropical, with prevailing winds coming from the south-east to east-south-east from May to December, and occasionally shifting round to between north and west from December to April (the wet season). The average yearly rainfall is 2,673 millimetres with a marked summer incidence.
The 1991 population count of the island was 1,275. The majority are chinese with the remainder being mostly Malays and Europeans. There is no indigenous population.
\BDescription:\b A scene on Christmas Island \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Coral Sea Islands Territory",14,"0","g","0"
The Coral Sea Islands Territory is situated east of Queensland between the \JGreat Barrier Reef\j and longitude 156 degrees 06'E and between latitudes 12 degrees and 24 degrees S. The Territory comprises all the islands in a sea area of approximately 780,000 square kilometres. The islands are largely formed of sand and coral. Some have grass or scrub cover, but most are extremely small, with no permanent fresh water.
A meteorological station, staffed by four people, has operated on Willis Island since 1921. The remaining islands are uninhabited. There are occasional tropical cyclones in the area.
Six species of sea turtle nest in the Coral Sea Islands Territory, including the largest species in the world, \IDermochelys coriacea\i which is regarded as one of the most endangered of the world's sea turtles. There are at least 24 bird species in the Territory; a number of these species are protected under Australia-Japan and Australia-China agreements on endangered and migratory birds.
In 1982, the Lihou Reef and Coringa-Herald National Nature Reserves were declared to protect the wildlife in the Territory.
#
"Ashmore and Cartier Islands",15,"b\3\16_0038.jpg","c","0"
Ashmore Islands (known as Middle, East and West Islands) and Cartier Island are situated in the Indian Ocean some 850 to 790 kilometres west of Darwin. The islands lie at the outer edge of the continental shelf. They are small and low and are composed of coral and sand.
Vegetation consists mainly of grass. The islands have no permanent inhabitants.
Birdlife is plentiful on the islands of Ashmore Reef. Turtles are plentiful at certain times of the year and beche-de-mer are abundant. In recognition of the environmental significance of the area, the Reef was in 1983 given the status of a national nature reserve under the \INational Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975.\i
\BDescription:\b Turtles are plentiful here at certain times of the year \I(QLD Dept Environmental Heritage)\i
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8,0
"Map of Australia",1,austmap.jpg,e,0
#
"Map of New South Wales",2,"b\3\nswmap.wpf","c","0"
To hide this text box, and get a good look at this map, either click the close button at the top right-hand corner of this text box, or select the \BHide Text\b button from the Toolbar.
The scrollbars at the bottom and sides of this map allow you to move the map around. To zoom in on the map, hold down the Shift key and click on the map. To zoom back out, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the map.
#
"Map of Victoria",3,"b\3\vicmap.wpf","c","0"
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The scrollbars at the bottom and sides of this map allow you to move the map around. To zoom in on the map, hold down the Shift key and click on the map. To zoom back out, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the map.
#
"Map of Queensland",4,"b\3\qldmap.wpf","c","0"
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The scrollbars at the bottom and sides of this map allow you to move the map around. To zoom in on the map, hold down the Shift key and click on the map. To zoom back out, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the map.
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"Map of South Australia",5,"b\3\samap.wpf","c","0"
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The scrollbars at the bottom and sides of this map allow you to move the map around. To zoom in on the map, hold down the Shift key and click on the map. To zoom back out, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the map.
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"Map of Western Australia",6,"b\3\wamap.wpf","c","0"
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The scrollbars at the bottom and sides of this map allow you to move the map around. To zoom in on the map, hold down the Shift key and click on the map. To zoom back out, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the map.
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"Map of Tasmania",7,"b\3\tasmap.wpf","c","0"
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The scrollbars at the bottom and sides of this map allow you to move the map around. To zoom in on the map, hold down the Shift key and click on the map. To zoom back out, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the map.
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"Map of Northern Territory",8,"b\3\ntmap.wpf","c","0"
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The scrollbars at the bottom and sides of this map allow you to move the map around. To zoom in on the map, hold down the Shift key and click on the map. To zoom back out, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the map.
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"Australian World Heritage Information",1,"b\3\32140032.jpg","c","0"
\BQ. What is World Heritage?
A\b. The term World Heritage is applied to sites of outstanding universal natural or cultural significance which are included on the World Heritage List.
World Heritage listing is a recognition by the international community that an area is such an outstanding example of the world's natural or cultural heritage, that its conservation is of concern to all people. As at December 1995 there were 469 World Heritage properties on the World Heritage List. Of these, 350 were listed for their cultural heritage values, 102 were listed for their natural heritage values, and 17 were listed for both cultural and natural heritage values.
The World Heritage List is administered under the World Heritage Convention by the World Heritage Committee on behalf of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Paris.
\BQ. What makes an area worthy of World Heritage listing?
A.\b In order to qualify for inclusion on the World Heritage List, a nominated area must be of great universal significance and meet specific criteria for outstanding natural and/or cultural values.
Natural World Heritage areas may represent a major stage of the earth's history; or be outstanding examples of ongoing ecological and biological processes; or contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of natural beauty; or contain the most important natural habitats for the conservation of biological diversity.
Cultural World Heritage sites may represent a masterpiece of human creative genius; or exhibit an important interchange of human values on developments in architecture, monumental arts, town planning and landscape design; or bear a unique testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilisation which is living or which has disappeared; or be an outstanding example of a type of building or architectural ensemble or landscape which illustrates a significant stage in human history; or be an outstanding example of traditional human settlement or land use which is representative of a culture (or cultures); or be directly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas or beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance.
Cultural World Heritage sites may be outstanding cultural landscapes which represent the combined works of nature and of humankind, illustrating the evolution of human society and settlement over time, as influenced by the physical constraints or opportunities presented by the natural environment.
\BQ. Are there any World Heritage properties in Australia?
A.\b There are currently eleven World Heritage properties in Australia which are considered to be of such outstanding universal natural and/or cultural value as to warrant inclusion on the World Heritage List:
\B1. Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh,\b Qld/ \BNaracoorte,\b SA) (natural)
\B2. Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves (Australia)\b, Qld and NSW (natural)
\B3. Fraser Island,\b Qld (natural)
\B4. Great Barrier Reef,\b Qld (natural)
\B5. Kakadu National Park,\b NT (natural and cultural)
\B6. Lord Howe Island Group,\b NSW (natural)
\B7. Shark Bay,\b WA (natural)
\B8. Tasmanian Wilderness\b (natural and cultural)
\B9. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park,\b NT (natural and cultural)
\B10. Wet Tropics of Queensland\b (natural)
\B11. Willandra Lakes Region\b NSW (natural and cultural)
The Great Barrier Reef, the Tasmanian Wilderness, the Wet Tropics of Queensland and Shark Bay meet all four natural World Heritage criteria, with Kakadu National Park, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Willandra Lakes, and the Tasmanian Wilderness being listed for both natural and cultural values. These Australian sites are among the very few properties on the World Heritage List which meet both natural and cultural criteria, or meet all four natural criteria.
\BQ. What activities are allowed in World Heritage properties?
A.\b Experience in Australia's World Heritage properties shows that a wide range of activities can be undertaken within the boundaries of the World Heritage area, provided that they are compatible with the conservation of the outstanding universal values for which the property is listed. For instance, on Lord Howe Island residents carry out normal day-to-day community activities. Grazing, recreational and commercial fishing, and tourism continue to operate in Australia's World Heritage properties.
The only reason this could change is if scientific and technical evidence clearly indicated that the continuation of certain activities on the property would threaten to damage its World Heritage values.
\BQ. Does the Government have the power to restrict activities in World Heritage
properties?
A.\b The Commonwealth Government is able, under the World Heritage Properties Conservation Act 1983 (the Act), to prohibit certain activities within the boundaries of a World Heritage property, where there is clear evidence that these activities are damaging or likely to damage the World Heritage values of the property.
The Act has been applied to protect the outstanding universal values of only a very few World Heritage properties, to prevent activities which would have damaged or destroyed their World Heritage values.
\BQ. What is the difference between World Heritage, National Parks, the National Estate and the National Trust?
A.\b Each term has a different function and is used by a separate government authority or community organisation. It is quite possible for parts of the same place to be included on the World Heritage List, to be a national park, to be listed in the Register of the National Estate, and to be listed by the National Trust.
\BWorld Heritage\b
The term World Heritage is applied to places of natural or cultural significance which have been included on the World Heritage List.
World Heritage listing of a property is a recognition by the international community that the place is an outstanding example of the world's natural or cultural heritage.
\BNational Parks\b
Australia's national parks, with some exceptions, are established and managed by State and Territory Governments. Kakadu National Park, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Christmas Island and Jervis Bay are the responsibility of the Commonwealth Government. Norfolk Island National Park was established under complementary Commonwealth and Norfolk Island legislation.
Activities allowed within State-managed national parks vary, but in general national parks are established for the conservation of natural and/or cultural values, while providing opportunities for recreation, education and research.
\BNational Estate\b
The National Estate refers to those parts of Australia's natural, Aboriginal or historic environment which are identified as worth keeping for present and future generations of Australians.
The Australian Heritage Commission (AHC) is a statutory authority responsible for advising the Commonwealth Government on the National Estate.
The AHC compiles the Register of the National Estate, which includes places which the Commission has decided have aesthetic, historic, scientific or social significance or other special values. Places are entered in the Register only after there has been a period of public consultation and any affected landholders have been notified.
Listing of places in the Register alerts planners, decision-makers, researchers and the community to the heritage values of places. National Estate listing does not place any direct legal controls on the actions of State or local governments, or on private owners, but the Commonwealth Government is constrained from taking any decision or action which adversely affects a place in the Register, unless there is no feasible alternative.
\BNational Trust\b
The National Trust is a nation-wide community-based organisation. The aim of the Trust is to identify, acquire and conserve places of aesthetic, historic, scientific, social and other values, and act as a lobby group to encourage the conservation of such places. The National Trust lists contain mainly buildings, but also include places of natural and Aboriginal heritage significance. Listing by the National Trust does not convey any legislative protection to a place.
\BDescription:\b It is debated whether the Sydney Opera House should be nominated for World Heritage listing \I(Lowanna King)\i
#
"Australian Fossil Mammal Sites",2,"0","g","0"
\B(Riversleigh/Naracoorte)\b
\B\IInscribed on the World Heritage List in 1994\b\i
The Australian Fossil Mammal Sites were inscribed on the World Heritage List for their outstanding natural universal values:
\I1. As outstanding examples representing major stages of the earth's evolutionary history; and
2. as outstanding examples representing significant ongoing ecological and biological evolution.\i
Over 2,000 kilometres separate the two sites of the World Heritage property. Riversleigh (10 000 hectares), located in north western Queensland, is confined to the watershed of the Gregory River. The site at Naracoorte, South Australia, covers 300 hectares and is located in flat country, punctuated by a series of stranded coastal dune ridges that run parallel to the present coastline.
Riversleigh is one of the world's richest Oligo-Miocene mammal records, linking that period (15-25 million years ago) to the predominantly modern assemblages of the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs. The site provides exceptional examples of middle to late Tertiary mammal assemblages, in a continent whose mammalian evolutionary history has been the most isolated and most distinctive in the world.
The extensive fossil deposits at Riversleigh are encased in hard, rough limestone, which was formed in lime-rich freshwater pools. They span a record of mammal evolution of at least 20 million years in length, providing the first records for many distinctive groups of living mammals, such as marsupial moles and feather-tailed possums, as well as many other unique and now extinct Australian mammals such as 'marsupial lions'.
The variety of deposits at Riversleigh has led to an understanding of how the environment changed over time from a rich rainforest community to semi-arid grassland, and how the animals that lived in it changed too.
The discovery of the fossils at Riversleigh has profoundly altered the understanding of Australia's mid-Cainozoic vertebrate diversity. The remains of a 15 million-year-old monotreme has provided new information about this highly distinctive group of mammals, and several Tertiary thylacines have been identified. Placental mammals are represented by more than 35 bat species, and the Riversleigh fossil bat record is the richest in the world.
In stark contract to the semi-arid conditions at Riversleigh stand the cool caves of Naracoorte. Here are fossils which document a distinctive fauna, with the ancestors of modern species alongside the doomed giants of a world that was about to be devastated by climatic changes.
The fossils in the Naracoorte Caves illustrate faunal change spanning several ice ages, highlighting the impacts of both climatic change and humankind on Australia's mammals from at least 350,000 years before the present.
Further research at the Naracoorte Caves sites is expected to document a series of snapshots of Pleistocene life in southeast Australia, including details of climate and vegetation associated with the fauna. Recent geological research suggests that deposits of Pliocene and even Miocene age could be found at the site, thus providing closer links with the site at Riversleigh.
Specimens representing 93 vertebrate species have been discovered, ranging in size from very small frogs to buffalo-sized marsupials. These include exceptionally preserved examples of the Australian Ice Age megafauna, as well as a host of modern species such as the Tasmanian devil, thylacine and others. The Naracoorte fossils span the probable time of the arrival of humans to Australia, and this is of value in analysing the complex relationships between humans and their environment.
Both sites separately provide evidence of key stages in the evolution of the fauna of the world's most isolated continent. The history of mammal lineages in modern Australia can be traced through these fossil deposits, and as a consequence, there is a better understanding of the conservation status of living mammals and their communities.
\B\IInscribed on the World Heritage List in 1986; extended in 1994.\b\i
The Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves (Australia) were inscribed on the World Heritage List for their outstanding natural universal values:
\I1. As an outstanding example representing major stages of the earth's evolutionary history;
2. as an outstanding example representing significant ongoing geological processes and biological evolution; and
3. containing important and significant habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity.\i
The property includes over 50 separate protected areas in south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales, covering a total area of 366,455 hectares.
The reserves contain the magnificent Mount Warning or Tweed Shield volcano, which is about 20 million years old, and the Ebor volcano which provides an important example of ongoing erosion of a shield volcano.
The area contains over 170 species of rare or threatened plants. It is an exceptional example of the evolution of sub-tropical rainforests and contains the major portion of the habitats of two rare bird species, Albert's lyrebird and the rufous scrub-bird.
Some of the oldest elements of the world's ferns from the Carboniferous period are preserved in the region. It is one of the most significant centres of survival for araucarians, the most ancient of the world's conifers, and contains an outstanding collection of angiosperms. It also contains a large number of the oldest lineages of the Corvida, one of the two major groups of true songbirds that evolved in the Late Cretaceous period.
Also present in the property are outstanding examples of other relict vertebrate and invertebrate fauna from ancient lineages linked to the break up of the ancient southern landmass, Gondwana.
The parma wallaby, previously considered extinct, has also been found to occur in various sites within the property. Other important fauna species include the pouched and sphagnum frogs. The Hastings River mouse, which was previously thought to be extinct in New South Wales, was rediscovered in the area in 1982.
The four major types of rainforest found within the property include sub-tropical rainforest, dry rainforest, warm temperate rainforest and cool temperate rainforest.
The sub-tropical rainforests typically have a high diversity of plant species, second only to the tropical rainforests of north Queensland. The rainforests are filled with buttressed trees, palms, ferns, strangler figs, mosses, orchids and vines.
Fewer plant species are found in the warm and cool temperate rainforests. There are fewer palms and vines, and buttressing is uncommon. The temperate rainforests are often dominated by coachwood, beech or pinkwood forests.
The warm temperate rainforest of the Washpool/Gibraltar Range Group is of particular importance in the property. This area contains the largest expanse of coachwood forest remaining in the world.
The individual protected areas are scattered over a large geographic area, and to facilitate cooperative management of the property, a Coordinating Committee has been established. Membership of the Committee includes representatives from the Commonwealth and from the agencies responsible for nature conservation and forestry in the states of New South Wales and Queensland.
Day-to-day management responsibilities for the property remain with the relevant State agencies.
"Fraser Island (Queensland)",4,"b\3\14120018.jpg","c","0"
\B\IInscribed on the World Heritage List in 1992\b\i
Stretching over 120 kilometres along the southern coast of Queensland, Fraser Island (184,000 hectares) is the largest sand island in the world, and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in recognition of its outstanding natural universal values:
\I1. As an outstanding example representing significant ongoing ecological and biological processes; and
2. as an example of superlative natural phenomena\i.
The island is a place of exceptional beauty, with its long uninterrupted white beaches flanked by strikingly coloured sand cliffs, its majestic tall rainforests and numerous freshwater lakes of crystal clear waters.
The massive sand deposits which make up the island are a continuous record of climatic and sea level changes over the past 700,000 years.
Fraser Island features complex dune systems which are still evolving, and the array of dune lakes is exceptional in terms of number, diversity and age.
The highest dunes on the island reach up to 240 metres above sea level. Forty perched dune lakes, half the number of such lakes in the world, can be found on the island. These lakes are formed when organic matter, such as leaves, bark and dead plants, gradually builds up and hardens in depressions created by the wind.
The island also has several barrage lakes, formed when moving sand dunes block a watercourse, and 'window' lakes, formed when a depression exposes part of the regional water table.
A surprising variety of vegetation types grow on the island, ranging from coastal heath to subtropical rainforests. It is the only place in the world where tall rainforests are found growing on sand dunes at elevations of over 200 metres.
The low 'wallum' heaths on the island are of particular evolutionary and ecological significance, and provide magnificent wildflower displays in spring and summer.
Birds are the most abundant form of animal life seen on the island. Over 350 species of birds have been recorded. It is a particularly important site for migratory wading birds which use the area as a resting place during their long flights between southern Australia and their breeding grounds in Siberia.
A species of particular interest is the ground parrot, an endangered species found in the wallum heathlands.
Few mammal species are present on the island. The most common are bats, particularly flying foxes. The dingo population on the island is regarded as the most pure strain of dingoes remaining in eastern Australia.
The lakes on Fraser Island are poor habitats for fish and other aquatic species because of the purity, acidity and low nutrient levels of the water.
Some frog species have specially adapted to survive in this difficult environment. Appropriately called 'acid frogs', these frog species are able to tolerate the acidic condition characteristic of the lakes and swamps on Fraser Island.
Called K'gari by its Aboriginal inhabitants, the island shows evidence of Aboriginal occupation of at least 5,000 years, although it is possible that further archaeological work may reveal evidence of earlier occupation.
Early European reports indicated that Fraser Island was heavily populated by Aboriginal people, but subsequent research suggests that there was a small permanent population of 400-600 which swelled seasonally to perhaps 2,000-3,000 in the winter months, when seafood resources were particularly abundant.
Fraser Island contains many sites of archaeological, social and spiritual significance. Middens, artefact scatters, fish traps, scarred trees and camp sites bear witness to the lives of the original inhabitants.
European contact, initiated by Matthew Flinders in 1802, was sporadic and limited to explorers, escaped convicts and shipwreck survivors.
In 1836 a number of survivors of the shipwrecked Stirling Castle lived for about six weeks on the island before being rescued. During these six weeks, hostility and aggression developed between the Europeans and the Aborigines. One of the survivors was the wife of the captain of the Stirling Castle, Eliza Fraser, after whom Europeans named the island.
Day-to-day management of the island is primarily the responsibility of the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage through the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service.
\BDescription:\b Fraser Island \I(DFAT)\i
#
"The Great Barrier Reef (Queensland)",5,"b\3\02850088.jpg","c","0"
\B\IInscribed on the World Heritage List in 1981\b\i
The Great Barrier Reef was inscribed on the World Heritage List in recognition of its outstanding natural universal values:
\I1. As an outstanding example representing the major stages in the earth's evolutionary history;
2. as an outstanding example representing significant ongoing ecological and biological processes;
3. as an example of superlative natural phenomena; and
4. containing important and significant habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity.\i
The reef stretches over 2,000 kilometres and covers an area of 34.87 million hectares on the north-east continental shelf of Australia. It is the world's most extensive coral reef, and is probably the world's richest area in terms of faunal diversity. Its great diversity reflects the maturity of the ecosystem, which has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years.
The reef is not a continuous barrier, but a broken maze of coral reefs and coral cays. It includes some 2,900 individual reefs, of which 760 are fringing reefs (i.e. fringe an island or mainland coastline). These reefs range in size from less than one hectare to more than 100,000 hectares, and in shape from flat platform reefs to elongated ribbon reefs.
The Great Barrier Reef provides habitats for many unique forms of marine life. There are an estimated 1,500 species of fish and more than 300 species of hard, reef-building corals. More than 4,000 mollusc species and over 400 species of sponge have been identified.
Other well-represented animal groups include anemones, marine worms, crustaceans (prawns, crabs etc) and echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins etc).
Some inshore coastal areas include extensive seagrass beds which are important feeding grounds for the dugong, an endangered mammal species.
The reef also supports a wide variety of fleshy algae which play a key role in reef building. They are heavily grazed by turtles, fish, sea urchins and molluscs.
The reef contains nesting grounds of world significance for the endangered green and loggerhead turtles. It is also the breeding area for humpback whales, which come from the Antarctic to give birth to their young in the warm waters.
The islands and cays support several hundred bird species, many of which have breeding colonies there. Reef herons, osprey, pelicans, frigate birds, sea eagles and shearwaters are among the numerous sea birds which have been recorded.
The World Heritage property is also of cultural importance containing many middens and other archaeological sites of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin. Some notable examples occur on Lizard and Hinchinbrook Islands, and on Stanley, Cliff and Clack Islands where there are spectacular galleries of rock paintings.
There are over 30 historic shipwrecks in the area, and on the islands are ruins and operating lighthouses which are of cultural and historical significance.
About 93 per cent of the World Heritage Property is within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The concept of the Marine Park is based on achieving conservation of the reef, while allowing reasonable use for activities such as tourism, fishing, boating, diving and research.
The remainder is Queensland waters (2 per cent), and islands which are under a variety of land tenures (5 per cent).
The waters and reefs of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Property are administered by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) and the Queensland Government, particularly the Department of Environment and Heritage.
\BDescription:\b The Great Barrier Reef \I(David Ireland)\i
#
"Kakadu National Park (Northern Territory)",6,"b\3\16390051.jpg","c","0"
\B\IStage 1 was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1981
Stage 2 in 1987 and Stage 3 in 1992\b\i
Kakadu National Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in three stages over eleven years. It is one of the few sites included on the List for both oustanding cultural and natural universal values:
\BNatural\b
\I1. As an outstanding example representing significant ongoing ecological and biological processes;
2. as an example of superlative natural phenomena; and
3. containing important and significant habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity.\i
\BCultural\b
\I1. Representing a unique artistic achievement; and
2. being directly associated with living traditions of outstanding universal significance.\i
The park is located in the tropical north of Australia, 120 kilometres east of Darwin, covering a total area of 1,975,700 hectares.
The flood plains of Kakadu are sites of ongoing geological processes that illustrate the ecological effects of sea-level change in northern Australia. As well, the park represents a series of interacting ecosystems which continue to evolve in their natural setting, and with minimum human disturbance.
Kakadu contains features of great natural beauty and sweeping landscapes. The focal points are the internationally important wetlands and the spectacular escarpment and its outliers.
The park contains important and significant habitats for a diverse range of flora and fauna, with more than 50 species of mammals, 280 species of birds (more than a quarter of all Australian bird species), 123 species of reptiles, 77 species of freshwater fish and 10,000 species of insects.
In the southern hills, or stone country, the climate of the monsoonal north overlaps with that of the dry centre of Australia. Many plant and animal species found here are endangered outside the park or are rare. The stone country forms much of the catchment of the South Alligator River.
The western edge of the Arnhem Land Plateau is a 500 kilometres long escarpment, over which spectacular waterfalls cascade during the wet season. Rainforests in the ravines and plateau are dominated by allosyncarpia trees, found only along the Arnhem Land escarpment, outliers and plateau.
The spinifex, sandstone scrub, and woodland communities on the top of the plateau are home to rare or restricted bird species such as the hooded parrot and the white-throated grass wren. The escarpment caves provide shelter for rare bats.
Isolated massive rock outliers have been left behind as the escarpment erodes eastwards. Several mammals, such as the black wallaroo, and other animals including the Oenpelli python and the giant cave gecko, are restricted to the outliers, escarpment and plateau.
Eucalypt forest, eucalypt woodlands and grasslands cover much of the lowland areas in Kakadu National Park. Where the lowlands meet the floodplains there are isolated pockets of monsoon rainforest.
During the wet season, rivers and creeks flood and spread out over the broad floodplains to form vast wetlands, where ducks, geese and wading birds abound. These extensive wetlands are listed under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (the Ramsar Convention).
Thirty-five species of waders have been recorded on the wetlands, many being winter migrants from the sub-Arctic region. Kakadu National Park is a major staging point within Australia for many migrating birds.
The rivers of Kakadu meander to the Van Dieman Gulf, carrying with them and gradually depositing large quantities of silt, forming extensive mudflats which are inundated with salt water at high tide. Only salt-tolerant plants such as mangroves can grow here, and 22 species of mangroves are found in the area. The mangrove swamps are important feeding and breeding grounds for a great many invertebrate species, many fish including barramundi, and a variety of birds.
The rich natural resources of Kakadu have sustained human habitation for at least 25,000 years and possibly 40,000 to 60,000 years.
The park is extremely important to Aboriginal people, and many communities still occupy the region. Religious sites associated with the Dreaming are particularly significant to the Aboriginal communities.
The Aboriginal art sites of Kakadu National Park represent a unique artistic achievement, as well as providing an outstanding record of human interaction with the environment over tens of thousands of years.
The art sites, concentrated along the Arnhem Land escarpment and its outliers, display a range of art styles, including naturalistic paintings of animals.
The southern part of the park contains a number of art sites, the most significant being those associated with 'Bula', a Dreaming being who created a number of sacred and potent sites which, even today, are considered to be dangerous by Aborigines.
The art also includes more recent 'contact' images of Macassan and European items and people. These reflect contact between Aboriginal people and Macassans from the 17th century onwards and the European discovery of the East and South Alligator Rivers.
Day-to-day management of the park is carried out by the Australian Nature Conservation Agency. A Board of Management, which has an Aboriginal majority representing the traditional owners, determines policy.
\BDescription:\b Kakadu National Park \I(DFAT)\i.
\BPic2:\b np602.jpg
#
"Lord Howe Island Group (New South Wales)",7,"b\3\14050048.jpg","c","0"
\B\IInscribed on the World Heritage List in 1982\b\i
The Lord Howe Island Group was inscribed on the World Heritage List for its outstanding natural universal values:
\I1. As an example of superlative natural phenomena; and
2. containing important and significant habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity.\i
Located 700 kilometres north-east of Sydney and covering an area of 146,300 hectares, the Lord Howe Island Group comprises Lord Howe Island, Admiralty Islands, Mutton Bird Islands, Ball's Pyramid, and associated coral reefs and marine environments.
Nearly seven million years ago geologic movement of the Lord Howe Rise (an underwater plateau) gave birth to a large shield volcano on its western edge. Over time the sea eroded 90 per cent of the original volcano, leaving the islands which today comprise the Lord Howe Island Group.
Lord Howe Island has a spectacular landscape with the volcanic mountains of Mount Gower (875 m) and Mount Lidgbird (777 m) towering above the sea. The central low lying area provides a marked contrast to the adjacent mountains and northern hills.
There are 241 different species of native plants, of which 105 are endemic to Lord Howe Island. Most of the island is dominated by rainforests and palm forest. Grasslands occur on the more exposed areas of Lord Howe Island and on the offshore islands.
The islands support extensive colonies of nesting seabirds and at least 168 bird species have been recorded either living at, or visiting the islands, a number of these being rare or endangered.
The endangered woodhen is one of the world's rarest bird species. During this century the population of woodhens experienced a significant decline in numbers as a result of hunting by humans, habitat loss and disturbance by feral animals. Over the last few years a successful captive breeding program and other conservation measures have increased the numbers of these small flightless birds to around 220.
The islands are one of two known breeding areas for the providence petrel, a species which is also found nesting on Phillip Island, near Norfolk Island. They also contain probably the largest breeding concentration in the world of the red-tailed tropic bird, and the most southerly breeding colony of the masked booby.
The waters surrounding Lord Howe Island provide an unusual mixture of temperate and tropical organisms. The area includes the most southerly coral reef in the world, which provides a rare example of the transition between coral and algal reefs.
The earliest European discovery of Lord Howe Island appears to have been in the late eighteenth century, by British colonial naval vessels. The island was sighted in 1788 from HMS Supply, en route from Sydney to the penal colony on Norfolk Island. The first landing was made two months later on the return voyage to Sydney.
By the 1830s there was a small permanent settlement in the lowland area of the main island. The settlers made a living by hunting and fishing, and by growing vegetables, fruit and meat for trade with passing ships.
Pigs and goats which were introduced to Lord Howe Island for food, later went wild and caused extensive vegetation and habitat changes, threatening populations of native species. Rats arrived on the island in 1918 from a wrecked ship, and have since been responsible for the extinction of five bird species. Over the last decade there have been intensive efforts to control these feral animals and the wild pigs have been successfully eradicated.
Lord Howe Island and its associated islands are under the care, control and management of the Lord Howe Island Board. When carrying out its functions, the Board is required to have particular regard to the World Heritage status of the area and to conserve those values for which the area was listed as a World Heritage property.
\BDescription:\b A view of Lord Howe Island from the sea \I(Colin Taylor)\i
#
"Shark Bay (Western Australia)",8,"b\3\llagoon.jpg","c","0"
\B\IInscribed on the World Heritage List in 1991\b\i
Shark Bay is located on the most western point of the coast of Australia and covers an area of 2.3 million hectares. The region is one of the few properties inscribed on the World Heritage List for all four outstanding natural universal values:
\I1. As an outstanding example representing the major stages in the earth's evolutionary history;
2. as an outstanding example representing significant ongoing ecological and biological processes;
3. as an example of superlative natural phenomena; and
4. containing important and significant habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity.\i
The Shark Bay region represents a meeting point of three major climatic regions and forms a transition zone between two major botanical provinces - the South West and Eremaean provinces.
The number of species that reach the end of their range is a major feature of the region's flora. Twenty-five per cent of vascular plants (283 species) are at the limits of their range in Shark Bay. Many vegetation formations and plant species are only found in the interzone area.
The area south of Freycinet Estuary contains the unique type of vegetation known as tree heath. There are also at least 51 species endemic to the region and others that are considered new to science.
The Shark Bay region is an area of major zoological importance, primarily due to the isolation of habitats on peninsulas and islands from disturbance which has occurred elsewhere. Of the 26 species of endangered Australian mammals, five are found on Bernier and Dorre Islands. These are the boodie or burrowing bettong, rufous hare wallaby, banded hare wallaby, the Shark Bay mouse and the western barred bandicoot.
The Shark Bay region has a rich avifauna with over 230 species, or 35 per cent, of Australia's bird species having been recorded. A number of birds attain their northern limit such as the regent parrot, western yellow robin, blue-breasted fairy wren and striated pardalote.
The region is also noted for its diversity of amphibians and reptiles and supports nearly 100 species. Again, many species are at the northern or southern limit of their range. The area is also significant for the variety of burrowing species such as the sandhill frog, which is believed to have no requirement for surface water. Shark Bay contains three endemic sand swimming skinks, and 10 of the 30 dragon lizard species found in Australia.
The 12 species of seagrass in Shark Bay make it one of the most diverse seagrass assemblages in the world. Seagrass covers over 4,000 square kilometres of the bay, with the 1,030 square kilometre Wooramel Seagrass Bank being the largest structure of its type in the world.
Seagrass has significantly contributed to the evolution of Shark Bay as it has modified the physical, chemical and biological environment as well as the geology and led to the development of major marine features, such as Faure Sill.
The barrier banks associated with the growth of seagrass over the last 5,000 years has, with low rainfall, high evaporation and low tidal flushing, produced the hypersaline Hamelin Pool and Lharidon Bight. This hypersaline condition is conducive to the growth of cyanobacteria which trap and bind sediment to produce a variety of mats and structures including stromatolites.
Stromatolites represent the oldest form of life on earth. They are representative of life-forms some 3,500 million years ago. Hamelin Pool contains the most diverse and abundant examples of stromatolite forms in the world.
Shark Bay is renowned for its marine fauna. The population of about 10,000 dugong, for example, is one of the largest in the world, and dolphins abound, particularly at Monkey Mia.
Humpback whales use the Bay as a staging post in their migration along the coast. This species was reduced by past exploitation from an estimated population of 20,000 on the west coast to 500-800 whales in 1962; the population is now estimated at 2,000-3,000.
Green and loggerhead turtles are found in Shark Bay near their southern limits, nesting on the beaches of Dirk Hartog Island and Peron Peninsula. Dirk Hartog Island is the most important nesting site for loggerhead turtles in Western Australia.
Shark Bay also represents an important nursery ground for larval stages of crustaceans, fishes and medusae.
\BDescription:\b Little Lagoon in Shark Bay \I(Webster Publishing)\i
\B\IInscribed on the World Heritage List in 1982, extended in 1989.\b\i
The Tasmanian Wilderness was inscribed on the World Heritage List for both its outstanding natural and cultural universal values:
\BNatural\b
\I1. as an outstanding example representing the major stages in the earth's evolutionary history;
2. as an outstanding example representing significant ongoing ecological and biological processes;
3. as an example of superlative natural phenomena; and
4. containing important and significant habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity.\i
\BCultural\b
\I1. Bearing an exceptional testimony to a civilisation or cultural tradition;
2. as an outstanding example of a type of landscape which illustrates significant stages in human history; and
3. being directly and tangibly associated with living traditions of outstanding universal significance.\i
The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area is one of the largest conservation reserves in Australia. At 1.38 million hectares, it covers approximately 20 per cent of the land area of the island of Tasmania. It is one of only three temperate wilderness areas remaining in the Southern Hemisphere.
Rocks from every geological period are represented in the area, the oldest rocks being formed about 1,100 million years ago during the Precambrian period. Some of the rock types, such as limestone and dolomite, are soluble in water, which has resulted in the development of various karst features such as sinkholes and caves. These are some of the deepest and longest caves in Australia. Exit Cave, near Lune River has over 20 kilometres of passageways and spectacular cave formations.
The area hosts a wide variety of vegetation and is recognised as an International Centre for Plant Diversity by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Some of the oldest trees in the world grow in the area, such as Huon pines.
The full range of vegetation types in the region includes sub-alpine vegetation, buttongrass moorlands, blackwood swamps, rainforest and eucalypt dominated forests. The area contains approximately 240 (or two thirds) of Tasmania's higher plant species, of which about half have most of their distribution in the World Heritage area.
The Tasmanian Wilderness is a stronghold for several animals that are either extinct or threatened on mainland Australia. The world's largest marsupial carnivores, the Tasmanian devil, spotted-tailed quoll and eastern quoll are commonly seen at night.
Fauna endemic to the region include the green rosella and orange-bellied parrot; frogs such as the newly-discovered moss froglet and Tasmanian tree frog; the Tasmanian cave spider, burrowing crayfish and peripatopsid velvet worms.
The region's cultural World Heritage values relate both to Aboriginal occupation and European settlement.
Archaeological surveys of inland valleys such as the Gordon, Franklin, Andrew, Archeron, Weld, Cracroft, Denison and Maxwell rivers have revealed an exceptionally rich and important collection of Aboriginal sites, including Kutikina Cave. These places, along with all of the World Heritage Area's Aboriginal sites, are extremely important to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, having exceptional cultural, emotional and spiritual value.
More than 40 sites have been located in the south-west inland river valleys, with human occupation dating to at least 30,000 years ago. At the time these places were occupied, the climate was significantly colder and drier than it is now and the sites reveal the special ways which the Aboriginal community developed to deal with these conditions. The severity of the climate reached a peak 18,000 years ago, at the height of the last Ice Age.
This group of places, which also includes rock art sites, forms one of the richest and best-preserved collection of Ice Age sites found anywhere in the world. As well, during the periods of earliest occupation, the Aboriginal people of the region may have been the most southerly peoples on earth.
Together with other more recent Aboriginal places from throughout the World Heritage Area (including those in coastal areas), the sites show how the Tasmanian Aboriginal people have developed a distinctive way of life in a rugged and harsh landscape.
The World Heritage values of the Tasmanian Wilderness relating to European settlement are those of the area's convict past. The colonisation of parts of the globe by means of the forced transportation of convicts from Europe was a significant feature of world population movement in the 18th and 19th centuries. Australia was unique, in that it was the only British colony founded as a convict settlement.
The Macquarie Harbour penal settlement was based on Sarah Island and in use from 1821 to 1833.
A management plan for the Tasmanian Wilderness has been in operation since 1992, and Commonwealth/State administrative arrangements are in place, including a Consultative Committee and Ministerial Council.
Day-to-day management of the property is the responsibility of the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service.
\BDescription:\b Tourists visiting the Tasmanian wilderness \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (Northern Territory)",10,"b\3\01240034.jpg","c","0"
\B\IInscribed on the World Heritage List for its natural values in 1987
Inscribed as a cultural landscape in 1994\b\i
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in two stages, initially for its outstanding natural universal values, and then for its outstanding cultural universal values:
\BNatural\b
\I1. As an example of on-going geological processes; and
2. as an example of exceptional natural beauty and combination of natural and cultural elements.\i
\BCultural\b
\I1. As an outstanding example of traditional human land-use; and
2. being directly associated with living traditions and beliefs of outstanding universal significance.\i
The park covers an area of 132,566 hectares of arid ecosystems, and is located close to the centre of Australia in the lands of the Anangu Aboriginal people.
The huge monoliths of Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) are remarkable geological and landform features set in a contrasting, relatively flat, sand-plain environment. They are an important cultural landscape and have special significance to the Anangu people.
Uluru is a huge, rounded, red sandstone monolith 9.4 kilometres in circumference and rising to a height of over 340 metres above the plain.
About 32 kilometres to the west of Uluru lie the 36 steep-sided domes of Kata Tjuta. The domes cover an area of 3,500 hectares with Mount Olga, the highest feature, rising to a height of 500 metres.
The park vegetation comprises generally low plan species with a scattering of trees and shrubs. As in most arid areas in Australia, there are few eucalypts and these are generally restricted to habitats where more water is available. Water holes and soaks provide restricted habitats for a number of rare plant species.
Over 150 species of birds, and many reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates adapted to arid environments have also been recorded.
A number of rare mammals are also found in the park, including the hairy-footed dunnart, the sandhill dunnart and the mulgara.
Reptile species are found in numbers unparalleled anywhere else in the world and are well adapted to the arid environment. A number of lizard species are found in the park, including Australia's largest lizard, the perentie, which may grow to a length of 2.5 metres.
The cultural landscape of the park is the outcome of thousands of years of management under traditional Anangu procedures governed by the \Itjukurpa\i (law).
Recent archaeological evidence suggests that the contemporary adaptations of the Anangu people of central Australia were achieved during a period of social and cultural evolution spanning the last 5,000 years.
A unique cultural adaptation to the desert environment enabled Anangu and related groups of Aboriginal communities in the Western Desert to develop social groups which were based on semi-permanent water sources, but which held reciprocal rights of access over plants and animal resources in the intervening areas.
As clusters of sacred sites, the form of both Uluru and Kata Tjuta incorporate the actions, artefacts and bodies of the ancestral heroes celebrated in Anangu religion and culture.
The inalienable freehold title to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park was handed over to the traditional owners in 1985 and is held by the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Land Trust. The management of the park is the joint responsibility of the Australian Nature Conservation Agency and a board of management including representatives of the Anangu traditional Aboriginal owners.
"Wet Tropics of Queensland",11,"b\3\14120030.jpg","c","0"
\B\IInscribed on the World Heritage List in 1988\b\i
The Wet Tropics of Queensland was inscribed on the World Heritage List in recognition of its outstanding natural universal values:
\I1. As an outstanding example representing the major stages in the earth's evolutionary history;
2. as an outstanding example representing significant ongoing ecological and biological processes;
3. as an example of superlative natural phenomena; and
4. containing important and significant habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity.\i
The Wet Tropics World Heritage property lies between Townsville and Cooktown on the north-east coast of Queensland and covers an area of approximately 894,000 hectares.
The area is a region of spectacular scenery and rugged topography with fast-flowing rivers, deep gorges and numerous waterfalls. The mountain summits provide expansive vistas of undisturbed rainforests. One of the largest rainforest wilderness areas in Australia centres around the Daintree River valley. The association of fringing coral reefs and rainforest coastline in the Cape Tribulation region is found nowhere else in Australia and is a rare combination in other parts of the world.
The Wet Tropics provides the only habitat for numerous rare species of both plants and animals. There are at least 483 species of plants that can be classified as rare or very restricted, and of these, 83 are regarded as threatened.
There are at least 25 species of animals that are regarded as very rare. These include the brush-tailed bettong, the spotted-tailed quoll, the yellow-bellied glider and the southern cassowary.
The vegetation of the area is predominantly rainforest, but also includes mixtures with sclerophyll tree species which occur as emergent and co-dominant species in the canopy. Fringing the rainforests are areas of tall, open forest and tall, medium and low woodland. A striking feature that is unique to Australia is the generally sharp contrast between the rainforest and adjacent sclerophyll vegetation.
The Wet Tropics rainforests contain an almost complete record of the major stages in the evolution of plant life on earth. Many species within the World Heritage area originated when Australia was still part of Gondwana.
These rainforests are floristically and structurally the most diverse in Australia. They include 13 major structural types, further classified into 27 broad communities. Mangrove forests within the area cover 30,000 to 40,000 hectares. Their floristic diversity is the highest of any mangrove community in Australia and comparable with that of any in the world; 29 'species associations' have been defined.
Of particular importance are the primitive flowering plants occurring in the rainforests. Out of 19 families of angiosperms recognised as 'primitive' there are 13 found in the Wet Tropics, two of which are confined to the area. This number of primitive families in such a minute fraction of the world's tropical rainforests gives the Wet Tropics the highest concentration of such families on earth. Within the most primitive of the families, there are 50 species confined to the area.
The rainforests are especially important as habitats for the conservation of the plant family proteaceae, in particular the more primitive genera of the family. These genera represent the nearest relatives of the ancestors (if not the ancestors themselves) of the sclerophyll types, e.g. banksias, grevilleas, persoonias, that now form a major part of the Australian flora. A similar relationship may exist within the myrtaceae. A newly discovered genus 'Stockwellia' which is confined to the rainforests of the area, is possibly a precursor of the eucalypts.
There are a large number of plant species with very restricted distribution within the Wet Tropics. Among the plants are some curiosities, including one of the largest as well as one of the smallest cycads in the world. The richest concentration of ferns and fern allies in Australia occurs in these rainforests, including at least 46 species that are restricted to the area.
The rainforests also contain a number of unique marsupials, including the musky rat kangaroo, which is probably the most primitive surviving kangaroo species.
The Wet Tropics is home to 30 per cent of Australia's marsupial species, 58 per cent of its bat species, 25 per cent of its frog species, 23 per cent of its reptile species, 62 per cent of the butterfly species and 18 per cent of its bird species. There are no less than 59 species of vertebrate animals that are unique to the area.
Aboriginal occupation of the area probably dates back to the earliest human occupation of Australia (c. 50,000 years BP), and one of the recorded stories appears to describe the volcanic activity which produced some crater lakes (10-20,000 years ago), at a time when the rainforests were smaller in extent than today.
The district was a rich environment for the Aboriginal hunter/gatherers who lived there. About 16 distinct groups occupied the area, utilising a wide range of forest products, including several toxic plants which required complex treatment to make them safe to eat. Such intensive use of toxic food plants is not recorded elsewhere.
The Wet Tropics area continues to hold great significance for the local Aboriginal communities, who identify as 'rainforest people'.
The management of the Wet Tropics World Heritage area is on three levels. A State/Commonwealth Ministerial Council coordinates policies and funding. The Wet Tropics Management Authority is responsible for general planning, and is advised by Community Consultative and Scientific Advisory Committees, Several Queensland government departments manage the day-to-day aspects of the Wet Tropics.
\BDescription:\b Daintree rainforest \I(DFAT)\i
#
"Willandra Lakes Region (New South Wales)",12,"b\3\16360095.jpg","c","0"
\B\IInscribed on the World Heritage List in 1981\b\i
The Willandra Lakes Region covers 370,000 hectares of semi-arid country in the Murray Basin area in far south-western New South Wales.
The region was inscribed on the World Heritage List for both outstanding cultural and natural universal values:
\BNatural\b
\I1. As an outstanding example representing the major stages in the earth's evolutionary history; and
2. as an outstanding example representing significant ongoing geological processes.\i
\BCultural\b
\I1. Bearing an exceptional testimony to a past civilisation.\i
The region contains a system of Pleistocene lakes, formed over the last 2 million years. Most are fringed on the eastern shore by a dune or lunette formed by the prevailing winds.
Today, the lake beds are flat plains vegetated by salt tolerant low bushes and grasses. About 10 per cent of the World Heritage area is gazetted as the Mungo National Park which covers about two-thirds of Lake Mungo and includes the spectacular parts of the Walls of China lunette. The remaining area comprises pastoral leasehold properties.
There are five large, interconnected dry lake basins and fourteen smaller basins varying from 600 to 35,000 hectares in area. The original source for the lakes was a creek flowing from the Eastern Highlands to the Murray River. When the Willandra Billabong Creek ceased to replenish the lakes, they dried in series from south to north over a period of several thousand years, each becoming progressively more saline.
The ancient shorelines are stratified into three major layers of sediments that were deposited at different stages in the lakes' history.
The earliest sediments are more than 50,000 years old and are orange-red in colour. Above are clays, clean quartz sand and soil that were deposited along the lakes' edges when the lakes were full of deep, relatively fresh water, between 50,000 and 19,000 years ago. The top layer is composed largely of wind-blown clay particles heaped up on the lunettes during periods of fluctuating water levels, before the lakes finally dried up.
Aborigines lived on the shores of the Willandra Lakes from 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. Excavations in 1968 uncovered a cremated female in the dunes of Lake Mungo. At 26,000 years old, this is believed to be the oldest cremation site in the world. In 1974, the ochred burial of a male Aborigine was found nearby. The use of ochres for burial in Australia 30,000 years ago parallels their use in France at the same time.
Radiocarbon dating established that these materials were some of the earliest evidence of modern humans in the world.
During the last Ice Age, when the lakes were full, the Mungo people camped along the lake shore taking advantage of a wide range of food, including freshwater mussels and yabbies, golden perch and Murray cod, large emus and a variety of marsupials, which probably included the now extinct super roos. They also exploited plant resources, particularly when the lakes began to dry and food was less abundant.
The human history of the region is not restricted just to an ancient episode. Evidence so far points to an extraordinary continuity of occupation over long periods of time. In the top layers of sediments there is abundant evidence of occupation over the last 10,000 years.
The vegetation in the region, sparse though it is, is typical of the semi-arid zone. It plays an important role in stabilising the landscape and hence maintaining its sediment strata and many species of native fauna.
On the dunes are found the small scrubby multi-stemmed mallee eucalypts with an understorey of herbs and grasses. Rose woodbelah woodland is common on the sand plains. In the lake beds, several species of salt bushes are able to thrive in the saline conditions.
The remains of large number of animals have been found in Willandra. More than 55 species have been identified, 40 of which are no longer found in the region, and 11 are totally extinct.
Twenty-two species of mammals are currently recorded at Willandra, of which bats are the most diverse group. There are some 40 species of reptiles and amphibians.
The bird life of the Willandra region is similar to that in many other semi-arid areas of Australia, Parrots, cockatoos and finches are the most conspicuous of the 137 recorded species.
Policy coordination and funding are the responsibility of the joint State-Commonwealth Ministerial Council, with advice from a Community Management Council and a Technical and Scientific Advisory Committee. Day-to-day management is the responsibility of the NSW Department of Conservation and Land Management and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
\BDescription:\b Walls of China, Lake Mungo \I(DFAT)\i
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"National Parks of Australia",1,"0","g","0"
This section contains a summary of, and in most cases, a location map and photograph or video of a huge range of Australian national parks.
To view a list of all Australian national parks and recreation areas for which there is a summary, select the state, below, that you would like to locate a park or recreation area in.
When you select a state or territory, you will move to the first page of that section. Use the \INext Page\i button in the Toolbar to browse through the parks, or the \IGo To Page\i button in the Toolbar to view a list of all parks in that state.
\B\J\Kmenu\kNational Parks of New South Wales\j
\J\Kmenu\kNational Parks of Victoria\j
\J\Kmenu\kNational Parks of Queensland\j
\J\Kmenu\kNational Parks of Tasmania\j
\J\Kmenu\kNational Parks of South Australia\j
\J\Kmenu\kNational Parks of Western Australia\j
\J\Kmenu\kNational Parks of the Northern Territory\j\b
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"Bald Rock National Park",1,"b\3\np20100.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 7,011 hectares. It is located 29 km north of Tenterfield on the Woodenbong Road adjacent to the Queensland border. There are no four wheel drive tracks in the park.
Access is open to two wheel drive and camping is available. The major attraction of the park is the striking rock formations after which the park has been named. There is an abundance of lush rainforest growth. The granite rock outcrops provide a spectacular sight and there is a walking track to the summit of Bald Rock. The walk will take approximately 2 hours return.
For more information call NPWS on 067 325133
\BDescription:\b \I Bald Rock National Park (Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np101.jpg
#
"Barrington Tops National Park",2,"b\3\stew5.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 39,121 hectares. It is located 38 km west of Gloucester on the mid north coast. There is a variety of gravel roads throughout the park that would require four wheel drive after rain or snow.
Barrington Tops National Park is one of the greatest wilderness wonders of the country with its impressive stands of Antarctic beech forests as well as eucalypt forests, and warm temperate rainforest species, which thrive in the deep valleys at the foot of the cliff line.
The Barrington Tops was once a mecca for the four wheel drive enthusiast. However, over use and over zealous protection has resulted in the locking up of the majority of this park. The area is unique and deserves its World Heritage listing. The main access across the Great Divide from Scone to Gloucester passes beside the park and provides a wonderful introduction to the diverse nature of this area. Most people are confused when travelling through the Barrington Tops, believing that they are in a National Park when in fact they are travelling through land managed by State Forests of NSW. This organisation has done an excellent job of developing camping sites and lookouts for visitors and a highlight of the area is the camping area at Polblue Swamp on the Scone Gloucester Road.
The vegetation varies from temperate rainforest to snow gum and heath lands at the higher altitudes. Snow falls are common in winter and this can make the few trails that remain open very slippery. Walking trails predominate throughout the park but the adjoining State Forests contain some short four wheel drive tracks worth exploring. Four wheel drive tracks in the National Park are closed after heavy rain and each winter between 1 June and 30 September.
For more information contact NPWS on 049 873108 or the Gloucester State Forests office on 065 581005.
\BDescription:\b \I(Webster Publishing)\i.
\BPic2:\b np102.jpg
#
"Ben Boyd National Park",3,"b\3\npw017.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 9,455 hectares. It is located to the north and south of Eden on the far south coast. There are no four wheel drive tracks but the access roads are gravel in places and would be slippery after rain.
There are two camping spots in the park located at Saltwater Creek and Bittangabee Bay. Bookings are essential, write to PO Box 656, Merimbula 2548. The area is very spectacular with a mixture of coastal formations and dense, tall eucalypt forests. On the coast there are magnificent rock formations and sea caves. The adjacent heath lands provide spectacular wildflowers in late Spring. Other interesting places include the earth formations known as the Pinnacles and the ruins of the old whaling station near Twofold Bay.
For more information contact NPWS on 064 954 130.
\BPic2:\b NP104.jpg
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.\i
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"Billinudgel Nature Reserve",4,"0","g","0"
Declared in 1996 Billinudgel Nature Reserve is 357 hectares in size and located approximately 20 km north of Byron Bay.
The reserve represents the last remaining coastal forest wetland of its kind between Noosa Heads National Park, north of Brisbane, and Coffs Harbour in the south.
The area is rich and varied in its flora with over 400 species, including 11 rare and endangered species and contains a diversity of vegetation types. The area supports numerous vertebrates, including 17 birds and 8 mammals listed as either endangered or vulnerable on the Threatened Species Conservation Act, 1995.
Of these, several are northern Australian species which reach the southern limits of their range in Australia in far north eastern New South Wales. They include the endangered red goshawk and the vulnerable bush hen, black flying fox and the little bent-wing bat. In contrast the vulnerable long-nosed potoroo, a southern Australian species, which occurs in Billinudgel is close to the northern limits of its range. Other vulnerable species present include the koala and osprey.
The land also contains a number of archaeological sites including middens, camp sites, work areas and scarred trees.
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"Blue Mountains National Park",5,"a\2\3_0052.jpg","c","0"
This park has total area of 245,929 hectares. It is located just west of Sydney in the Great Dividing Range. There is very limited four wheel drive access.
Just an hours drive from Sydney lies the magnificent \JBlue Mountains.\j Huge tracts of this land have been conserved by three major parks, \JBlue Mountains,\j Wollemi and Kanangra Boyd. The land is very rugged with spectacular sandstone cliffs predominating throughout. There are literally hundreds of kilometres of walking tracks but you will need to be very fit due to the rugged landscape.
Made up of sandstone canyons and hills, and clad in tall forests of bluegum, the \JBlue Mountains\j are the elevated remains of what was once a vast plateau. Over the centuries, it has been weathered by rivers and waterfalls, leaving flat-topped ridges on which the white man has built towns. The \JBlue Mountains\j in reality is hard country that took the early settlers a generation to cross.
The heart of the park is the Grose and Jamieson Valleys, carpeted with ferns and choked with gums. These lie north and south of the high narrow plateau on which the mountain towns of Blackheath, Katoomba and Wentworth Falls are perched.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service operates information centres at Glenbrook and Blackheath and each season runs a series of guided walks to suit anyone from the most casual stroller to the dedicated hiker.
It is unfortunate that service tracks that extend deeper into the park are not open to the four wheel driver as this would allow many more visitors to enjoy the park. There are many grand lookouts found at the end of various escarpments and most have rough gravel road access off the Great Western Highway and the Bells Line of Road.
For more information contact NPWS on 047 878877.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT)\i
\BPic2:\b np20066.jpg
\BDescription2:\b I Narrow Neek, \JBlue Mountains\j. Photo by Oliver Strewe. (Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np20042.jpg
\BDescription3:\b \IGovetts Leap, \JBlue Mountains\j National Park. Photo by Garry Lewis. (Random House)\i
\BPic4:\b np103.jpg
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"Booderee National Park",6,jervis2.jpg,c,0
\IFormerly Jervis Bay National Park - the named changed in early 1997 when the park was handed back to traditional owners.\i
Jervis Bay is approximately three hours drive from Sydney or Canberra. The region is an area of outstanding beauty, rich in natural values. It is a place of extreme contrasts.
Rugged, weather-beaten cliffs face the raw power of the Pacific Ocean while the tranquil beaches inside the bay are reminiscent of a more tropical climate. Rainforest remnants and tall eucalypt forests share the peninsula with stunted, low, coastal heath.
Since the arrival of European settlers in the area, many development schemes have been proposed which threatened the region's environmental integrity. These proposals included railway links to Canberra and Sydney, a sea port, nuclear power reactor, heavy industry and extensive residential areas. Fortunately, these schemes, for the most part, have failed to go ahead.
As a result, we have inherited a coastal environment which is relatively undisturbed. Population pressures in other coastal areas have seriously threatened the viability of natural areas and degraded much of the coast, making places such as Jervis Bay rare and precious. Its continued survival depends on good planning and sound management.
No major rivers flow into the bay. Very little sediment or other river-borne materials are deposited into the bay waters. Therefore, the bay waters are mostly oceanic in origin - which explains their exceptional clarity.
As with other habitats here, the waters are very rich in animal species. Whales visit when passing on their annual migrations. There is a resident pod of about 80 dolphins.
Fur seals are frequent visitors. Penguins, shearwaters, gannets, albatrosses, cormorants and other sea birds are commonly seen. Some of the most colourful and exotic animals live on rocky reefs and sand beds in deeper waters.
Delicate sea pens and sea whips, encrusting sponges, solitary corals, gorgonia coral fans and sea tulips, Port Jackson sharks, stingrays, butterfly gurnards and many other fish species share the marine waters.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Readers Digest\i
\BPic2:\b jervis.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \ICourtesy Readers Digest\i
\BPic3:\b jervis3.jpg
\BDescription3:\b \ICourtesy Readers Digest\i
\Bpic4:\b np174.jpg
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"Boonoo Boonoo National Park",7,"b\3\npw021.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 2,692 hectares. It is located opposite Bald Rock National Park 26 km north-east of Tenterfield on the Woodenbong road. There are no four wheel drive tracks in the park however, the access track is gravel.
Without a doubt the major attraction of this park is the spectacular Boonoo Boonoo falls. The creek by the same name plummets 210 metres over the escarpment and, thanks to a viewing platform, excellent views of the falls available. It is possible to bush camp within the park at the falls and further up the road at Cypress camping area. The vegetation is low scrubby banksia and heath that is a riot of wildflowers in early Spring. The area also contains unusual rock formations of rounded granite.
For more information contact NPWS on 067 325133.
\BDescription:\b \I NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\BPic2:\b np105.jpg
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"Booti Booti National Park",8,"b\3\meloo1.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 1,488 hectares. It is located on the mid north coast 10 km south of Forster, on the Lakes Way. There are no four wheel drive tracks in the park.
This small park nestles between the Pacific Ocean and Wallis Lake in the Myall Lakes/Forster district. This area is renowned for its surfing beaches, sailing opportunities on the lake and fishing. There is a small camping area and all the usual picnic facilities available as well as a boat ramp.
For more information contact NPWS on 065 540446
\BDescription:\b \I(Webster Publishing)\i
\BPic2:\b npw025.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.\i
\BPic3:\b np106.jpg
#
"Border Ranges National Park",9,"b\4\npw033.jpg","c","0"
The Border Ranges National Park straddles the New South Wales and Queensland border some 900 kilometres north of Sydney and 38 km west of Murwillumbah off the Summerland Way.
This park has a total area of 31,508 hectares. Roads throughout this park are gravel; four wheel drive would be needed if wet.
This is one of the most spectacular parks in New South Wales. Although the four wheel drive opportunities are limited, the scenery is a must for any outdoor enthusiast. Make sure you see the ancient beech trees in the rainforest walk at Bar Mountain, and the walk along the Pinnacle, with its breathtaking views across the Tweed valley to Mt Warning, is the best in the state.
It is a misty, high rainfall area, and the numerous rivers and streams have carved steep cliffs out of volcanic landscape, over which magnificent waterfalls plunge into rainforested valleys below.
The 583 hectare park can be divided into three areas: The Tweed Range, Lions Road, and Mt. Lindesay-Levers. The road passing through Tweed Range follows the rim of a gigantic crater which forms part of the Mt. Warning volcano.
Along the way, it leads to a number of spectacular geological formations, including Pinnacle Lookout. Here, a narrow finger of volcanic rock juts out of the range, dropping sheer on both sides to the valley floor far below.
For more information contact NPWS on 066 281177.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife\i.
\BPic2:\b np108.jpg
#
"Botany Bay National Park",10,"b\4\npw029.jpg","c","0"
The headlands and mangroves that so impressed Captain James Cook and his crew as they sailed through the entrance of Botany Bay in April 1770 are now proudly protected by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
On that day in 1770, Sydney Parkinson wrote that the country was '...very level and fertile; soil, a kind of grey sand; and the climate mild and though it was the beginning of winter... everything seemed in perfection.'
Now set against a busy urban and industrial background, Botany Bay National Park conserves an amazing array of native plants and birds and boasts magnificent coastline views, with bushwalks, beaches, picnic grounds and historic buildings, forts and monuments.
Less than an hour's drive from Sydney's centre, the park invites the visitor to find out more about our historic past at sites on both the north and south headlands of Botany Bay.
On the south side, there's Captain Cooks Landing Place and historic monuments and The Discovery Centre.
At La Perouse, there's a museum devoted to the exploits of the great French explorer Jean-Francois de Galaup, Comte de Laperouse at the site of his 1788 landing. You can visit an Aboriginal Gallery and Bare Island Fort.
On the inland side of the bay, there's Towra Point Nature Reserve, one of the last coastal wetlands in the Sydney region. It provides refuge for native waterfowl and migratory waders from Japan, China and Siberia. Entry is by permit only.
There are spectacular views of the coastline on many of the park's tracks and good places to discover the plants of Botany Bay.
There are picnic areas with BBQs at Captain Cooks Landing Place, La Perouse Peninsula and Bare Island.
Some of the activities enjoyed at the Botany Bay National Park are birdwatching, scuba diving, fishing, bushwalking and swimming.
\BDescription:\b Bare Island, Botany Bay National Park. \I(NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.)\i.
\BPic2:\b np107.jpg
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"Bouddi National Park",11,"b\4\npw037.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 1,189 hectares. It is located 19 km south of Gosford. There are no four wheel drive tracks.
This park protects the foreshore at the entrance to Broken Bay. It provides camping, walking and surfing opportunities.
For more information contact NPWS on 043 244911.
\BDescription:\b Putty Beach, Bouddi National Park.\I (NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.).
\BPic2:\b np109.jpg
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"Bournda National Park",12,"b\4\npw018.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 2,344 hectares. It is located on the far south coast 20 km south of Bega. There are no four wheel drive opportunities.
A great place to camp if you enjoy swimming and fishing. Best to visit out of the holiday season as it does get crowded.
For more information contact NPWS on 064 961434.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\BPic2:\b np110.jpg
#
"Brindabella National Park",13,"0","g","0"
Declared in 1996 Brindabella National Park is located north-west of the New South Wales / Australian Capital Territory border and lies to the north of Namadgi National Park. This new national park covers about 12,050 hectares.
Brindabella lies at the northern end of the Australian Alps. The area supports flora and fauna alliances unique to this part of the Alps. The area is particularly significant as a corridor for native animal movement. The importance of the area is enhanced by the protected lands of the Cotter Catchment and the Kosciuszko National Park to the immediate south and south-west.
Much of the park supports a forest of red stringybark and scribbly gum, while more sheltered slopes have forests of brown barrel with ribbon gum. Subalpine snow gum and mountain gum forests are found on elevated sites. Uncommon alliances of River Oak fringe gold air drainage areas adjacent to water courses, and Alpine Ash on sheltered southern slopes.
The national park will also aim to provide protection for the conservation of many species of flora and fauna. This includes species listed as vulnerable, such as the powerful owl, common bent wing bat, yellow-bellied glider and the koala. Other rare or uncommon species such as peregrine falcon and the alpine tea tree, along with 58 subalpine plants, are found here at the northern limit of their distribution.
The area provides varied recreational opportunities, including four wheel drive, bushwalking, orienteering, birdwatching and nature study. Four wheel driving, in particular, has long been a popular activity in the area and access for this activity is proposed to continue. Trails in the park are generally well formed and able to cope with this sort of use as long as they are maintained for access by fire vehicles.
The area is also popular with bushwalkers. Brindabella National Park, with its natural beauty and close proximity to Canberra and the Yass/Tumut region, is a valuable resource for the public to enjoy the natural beauty of the area.
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"Brisbane Water National Park",14,"b\4\np20022.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 11,372 hectares. It is located 9 km south of Gosford and has no four wheel drive opportunities.
Ideal for camping and bushwalking through the rugged sandstone country to the north of Sydney. This park is only one hour's drive from Sydney.
For more information contact NPWS on 043 244911.
\BDescription:\b \I Forest Floor, Brisbane Waters National Park (Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b npw022.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i
\BPic3:\b np111.jpg
#
"Broadwater National Park",15,"b\4\npw026.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 3,737 hectares. It is located 3 km north of Evans Head on the North Coast. There are no four wheel drive opportunities.
This small park preserves an area of swampy foreshore and fronts the beautiful Pacific ocean. There are short walks and day visit facilities only.
For more information contact NPWS on 066 281177
\BDescription:\b \I (NSW National Parks and Wildlife)\i.
\BPic2:\b np121.jpg
#
"Budawang National Park",16,"b\4\npw030.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 16,102 hectares. It is located on the South Coast inland from Ulladulla. There is very limited four wheel driving opportunities, however, the gravel roads that service the park would need care if wet.
The park is renowned as an ideal walking park but it is for the experienced walker. The scenery is spectacular with many unusual rock formations created by the weathered sandstone cliffs. A walk to the top of Pigeon House Mountain will take about 4 hours return and is a must for the casual visitor.
For the four wheel driver, access to the Nerriga road from Milton via Porters Creek Dam will prove quite interesting, but should not be attempted if wet. Most other trails in the park are closed to the public.
For more information contact NPWS on 048 877270.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\BPic2:\b np122.jpg
#
"Budderoo National Park",17,"b\4\npw034.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 5,746 hectares. It is located on the South Coast 5 km west of Jamberoo. There are no four wheel drive opportunities.
This is a day visit park only, with its main feature being the rainforest boardwalk and Minnamurra Falls, both are very spectacular.
For more information contact NPWS on 042 360469
\BDescription:\b Budderoo Escarpment. \I(NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.\i).
\BPic2:\b np124.jpg
#
"Bundjalung National Park",18,"b\4\np20083.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 17,679 hectares. It is located on the North Coast north of lluka near Yamba. Four wheel drive access along the beach between Woody Head and Black Rocks is permitted.
This park protects unusual coastal heath. It is serviced by a large camping area at Woody Head for which you must book. This is an ideal place for fishermen and surfers and the four wheel drive access along the beach ensures that you can escape the holiday crowds.
For more information contact NPWS on 066 466134
\BDescription:\b Bundjalung National Park \I(Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np10002.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \Iby Carmen Vila. (Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np20062.jpg
\BDescription3:\b \Iby John McCann (Random House)\i
\BPic4:\b np123.jpg
#
"Cathedral National Park",19,"b\4\npw038.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 6,529 hectares. It is located 77 km east of Armidale and there are no four wheel drive opportunities.
Renowned for its unusual balancing granite rock formations, this park provides some nice camp sites and good easy walks. Great views from the top of the granite outcrops are seen if you have the energy to endure the climb.
There are interesting rock formations on the heights of the Round Mountain. It is a steep climb to the top of Cathedral Rock, one of the tors on the Round Mountain, and a heavy chain has been installed to help amateur climbers. Having made the climb you look down on rainforests, woodlands, forests and swamps. There are many wallabies in the park as well as abundant birdlife. There are several signposted tracks; walking some of them requires an overnight stop. Car access is from the Dorrigo-Armidale Road 12km south of Ebor. There is a camping area at Ebor and motel accommodation is available at Armidale.
For more information contact NPWS on 066 572309.
\BDescription:\b \I (NSW National Parks and Wildlife).\i
\BPic2:\b np125.jpg
#
"Cattai National Park",20,"b\4\npw019.jpg","c","0"
Cattai National Park is comprised of two distinct sections. The Cattai farm section conserves aspects of Australia's early colonial past, while the other, Mitchell Park - two kilometres away by road - protects an important remnant of pristine bush including rainforest, wetlands and ironbark woodland.
Old Cattai farm was home to seven generations of the Arndell family. The river flats below the homestead - previously croplands - have been developed as expansive picnic grounds.
Mitchell Park was added to the park in 1991. It contains an astonishing variety of plant communities and boasts more than five kilometres of walking tracks. The Field Studies Centre at Mitchell Park, jointly managed by the NPWS and the University of Western Sydney has classrooms and an adjoining campground. It caters for students studying the area's natural heritage.
The plant communities found on the flatter, richer soils of the Cattai farm area have been modified by clearing and grazing by stock. Where there are clay and gravel dominated soils, vigorous regrowth is underway. Here, young broad-leaved ironbark, grey ironbark and narrow-leaved Angophora abound. Off the ridges - where deeper soils have formed - forest red gum occurs. The picnic grounds are dominated by big river oaks and introduced trees.
Mitchell Park is, in contrast to Cattai, largely undisturbed and it preserves several distinctive plant communities.
Although they were partially cleared earlier this century, the river flats boast huge forest red gums interspersed with cabbage-leaved red gum and apple box.
Along Cattai Creek, upstream from the picnic grounds, walkers can find a rare remnant of riverine rainforest dominated by lilli pilli and sandpaper fig. Some uncommon species can also be found here including red ash and whalebone tree.
Most of the higher country within Mitchell Park is typical open woodland commonly found on Hawkesbury sandstone. Dominant species include yellow bloodwood, grey gum, narrow-leaved geebung and black she-oak. A few examples of the uncommon scaly-barked gum can also be found.
An alluvial flat on the eastern edge of Mitchell Park is dominated by paperbarks and various climbers. Some large swamp mahoganys - now an uncommon species in the Sydney area - can also be seen.
A small closed woodland on deep sands, dominated by old man banksia, can also be found on the eastern side of Mitchell Park.
Because of their habitat destruction and fragmentation, few of the native animals once common in Sydney's north-west survive today. Since European settlement, hunting by humans and predation by foxes, dogs and domestic cats have also taken a heavy toll.
Despite this, some ground-dwelling native animals have managed to survive. Eastern grey kangaroos have been spotted and surveys have uncovered a population of antechinus at Mitchell Park. Brushtail possums, ringtail possums, swamp wallabies, goannas, brown snakes and red-bellied black snakes can also be seen.
European settlement of the Hawkesbury River valley has less of an impact on the area's native birdlife. In Mitchell Park especially, patient birdwatchers can have a most rewarding excursion.
Both Cattai and Mitchell Park are ideal places for a barbecue. There are a lot of fireplaces, wood is provided and many delightful shady spots can be found to enjoy a pleasant outdoor meal. Ample mown areas are available to kick a football or enjoy a family cricket or volleyball challenge. Large open shelter sheds with tables and benches for up to thirty people are available and can be reserved for day use by phoning the park and paying the appropriate fee prior to your arrival. Public facilities include a kiosk and wharf.
Mitchell Park has more than five kilometres of magnificent bushwalking tracks, some with interpretive signs. You can stroll through the rainforest, clamber over the sandstone outcrops or wander up the gully amongst the paperbarks.
Supervised horseriding is available in the Cattai farm area each weekend and during part of school holiday periods. Larger group bookings may be made by arrangement for other times. (Phone Robyn or Peter Coyte on (045) 751 738).
Paddleboats and canoes are available for use on the park's lagoon on most weekends.
The camping ground is open to family groups and individuals during school holidays and on weekends.
A vehicle entry fee is charged. Pedestrian access is free.
\BDescription:\b \I (NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service).\i
\BPic2:\b np135.jpg
#
"Cocoparra National Park",21,"b\4\npw023.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 8,358 hectares. It is located in the far west of the state 25km north east of Griffith. There are no four wheel drive opportunities.
The park has camping facilities and walking tracks that feature the cypress pines and red rocks of the outback. This is a remote park that could be included on a western New South Wales itinerary.
For more information contact NPWS on 069 627755.
\BDescription:\b \I (NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service).\i
\BPic2:\b np147.jpg
#
"Conimbla National Park",22,"b\4\npw027.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 7,590 hectares. It is located 20 km west of Cowra in the central west. A gravel road dissects the park which may require four wheel drive in wet weather.
The park protects the last remaining natural bushland in an area that is extensively farmed.
There are two campsites and walking tracks in the park, the NPWS should be contacted on 063 319777 for more information.
\BDescription:\b \I (NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.).
\BPic2:\b np136.jpg
#
"Crowdy Bay National Park",23,"b\4\np20043.jpg","c","0"
This park has total area of 8,005 hectares. It is located 25 km north of Taree and there are no four wheel drive opportunities.
The park provides camping beside the ocean and is therefore popular with fishermen and surfers.
For more information contact NPWS on 065 842203.
\BDescription:\b Crowdy Head. \IPhoto by Carmen Vila. (Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np142.jpg
#
"Culgoa National Park",24,"0","g","0"
Declared in 1996 Culgoa National Park is 15,615 hectares in size and is located on the Upper Culgoa floodplain, north of Brewarrina and Bourke on the Queensland Border.
The Culgoa National Park is one of the least disturbed floodplains in New South Wales. Inland floodplains of the semi-arid zone are nearly all highly modified by broadacre clearing proposals for grazing improvement purposes.
The Culgoa National Park contains regionally and nationally significant native plant and animal communities, which up to now has been poorly represented in the protected area system. The area adjoins the Culgoa Floodplain National Park in Queensland, creating a nationally significant park system.
Culgoa National Park is nestled at the core of the largest and least disturbed area of contiguous coolibah woodland remaining in New South Wales. This species of eucalypt, made famous by Banjo Paterson in his \IWaltzing Matilda\i poem, was widespread on the rich soils of our floodplains. It has undergone massive decline throughout its range over the past 20 years.
The park also contains part of the native grassland of the Culgoa floodplain, which is the largest area of native grassland remaining in New South Wales. The Culgoa River is lined with magnificent river redgums and with the surrounding environment, is considered to be the best of any inland river in northern New South Wales. Culgoa National Park supports a diverse fauna population including over half of the 26 species considered to be of conservation concern in western New South Wales. Koalas have been positively recorded in the area.
Aboriginal sites are common throughout the park, including scarred trees, clay hearths and stone flake scatterings.
The diversity of recreation within Culgoa National Park includes day walking, camping, birdwatching and photography. Canoeing and boating is also available at times when the Culgoa River flows.
Culgoa National Park is only an hour and a half drive from Lightning Ridge, which is a major tourist attraction, and a two hour drive from the population centre of Bourke.
#
"Deua National Park",25,"b\4\np20093.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 81,763 hectares. It is located 40 km west of Moruya on the South Coast. There are many opportunities for four wheel driving in this park.
Deua National Park contains many four wheel drive tracks of varying degrees of difficulty. It is primarily a wilderness area that is dissected by the Bendethera Fire Trail, the Minuma Range Fire Trail, the Mt Dampier Fire Trail and the Merricumbene Fire Trail. Each of these tracks are excellent for four wheel driving. The campsite at Bendethera is one of the best in the state. You will need to have some experience to drive these trails as they are very steep, slippery and have numerous deep river crossings. The scenery throughout the park is spectacular.
For more information contact NPWS on 044 762888
\BDescription:\b Peak Alone Trail, Wadbilliga, Deua National Park. \IPhoto by Vic Widman. (Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np20088.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Wadbilliga River, Wadbilliga, Deua National Park. \IPhoto by Vic Widman (Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np148.jpg
#
"Dharawal State Recreation Area and Nature Reserve",26,"0","g","0"
Declared in 1996 Dharawal State Recreation Area and Nature Reserve is 5,940 hectares in size and is bounded by Lake Cataract catchment to the south, the Lake Woronora catchment to the east, Campbelltown to the west and Holsworthy Military Range to the north.
O'Hares Creek, the dominant feature of the central section of the state recreation area, is the only major watercourse draining the Woronora Plateau which still has its catchment in an excellent state of preservation. The catchment contains a number of large upland swamps and in the sediments of the swamps are fossilised pollen and large fossils. In terms of plant life, these swamps are much more diverse than those found in comparable areas of Sydney sandstone in or outside the protected area system.
O'Hares Creek catchment is one of only 94 in New South Wales listed in the \IDirectory of Important Wetlands for Australia\i by the Australian Nature Conservation Agency (ANCA). The catchment area has been included on the Register of the National Estate and is included as part of the Blue Mountains World Heritage nomination.
O'Hares Creek catchment is home to 17 plant species listed as rare or threatened. Four of these species are not known to occur within any other conservation reserve. A number of threatened animals are found in the Dharawal Nature Reserve, including the endangered broad-headed snake, the vulnerable koala and the long-nosed potoroo.
A large number of outstanding Aboriginal sites occur in this area. These include rock engravings, charcoal and clay drawings, hand stencils, axe grinding grooves and occupation sites.
Recreation opportunities will include bushwalking, with the creek providing a focal point for bushwalkers who can choose from walks ranging from easy to difficult. The larger creeks feature magnificent waterfalls and serene rock pools were you can swim, canoe, or lilo.
#
"Dharug National Park",27,"b\4\npw031.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 14,834 hectares. It is located 75 km north west of Sydney near Wiseman's Ferry. It has limited four wheel drive opportunities.
This park features rugged sandstone country to the north of Sydney. There are many Aboriginal sites and the old convict built Great North Road. Vehicle access is now severely restricted in order to preserve the area. Nevertheless it is possible and very worthwhile to explore the old convict road on foot. Access to the walking track is found 5 km north of the Wiseman's Ferry.
For more information contact NPWS on 043 244911
\BDescription:\b \I (NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.)\i.
\BPic2:\b np114.jpg
#
"Dorrigo National Park",28,"b\4\npw035.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 7,885 hectares. It is located 2 km east of Dorrigo on the mountain range west of Coffs Harbour. There are no four wheel drive opportunities in the park although the surrounding secondary roads would require extreme care in wet conditions.
This park is famous for its tree top boardwalk, rainforest and luxuriant vegetation.
For more information contact NPWS on 066 572309.
\BDescription:\b \I (NSW National Parks and Wildlife)\i.
\BPic2:\b np127.jpg
#
"Garigal National Park",29,"b\4\garigal.jpg","c","0"
Garigal National Park protects over 2,000 hectares of pristine bushland in the north-eastern part of the Sydney metropolitan area.
The park forms an important bush corridor for wildlife through the Middle Harbour catchment and it conserves significant parts of the sensitive Narrabeen Lakes catchment.
Only 13 km from the centre of Sydney, Davidson Park Picnic Area lies on the north-eastern side of Roseville Bridge, edging tranquil Middle Harbour. There is easy parking alongside the landscaped lawns which are dotted with native trees. Barbecues, firewood, water, picnic tables and a few small shelter sheds are provided.
Public amenities are centrally located within the picnic area. There is safe swimming in the shark-proofed netted enclosure off Area 4. Group bookings can be made for Area 2 for groups of 50+.
On the eastern foreshore of Bantry Bay is a small picnic area with a few barbecues. Access is gained by a twenty minute walk through casuarina and eucalypt forests from Seaforth Oval. Boat passengers may alight at the wharf.
The Cascades, a large rock pool at the junction of Frenchs and Middle Harbour Creeks, is an attractive natural area for picnicking.
The park has a varied landform of broad ridges, steep slopes and deep valleys, with areas of rocky outcrops, cliffs and wetland.
Sandstone forms the foundation of Garigal National Park. Once completely underwater, powerful forces uplifted the sandstone high above sea level about 10 million years ago.
Soils derived from this sandstone support well over 500 different plant species. Three of the Parks rarest plants are \IGrevillea caleyi, Haloragodendron lucasii\i and \IEucalyptus luehmanniana.\i The first two are so unique they only grow in northern Sydney. \IH. lucasii\i was thought to be extinct until it was recently discovered in the St. Ives area. \IE. luehmanniana\i (yellow-top mallee ash) is found in a few places around Sydney. Unlike other eucalypts along the city's coast, it has no main trunk but a web of narrow branches rising from a central base.
About 160 bird species (around one third of those known for Sydney) have been recorded, ranging from tiny finches to the majestic yellow-tailed black cockatoo.
Hidden among the vegetation are swamp wallabies, echidnas, possums and bandicoots.
The park formed part of the territory of Guringai speaking people before European settlement. Occupation of Bantry Bay by Aboriginal people has been dated to about 5,000 years ago, the oldest known date in the metropolitan area.
Guringai clans, of related groups or extended families, owned tracts of land which they visited or occupied on a regular seasonal basis. In resource rich areas, such as Narrabeen Lakes, people were semi-sedentary in village type settlements for months at a time, while they used the estuarine and coastal food sources. At other times of the year smaller groups of people probably spread out through the park to hunt possums and wallabies and to gather other small game, plant foods and resources such as medicinal plants. Elevated areas in the park were visited for the purpose of creating engravings on rock surfaces - some of these places were probably locations where ceremonies were held.
Evidence of Aboriginal occupation has been found in about thirty different places in the park. This includes engravings, rock art sites and camp sites. Please respect Aboriginal sites when you are visiting the park; they are to be found throughout the park and are protected by law.
Vehicle access to the Davidson Picnic Area and boat ramps at Roseville Bridge is via a signposted access road on the north-eastern side of the bridge, along Warringah Road from Forestville.
Walking tracks are accessed from many points around the park.
The boat ramps at the Roseville Bridge complex are open twenty-four hours a day. There are 113 car/trailer parking spaces; the launching area is well lit.
Horseriders are required to have either an annual horseriding permit or a day-use riding ticket (valid for both Garigal and Ku-ring-gai Chase National Parks. For more information call (02) 451 3479.
The walk track system throughout the park takes the visitor through moist dark gullies, tall open forests and brightly-coloured heathlands. The tracks follow the peaceful creeks and foreshores or lead up to headlands or rock knolls. There are stunning views from The Bluff (Bantry Bay), Acron Oval (St. Ives) and Narrabeen Trig (overlooking Narrabeen Lakes).
To obtain detailed walk maps, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to the office or pick up from the collectors at Roseville Bridge at the weekend.
Vehicle entrance fee - Davidson Park Area - Sundays and Public Holidays.
Boat launching fee - Boat Ramps - weekends and Public Holidays.
NPWS annual permits allowing unlimited access are available from the office or boat ramps collector.
Please note:
ò Pets are not allowed.
ò Camping is not permitted
ò Fires allowed only in picnic area (in fireplaces or portable barbecues)
ò There is no public access to the explosives magazine buildings on the western foreshores of Bantry Bay.
\BDescription:\b Bungaroo at Garigal National Park. \I(Garigal National Park)\i
\BPic2:\b cascade.jpg
\BDescription2:\b I (Garigal National Park\i)
\BPic3:\b np116.jpg
#
"Georges River National Park",30,"b\4\npw039.jpg","c","0"
Conserving the shores of the Georges River, this park covers 326 hectares of open woodland, eucalypt forest and developed picnic areas just 20 km south-west of the centre of Sydney.
The area was first opened to European settlement in 1795 when George Bass and Matthew Flinders spent nine days exploring the Georges River. For their discovery of suitable farming land on the upper reaches of the river, Bass and Flinders were granted land near Prospect Creek (now Georges Hall).
On 1 January 1798, Governor Hunter established Banks Town (named in honour of Sir Joseph Banks). By 1800, around twenty riverbank settlers were supplying the Sydney markets with cattle and wheat.
In 1900, the area became popular for recreation when paddle steamers commenced a service from Como wharf to 'Parksvale', within the present park boundaries. The paddle steamer \I'Telephone'\i and the launch \I'Alma'\i - which brought picnickers from Fairfield - were a regular sight along the river until services ceased in the 1920s.
Picnic areas at Fitzpatrick Park, Burrawang Reach, Cattle Duffers Flat and Morgans Creek are popular for family and group picnics. For a fee, picnic areas may be reserved - contact the Royal National Park Visitor Centre on (02) 9 542 0648.
The river is navigable upstream to Liverpool Weir and downstream to Botany Bay. At Fitzpatrick Park, on controlled waters of the river, Fun Cats are available for hire.
The sandy beaches of Burrawang Reach provide an ideal base for water skiing.
Fisherman report good catches of bream and blackfish off the park's beaches and rocky foreshores. Bait and fishing tackle are available from the Picnic Point Marine Centre.
Several short walking tracks traverse the park, providing bushwalkers with spectacular river views. They include the 2 km Ridge Track from Morgans Creek to Cattle Duffers Flat, and Yaramba Lagoon Walk, a pleasant stroll popular with birdwatchers and nature lovers.
Two 8 metre wide boat ramps and a jetty are available at Morgans Creek with nearby parking for 100 boat trailers.
All picnic areas have barbecues with wood supplied, and also toilets with disabled access.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.\i
\BPic2:\b np118.jpg
#
"Gibraltar Range National Park",31,"b\4\np20096.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 17,273 hectares. It is located on the Gwydir Highway 95 km west of Grafton. There are no four wheel drive opportunities.
There is a camping ground and many interesting walks through this lushly vegetated granite belt. The parks sits astride the Great Dividing Range and the best view is seen at Raspberry Lookout; it is stunning.
For more information contact NPWS on 067 325133
\BDescription:\b \I Photo by John McCann\i.
\BPic2:\b np130.jpg
#
"Goulburn River National Park",32,"b\4\np20001.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 69,343 hectares. It is located 100 km west of Muswellbrook. There are no four wheel drive opportunities other than the access track to Spring Gully where it is possible to camp near the Goulburn River.
This large park protects the northern section of the wild sandstone country that lies to the west of Sydney and Newcastle. There are few tracks into the park with most walking trails following the course of the Goulburn River. The area features towering sandstone cliffs and caves where Aboriginal sites are common.
For more information contact NPWS on 063 723122
\BDescription:\b Scribbly Gum, Goulburn River National Park \I(Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np146.jpg
#
"Gundabooka National Park",33,"0","g","0"
Gundabooka National Park is 43,590 hectares in size and is located 70 kilometres south-west of Bourke. The area consists of the prominent and rocky Gunderbooka Range surrounded by lower, sweeping plains country.
Gundabooka National Park lies on the northwestern edge of the Cobar Peneplain Bioregion. It provides important habitats for a large range of plant and animal species which are typical of the area. Prior to the establishment of this new park, only one per cent of this region was represented in the protected area system of parks and reserves.
The gently undulating plains country supports dense vegetation communities including mulga, bimble box, ironwood, white cypress pine, wilga, rosewood and belah. The shallow skeletal soils of the Gunderbooka Range are dominated by mulga and grey mallee.
The park conserves populations of a wide diversity of habitats and fauna. Of particular significance is the large number of vulnerable species present, which include the little pied bat and the largest known population in New South Wales of the kultarr (a small hopping mouse). The rocky terrain of the Gunderbooka Range provides habitat for the wallaroo and possibly the brush-tailed rock wallaby, the wedge-tailed eagle and the peregrine falcon, while the grassy plains provide expansive foraging ground for the western grey, eastern grey, red kangaroo and emu.
The local Aboriginal community in Bourke and other regional centres have maintained strong links with the area regarding their Aboriginal culture and oral traditions. The Aboriginal pronunciation of Gundabooka is "Goondoobooka". Mount Gundabooka is part of a Biame Dreaming Track which is the major Dreaming Track in the region.
The scenic and recreational potential of Gundabooka National Park is considerable. The escarpment is extremely impressive when viewed from the plain and its heights offer panoramic vista of a seemingly endless expanse of woodlands and shrublands across the Cobar Peneplain. The Gunderbooka Range offers unique recreational opportunities for the adventurous walker.
On the lower parts of the Gunderbooka Range you will find rock holes and creek lines which are suitable for camping, bushwalking, and birdwatching.
#
"Guy Fawkes River National Park",34,"b\4\npw020.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 35,630 hectares. It is located in remote country 60 km west of Dorrigo off the Chaelundi Forest road. There is limited four wheel drive access as all the surrounding access trails are gravel and would be very slippery in wet weather.
This park stretches along the banks of the Guy Fawkes River which passes through extremely remote and rugged land. There is a campsite at Chaelundi rest area which also has numerous long walking trails radiating from it. This area would be best suited to the experienced bushwalker. The surrounding state forest country contains some four wheel drive tracks, the Liberation trail being the best of these. Be prepared for fallen timber and deep river crossings.
For more information contact NPWS on 066 572309
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.\i
\BPic2:\b np128.jpg
#
"Hat Head National Park",35,"b\4\npw024.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 6,446 hectares. It is located 24 km north east of Kempsey. There are no four wheel drive opportunities in the park.
This is a great park for those wanting some sun and surf, together with great coastal scenery. There are two camping areas and camp fees apply.
For more information contact NPWS on 065 842203.
\BDescription:\b Smoky Cape Lighthouse, Hat Head National Park.\I (NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i).
\BPic2:\b np173.jpg
#
"Heathcote National Park",36,"b\4\npw028.jpg","c","0"
The efforts of the Mountain Trails Club, founded by Myles Dunphy and friends in 1914, led to the establishment of what is now Heathcote National Park. The club leased 34 hectares of crown land as Miara Sanctuary in 1937, and this became the basis of the Heathcote Primitive Area of 712 ha, gazetted in 1943. It was later extended to 2250 ha. and came under control of the National Parks and Wildlife Service as Heathcote State Park in 1967. In 1974 it became Heathcote National Park.
Topographically the park is a typical, deeply dissected, Hawkesbury sandstone landscape. Heathcote Creek is a good example of this deep dissection. The sandstone was deposited some 200 million years ago, and periodic uplifting began about 94 million years ago. Each period of uplift has caused stream erosion to bite more deeply into the ancient plateau surfaces. Heathcote creek cascades and tumbles via a number of fine rock pools down to the Woronora River.
The rugged landscape supports a variety of plant communities. The ridges and drier slopes have open forest dominated by angophoras, eucalypts such as bloodwood, greygum, Sydney peppermint and scribbly gum, while the grass-tree seems to explode out of the shrubby floor. The tall, red-flowered Gymea lily and the graceful forest oak commonly grow on the moister slopes. Low heath, also found on the dry ridges, consists of a mixture of brightly flowering shrubs, including epacris, ti-trees, banksias, hakeas and waxflowers. Blackbutts and fern-leafed grevillea grow in the Heathcote Creek valley.
Australian mammals are nocturnal so they aren't likely to be found during the day, but many bird species can be seen. Noisy friar birds and other honeyeaters are often seen, while the notes of the superb lyrebird ring across the Heathcote Creek valley.
The park is part of the traditional land of the Dharawal Aboriginal people who inhabited the area for hundreds of generations.
Heathcote National Park reflects its origins as a bushwalkers' park. The Mountain Trails Club confined public access on its original lease to the Bullawaring Track, and the Primitive Area Trust appointed in 1945, continued the principle of non-vehicular access. The policy continues today and of course applies to trail bikes, which are prohibited.
Because public roads don't extend into Heathcote National Park, it's ideal for bushwalking, nature study, bush camping and picnicking.
Access by foot is available along any of the walking tracks and on the Pipeline Road which runs between Woronora Dam Road and Heathcote Road. Entry from Waterfall is via Varabin Street and from Heathcote via Oliver Street. Bicycles may be ridden along the Pipeline Road.
Bush picnic sites are found at Sarah's Knob (at the southern end of the Pipeline Road), Kingfisher Pool and other pools along Heathcote Creek and at Girronba Creek about two kilometres north of Sarah's Knob. Limited parking is provided at Sarah's Knob.
Bushcamping permits are required and can be obtained from the Visitor Centre at Audley.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\BPic2:\b np120.jpg
#
"Kanangra Boyd National Park",37,"b\4\npw032.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 68,276 hectares. It is located west of Sydney near Jenolan Caves in the \JBlue Mountains.\j There are four wheel drive trails open to the public.
The park is renowned for its rugged terrain and wilderness areas. Frequent snow falls in winter and sudden thunder storms in summer ensure that you carry appropriate clothing at all times. There is a labyrinth of walking trails throughout the park and camping at Boyd River and Dingo Dell. The park is a wilderness landscape; the Kanangra Plateau features massive cliffs and gorges, limestone caves and waterfalls. The Kanangra Falls are particularly impressive, especially after good rain. The plateau is a peninsula of rock in a sea of forest, and the Kanangra Walls which surround it look forbidding although they are relatively easy to climb. However, this is very much a reserve for experienced bushwalkers.
The nearest accommodation is at Jenolan Caves.
For more information contact NPWS on 063 361972
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\BPic2:\b np159.jpg
#
"Kinchega National Park",38,"b\4\np20089.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 44,180 hectares. It is located 111 km from \JBroken Hill\j near Menindee. Access is on a sealed road but all roads in the park are gravel and would require four wheel drive if wet.
The park surrounds Menindee and Cawndilla Lakes and is famous for its wildlife, arid plains and the Kinchega Woolshed.
For more information contact NPWS on 080 885933
\BDescription:\b Kinchega National Park. \IPhoto by Jamie Robertson. (Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np161.jpg
#
"Kings Plains National Park",39,"b\4\np166.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 5,150 hectares. It is located 50 km north west of Glen lnnes. There are no four wheel drive opportunities.
This is a relatively unknown park in the north east of the state. There are no facilities and bushwalking in remote country is the only way to see it. For those that make the effort, there are crystal clear pools and waterfalls to enjoy.
For more information contact NPWS on 067 325133.
\BDescription:\b Kings Plains National Park Location Map.
#
"Kosciuszko National Park",40,1_0098.jpg,c,0
This park has a total area of 690,000 hectares. It is located in the Snowy Mountains region of the state and is by far the biggest park in NSW. There are varied four wheel drive opportunities available in the park.
This park is world famous, it contains Australia's highest mountain and the vast majority of the country's ski fields. For the four wheel driver summer is the best time to visit as most trails are closed in winter. The adventurous person could try the trail into Cooleman Homestead and the forestry country north towards Brindabella.
There is also the track into the old gold town of Ravine near Yarrangobilly Caves where there are some great campsites. There are even more excellent four wheel drive opportunities over the Murray River in Victoria adjacent to this park. Naturally, through winter, your four wheel drive will be an advantage on the snow covered roads leading to the ski resorts but wheel chains must be carried.
With alpine herb fields above the tree line and mountain forests below, the park has some alpine lakes and is a source of many of the state's rivers. It also includes all the major NSW ski fields, the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme, the thermal pools and limestone caves of Yarragolbilly, the historic gold town of Kiandra, and the wilderness area of Mt. Jagungal.
The major ski fields in NSW are Thredbo, Perisher, Blue Cow and Mt. Selwyn.
Kosciusko National Park has been somewhat embattled from time to time by graziers resentful of the loss of summer grazing and by the Hydro-electric Scheme established in 1949, which was to dot the mountains with dams and power stations.
Before Strzelecki and the settlers, however, the various Aboriginal tribes in the area had long regarded the mountains with awe. In summer, the tribes went into the mountains to feast on the large white Bogong moth. They believed that the Bogong moth was transformed in the cold weather into flakes of snow, thus turning the high country white for several months of the year.
This is, of course, also the country of \IThe Man from Snowy River.\i A.B. ('Banjo') Paterson is said to have composed the ballad in a small slab hut that once stood by the Snowy River not far from Jindabyne. The hut is now beneath the waters of Lake Jindabyne, a long way from the location used for the film loosely based on Paterson's poem.
The 'wild bush horses', called brumbies, still course through parts of the mountains where men rarely go. With the greater numbers of people now coming to the mountains, the brumbies have withdrawn into the more inaccessible region.
Skiing has become one of Australia's fastest growing participation sports. From the Queen's Birthday weekend in June until Labour Day weekend in October, the roads are full of cars crowned with ski racks making their way to the mountain ski resorts.
A park entry fee applies, for more information contact NPWS on 064 561700.
\BDescription:\b Ski fields \I(DFAT)\i
\BPic2:\b hol10072.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \ICourtesy Webster Publishing\i
\BPic3:\b np20002.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Alpine Pools, Kosciuszko National Park. \I(Random House)\i
\BPic4:\b np20019.jpg
\BDescription4:\b I (Random House)\i
\BPic5:\b np20021.jpg
\BDescription5:\b Blue Lake, Kosciuszko National Park. \I(Random House)\i
\BPic6:\b np154.jpg
#
"Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park",41,"b\4\krngai.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 14,838 hectares. It is located in the northern suburbs of Sydney. There are no four wheel drive tracks open to the public.
This park is very popular due to its close proximity to Sydney. It features many bushwalks and adjoins the water ways of Broken Bay. Hence it is very scenic and quite busy on weekends.
For more information regarding guided walks and other things to do in the park contact NPWS on 02 4579322.
\BDescription:\b \I(Readers Digest)\i.
\BPic2:\b np112.jpg
#
"Lake Urana Nature Reserve",42,"0","g","0"
Declared in 1996 Lake Urana Nature Reserve is located in the Riverina area of New South Wales, 15 kilometres west of Urana and is just over 300 hectares in size. It lies on the higher land adjacent to Lake Urana, an intermittent lake used for grain production.
Lake Urana lies within a vast landscape of cleared pasture and cropping land typical of southern central New South Wales known as the Southern Riverina Bioregion. Few remnants of natural vegetation remain in this region and less than one per cent of the Riverina Bioregion is represented in the conservation reserve system. The addition of Lake Urana to the reserve system will enhance the representation of the ecosystems of the Riverina in the reserve system.
Lake Urana Nature Reserve is highly significant as it contains yellow box woodland with white cypress pine, an association not sampled in any other conservation reserve. Yellow box, a magnificent spreading eucalypt was once extremely widespread throughout eastern New South Wales on the good soils and flat terrain of the tablelands and western slopes. These lands have now been almost completely cleared since European settlement so much so that this small area of 300 hectares is one of the largest areas of yellow box woodland now remaining in the Riverina region.
The reserve also contains a narrow band of river red gum woodland on the shore of Lake Urana. A small area of myall woodland, an inland acacia which prefers the richer soils of the plains also occurs here. Also a species preferring the rich soils of the slopes and plains, now largely cleared, this species is also very poorly conserved within the State's reserve system.
As a nature reserve, Lake Urana is mananged principally for its high conservation value. The area, however, is available for scientific research and educational opportunities.
#
"Lane Cove National Park",43,"b\4\lanecove.jpg","c","0"
Lane Cove River State Recreation Area is located 10 kilometres north west of the city of Sydney. The Park was named a National Park in 1938. However, due to its size, approximately 400 hectares, it was reclassified as a State Recreation Area in 1976.
Lane Cove River Park is Sydney's most popular picnic area with over a million visitors each year. It is a great place for a BBQ; each section of the park has plenty of car parking space as well as barbecues and tables. There are two kiosks in the park with a good variety of food and hot or cold drinks.
Activities to be enjoyed at the park are rowing a canoe along the river (you can bring your own or hire one from the park), fishing downstream from the weir, bushwalking, cycling, jogging and camping (in tents or you can hire a caravan). For the more adventurous there is rock climbing and abseiling. There is even a children's Zoo located at the park as well as the Visitors Centre which is a great place to learn about the history of the park. The Centre displays some great old photographs and artifacts and the staff are always happy to answer any questions you may like to ask.
There are a number of bushtracks available such as the Fiddens Wharf Walking Track, the Riverside Walk, Fairyland Walk and Jenkins Hill Walk. Some of the walks can take a full day, others an hour or two.
There is also a paddlewheeler on the river named \IP.S. Turrumburra.\i The cruise takes about an hour and is a great way to take a good look at what the park has to offer.
\BDescription:\b Lane Cove River. \I(Vanessa Richardson, Lane Cove River State Recreation Area)\i
\BPic2:\b lcove3.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Kukindi Wildlife Shelter \I(Vanessa Richardson, Lane Cove River State Recreation Area)\i
\BPic3:\b lcove2.jpg
\BDescription3:\b \ICourtesy Lane Cove River National Park\i
\BPic4:\b lcove6.jpg
\BDescription4:\b \ICourtesy Lane Cove River National Park\i
\BPic5:\b lcove5.jpg
\BDescription5:\b \ICourtesy Lane Cove River National Park\i
\BPic6:\b lcove4.jpg
\BDescription6:\b \ICourtesy Lane Cove River National Park\i
\BPic7:\b lcove7.jpg
\BDescription7:\b \ICourtesy Lane Cove River National Park\i
\BPic8:\b np117.jpg
#
"Macquarie Pass National Park",44,"b\5\npw036.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 1,064 hectares. It is located 9 km west of Albion Park near Wollongong. There are no trails open to four wheel drives.
This small park protects a subtropical rainforest area that clings to the edge of the escarpment. A short 2 km walk to the Cascades is well worth the effort as the rainforest growth is fascinating.
For more information contact NPWS on 048 877270
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\BPic2:\b np157.jpg
#
"Marramarra National Park",45,"b\5\np113.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 11,759 hectares. It is located just to the north of Hornsby in Sydney's northern suburbs. There are no trails open for four wheel drives.
Another great park close to Sydney that protects the flora common to the Sydney sandstone country found around Broken Bay. Ideal for bushwalkers and day visits only.
For more information contact NPWS on 02 4579322.
\BDescription:\b Marramarra National Park Location Map.
#
"Mimosa Rocks National Park",46,"b\5\npw011.jpg","c","0"
Mimosa Rocks National Park covers an area of 5,225 ha and embraces 17km of coastline. It is located on the far South Coast 22 km north east of Bega, 420 km south of Sydney, 220 km south-east of Canberra and 22 km north-east of Bega. Most trails in the park are gravel therefore, four wheel drive would be an advantage.
The park lies along a very scenic section of coastline. Fishing and swimming naturally predominate as the main attraction of the area. There are well established and secluded campsites scattered throughout the park. These can become crowded in school holidays but you will have them virtually to yourself at other times.
The park is heavily timbered and contains a diverse system of beaches, sea caves, headlands, cliffs, off-shore tracks and lagoons.
Stunted woodland and heath is found in exposed areas such as headlands. Elsewhere, magnificent stands of coastal forest are found, with dry open forests occurring on inland ridge tops and occasional pockets of wet forest appearing in moist gullies within the park.
A wide range of animals including swamp wallabies, goannas, wrens, thornbills, honeyeaters and a wide variety of seabirds are commonly seen in the park.
Recreation opportunities include bushwalking, camping, picnicking, birdwatching, fishing and swimming (lagoon and ocean beaches).
Aboriginal middens and artifacts such as cutting stones are found in the park.
Access is via the gravel road which leads off from the Bermagui/Tathra Rd. These roads may become impasssable after heavy rain and are unsuitable for caravans.
Basic facilities are provided at Aragunnu Beach*, Picnic Point*, Bithry Inlet, Middle Beach*, Gillards Beach*, Nelson Beach and Moon Bay. Please remember to bring drinking water with you as there is none available at these areas.
(* Camping facilities provided. A camping fee applies. Permits available at self-registration stations in campground. Please note that Middle Beach provides walk in camp facilities only and that camping is not allowed at Nelson Beach or Moon Bay.)
Caravan/camping and motel/hotel facilities are available at Bermagui, Bega and Tathra.
For more information contact NPWS on 044 762888
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.\i
\BPic2:\b np151.jpg
#
"Mootwingee National Park",47,"b\5\np20044.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 68,912 hectares. It is located in far western NSW 130 km north east of \JBroken Hill.\j The roads are rough gravel and impassable after rain, a four wheel drive vehicle would be the preferable means of reaching the park.
This is an ancient landscape featuring a very old mountain range scattered across the vast emptiness of the outback. The area has great significance to the Aboriginal community and it is necessary to make a prior booking to visit the art sites. The tours are only conducted on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Temperatures are extremely hot in the summer months and the area should be avoided at this time. Always carry extra water and food as even light rain can cause the roads to be closed.
For more information contact NPWS on 068 362692.
\BDescription:\b Mootwingee National Park. \IPhoto by Stuart Fox and Suzanne Clarke. (Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np164.jpg
#
"Morton National Park",48,"b\5\npw012.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 162,386 hectares. This huge park is found on the Great Divide inland from the South Coast. It stretches from near Moss Vale towards Braidwood where it adjoins the Budawang National Park. There are some four wheel drive tracks in this park.
The main offering for the four wheel driver is the trip into Yalwal and the sandy reaches of the Shoalhaven River. There are other tracks around Kangaroo Hill near Tianjarra Falls off the Turpentine Road. The park contains fascinating scenery, with huge sandstone cliffs providing the main source of interest. During spring, the wildflowers are excellent. The most scenic aspects of the park are once again only accessible to experienced bush walkers.
For more information contact NPWS on 048 877270
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\BPic2:\b np155.jpg
#
"Mount Imlay National Park",49,"b\5\np152.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 3,808 hectares. It is located on the South Coast 20 km south of Eden. There are no four wheel drive opportunities although access is via gravel forestry roads that would be slippery after rain.
This park features a walk, which is quite steep to the top of Mt Imlay. There are no designated campsites and very few facilities. This park is best suited to a day visit only.
For more information contact NPWS on 064 961434.
\BDescription:\b Mount Imlay National Park Location Map.
#
"Mount Kaputar National Park",50,"b\5\np20094.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 36,817 hectares. It is located in the central west of the state 53 km east of Narrabri. There are no four wheel drive tracks but access tracks are gravel.
A popular park with mountain climbers, whose efforts are rewarded with good views from the craggy peaks. Being located in the semi arid interior of the state, the vegetation is far more sparse than those parks found on the coast. Winter is the best time to visit as it gets very hot at other times.
For more information contact NPWS on 067 924724.
\BDescription:\b Mount Kaputar National Park. \IPhoto by John McCann. (Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np140.jpg
#
"Mount Warning National Park",51,"b\5\np20064.jpg","c","0"
This park has total area of 2,380 hectares. It is located on the far north coast 12 km south west of Murwillumbah. There are no four wheel drive tracks in the park.
Mount Warning is visible from the Pacific Highway as you drive towards Tweed Heads. It has a beauty of its own that beckons any explorer to have a closer look. There is a good road leading right to its base followed by a 4 km walk uphill to the summit. The walk is a must and the rainforest that clads the base of the mountain makes the long climb a little easier as it captures your attention. To reach the summit, it is necessary to use a chain ladder to haul yourself up the rock face. The views are superb and some very good viewing platforms have been provided by NPWS. Mount Warning is the first piece of mainland Australia to receive the rays of the sun each day. For this reason, many people venture to the summit before sunrise to witness the spectacle.
For more information contact NPWS on 066 737211.
\BDescription:\b Mount Warning National Park. \I (Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np132.jpg
#
"Mungo National Park",52,"b\5\4_0095.jpg","c","0"
In the far west of New South Wales lies the extraordinary Willandra Lakes region, part of which is now included in the Mungo National Park. Willandra Lakes unrivalled archeological value led to its listing as one of Australia's five World Heritage properties by the World Heritage Committee in 1981.
This park has a total area of 68,912 hectares. It is located in the far west 110 km north of Mildura. All roads in the district are gravel and a four wheel drive would be needed if the roads were wet.
This park contains records of Aboriginal existence dating over 40,000 years. Another ancient reminder of the long past are the Walls of China. This natural formation is a 30 kilometre long chain of orange and white sand dunes sculptured by wind and rain into unusual formations.
This inaccessible and arid region is composed of saltbush plain and colourful sandscapes that illustrate the powers of wind erosion. The lakes here have been dry since the end of the last ice age, some 15,000 years ago.
The present landscape is a result of the wind and rain creating gullies in the former lake beds, and piling up clay and sand into strange formations such as the 'Walls of China'.
Later, when the lakes began to dry up, the area became grassland and the Aborigines discovered how to make flour - the first known use of the grindstone in human history.
Archeological excavations since the 1960s have been aided by natural erosion processes, and in 1969 evidence of a human burial was discovered and estimated to date back 25,500 years. Other discoveries of stone tools, ancient hearths and skeletal remains indicate that human settlement extends back as far as 40,000 years.
These findings have provided outstanding evidence of the antiquity of modern man and a fascinating insight into the life and culture of early Aboriginal societies. The Willandra Lakes region is one of the earliest known sites of man found anywhere in the world.
Within this 6,000 square-kilometre site it is believed that more archeological treasures lie waiting to be discovered - a process aided by a constant and ruthless erosion that has created the landscape of this ancient lake system.
There is a self drive, one way loop through the park that helps you gain an appreciation for the area. Camping is available but bookings may be necessary.
For more information contact NPWS on 068 362692.
\BDescription:\b 'Walls of China' \I(DFAT).\i
\BPic2:\b 4_0084.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Human remains found \I(DFAT).\i
\BPic3:\b np20034.jpg
\BDescription3:\b I (DFAT)\i
\BPic4:\b np162.jpg
#
"Murramarang National Park",53,"b\5\npw013.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 1,609 hectares. It is located on the south coast just 10 km north of Batemans Bay. The trails throughout the park are gravel and there are some four wheel drive-only trails.
If there was ever a place that you could guarantee to see a kangaroo, then this is the spot. The park hugs a thin slice of coast and is famous for its kangaroo population. The kangaroos laze happily in the sun at Pebbly Beach and Durras North. A great place to take visitors from overseas. The track up to Mount Durras from the north side is strictly four wheel drive. The view is superb and well worth the hard drive. This track should be avoided if it is wet. Camping with the kangaroos is readily available at various commercial caravan parks.
For more information contact NPWS on 044 239800.
\BPic2:\b np167.jpg
#
"Myall Lakes National Park",54,"b\5\myall.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 31,562 hectares. It is located on the mid north coast 16 km east of Bulahdelah and 236 kilometres north of Sydney on the NSW Central Coast. Beach driving is permitted in a designated section of the park.
The park has sweeping beaches, spectacular headlands and three major freshwater lakes separated from the sea by dunes and swampy heathlands.
The Myall River is bordered by mangroves which are alive with a striking variety of waders and water birds. It is flanked by rainforest and there are a number of wetland areas covered in melaleuca trees.
As it approaches the sea near Port Stephens, the Myall River spills into the vast, shallow expanse of Myall Lakes and the Bombah Broadwater, creating a complex of paperbarked-fringed lakes that are a natural refuge for pelicans, sea eagles, kangaroos and koalas - and a wonderland for anglers, canoeists, and anyone who enjoys messing about in boats.
There are marinas at Buladelah, Soldiers Point and Tea Gardens, where you can choose from a wide range of charter houseboats which will give you access to the tranquillity of Myall Lakes National Park - more than 1,300 square kilometres of cruising waters.
Myall Lakes is best visited outside school holidays as it does get very crowded. It is a magnificent area where fishing and swimming, or just relaxing are the main features. The beach is only accessible from Mungo Brush or Hawks Nest, but once on the beach you can drive north as far as the Big Gibber. You are no longer permitted to drive north of the Big Gibber to Seal Rocks on either the beach or the old mining road. If accessing the beach at Hawks Nest you must have a beach permit issued by Great Lakes Council. This costs $30 for 12 months. The beach is very soft and it is absolutely essential that you lower tyre pressures to safely travel along the foreshore.
Driving on vegetated dunes is not permitted. Sightings of dingoes on the beach and whales and dolphins in the surf are very common. Good camping facilities are available at Mungo Brush.
For more information contact NPWS on 049 873108.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Readers Digest.\i
\BPic2:\b myall2.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \ICourtesy Random House\i
\BPic3:\b np20099.jpg
\BDescription3:\b \ICourtesy Random House\i
\BPic4:\b np143.jpg
#
"Nadgee Nature Reserve",55,"0","g","0"
Declared in 1996 and nestled in the south eastern corner of New South Wales, Nadgee Nature Reserve provides important habitat protection for the area's plants and animals in addition to conserving the catchment area of the Nadgee and Little River systems and Nadgee Lake. The reserve contains the only coastal area with identified wilderness qualities in New South Wales.
Fauna of particular interest and confirmed occurrence in the reserve includes ground parrots, eastern bristlebirds, little terns, potoroos and pygmy possums. About 12 families of dingoes live in the area. Dry open forest areas occur widely throughout Nadgee with patches of rainforest occuring in the upper Nadgee/Battery Creek catchments and low shrubby heaths being encountered at Mt Nadgee and along the coastline.
Covering an area of 17,085 hectares, the reserve is located 500 kilometres south of Sydney, 40 kilometres north of Genoa (Victoria) and 25 kilometres south of Eden. Access is via the Wonboyn Road which leaves the Princes Highway 21 kilometres south of Eden. Baycliff and Greenglade are reached via a rough sandy track (4WD may be needed in its latter sections) which leads off from Wonboyn.
The main body of the reserve is reached via the Queensland Bridge Road and Newton's Road which provides rough 2WD access to Newtons Beach. Beyond Newton's Beach access is by foot only. Vehicle access may be closed at short notice due to road conditions. Intending visitors should check with the Eden National Parks and Wildlife Service District Office before proceeding into the reserve.
A small parking area is provided at Baycliff with short sandy paths leading to Wonboyn Lake and Wonboyn Beach. Limited camping and picnic facilities are available at Newtons Beach (permits are required to camp here, elsewhere there is no camping allowed in the reserve). Walking tracks extend southwards from Nadgee Lake to Croajingolong National Park in Victoria.
#
"Nalbaugh National Park",56,"b\5\np153.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 6,100 hectares. It is located on the south coast 60 km south west of Eden. There are no established tracks in the park.
This park protects a rugged gorge and rock outcrop deep in the tall forests of the south east. Access is for walkers only and even then there are no designated trails or campsites.
For more information contact NPWS on 064 961434.
\BDescription:\b Nalbaugh National Park Location Map.
#
"Namadgi National Park",57,"b\5\np991.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 94,000 hectares and covers 40% of the Australian Capital Territory. It is located in the ACT just south of Canberra. The roads through the park are good gravel that would require four wheel drive in wet and icy conditions.
This park belongs in the ACT and not NSW. It covers a large area of alpine land and is regularly covered in snow during winter. At this time, many of the roads are closed. There is superb scenery throughout the park with many nice campsites. There are various designated walking tracks but walkers must be prepared for very cold weather, even in summer.
For more information contact ACT Parks and Conservation Service on 062 375222.
#
"Nangar National Park",58,"b\5\np138.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 4,059 hectares. It is located in the central west 50 km west of Orange and there is no vehicular access.
This park is an important wildlife refuge amidst vast areas of farmland. Access is difficult and restricted to walkers only.
For more information contact NPWS on 063 319777.
\BDescription:\b Nangar National Park Location Map.
#
"Nattai Reserves and Wilderness Area",59,"b\5\np158.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 86,000 hectares. It is located south of Sydney in the vicinity of Warragamba Dam. There is vehicle access to the park as it is primarily a wilderness area protecting the catchment of Sydney's water supply.
It is possible to explore the park on foot but the going is very rugged. No camping is permitted within 3 km of Lake Burragorang.
For more information contact NPWS on 046 772873.
\BDescription:\b Nattai Reserves and Wilderness Area Location Map.
#
"New England National Park",60,"b\5\npw014.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 29,895 hectares. It is located 85 km east of Armidale in the New England ranges. There are no four wheel drive tracks in the park but the surrounding forestry areas will require four wheel drive.
The main feature of this park are the wonderful views from the edge of the New England escarpment. Wrights Lookout is one of the best with views stretching over hundreds of hectares of wilderness. There are campsites and cabins on the perimeter of the park but be prepared for cold weather as the altitude is around 1,500 metres.
For more information contact NPWS on 066 572309.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\BPic2:\b np126.jpg
#
"Nightcap National Park",61,"b\5\np20045.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 4,945 hectares. It is located 35 km north of Lismore on the North Coast. There are no four wheel drive tracks available to the public but the surrounding forestry area would be slippery in wet conditions.
This park was made famous by the conservationists in the 1970s when their vigorous protests saved the area from logging. For those that enjoy walking in dense rainforest, this park will certainly please. The walk to Protester Falls is excellent and should not be missed. There are no camping facilities in the park.
For more information contact NPWS on 066 281177.
\BDescription:\b Nightcap National Park. \I(Courtesy Random House)\i.
\Bpic2:\b np133.jpg
#
"Nymboi Binderay National Park",62,"0","g","0"
Nymboi Binderay National Park lies north of Dorrigo and comprises part of Wild Cattle Creek, Clouds Creek and Kangaroo State Forests. The 8,800 hectare national park include patches of the rare Dorrigo white gum.
This new park is renowned for its floristic diversity with the bulk of the park made up of dry forest types with significant areas of rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest and extensive areas of old growth forest. The new national park contains parts of the widely recognised wild and scenic Nymboida and Little Nymboida Rivers. It also contains the well known recreation locations of the Cod Hole and the Junction.
Numerous access roads are provided from Grafton, Coffs Harbour and Dorrigo to this spectacular and popular park.
For Further Information contact:
District Manager
Dorrigo NPWS Office
PO Box 170
Dorrigo NSW 2453
#
"Nymboida National Park",63,"b\5\np129.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 18,998 hectares. It is located on the confluence of the Nymboida and Mann Rivers west of Grafton. There are no tracks in the park but access tracks through the surrounding State Forests are best driven in a four wheel drive.
The park protects the mighty river courses of the Mann and Nymboida. Both rivers are favourite white water rafting venues and various commercial organisations conduct trips on the rivers. The only other access is rugged bush walking.
For more information contact NPWS on 066420613.
\BDescription:\b Nymboida National Park Location Map.
#
"Oxley Wild Rivers National Park",64,"b\5\npw015.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 90,276 hectares. It is located in the rugged ranges of the Great Divide between Walcha and Armidale. There is no four wheel drive access into the protected gorges of the park but some surrounding properties and State Forests do permit visitors.
This park is scattered along the deep gorges of the Macleay and Apsley Rivers. There are magnificent views over waterfalls at Wollomombi, Ebor and Dangar. Access into the park is very restricted due to the rugged nature of the area.
For more information, contact NPWS on 067 737211.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.\i
\BPic2:\b np168.jpg
#
"Royal National Park",65,"b\5\npw016.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 15,069 hectares. It is located 32 km south of Sydney and there are no four wheel drive trails open to the public.
The Royal National Park is the oldest national park in Australia and the second oldest in the world. This park is very close to Sydney and is the domain of the walker and the day visitor. The park was virtually destroyed by wild fire in January 1994, but is slowly recovering and its usual spring showing of uniquely Australian wildflowers delight.
For more information contact NPWS on 02 542 0666.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\BPic2:\b np119.jpg
#
"Scheyville National Park",66,"0","g","0"
Scheyville National Park covers an area of 950 hectares and is located 5 kilometres north-east of Windsor in north-west Sydney.
The Scheyville National Park is the largest single remnant of Cumberland Plain vegetation on shale soil. Its significance is enhanced by the fact that it is one of the last places where Cumberland Plain vegetation associations can be seen in their natural pattern.
Open forest of grey box, forest red gum and narrow-leaved ironbark occurs on shale over most of the area. Open forest of broad-leaved ironbark and grey box grows on the transition zone between the Tertiary alluvium and the Wiannamatta Shale. This association contains the most important population of vulnerable downy wattle.
A woodland of hard-leaved scribbly gum, broad-leaved ironbark, and narrow-leaved apple is found in a small area which also includes a population of the rare pea flower. Scheyville National Park includes Longneck Lagoon, a permanent freshwater wetland, together with a large mostly forested catchment. Birds are a major feature, with over 140 species being recorded. There are at least 42 species using the wetland, with at least seven species that are protected by international treaty.
The area has one of the most important faunal habitats remaining on the Cumberland Plain, with the forest and wetland being worthy of special mention. The bird populations have been studied by the Australian Museum and bird observers for many years, resulting in detailed knowledge of birds and their behaviour.
Scheyville National Park has been listed on the Register of the National Estate by the Australian Heritage Commission. The park contains outstanding cultural heritage sites. These sites display major themes in Australia's development since European settlement. The Scheyville site has been assessed as being of national heritage significance.
The area was set aside as a public common in 1802 for the people of the Macquarie Towns along the nearby Hawkesbury River. In 1890, the area was the site of the first Government Casual Labour Farm. By 1910, this had turned into the largest "Dreadnought Farm" in Australia, a rural industries training ground for young British male immigrants.
The park contains significant historic relics and buildings reflecting Australia's military history from the 1920s to the 1960s. The great post World War II immigration wave is seen in the remains of the Scheyville Immigration Hostel.
The name "Scheyville" was given to the area in recognition of the work of NSW MP William Schey, Director of Labour and Industry for over two decades from 1905. He was instrumental in the development of state-sponsored welfare for the unemployed and disadvantaged.
The attractive forest and lagoon provide opportunities for recreation such as walking, picnicking, and nature study. The Longneck Lagoon Field Studies Centre located within the park is maintained to provide environmental education. A small picnic ground and a visitor's centre is proposed for the new park.
#
"Seven Mile Beach National Park",67,"b\5\npw010.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 898 hectares. It is located south of \JWollongong\j on the coast east of Nowra. No access on the beach by four wheel drive vehicles is permitted.
This is a lovely part of the south coast and whilst the four wheel drive cannot be used, the area is well worth visiting. Fishing, swimming and just relaxing in the sun are the major attractions. The small township of Gerroa is a great place for a holiday with the kids by the sea.
For more information contact NPWS on 044 239800.
\Bpic2:\b np156.jpg
#
"South East Forests National Park",68,"0","g","0"
The South East Forests National Park is divided into three separate sections with the main area located primarily along the Great Escarpment of eastern Australia, about 50 to 60 kilometres inland from the far south coast township of Eden. The park covers an area of about 90,000 hectares, double the current size of reserves previously declared in the South East Forests.
The establishment of the South East Forests National Park is one of the outstanding conservation decisions of the 90s. It will result in the protection of some of the most important areas of forest in Australia and achieve a conservation corrridor 150 kilometres long. It will also serve as a key visitor destination essential to the State's tourism industry.
The importance of this latest addition to the State's conservation reserve system lies primarily in the fact that it will protect some of the last remaining patches of old growth forest left in NSW. The area also supports a diverse range of species currently listed as "threatened" or "vulnerable".
The park will connect with the long established 81,000 hectare Wadbilliga National Park to the north providing a continuous protected area from the coastal escarpment just west of Narooma on the Victorian border. The South East Forests National Park supports a diverse range of eucalypt communities from the Brown Barrel forests around Brown Mountain, which support high numbers of tree dwelling animals, to the poorly conserved Red Gum forests in the Bega and Candelo Valleys.
Many of the old growth trees in these areas commonly measure almost three metres across in diameter and are hundreds of years old. It is the presence of these types of trees that provide essential habitat for a large range of native animals.
The South East Forests National Park will protect some of the State's more endangered species such as the long-footed potoroo, yellow-bellied glider, smoky mouse, white-footed dunnart, koala, tiger quoll and the sooty and powerful owls.
The long-footed potoroo was not known to exist in NSW until 1986, while the first ever live capture of the smoky mouse and perhaps the first record of its existence in NSW was not made until 1993. The discovery of the potoroo later prompted the largest ground fauna survey of its type (covering an area of almost 30,000 hectares) ever undertaken in Australia. This survey yielded several thousand fauna records, but only 30 of these were of the long-footed potoroo which may number as few as 100 in the South East Forests. The establishment of this park will provide permanent protection for this species.
Because much of the park has previously been state forest, there is an existing and well-maintained network of tracks and trails throughout, which provides easy access for visitors to most areas.
In 1995/96 the NPWS undertook a major works program to provide high quality facilities and information at key destinations such as Pipers Lookout at Brown Mountain. Local contractors are constructing timber boardwalks, toilets, picnic facilities and lookouts that offer a sweeping panorama of the Bega Valley as well as the Bemboka section of the South East Forests National Park. Further works have been carried out at Six Mile Creek in the Tantawangalo section and the newly constructed Big Jack Rest Area at the crossing of the headwaters of the Towamba River.
A new purpose built district office and information centre has recently been opened at Merimbula. This office acts as visitor information centre, actively promoting the new park as a tourist destination. Indeed, the NPWS is currently in the process of developing a major information package in consultation with local tourism authorities that is aimed specifically at encouraging tourism to the area.
Further works are also planned to provide additional visitor facilities for sites such as Myamba Creek in the Coolangubra section and a day-use facility on the White Rock, south of Bombala.
#
"Sturt National Park",69,"b\5\npw009.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 310,634 hectares. It is located in the far north western corner of the state 330 km north of \JBroken Hill.\j All roads are gravel and remote, therefore a four wheel drive is strongly recommended.
A huge park that encompasses some truly remote land. Summer temperatures soar into the high 40s and rain, although infrequent, makes all roads impassable. You will marvel at the isolation of the outback. From red sand hills in the west to the mesa topped ranges in the north, this is a park on a grand scale. It literally teems with wildlife in the form of red kangaroos, emus and eagles. Camping areas are at Fort Grey, Olive Downs, Dead Horse Gully and Mount Wood.
For more information contact NPWS on 080 913308.
\BPic2:\b np165.jpg
#
"Sydney Harbour National Park",70,"b\5\npw008.jpg","c","0"
Created in 1975, this park is made up of pockets of bushland encircling Sydney Harbour, and includes three small harbour islands.
Rugged sandstone cliffs dominating the entrance to the harbour, headlands covered with heath and secluded sandy beaches make up one of the most beautiful ports in the world.
Hidden in the heath and forests is a wealth of fascinating history - from the dark underground tunnels of the harbour's old forts, to the first class dining rooms and the vaguely sinister disinfecting chambers of the old Quarantine Station. Aboriginal engravings of the mythical past and sandstone cottages form a stark contrast to the cosmopolitan city in the background.
Wildlife abounds; especially waterbirds like gannets, cormorants, terns and sea eagles; honeyeaters can be seen feeding on masses of brilliantly coloured wildflowers in spring.
With so much to see and do, and so many separate locations, many days can be filled exploring Sydney Harbour National Park.
Visit Aboriginal engraving sites at the Quarantine Station, Grotto Point and South Head.
Swimming and sunbathing can be done at most beaches around the harbour. There are netted pools at Nielsen Park and the Manly Scenic Walkway (Forty Baskets Beach).
Boating is great everywhere in the harbour, but especially at Store Beach and Collins Flat, also at Shark, Clark and Rodd Islands. Bookings are required for Shark and Rodd Islands (3 weeks in advance of a proposed visit).
Idyllic tracks for bushwalking with spectacular views of the harbour are found at North Head, Blue Fish Point, Manly Scenic Walkway, Ashton Park, South Head, Gap Bluff and the Hermitage Foreshore.
Fishing is allowed all around the harbour.
You can also picnic at many scenic places including Bradley's Head, Ashton Park, Nielsen Park, Shark, Clark and Rodd Islands.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\BPic2:\b np115.jpg
#
"Tarawi Nature Reserve",71,"0","g","0"
Declared in1996 Tarawi Nature Reserve is 33,750 hectares in size and is located 130 km north-west of Wentworth and 170 km south-west of Broken Hill. Its western boundary is the South Australian border.
Tarawi is of national significance in its natural heritage values and its complementary values to Dangalli Conservation Park Biosphere Reserve in South Australia and the adjoining private Scotia wildlife sanctuary (previously known as Ennisvale-Tarrara) in NSW.
Tarawi Nature Reserve is located in the centre of the sand sheets which make up the Murray-Darling Depression Bioregion. Only 1.8% of this bioregion is currently represented within the protected area system of parks and reserves in NSW.
The reserve contains an area of relatively undisturbed scotia mallee and she-oak communities. These mallee shrubland communities with species-rich understoreys are quite different in composition to those already contained within other mallee reserves, such as Mungo National Park and the Mallee Cliffs National Park located 100 km to the east.
The area was formerly managed at very low stocking rates. This is because these areas of deep sands provide little opportunity for ground water storage. The low grazing pressures over a long period have created an environment which has retained its original diverse shrub and grass layer. This is particularly important for the survival of many plant and animal species.
The area is prime habitat for the endangered mallee fowl. Tarawi Nature Reserve also features significant areas of a dwarf wattle less than 2 metres high, and bluebush daisy, an endangered plant in NSW that is restricted to a few specimens in the Wentworth district. Other important plants contained in this area are yorrel, quorn mallee and needlewood.
This high diversity of vegetation provides habitat for a wide range of animals, many of which are endangered. The Tarawi Nature Reserve will conserve animal populations of particular significance, including eight bat species. The vulnerable ningaui, a small marsupial which was only described in 1983 occurs here.
Vulnerable birds include the striated grasswren, Gilbert's whistler, the southern scrub robin and the shy hylacola. Two endangered birds also occur in the area, the regent parrot and the black-eared miner. The latter is becoming increasingly restricted throughout its limited range in the mallee, and is on the verge of extinction.
Scattered stone flakes and surface campsites have been recorded within the Tarawi Nature Reserve.
Tarawi Nature Reserve is an area particularly important for environmental education and scientific research, due to the number of rare and endangered species it contains and the types of vegetation this area represents.
#
"Tarlo River National Park",72,"b\5\npw007.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 6,759 hectares. It is located 30 km north east of Goulburn and has no four wheel drive access.
A refuge for platypus and long necked tortoises, this park has limited access and very basic facilities. The park is surrounded by private land and permission to enter the park must be gained ahead of your trip.
For more information contact NPWS on 048 877270.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.\i
\BPic2:\b np160.jpg
#
"Thirlmere Lakes National Park",73,"b\5\npw006.jpg","c","0"
Thirlmere Lakes National Park was established in 1972. Covering 627 hectares, it protects a series of five connected freshwater lakes on sandstone country, in the catchment of the Nattai River which flows into Lake Burragorang, part of Sydney's water supply system.
Before European settlement, that area was home for the Gandangarra Aboriginal people. In the mid-19th century, the lakes were known collectively as Couridjah Lagoons. 'Couridjah' is an Aboriginal word for nectar, a food collected from the profusion of banksias growing there. During the mid-1890s, the lakes were called the Picton Lakes, a name used until the 1950s when they became known as Thirlmere Lakes.
The Park's five lakes have Aboriginal names, Lake Gandangarra bears the tribal name. Lake Werri Berri is named for one of the best known members of the Gandangarra tribe. Lake Couridjah carries the local name for nectar, and Lake Baraba describes the tall sedges which were noted as its major feature by botanist George Caley in 1802. Lake Nerrigorang refers to 'shaky ground' or swampy conditions.
The lakes occupy a horseshoe-shaped bend in an ancient river valley, uplifted approximately two million years ago and isolated from the main drainage system. Infilling by mud and sedges has broken the great loop into a chain of lakes. The valley is flanked by timbered sandstone ridges.
Park vegetation is varied. The lake margins are marked by tall sedges and paperbark trees, and the alluvial flats by rough-barked apple, river peppermint, yellow bloodwood, drooping red gum and bottlebrush. Up the slopes, away from the lakes, Sydney peppermint and red bloodwood trees become more common with an understorey of wattles and other typical sandstone flora.
Aquatic life includes the rare woody frogmouth waterline with its yellow flowers, and the freshwater sponge \IRadiospongilla spectroides\i which is found only in this vicinity. The lake contains plankton which supports a wide range of other organisms, including mosquito fish, gudgeons and catfish. Decaying sedges and waterlilies often produce floating rafts of peaty material.
Bird species include white-faced heron, yellow-billed spoonbill, whistling kite, swamp harrier, peaceful dove, pallid cuckoo, little grassbird, weebill and tree martin. Wombats, swamp wallabies, grey kangaroos, native rats, marsupial mice and echidnas inhabit the park.
Water from the lakes was once for the steam locomotives on the old southern railway. A sandstone pumphouse by Lake Couridjah is a reminder of the days of steam.
The tranquil setting of Thirlmere Lakes National Park is ideal for relaxation and passive recreation. Because there are several lakes, a variety of water-based recreational activities can be maintained.
Swimming, canoeing and powerboating are allowed under certain conditions in this park. Swimming and canoeing are popular in Lake Couridjah. Powerboats licensed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service are allowed to use only Lake Werri Berri. Power boats are not allowed on the other lakes.
Picnic facilities and public toilets are provided near parking areas adjacent to Lake Couridjah and Lake Werri Berri.
Bushwalking, birdwatching, plant study, photography, painting and sketching are all appropriate activities.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.\i
\Bpic2:\b np169.jpg
#
"Tomaree National Park",74,"b\5\npw005.jpg","c","0"
Tomaree National Park covers an area of 896 hectares. It is located 50 km north of Newcastle between Shoal Bay in Port Stephens and Anna Bay.
There are plenty of beaches to choose from, including a nude bathing area at Samurai Beach. It has a quiet forest and heath background with many spring wildflowers. There are superb views from the top of Tomaree Headland.
For more information: (049) 873 108.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\Bpic2:\b np896.jpg
#
"Torrington State Recreation Area",75,"0","g","0"
Declared in 1996 Torrington State Recreation Area covers an area of 29,350 hectares, it is the largest area of native vegetation remaining on the Northern Tablelands. It is located on the Mole Tableland, a rugged granite outcrop near the village of Torrington, 70 km north-west of Glen Innes.
The flora of the Mole Tablelands is an outstanding example of the New England granite botanical region. There are over 400 different plants with 37 considered rare or threatened. Many of these are only found here. In the spring there is a wonderful display of wildflowers among the granite outcrops and in the heath areas.
Twenty species of mammals have been recorded in the area including the vulnerable tiger quoll, rufus bettong and Queensland long-eared bat. The superb lyrebird is one of 120 species of birds found in the area, many of which are at their western limits of their range at Torrington. There are more than thirty species of reptiles and frogs found here which together with the floristic diversity make Torrington one of the richest areas of the state for fauna and flora.
The reserve is recognised as being of state significance for cultural heritage, conservation, recreation, mining, and honey production. Past land uses include grazing, extensive mining for tin and other materials and associated logging for mine timber and boiler fuel. Current land uses are small mining operations, fossicking, beekeeping, grazing, horseriding, bushwalking and wildflower appreciation.
The extensive woodlands of the reserve make it a major bee production resource. Bee sites within the reserve are used for over-wintering of bees, and as a refuge when other areas are hazardous due to environmental conditions.
The area has high recreational potential because of its extensive woodlands, scenic beauty and wilderness environment. Short walks lead to outstanding rock features and lookouts.
The main access is from Torrington, Silent Grove Road runs north through the reserve and Duck Creek Trail and Carpet Snake Trail provide access in dry weather to the west of the area. These and the Butler Trail are maintained for public access. Walking tracks to Mystery Face and Thunderbolts Lookout will be upgraded and signposted in the near future.
#
"Wadbilliga National Park",76,"b\4\np20088.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 79,009 hectares. It is located on the south coast 50 km east of Narooma. There is four wheel drive access through this wilderness park.
Although this park is primarily wilderness, it does allow four wheel drive access via roads from Cobargo and Eurobodalla. The park encompasses the Tuross River and the Tuross Falls and Cascades. It is possible to camp at the cascades but you must walk to the Falls. Little-used four wheel drive tracks cross the park from east to west and provide a good insight into the complexity of a park that straddles the Great Divide.
"Wallaga Lake National Park",77,"b\5\np150.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 1,237 hectares. It is located on the South Coast 10 km north of Bermagui. There is no four wheel drive access.
Another great fishing spot. Access is limited to a well formed road off the Princes Highway but the fishing and the peace and quiet are superb.
For more information contact NPWS on 044 762888.
\BDescription:\b Wallaga Lake National Park Location Map
#
"Warrabah National Park",78,"b\5\np141.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 3,471 hectares. It is located on the Namoi River 80 km north of Tamworth. There are no four wheel drive tracks but service roads are gravel.
This park is different from most as it surrounds an inland river. The visitor can enjoy the slow moving river amidst granite boulders. There is opportunity to ride the rapids, swim in deep rock holes, drop a line for a fish or be more active and pursue some rock climbing on the cliffs that overlook the river.
There is a campsite with basic facilities and for more information contact NPWS on 067 737211.
\BDescription:\b Warrabah National Park Location Map.
#
"Warrumbungle National Park",79,"b\5\3_0049.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 21,534 hectares. It is located 30 km west of Coonabarabran in the central west of the state. There are no four wheel drive trails in the park.
The Warrumbungles were discovered by Surveyor General Evans in 1818. Forested ridges, barren spires and deep gorges once fed and sheltered the Kamilaroi tribe, evidence of whose occupation has been found in the park.
Often described as the point where east meets west, the Warrumbungles support plant and animal species of both the dry western plains and the moist east coast.
This is a very popular park for walkers and campers. It protects an ancient volcanic site; the remnants of the volcanic plugs being the focus of attention in the park. This area contains some great walking tracks with expansive views across the jagged mountain range. Camp fees apply and bookings are recommended.
For more information contact NPWS on 068 254364.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT)\i
\BPic2:\b 6_0026.jpg
\BDescription2:\b I (DFAT)\i
\BPic3:\b dw10010.jpg
\BPic4:\b dw10014.jpg
\BPic5:\b dw10015.jpg
\BPic6:\b dw10017.jpg
\BPic7:\b dw10012.jpg
\Bpic8:\b np139.jpg
#
"Washpool National Park",80,"b\6\npw004.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 27,715 hectares. It is located on the Gwydir Highway 90 km west of Grafton. There are no trails open to the four wheel driver.
This park is almost impenetrable due to heavy rainforest growth. It is fascinating to see such lush growth and the 8 km Washpool walking trail is the best way to see the park. The campsite at Coombadjha is frequently visited by small wallabies and birds are prolific throughout the park.
For more information contact NPWS on 067 325133.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife\i.
\Bpic2:\b np131.jpg
#
"Weddin Mountains National Park",81,"b\6\npw041.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 8,361 hectares. It is located in the central west 19 km south west of Grenfell. There are no four wheel drive opportunities in the park.
This is a rugged outcrop of rock formed by the Weddin Mountain range. It is surrounded by farmland and boasts a colourful history of bushrangers, the most infamous being Ben Hall. There are various walks leading to lookouts from the rocky outcrops and past Ben Hall's cave. Camping is available at Seatons and Holy camp.
For more information contact NPWS on 063 319777.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.\i
\Bpic2:\b np137.jpg
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"Werrikimbe National Park",82,"b\6\npw003.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 35,178 hectares. It is located in the Great Divide 90 km north west of Port Macquarie. There are a few four wheel drive trails open to the public in this park.
This park protects a diverse range of flora ranging from wet rainforest gullies to alpine heath. The Racecourse Trail, Werrikimbe Trail and Spokes Trail all provide excellent four wheel drive opportunities.
There is great camping available at Cobcrofts and Mooraback on the western side of the park and Brushy Mountain on the eastern edge. The area teems with wildlife, especially kangaroos and wallabies. If it is wet, the trails should be avoided as they become very slippery and winter snow falls can occur, so go prepared for very cold weather.
For more information contact NPWS on 065 842203.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\Bpic2:\b np170.jpg
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"Wiesners Swamp Nature Reserve",83,"0","g","0"
Declared in 1996 Wiesners Swamp Nature Reserve is 103 hectares in size and is located approximately 50 km north of Albury in southern NSW. Like Lake Urana Nature Reserve this small area of land lies within a vast landscape of cleared pasture and cropping land.
Although small, this reserve represents the only refuge for native species within a vast region of modified landscape. It is a low circular swamp feature in an extremely flat landscape, dominated by river redgum woodland, which depends upon regular inundation for its continued survival. Grey box also occurs in this small remnant. The reserve is an important remnant wetland and refuge for numerous waterbirds such as ibis, spoonbill, heron and spur-wing plover.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service will give high priority to the control of weeds and feral animals in a program to be carried out in cooperation with the Rural Lands Protection Board.
Due to the very fragile nature of the wetland contained within the nature reserve, visits will be limited to environmental education and research. Opportunites for research and education will provide a better understanding of this and other wetland systems.
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"Willandra National Park",84,"b\6\emu.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 19,386 hectares. It is located 64 km north west of Hillston in the far west of the state. The roads into the park are gravel and will be impassable after rain, a four wheel drive is recommended.
Willandra was once a huge pastoral station and a famous stud merino property. It is possible to stay in the old homestead but bookings are essential. There are various walks throughout the park. There is also a rough trail open to four wheel drive vehicles in dry weather which is known as the Merton Motor Trail. This track passes near Willandra creek then loops back to the Willandra Homestead. There is also a campsite near the homestead, fees apply for camping and accommodation in the homestead. The vegetation is dry semi arid, and emus and kangaroos are abundant.
For more information contact NPWS on 069 627755
\BDescription:\b Emu\I (Webster Publishing)\i.
\Bpic2:\b np163.jpg
#
"Willi Willi National Park",85,"0","g","0"
Declared in 1996 Willi Willi National Park is located 560 km west of Kempsey on the mid-north coast and is approximately 9,620 hectares in size.
Willi Willi National Park has outstanding natural and cultural heritage values. It represents a major conservation initiative in relation to rainforest and endangered species. It supports some of the best developed examples of escarpment sedgeland and wet heath on the north coast as well as tall open forest and rainforests.
With one of the largest remaining stands of shatterwood dry rainforest in NSW, Willi Willi also includes other rainforest types ranging from lower altitude dry subtropical to the higher altitude cool temperate rainforest. The dry rainforest contains a great diversity of orchids and vines. Some plant species reach their limits of distribution in the Willi Willi area.
A great variety of habitats are available and the spotted-tailed quoll, pygmy mouse and mosaic-tailed mouse have been recorded. The vulnerable sooty owl also occurs in the area.
A number of important Aboriginal sites significant to the Dangatti people are present in the upper Macleay Region.
A special feature of Willi Willi National Park is that is has wilderness and high scientific research value. It is proposed that recreational and education opportunies will be developed subject to further research and review of existing opportunities. The area offers excellent activities including orienteering, bush camping, rock climbing, nature study and photography.
Road access is limited and the area is essentially unroaded with the exception of Toorumbee Road. The greater part of the road is used for fire management purposes only.
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"Woko National Park",86,"b\6\npw002.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 8,265 hectares. It is located in the foothills of the Great Divide 30 km north of Gloucester. The park has no actual four wheel drive tracks but the surrounding state forests provide ample opportunity for exploring in the vehicle. The access road to the park is gravel and could be slippery after rain.
Woko National Park provides a good camping area beside the Manning River. There are interesting walks into the thickly vegetated ranges that surround the campsite. This is a good base for exploring the fire trails in the adjacent state forests and is within driving distance of the beautiful Barrington Tops. White water rafting and canoeing is popular on the well fed rivers in the local area.
For more information contact NPWS on 049 873108.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\Bpic2:\b np171.jpg
#
"Wollemi National Park",87,"b\6\np20092.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 487,648 hectares. It is located west of Sydney in the \JBlue Mountains\j and stretches from the Bells Line of Road to the Hunter valley. There are some four wheel drive tracks in this park but it is likely that they will be closed in the near future due to new regulations currently being considered by Government.
This is a huge park within an hour of Sydney. It protects some of the most rugged land forms in the country; there are sheer cliffs, deep canyons, cool rivers and ancient vegetation. For the experienced bush walker it is excellent but, due to its remote nature, it is also very easy to get into trouble. For the four wheel driver, the opportunity to explore this park is limited but nonetheless interesting.
From Bells Line of Road it is possible to reach the old train tunnels of the Newnes mining era. On the way, you can sample the canyons of Deep Pass and rock gardens of the Lost City. There is limited opportunity to experience rugged four wheel drive tracks off the Putty road and contact with the local NPWS office should help you locate these areas. On the western side from Rylstone, again there is limited access but much of this area is under extreme pressure to have access limited so it would be best to contact NPWS for their advice. There is camping at Newnes and at Wheeney Creek although the latter is a little over used these days.
For more information contact NPWS on 045 885247.
\BDescription:\b \I Wollemi National Park (Random House)\i.
\Bpic2:\b np145.jpg
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"Yatteyattah Nature Reserve",88,"0","g","0"
Declared in 1996 Yatteyattah Nature Reserve covers an area of 19 hectares and is located on the south coast approximately 10 km north of Milton, near Conjola Lake.
The Yatteyattah Nature Reserve is a small remnant patch of sub-tropical and dry rainforest, which is markedly different to the warm temperate rainforest found in surrounding areas. The small area supports one of the most diverse rainforest communities in the south of the state.
Twelve rainforest species of flora, including red cedar, reach their southern limit in the Milton locality. Other species at their soutern limit of distribution include deciduous fig, whalebone tree, cockspur thorn, bolly gum, silver quondong, and grey round leaf vine.
The area is a roosting site for the most southern colony of grey-headed flying foxes. The abundance of fig and other fruit-bearing trees makes the area attractive to several bird species such as the green catbird and bronzewing pigeon.
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"Yengo National Park",89,"b\4\npw031.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 139,861 hectares. It is located to the north of Sydney near Wiseman's Ferry. There is limited four wheel drive opportunities on Old Settlers Road and the Boree track.
This park is an extension of Dharug National Park and protects the rugged sandstone country to the north west of Sydney. The famous old convict road known as the Great North Road lies across it. This is worth exploring, especially on the southern section near Wiseman's Ferry where buttressed walls built of hand cut sandstone blocks are seen. This road was once open to the public but it is now a walking track only.
NPWS should be contacted for information regarding their guided tours and other areas of access, telephone 043 244911.
\BDescription:\b Dharug National Park \I(NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.)\i.
\Bpic2:\b np144.jpg
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"Yessabah Nature Reserve",90,"0","g","0"
Declared in 1996 Yessabah Nature Reserve is approximately 10 hectares in size and is located 15 km west of Kempsey in northern NSW.
The main feature of this nature reserve is the limestone karst features. Karst systems are regions of soluble rocks such as limestone, with features such as collapses, caves and decorative formations. These are of high scientific interest and educational value due to the unique qualities usually associated with tropical karst landscapes.
Besides its limestone karst features, the reserve is also an important fossil site. Bone artifacts establish the presence of many species in the caves throughout the cave's history, contributing to current knowledge of the evolution of past and present distribution of Australian animals.
The Yessabah Caves are very important to the southernmost population of the little bent-wing bat in NSW as they provide the autumn-winter roosting site for a population of this species.
The nature reserve also has very high botanical conservation significance because it provides an important link in the distribution of several species of plants and is the southern limit of many others.
Of particular significance and sensitivity is the Daylight Cave. Its upper entrances, the surface karst in the vicinity and associated rainforest flora have a significant interrelationship. This system (which will be important in any future interpretation program for the area) is extremely vulnerable to disturbance. For this reason, it is likely that access to some of the caves will need to be restricted to protect sensitive features and this may include the use of a permit system similar to those in other karst areas within the reserve system.
Yessabah Nature Reserve is approximately 10 minutes drive from the town of Kempsey and is therefore in a position easily accessible for educational use.
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"Yuraygir National Park",91,"b\6\npw001.jpg","c","0"
This park has a total area of 20,285 hectares. It is located on the north coast east of Grafton. Trails into the park are bitumen and gravel, access onto the beach is restricted to professional fishermen.
If you enjoy fishing and surfing then this is a great place for you. The fishing stories are as big as the fish often caught off the beach, and prawning in the sea side lakes is excellent. The park can be accessed from three different routes off the Pacific Highway. Each road leads to a separate section of the park. One of the most popular areas is in the south, where Minnie Water and Diggers Camp provide good camping and easy access to the beach. It does get crowded in peak holiday periods but otherwise the area is quiet.
For more information contact NPWS on 066 420613.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service\i.
\Bpic2:\b np134.jpg
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!,!,!,!,!
14#
34,0
"Alpine National Park",1,"a\5\bogong.jpg","c","0"
This is the largest park in Victoria (646,000 ha), covering the high country and taking in the state's highest peaks. It is in fact an amalgamation of three older parks in Victoria - Cobberas-Tingaringy NP, Wonnangatta-Moroka NP and Bogong NP, and also connects with the Kosciuszko NP in NSW and the Namadgi NP in ACT, protecting the alpine and sub-alpine environments. This high country is breathtakingly beautiful in its ruggedness and raw majestic scenery of mountain peaks, high plains and deep river valleys.
The high plains of the park, where the environment is too severe for trees to survive, are covered in bogs, herbfields, heathlands and grasslands, which during the warmer months are a vibrant display of wildflowers. The drier mountain slopes and more sheltered gullies provide a footing for cypress pine and white-box, while alpine woodlands of gnarled snow gums, which grow to the tree line, are a vivid reminder of the harsh conditions under which they struggle for survival.
During the winter months, the high plains are covered in snow, and there is plenty of scope for cross country skiers. However, summer is a great time for bushwalking, 4WD touring and camping.
The Cobberas-Tingaringy area in the southern part of the park is situated 450 km northeast of Melbourne and 80 km north of Buchan. The park features the Snowy River Valley, the Suggan Buggan River and the upper reaches of the Murray River. The Snowy River is a great destination for experienced canoeists, and there is excellent vehicle-based camping at Willis, Native Dog Flat and MacKillop Bridge.
The Bogong area (375 km northeast of Melbourne and 93 km southeast of Myrtleford) is mainly high plateaus dominated by tall mountain peaks, including Mt Bogong which is the highest point in Victoria. The bogs, herbfields, heathlands and grasslands turn on a vibrant display of wildflowers during the warmer months. This area is also the home for the rare, and only alpine marsupial in the world, the Mountain Pygmy Possum. Walkers will find a wide range of tracks to traverse, including the Alpine Walking Track. There are a number of camping areas and a few vehicle tracks.
In a number of places, cattlemen still graze their cattle across the high plains during the summer months, much as they have done for the past 140 years. Some of the old huts that were built by those early pioneering cattlemen still remain today, the oldest still standing being Wallaces Hut near Falls Creek.
The Wonnangatta-Moroka Area (340 km northeast of Melbourne, 140 km north of Sale) encompasses the high peaks of the Great Dividing Range and the 'hidden valley of the Alps', Wonnangatta Valley, a magical drawcard for four wheel drivers. Its rugged, mountainous terrain is criss-crossed with rivers and streams which create gorges and valleys, all of which offer plenty of places for exploration and some great camping.
With all of the above areas that make up the Alpine National Park, there are some excellent camping spots to be discovered along the deep river valleys and waterways which are only accessible by four wheel drive. There are also plenty of opportunities for bushwalking, fishing, photography, horseriding and deer hunting, besides just the obvious sheer enjoyment of being surrounded by such a magnificent region of Australia.
Many of the vehicle tracks are closed from May through to November. Check with the Dept. CNR for details on the latest track closures.
For more information contact the Dept. of Conservation & Natural Resources (CNR) in \JWodonga,\j ph: (060) 55 6111, Bairnsdale, ph: (051) 52 0400, Orbost, ph: (051) 61 1222, Bright, ph: (057) 55 1577, Mt Beauty, ph: (057) 57 2693, or Heyfield, ph: (051) 48 2355.
\BDescription:\b Bogong
\BPic2:\b np10001.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Winter views from the Bluff. \IPhoto by Ron and Viv Moon. (Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np20091.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Alpine National Park, near Mount Victoria. \IPhoto by Ron and Viv Moon. (Random House)
\BPic4:\b np713.jpg
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"Barmah State Park and Forest",2,"b\6\dw20005.jpg","c","0"
Barmah State Park (7,900 hectares) is split into two sections, with the Barmah State Forest (21,500 hectares) in between. The park and forest's northern and western boundary is the mighty Murray River, while its southern boundary is private farm land between Barmah and Strathmerton.
Before the days of dams and irrigation, the area was subjected to near annual flooding, resulting in a productive forest of majestic river red gums. Harvested since the mid 1880s, and with the water levels controlled, the forest has wilted under the pressure of man, and the future of these wetland forest giants is uncertain.
Most people come to this area because of the river and its many excellent camping areas. Fishing, boating, canoeing and swimming are popular, especially in summer, when the rest of the park and forest can be dry. Floods and high water levels of course can still cut access to many of the areas in the park.
Hunting within the State Forest is allowed and the lakes and waterways are a popular duck hunting area in season. Hunting and the carrying of firearms is not permitted in the State Park.
Dogs and cats are permitted in the State Forest, but must be under control at all times. However, they are not allowed in the State Park.
Horseriding, walking, bike riding and photography are also popular activities on the gum studded flood plains on this area. Birdlife and native mammals are often seen and the park makes great nature watching or photography.
Visitors should drop into the Dharnya Information and Education Centre, situated along Sandridge Road in the Barmah State Park, ph: (058) 69 3302. This excellent centre was set up with the help of the Yorta Yorta Aboriginal community, who have a special affinity with this land and now manage the area in conjunction with the Dept. of CNR. The centre can help you with information on the Barmah forest, and also has well set up displays about the history and culture of Koori and European communities living in the area.
You can basically set up camp wherever you find an inviting spot in either the State Park or Forest, otherwise you can choose from the two designated camping grounds at Barmah Lakes and Ulupna Beach where toilets, barbecues and picnic tables are situated. It is possible to reach Barmah Lakes in a normal vehicle.
The park is located 260 km north of Melbourne. For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Nathalia, ph: (058) 66 2702, or the Dharnya Centre, Barmah, ph: (058) 69 3302.
\BDescription2:\b Barmah State Park. \I(Courtesy National Parks Service, Victoria)\i
\BPic3:\b np725.jpg
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"Brisbane Ranges National Park",3,"b\6\np20086.jpg","c","0"
Brisbane Ranges National Park covers an area of 7,517 hectares. Just over 1 hour's drive from Melbourne, this park is renown for its wildflowers and native plant life, which are especially prolific in the west of the park on the plateau area.
Eucalypt woodlands, with a dense understorey of heaths, are also found on the plateau. During the goldrush years, much of this forest was cut down for mining operations, building material and firewood.
Geologically, the park is cut by deep gorges and gullies created by water over the millenary eroding the ancient slate and sandstone of the ranges. One such spot is Anakie Gorge, where Stony Creek cuts its way through the ancient slates and shales of the escarpment.
The visitor can not only take pleasure from the abundant flora and birdlife, but also enjoy pleasant walks and scenic drives.
There are limited designated bush camping sites only, and bookings are recommended.
Adjacent to the national park in the east is the Steiglitz Historic Park which is well worth a visit. Once an important gold mining town with a population of around 2,000, today it is virtually a ghost town with just a few reminders of what once was, such as the Court House (1875) and cemetery. A small camping area suitable for caravans is located within the Historic Park and advanced bookings during holiday season is advisable.
The Brisbane Ranges NP is located 105 km west of Melbourne. For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Geelong, ph: (052) 26 4667.
\BDescription:\b \I Photo by Jamie Robertson (Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np719.jpg
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"Burrowa-Pine Mountain National Park",4,"b\6\np712.jpg","c","0"
Burrowa-Pine Mountain National Park covers an area of 18,400 hectares. It is made up of two mountainous blocks linked by an narrow L-shaped corridor, and dominated by massive granite outcrops and scenic waterfalls.
In the south is the volcanic conglomeration of Mt Burrowa, while Pine Mountain, with its exposed red granite facade, rises steeply from the Murray River plain to tower above the northern block. For those willing to trek through the bush, a climb to the summit of Pine Mountain gives impressive views of the Murray River and Snowy Mountains.
The Pine Mountain area is of particular importance as a number of rare and endangered species of plants grow there, while the high rainfall of the Mount Burrowa block supports a wet forest flora.
There are two minor designated campsites in the park, and dispersed bush camping is also allowed, however water is scare during the summer months.
Vehicle access is limited, however there are numerous tracks and scenic spots to explore on foot.
The park is located in the far northeast of the state. For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Corryong, ph: (060) 76 1655.
\BDescription:\b Burrowa-Pine Mountain National Park Location Map.
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"Croajingolong National Park",5,"b\6\crjnglg.jpg","c","0"
Situated in the far east corner of Victoria, Croajingolong National Park covers an area of 87,500 hectares and stretches for 100 km along the coast south from the VIC/NSW border. Gravel tracks lead to inlets which have been isolated from the ocean with sand barriers - Sydenham, Tamboon, Thurra River, Wingan and Mallacoota. One of Victoria's largest parks, it has a wide diversity of landforms, from mountains and rivers, leading to a wild coastline of sweeping beaches cut by rugged headlands and inlets. The vegetation is also varied with cool temperate communities, soft-leaved subtropical plants and hardy species that are resistant to fire and drought.
The park is divided into three sections. The Western Area, Middle and Eastern sections. While road travel throughout the park is restricted in many places, there are numerous dirt tracks giving good access to some interesting places, especially the inlets, which are the highlight for the car based camper.
There are a number of established camping areas within the park that provide basic facilities such as pit toilets and fire places. These sites include : Shipwreck Creek, where you can enjoy some pleasant walks in the surrounding area as well as paddle a canoe on the creek.
The Thurra River inlet is a lovely spot set in an unspoilt forest close to the ocean beach and it is very popular. The road to Thurra River is unsealed and narrow, and winding and steep in places, however it is possible to tow a caravan in. There is safe swimming for the kids in the shallow waters of the river, while canoeists can explore the river upstream from the bridge and fishermen can throw a line in along the coastline. There is also a variety of bush and beach walks to enjoy.
Mueller River is located not far from Thurra River, but as the track descends steeply to the river it is not suitable for vans. Gas fires only are allowed.
Wingan Inlet offers good fishing and small boats with outboards up to 20 hp are allowed to be used in the inlet, as can canoes. There are also a number of pleasant walks from the camping ground.
Bookings are essential during the holiday periods.
The park is located 450 km east of Melbourne and 20 km south of Cann River. For more info contact the Dept. CNR, Orbost, ph: (051) 61 1222, or Cann River, ph: (051) 58 6351.
\BDescription\b: \ICourtesy Readers Digest.\i
House)\i
\BPic2:\b np20035.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Beach at Mallacoota, Croajingolong National Park.\I (Random
"Dandenong Ranges National Park",6,"b\6\npsvic15.jpg","c","0"
Dandenong Ranges National Park, declared in December 1987, is among the most unusual and beautiful of Victoria's national parks. Right on Melbourne's doorstep, the park is easily accessible and there are many opportunities to explore its varied natural features, especially the magnificent scenery of the Mountain Ash forests.
The forests attracted settlers to the Dandenong Ranges from the 1860's, and the ranges have long been highly valued for their scenery and as a place for picnicking, walking and car touring.
The three largest areas of forest remaining - the Fern Tree Gully, Doongalla and Sherbrooke units - have been consolidated to form the National Park.
Forests of Mountain Ash (the world's tallest hardwood species) cover most of the sheltered south-facing slopes, and pockets of cool temperate rainforest are found in deep gullies. Eucalypt woodlands of box and stringybark grow on the more exposed, drier, west-facing areas.
More than 350 species of indigenous plants have been recorded in the park. Some are rare and not found in many other places in Victoria. These include Smooth Tea-tree and Cinnamon Wattle.
The best places for springtime wildflower displays are Chandlers Track (Fern Tree Gully), Edgars Track and Singleton Terrace (Doongalla) where brilliantly coloured wattles, pea-flowers and smaller plants thrive.
Sherbrooke Forest is famous for its superb Lyrebirds. Despite the activities of predators, there are still many lyrebirds in the forest and their incredible performances, mimicking other birds and human sounds, can often be heard.
Among other birds commonly seen in the park are flocks of white Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Crimson Rosellas, Eastern Yellow Robins, Grey Currawongs, Brown Thornbills in the moist gullies, and the Grey Fantail with its erratic, jerky flight. Some birds are more readily heard than seen: the Eastern Whipbird's whiplash crack, the Golden Whistler's melodious notes, the Pilotbird's ringing call.
Most of the mammals which inhabit the park such as possums, bats and gliders, are active only at night. During the day you may be lucky enough to catch sight of an echidna or a Swamp Wallaby, distinguished by its dark brown to black colouring.
Two main roads give access to and within the park: Mt Dandenong Tourist Road (route 22), from Burwood Highway at Upper Ferntree Gully to Canterbury Road at Montrose; and Monbulk Road, from Burwood Highway at Upper Ferntree Gully to the Maroondah Highway at Lilydale.
These together with linking minor roads, form a good network of roads throughout the Dandenong Ranges. All main roads are sealed but some are narrow and winding. Drive to suit the conditions and take time to appreciate the scenery!
Public transport is a convenient alternative to the car. Railway stations on the Belgrave line serve the Fern Tree Gully and Sherbrooke units, and several private bus routes link the main centres.
Entry fees to the park are charged on most weekends and public holidays at Lower Picnic Ground (Fern Tree Gully). There is an extensive network of well-established walking tracks in each of the three sections of the park.
\BDescription:\b Dandenong Ranges. \I(Courtesy National Parks Service, Victoria)\i.
\BPic2:\b np990.jpg
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"Eildon State Park",7,"b\6\npsvic2.jpg","c","0"
This park takes in rugged mountain valleys and a good covering of peppermint, box and stringybark forests, on the southern side of Lake Eildon. It covers an area of 24,000 hectares.
All watersports and fishing are popular, no matter where you are in the park, while hunting for Sambar Deer (no dogs) is allowed in season. The area makes a good base for exploring the immediate region on foot or by vehicle. The profusion of forestry tracks in the area to the south of the State Park are popular with four wheel drivers, while the Upper Goulburn Historic Area preserves relics of the gold mining past and adds yet another aspect to this wonderful region.
Pets are not allowed in the State Park.
Bookings for campsites are essential during school holidays, public holidays or over summer.
The park falls naturally into three sections, each separated from the other by a large arm of Lake Eildon.
\BDescription\b: Eildon State Park. \I(Courtesy National Park Services, Victoria)\i
\BPic2:\b np709.jpg
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"Eildon State Park Divisions",8,"b\6\np709.jpg","c","0"
\BNorthern Block and Delatite Arm Reserve\b
The northern section is dominated by the Enterprise Plateau, Mt. Enterprise and Alan Peake, and these provide excellent views of the lake and the surrounds.
Situated around the edge of the lake are a large number of campsites dotted in amongst the pine plantation. This area, although not in the State Park proper, is surrounded by it.
Accessible with the normal family car with a van or a boat, this section of Reserve is popular during the summer months. Toilets are provided at selected spots scattered around the lake's edges.
\BJerusalem Creek Block\b
The southern section of the park incorporates the Jerusalem Creek and Big River arms of Lake Eildon, and with its adjoining state forest offers some of the finest camping in the area.
There are a wide choice of camping areas within the park, with the most popular being around the Jerusalem Creek area. Here, designated camping spots have access to toilets and fire places. Other frequented camping areas are located at Burnt Bridge, Horse Camp, The Pines, Big River, Taponga River and Chaffe Creek.
\BJamieson Block\b
The eastern Jamieson block is probably the hardest, certainly the longest travelling time for Melbournites to get to, but once again there is reasonable camping to be had along the shore of the lake and in the nearby bush. Access is the biggest problem to the lake shore and the tracks that get there are steep and rough.
The Eildon State Park is located 180 km northeast of Melbourne. For information contact the Dept. CNR, Mansfield, ph: (057) 75 2788, or Alexandra, ph: (057) 72 0200.
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"Errinundra National Park",9,"b\6\npsvic13.jpg","c","0"
Errinundra National Park is one of East Gippsland's outstanding natural areas, protecting Victoria's largest stand of rainforest and extensive old age tall eucalypt forests. The park covers 25,100 hectares extending from Mount Ellery across the Errinundra Plateau, which rises more than 1000 m above sea level, to the Coast Range. It was declared a national park in July 1988.
The park is 373 km east of Melbourne via the Princes Highway. The two main approaches are (a) from the west: via the Bonang Highway, Gap Road and Errinundra Road (b) from the south: from the Princes Highway along Combienbar Road, 54 km east of Orbost. Drive through the Club Terrace to Errinundra Road which climbs onto the Plateau.
Allow two hours driving time from Orbost to the park. Greens Road is best used during the dry months for leaving the southern area of the park en route to the Princes Highway, as it becomes slippery after wet weather.
The ancient cool temperate rainforest of Errinundra is unique to East Gippsland. It is dominated by Southern Sassafras and Black Oliveberry and features Mountain Plum Pines, some specimens which are more than 400 years old.
The Plateau's tall, wet eucalypt forests of Shining Gum and Cut-tail include some giants many hundreds of years old. These species occur in some areas over an understorey of rainforest forming what is known as 'mixed forest'. Errinundra Plateau contains one of the best examples of this forest type in the world.
Frosty Hollow is the only camping area in the parka. Other sites with basic facilities and reliable water are in the surrounding area on the Baldwin Spencer Trail.
There are motels, hotels, caravan and camping areas at Orbost, Cann River and Delegate. Fuel and supplies are not available at Bendoc. There are public phones at Goongerah, Bonang, Bendoc and Delegate.
\BDescription:\b Errinundra National Park. \I(Courtesy National Parks Service, Victoria)\i.
\BPic2:\b np720.jpg
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"Fern Gully National Park",10,"b\6\dfat6.jpg","c","0"
Thirty-five kilometres east of Melbourne is a region noted for its thriving native population of lyrebirds and whipbirds. At the top of the gully are open forests of red stringybark, box and peppermint trees.
Further east along the crest of the Dandenong Ranges is Sherbrooke Forest, a striking woodland of towering mountain ash, with streams cascading through ferns and green mossy banks.
Here, the native lyrebirds have adapted so well to the park's many visitors they perform their mating rituals, displaying their enormous turquoise, blue and green-feathered tails, not only for potential mates but for tourists as well.
\BDescription:\b \I Lyrebird\i (DFAT)\i.
\BPic2:\b np707.jpg
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"Fraser National Park",11,"b\6\npsvic1.jpg","c","0"
Fraser National Park covers an area of 3,750 hectares. Located north of the township of Eildon and bordering the eastern edge of Lake Eildon, the area was once grazing land. With the stopping of grazing and the reduction in rabbits, the eucalypt forest and red box, red stringybark and narrow and broad-leafed peppermints now cover the once denuded hills.
The park has a good population of marsupials, with the eastern grey kangaroo being the most commonly seen animal. Visitors are also likely to come across koalas and possums. Birds vary from small bush birds such as robins and thornbills, to the more conspicuous herons and ibis, while the raucous calls of gang gang cockatoos are often heard overhead.
Canoeing, fishing, boating, windsurfing and swimming are the main outdoor attractions of the area, while pleasant walks up to 14 km in length criss-cross the park, with great views and rich verdant surroundings.
Camping is allowed in the designated camping areas. The Lakeside, Devil Cove and Candlebark camping areas all have fireplaces and toilets, and are located along the shore of the lake with good vehicle access.
The Fraser National Park is located 145 km northeast from Melbourne.
For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Alexandra, ph: (057) 72 0200, or the Ranger's office at the park, ph: (057) 72 1293.
\BDescription:\b Fraser National Park. \I(Courtesy National Parks Service, Victoria)\i.
\BPic2:\b np710.jpg
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"Grampians (Gariwerd) National Park",12,"a\5\4_0066.jpg","c","0"
Rugged sandstone ranges of the westernmost heights of the Great Divide make up the Grampians (Gariwerd) National Park, protecting a region rich in native flora, fauna and Koori (Aboriginal) art sites. This park covers an area of 167,000 hectares.
A wide variety of soils, topography and localised weather patterns brings a great wealth of botanical species. Eucalypts dominate the forests and woodlands, while higher up heaths carpet the terrain. In spring, the wildflower display is about the best you can get.
Animal life too is just as varied, and the Grampians are host to a number of mammals both large and small, from the tiny native smoky mouse to large red deer. Kangaroos abound in some areas.
With hundreds of kilometres of vehicle and walking tracks, it is easy to gain access to some of the state's most spectacular scenery. Just about every outdoor activity can be undertaken, whether you want to go water skiing, fishing, hunting, bushwalking, rock climbing or just enjoy the magnificent panorama. Remember that a Victorian Fishing License is required for fishing.
Popular designated camping areas include Rosea, situated close to Wonderland Range, Zumsteins, one of the most popular camping and caravan sites in the area, and Bomjinna, at the base of the highest mountain in the Grampians, Mount William. However, dispersed camping is also allowed in most of the park, except in water catchment areas, scientific reference areas and the like.
As with all national parks, it is illegal to drive off the roads and tracks, and vehicle-based camping is limited to the edge of the roads and tracks in the area.
The park is located 260 km west of Melbourne and 25 km southwest of Stawell.
For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Horsham, ph: (053) 81 1255, or the National Parks Visitors' Centre, Halls Gap, ph: (053) 56 4452.
\BDescription:\b Lake Wartook in the Grampians \I(DFAT).\i
\BPic2:\b 4_0067.jpg
\BDescription2:\b I (DFAT)\i
\BPic3:\b np20095.jpg
\BDescription3:\b I (Random House)\i
\BPic4:\b np737.jpg
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"Grant Historic Area",13,"b\6\np735.jpg","c","0"
Grant Historic Area covers an area of 7,300 hectares. This area to the northeast of Dargo, abutting the Alpine National Park, is rich in the history of the boom times surrounding the discovery of gold here in 1860 by Alfred Howitt. Here, you can do a touch of fossicking and along the river go fishing, or panning for gold. For those who want to do a little exploring, there are many old mine sites, towns sites and cemeteries to find and wander around.
One such area is the old town site of Grant itself, which is located 21 km north of the small township of Dargo. Grant, or the remains of this once booming gold town which had 18 hotels, is obvious because of the large cleared area and exotic trees. It is possible to get a 2WD vehicle to this spot.
There is some very nice camping here, tucked in near some of the larger trees, with fireplaces and tables erected. Water is pretty scarce but you can find some at the mouth of the old mine known as 'The Jeweller's Shop'.
A little further on, the Bulltown Spur track drops steeply down to the Crooked River, and to a series of great camping spots. This is definitely 4WD territory and for most people the attraction is the magnificent country and its history. For the fossickers, there is always a chance of some colour of gold, while fishermen might catch a brown trout.
The track continues, with numerous river crossings, passing what little remains of the shanty town sites of Bulltown and Hogtown. These tent towns have long disappeared, but the work of the miners is still evident in the area.
The next old mining town along the route is Talbotville, which was founded in 1865, and was the major town along the river. Today there is a large cleared area stretching for a kilometre or so along the river, with the only material evidence of the community's existence being the occasional stand of fruit trees, along with clumps of disheveled, broken bricks and collapsed chimney stacks, as well as the old mine tunnel. The nearby cemetery is a poignant reminder of how remote and hard this country was to work and live, in back in those early goldrush days.
Along the river, there are numerous campsites and the large grassy area means there is room for a lot of people. That's probably just as well, because it can be very popular. Basic facilities of a pit toilet, fireplaces and water are provided.
From this point, the track continues following the river, and you can eventually head to the junction of Crooked and Wongungarra Rivers. The Wongungarra River offers better fishing than the Crooked River and in its upper reaches is lightly fished, with the main fish caught being brown trout, river blackfish and eels.
The river crossing just below the junction can be quite deep, so take care. Once heading north, the track follows the river, passing through the old mining town sites of Culhanes, then Howittville with its hut, and finally to Pioneer Racecourse. From here it is possible to travel to the Wonnangatta via Wombat Spur Track. There are a number of spots to camp along the river.
The Grant Historic Area is located 310 km northeast of Melbourne. For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Dargo, ph: (051) 40 1243.
\BDescription:\b Grant Historic Area Location Map.
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"Hattah-Kulkyne National Park",14,"b\6\npsvic4.jpg","c","0"
Hattah-Kulkyne National Park is 48,000 hectares and runs east of the Calder Highway between Ouyen and Mildura and combined with the Hattah-Kulkyne Regional Park, the area offers many opportunities for outdoor recreation.
The Hattah Lakes system forms the heart of the national park, and fills when the Murray River floods. Imposing river red gums line the banks of the Murray River, while around the lakes, red gums, black box, native grasses and water plants are well established, with mallee scrub, cypress-pine, buloke and grasses preferring the sand dunes and flood plains.
The lakes are a haven for birdlife and many species of birds breed here, particularly when the lakes are in flood. Red and western grey kangaroos are by far the most common mammal to be seen.
Depending on water levels, canoeing is an excellent way to survey the lakes, while there are unlimited walking opportunities. There is also a good network of vehicle tracks through the park, however these tracks are often very sandy and better suited to 4WDs, and after rain can become impassable.
Main camping areas, with basic facilities, are located at Lake Hattah and Lake Mournpall. Camping is also allowed between the River Track and the Murray River in the Murray Kulkyne Regional Park, and the camping along here is excellent.
Fishermen can throw in a line along the Murray River or in the lakes and maybe catch a feed of yellowbelly or redfin. Unfortunately, European carp have also entrenched themselves in these waterways. Fishermen will need a NSW Fishing Licence for the Murray River, while a Victorian Licence is required to fish the lakes.
Even though the Murray River may seem close by, away from this water source the park is semi arid and water scarce. Carry water with you at all times and observe all fire regulations.
The park is located 430 km east of Melbourne and 39 km north of Ouyen. For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Mildura, ph: (050) 22 3000, or Hattah, ph: (050) 29 3253.
\BDescription:\b Hattah-Kulkyne National Park. \I(Courtesy National Parks Services, Victoria)\i.
\BPic2:\b np701.jpg
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"Kinglake National Park",15,"b\6\npsvic12.jpg","c","0"
The largest national park near Melbourne, this park is situated on the northwestern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, with vehicle tracks meandering through eucalypt forests and fern gullies. Kinglake National Park covers an area of 11,430 hectares.
One of the major attractions is Masons Falls, found in the western part of the park. It is reached via one of the park's 24 walking trails. Other tracks lead to panoramic view points such as Lady Stonehaven's Lookout and Andrews Hill.
While bushwalking is a popular pastime, visitors can also enjoy some great birdwatching, and horseriding is permitted in certain sections of the park.
Day visitors are well catered for with four picnic areas, however there is only one designated camping area, The Gums, with sites suitable for campers and caravans. Advanced bookings during holiday periods is necessary.
The park is located 65 km northeast of Melbourne. For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Melbourne, ph: (03) 9412 4011.
\BDescription:\b Kinglake National Park.\I (Courtesy National Parks Service, Victoria)\i.
\BPic2:\b np708.jpg
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"The Lakes National Park",16,"b\6\np20085.jpg","c","0"
The Lakes National Park is a peaceful bushland retreat in the Gippsland Lakes fringed by the waters of Lake Victoria and Lake Reeve. It comprises Sperm Whale Head peninsula and Little Rotamah and Rotamah Islands. The park is 63 km east of Sale, via Loch Sport,or 5 km by boat from Paynesville.
The area was once a part of a large bay. Over many thousands of years, sand deposited by the sea have formed barriers - Sperm Whale Head, Rotamah Island and the 90 Mile Beach - enclosing the waters of the former bay. These barriers are now up to 38 metres high.
Aborigines of the Kurnai nation were numerous is the area at the time of European settlement. The abundant wildlife around the Gippsland Lakes provided plenty of food.
In the summer of 1840 explorer Angus McMillan reached the shores of Lake Victoria, and soon after, cattle runs were taken up in the district.
By 1926 all the original graziers on Sperm Whale Head peninsula, except Mr F.W.C. Barton and his family, had left.
In the early 1930s, dolomite, a source of agricultural lime, was extracted from Dolomite Swamp, but this proved to be uneconomical because of high transport costs. Another former use of local resources involved the stripping of bark from black wattles for the extraction of tannin, used for tanning leather.
Through the efforts of Mr Barton and the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, 1451 hectares of the Sperm Whale Head was reserved in 1927 for the purposes of a national park, and proclaimed The Lakes National Park in 1957. Rotamah Island and Little Rotamah Island were added to the park in 1978.
Eucalypt and banksia woodland are widespread on the sandy soils throughout the park. Areas of coastal heath are interspersed with swampy, low lying areas which support salt marsh vegetation. Among the many interesting plants found in the park the Ribbed Thryptomene which, apart from this area, is found only in Tasmania.
From August to November the park is at its best with a spectacular show of wildflowers and one of the best displays of native orchids in Australia.
More than 190 species of birds have been recorded in the park. You can view many of them, in their natural environment, from the hides at several sites.
The park also supports a large population of eastern grey kangaroos, swamp wallabies, emus and possums, the less common sugar gliders, echidnas, wombats and koalas and the rare New Holland mouse.
The most popular of the several picnic areas is at Point Wilson, the site of the original settlers' homestead. There are barbecues, toilets, fresh water and a jetty. Many kangaroos frequent this area. Please do not feed them because our processed foods are not part of their normal diet.
Camping is only permitted at Emu Bight, close to the shore of Lake Victoria. Fireplaces, toilets and water are provided. A small fee is charged and sites must be booked through the park office (see below). Alternatively, there is a caravan park at Loch Sport.
Clearly defined tracks pass through a fascinating range of landscapes. The tracks are generally sandy and gently undulating and are suitable for family outings. Emu Bight and Point Wilson are convenient bases from which to explore the tracks.
If you would like to find out more about this area, please contact:
The Ranger-In-Charge
The Lakes National Park
Loch Sport 3851
Telephone: (051) 46 0278.
\BDescription:\b \I Lakes Entrance. Photo by Jamie Robertson. (Courtesy Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b npsvic11.jpg
\BDescription2:\b The Lakes National Park. \I(Courtesy National Parks Service, Victoria)\i
\Bpic3:\b np721.jpg
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"Little Desert National Park",17,"a\5\a2_0007.jpg","c","0"
Little Desert National Park covers an area of 132,000 hectares and runs south of the Western Highway from Dimboola to the South Australian border and is divided into three blocks - western, central and eastern.
The sandy plains which make up much of this park are dominated by mallee and stringybark eucalypts, along with a diverse range of vegetation, including gums, pines, melaleuca, stringybark, heathlands, banksia and broombush. In fact, over 670 species of native plants have been recorded. With dazzling displays of spring wildflowers and the excellent variety of birdlife and fauna, this park is a must for nature lovers.
In such a dry landscape, the Wimmera River in the eastern block, with its woodlands of river red gum and black box on the flood plains, gives a different aspect to the surrounding countryside. It also makes for some pleasant camping.
While much of the park can be explored on foot, sandy tracks, really only suited to 4WDs, criss-cross the park, and in fact the central and western blocks are only accessible to 4WD vehicles, and there are no facilities provided. Some tracks are also closed during the wetter months, and you should check with the Dept. CNR for current closures.
Designated camping grounds, with fireplaces, tables and toilets, are located south of Kiata, at Horseshoe Bend and Ackle Bend south of Dimboola.
Water is very scarce throughout the park and should always be carried and fire regulations observed.
The park is located 375 km northwest of Melbourne.
For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Horsham, ph: (053) 81 1255, Dimboola, ph: (053) 89 1204, or Nhill, ph: (053) 91 1275.
\BDescription:\b Wimmera River, Dimboola \I(Random House - photo by Ken Stepnell)\i
\BPic2:\b np20078.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \ICourtesy National Parks and Wildlife\i
\BPic3:\b np716.jpg
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"Lower Glenelg National Park",18,"b\6\npsvic7.jpg","c","0"
Lower Glenelg National Park covers an area of 27,300 hectares. The Glenelg River begins its journey to the sea in the Grampians in western Victoria, 400 km away. The lower reaches of the river are protected within the National Park, taking in the Glenelg River Gorge, a section of the river cut by a 15 km long deep gorge, more than 50 metres deep, through Miocene limestone.
It is possible to launch small boats and canoes at several spots along the river, and this is the best way to explore the gorge and the scenic beauty of this aesthetic waterway. Other activities which can be enjoyed are fishing and swimming, while water skiing is permitted in designated zones only.
Numerous vehicle and walking tracks offer plenty of scope for visitors to reconnoitre the area which is rich in fauna and flora. Wildflower enthusiasts will be overjoyed with the magnificent display of flowering plants found in spring in the eastern section of the park in the Kentbruck Heath.
Another major attraction of the area is the many limestone caves, some of which are open to the public, with one of the most impressive being the Princess Margaret Rose Caves, where guided tours are conducted.
There are a number of very pleasant designated camping sites to choose from nestled along the river's banks, with basic facilities provided, however bookings are required in advance.
The park is reached 400 km southwest of Melbourne and 40 km northwest of Portland.
For further information or bookings contact the Dept. CNR, Nelson, ph: (087) 38 4051.
\BDescription:\b Lower Glenelg National Park. \I(Courtesy National Parks Services, Victoria)\i.
\BPic2:\b np704.jpg
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"Mitchell River National Park",19,"b\6\npsvic10.jpg","c","0"
Mitchell River National Park is 11,900 hectares surrounding the Mitchell where it passes between high cliffs through some of Gippsland's best forest country. It is 300 km from Melbourne. Access is from Princes Highway west of Bairnsdale via Lindenow or Fernbank along Bairnsdale-Dargo Road to Waller Road.
The park has a number of gorges, one of which contains the noted Den of Nargun, a shallow cave beneath a waterfall on the tributary stream, Woolshed Creek. Aboriginal legend describes the Nargun as a beast that was all stone except for its hands, arms and breast. The fierce creature would drag unwary travellers into its den and any weapon directed against it would be turned back on its owner.
Australian Paper Manufacturers Ltd donated 143 hectares to the State in 1963 to preserve the environment. Glenaladale National Park was formed and massive additions made in 1986 to create Mitchell River National Park.
Canoeing or rafting provides the easiest access to much of the park and there are long walks through the Mitchell River Gorge. Remnants of warm temperate rainforest are to be found. Giant kanooka trees grow out of the water amid a tangle of vines, ferns, sprouting in profusion. Within the gullies grow pittosprorum, lillypilly and yellow-wood, their trunks covered with ferns and mosses. On the ridges above the river a drier forest of wattle and eucalypt predominates. The satin bowerbird frequents the rainforest. The male, black with a purple-bluish sheen, is an excellent mimic.
The river offers the canoeist short day trips or extended touring through tranquil pools and turbulent rapids down to the Gippsland Lakes. The best time is from July to December.
The Mitchell River Walking Track follows the west-bank of the river downstream from Angusvale through the gorge to the Den of Nargun. This is a two-day walk of 17 kilometres. Half way through the gorge is Billy Goat Bend with a spectacular, semi-circular cliff known as the Amphitheatre.
The car park and picnic ground at the Den of Nargun at the southern end of the park is its most accessible spot. Steep but well made walking tracks lead to the actual cave where many small stalactites have been formed by dripping water percolating through limestone rocks. The den is a 20-minutes walk one way.
There are also walks to the Bluff Lookout (10 minutes) and the Mitchell River (30 minutes) and a circuit takes in all three features. A great variety of plants and wildlife are to be seen including possibly, the Gippsland water dragon at the river.
The Mitchell, which carries waters of the Dargo, Wentworth, Wongungurra and Wonnangatta from the Alps to the lakes was found in 1875 by Alfred Howitt, guided by two Aborigines.
Activities to be enjoyed at this park are canoeing, bushwalking, 4WD touring and bush camping. At the Den of Nargun there is a picnic ground, barbecues, toilets and water. At Billy Goat Bend Lookout - tables and barbecues.
The nearest accommodation is at Angusvale Camp which has pit toilets and access to water from the river. There is also a caravan park off Dunbar Road.
For more information contact: CNR Bairnsdale Regional Office, 7 Service Street, Bairnsdale, 3875. Or phone (051) 52 0400.
\BDescription:\b Mitchell River National Park. \I(Courtesy National Parks Service, Victoria)\i.
\BPic2:\b np722.jpg
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"Mornington Peninsula National Park",20,"b\6\4_0065.jpg","c","0"
Up until 1988, Mornington Peninsula National Park (previously known as Point Nepean National Park), one of the State's leading attractions, was a military reserve, with most of the area closed to the public. The fragility of the environment means no more than 600 people can be allowed in the Mornington Peninsula area at any one time.
Its corresponding landform is Point Lonsdale on the Bellarine Peninsula with the intervening waterway know as the Rip. The Rip is only 2.7 kilometres wide and one of the most treacherous entrances to a harbour anywhere in the world.
\BDescription:\b Mornington Peninsula National Park \I(DFAT).\i
\BPic2:\b npsvic14.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Mornington Peninsula \I(National Parks Service, Victoria)\i
\BPic3:\b np717.jpg
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"Mount Buangor State Park/Mount Cole State Forest",21,"0","g","0"
These adjoining areas of public land straddle the Great Dividing Range, and take in a variety of forest type and landforms varying from creek flats, to steep escarpments, to high peaks, the highest being Mt. Buangor itself. Here snow gums grow!
Messmate, peppermint gum, stringybark, grey and yellow box, along with manna gum and red gum, are the main tree species through the region, while tree ferns can be found gracing the wetter slopes and valleys. During spring, the wildflowers transform the forest into a radiant display of colour.
Animals such as the brush-tailed possum and the grey kangaroo are common residents, as is the less commonly seen koala. Smaller possums and mammals also abound.
Birdlife is rich and varied and while raptors such as the brown falcon are common, rarer birds, more normally associated with northern Australia such as the brolga, can also be seen on the larger swamps and lakes.
While the area attracts bushwalkers and campers, hang gliding is also a popular recreational activity, along with rock climbing.
In all, these areas are a real delight and there are some very pleasant camping spots, along with a good selection of 4WD tracks that take you to places which will give you exceptional views of the surrounding country.
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"Mount Buangor State Park",22,"b\6\np727.jpg","c","0"
This park adjoins the southwest edge of Mt. Cole State Forest and covers an area of 2,400 hectares. A number of walking tracks, suitable for just about anyone, criss-cross the eastern section of the park, taking in most of the picnic areas and the creeks in the immediate vicinity.
The Ferntree Waterfalls picnic area is a small sheltered area surrounded by tall forest and from here an excellent walking track can be enjoyed and the tree ferns are delightful.
Those willing to make the trek to the top of Mt Buangor are rewarded with an impressive view of the surrounding countryside.
There are a couple of designated camping areas with facilities. The Middle Creek camping area can accommodate large groups and caravans, and has toilets, tables, fireplaces and water available. Bookings are preferred, especially in the holidays. Mugwamp picnic and camping area is a little more remote, situated on the plateau in a sub-alpine type environment near Mt Buangor, and has toilets and tables.
Dogs, cats and firearms are prohibited within the park.
\BDescription:\b Mount Buangor State Park Location Map.
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"Mount Cole State Forest",23,"b\6\np727.jpg","c","0"
This State Forest (11,340 hectares) protects all flora and fauna, including introduced species of deer.
The area was heavily logged last century, with over 30 mills operating in the region. With such pressures, it is no wonder that the forest was closed in 1904 for regeneration, a good example of which can be seen at the Victoria Mill Scenic Reserve. This spot, which was clear-felled back in the late 1890s, now has impressive stands of messmate and the area is a real delight. Logging continues in the State Forest today and drivers should watch out for on-coming logging trucks.
There are a number of established camping areas in the forest. Ditchfields is located amongst trees just a few kilometres into the forest, with tables, toilets, fireplaces and water available. From here, a walking track gives access to a cave and waterfalls and heads north to other camping and picnic spots. The walk takes you through some delightful fern gullies.
The Richards Camping Area, bordering Cave Hill Creek, it is a pleasant setting. Pit toilets, water, fireplaces and tables are provided.
Pets are allowed within the Mt. Cole State Forest and you really should book during school holidays.
The State Forests are located 200 km northwest of Melbourne. For further information on either park, contact the Dept. CNR, Beaufort, ph: (053) 49 2404.
\BDescription:\b Mount Cole State Forest Location Map.
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"Mount Buffalo National Park",24,"b\6\npsvic6.jpg","c","0"
This park is located 320 km from Melbourne. Access is by a well-sealed but winding road from Porepunkah (near Bright) in north-east Victoria. An entrance fee is charged to help provide and improve facilities.
Few people remain unmoved by the beauty and diversity of Mount Buffalo National Park: imposing granite tors, tumbling waterfalls, snow gums and colourful wildflowers, spectacular views of the Alps and surrounding river valleys, camping in the bush in summer, skiing in winter.
Massive though the Mount Buffalo plateau is now, it was once two or three times its present height.
More than 300 million years ago the region was covered with sedimentary rock laid down when the sea covered what is now north-eastern Victoria. A great mass of molten rock was forced up under the sedimentary rock and cooled slowly to form granite. Constant erosion has gradually worn away the overlying sedimentary rock. The granite has also been eroded by ice, heat, wind, water and plants, a process hastened by the joint or cracks in the rock. In all shapes and sizes the remaining blocks, or tors, are now a dominant feature of Mount Buffalo landscape.
Named by explorers Hamilton Hume and William Hovell in 1824 - the mountain looked like a buffalo from a distance - Mount Buffalo has become one of Victoria's most popular national parks.
Various types of eucalypt forest clothe the lower slopes of Mount Buffalo. On the plateau are woodland areas dominated by Snow Gum, Alpine Ash and other eucalypts; wildflowers, herbs and snow grass; and bogs with water-loving sphagnum moss, sedges and heaths.
A walk along any of the tracks in the park reveals some of the diverse plant life, particularly between November and March when wildflowers are at their best.
Despite the cold winters, a wide variety of native mammals and birds live on Mount Buffalo. Those you are most likely to see are wombats, possums, honeyeaters, robins, lyrebirds and crimson rosellas, especially in the warmer months when food is plentiful.
There are 90 km of walking tracks in the park, allowing you to choose a wide variety of walks from short strolls to energetic day-long outings. The tracks are generally well defined and signposted.
Three self-guided nature walks five an informative introduction to the natural features of the park.
ò The Gorge Nature Walk (2 km) starts near Falls Lookout.
ò View Point Nature Walk (4 km) starts at the bridge near the Lake Catani dam wall.
ò Dicksons Falls Nature Walk (4 km) leads from the main road opposite the Cresta Day Visitor Centre.
Pick up a descriptive leaflet at the start of these walks, or from the park office.
You can try canoeing at lake Catani, and anglers are sometimes rewarded with good catches. Horses, canoes and bicycles may be hired from The Chalet. Some of the most challenging rock climbs in Australia are found on the near-vertical walls of the Gorge. Mount Buffalo was a site for World Championship hang gliding, but it is definitely not for beginners. Contact the park office for further information.
In winter, downhill and cross country skiing are popular, and there are special areas for snow play.
Facilities are provided for day visitors at Cresta and Dingo Dell and ski lifts, ski hire and ski schools are available.
Basic camping facilities (toilets, showers and fireplaces) are provided in a delightful bush camping ground at Lake Catani, usually open between November and May. It is necessary to book a site (telephone (057) 55 1577) for busy holiday periods.
Motel and lodge accommodation are available at Tatra Inn and guest house accommodation at The Chalet. Bookings may be made direct: telephone Tatra Inn on (057) 55 1988, and The Chalet on (057) 11 1500.
\BDescription:\b Mount Buffalo National Park. \I(Courtesy National Parks Service, Victoria)\i.
\BPic2:\b np724.jpg
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"Mount Eccles National Park",25,"b\7\npsvic8.jpg","c","0"
The original national park of 400 hectares was declared in 1960. It was enlarged to 6120 hectares in 1986 by the inclusion of The Stones Faunal Reserve. The park is 42 km south of Hamilton in south-western Victoria, and may be reached by sealed road via Macarthur.
A scenic lake, attractive bushland and interesting volcanic features are the main attractions of Mount Eccles National Park. Volcanic eruptions, beginning about 20,000 years ago, formed Mount Eccles and a series of craters. The most recent eruption occurred less than 7,000 years ago, and because the volcano is so recent, many of the features are largely unweathered. The three main craters contain the placid waters of Lake Surprise.
The park provides opportunities for picnicking, camping, swimming, nature study, walking and fishing. Walking tracks (including one to Photography Point suitable for people with disabilities), fireplaces, tables, toilets and a shelter are provided. There is a camping area with basic facilities near the park entrance. Camping sites and picnic facilities for people with disabilities are also available. During holiday periods check with the ranger to ensure that a site is available. A small camping fee is charged.
There are some fascinating geological formations in the park, including a scoria cone, laval canal, craters and stony rises. A variety of plant and bird life may be seen - birds can easily be observed in the crowns of trees as you walk around the crater rim of Lake Surprise.
Several walking tracks cross the park and they all start and finish near the park entrance.
\BDescription:\b Mount Eccles National Park. \I(Courtesy National Parks Service, Victoria)\i.
\BPic2:\b np728.jpg
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"Organ Pipes National Park",26,"b\7\npsvic9.jpg","c","0"
Organ Pipes National Park is close to the Calder Highway about 20 km north-west of Melbourne.
The Organ Pipes, a set of basalt columns formed by the cooling and cracking of molten lava, are the best known features of the 85 ha park. It is also an excellent place for picnics, walks, bird observing and photography. Since the park was declared in 1972, a great deal of work has been done to restore the indigenous vegetation of the area.
The park is open from 8 am to 4:30 pm each day; admission is free. During the summer daylight saving period the park closes at 6 pm on weekends and public holidays.
The number and variety of native birds recorded has increased greatly since the park was established. Some mammals, such as possums, wallabies and echidnas can be seen too. Reptiles are abundant. Sugar Gliders were released early in 1989 and other species will be reintroduced as native vegetation develops and the habitat becomes suitable.
Walking tracks, picnic tables, water and toilets are provided. Wood fires are not permitted but you may bring a gas barbecue.
Camping is not permitted.
School groups are welcome but arrangements must be made in advance.
Some areas of interest in the park include:
ò Keilor Plains - Walk to the start of the track down to the Organ Pipes. All around you are the basalt Keilor Plains, one of the world's biggest lava flows. The Plains, formed by lava which came from volcanoes near Sunbury, are fairly flat except where streams, like Jacksons Creek below you, have cut deep valleys.
ò The Organ Pipes - About a million years ago, molten lava flowed over the Keilor Plains area from Mount Holden and other nearby volcanic hills to the north. It filled the depressions and valleys of the former land surface, then cooled and solidified into basalt. Here at the Organ Pipes, it is believed that the lave filled a river valley running at right angles to the present Jacksons Creek; it was perhaps 70 metres thick. Once a surface crust formed, the lava beneath cooled very slowly.
During cooling, the lava contracted, and surface cracks developed (as they do in a drying mud puddle). As it continued to harden, the cracks lengthened until the basalt mass was divided into columns.
During the million years since the lava flow, Jacksons Creek has cut a deep valley through the basalt and revealed the Organ Pipes.
ò Sandstone Bedrock - Walk downstream for about 200 metres, past well-established trees, and you will see yellowish rocks across the creek. These are sandstones and mudstones, sedimentary rocks laid down under the sea. Fossils in these rocks suggest that they were formed about 400 million years ago. The old river valley now filled by the Organ Pipes was cut in this sedimentary bedrock.
ò Rosette Rock - Now walk back upstream. About 400 metres past the Organ Pipes, look across the creek to see Rosette Rock, a radial array of basalt columns like the spokes of a wheel.
ò Tessellated Pavement - 300 metres further on is the Tessellated Pavement, which consists of the tops of basalt columns 'filed down' by Jacksons Creek.
ò Scoria Cone - You can now return to the car park by the short-cut path. The car park is on an eroded scoria cone - a small volcano which ejected molten volcanic rock called scoria. Scoria is reddish-brown and light in weight; is has many air holes because it was full of steam when ejected.
\BDescription:\b Organ Pipes National Park. \I(Courtesy National Parks Service, Victoria)\i.
\BPic2:\b np726.jpg
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"Otway National Park",27,"b\7\npsvic3.jpg","c","0"
Otway National Park (12,750 hectares) stretches from Apollo Bay south to Princetown, with the Otway Range reaching down to the striking and ruggedly beautiful coastline of Bass Strait.
The southern section of the range is one of the wettest areas in Victoria, sustaining a diverse range of vegetation from towering forests of tall mountain ash, blue and mountain grey gum, to clandestine gullies of myrtle beech rainforest interspersed with tree ferns, while mosses form a thick carpet over the ground and any fallen logs.
Logging flourished in many areas of the ranges as early as 1848, and the old tramway tracks through the forests, visible reminders of those days, are now used as walking tracks.
While bushwalking is a favourite pastime along the tracks and beaches, swimming, snorkeling, canoeing, surfing and fishing are also popular activities.
Visitors can also visit the Cape Otway Lighthouse which is adjacent to the park. It is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it is advisable to ring in advance, ph: (052) 37 9240.
Three main camping areas are provided with limited facilities, and it is best to book beforehand during summer holiday periods.
The park is within easy reach of Melbourne, which is approximately 200 km southwest. For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Apollo Bay, ph: (052) 37 6889.
\BDescription:\b Otway National Park. \I(Courtesy National Parks Services, Victoria)\i.
\BPic2:\b np706.jpg
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"Port Campbell National Park",28,"b\7\npsvic5.jpg","c","0"
Port Campbell National Park is on the Great Ocean Road between Princetown and Peterborough. The park is 285 km from Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road, 240 km via the Princes Highway and Cobden. The park covers an area of 1,750 hectares. It was named after a whaler, Captain Alexander Campbell, who was forced to shelter in the bay in the 1840s.
The national park runs between the sea and the Great Ocean Road, an attraction in its own right. The road, built between 1919 and 1932, hugs the coast, and in many places is only a stone's throw from cliff and ocean.
At the western end of the park the coast softens, with dunes and a sandy beach on the approach to Curdies Inlet and Peterborough. Though it is more popular in summer, the coast in winter is at its most spectacular. Then huge seas thunder against the cliffs and surge into the gorges and inlets.
The rugged and beautiful Twelve Apostles off the coast near Port Campbell have become Australian landmarks. Whether bathed in sunshine, wreathed in sea mist or defying stormy seas, the Apostles are a breathtaking sight. Throughout the year tourists from Europe, Japan and America join Australians to admire the formations created by the Southern Ocean.
The coastline once extended far beyond the outmost stacks and islands of the area. Over thousands of years the ocean has sculptured the relatively soft limestone to form narrow bays, arches, islands and blowholes.
The national park is on a limestone plain. The limestone was formed 10 to 20 million years ago from accumulating layers of marine animal remains. This explains why limestone contains fossils.
The Port Campbell Discovery Walk is 2.5 kilometres long and the round trip takes an hour and a half. The walk is an interesting introduction to the park, starting at the steps at the cliff-base on the western side of Port Campbell beach or from the car park on the western side of the bay. The track is rough in places but the grade is gentle. Numbered pegs mark significant sights. The walk ends at the Two-Mile Bay Lookout, where the cliffs are stable and sand dunes have been deposited along the coast.
At the Twelve Apostles, an extensive board-walk, observation and photographic deck-points, and on-site signs explain the formation.
Muttonbird Island is the largest of the park's nearshore stacks. (Stacks are islands of harder limestone which are more resistant to erosion). At dusk from December to March, short-tailed shearwaters return in great flocks to their breeding grounds after the day feeding. They can be watched from the nearby lookout circling overhead then landing near their burrows to feed their chicks.
A stairway has been built on the eastern wall of Loch Ord Gorge to the beach. Three short walks with explanatory signs have been developed in the area: a geology walk, the Loch Ord shipwreck walk and the wave crash walk which looks at natural and human history.
The harsh environment has a profound effect on plant and animal life. Plants fight a constant battle with salt-laden winds, sun, drought, water-logging, poor soils and occasional fire. The differing character of the plant communities depends on their degree of exposure. Some of the plants closest to the coast are the common correa, which has green-red flower bells, chaffy saw-sedge, a tall grass-like sedge found in wet, sandy areas, and the guinea flower, with bright yellow flowers in the spring. The heathland on the plain, common plants are the dwarf she-oak, silver banksia and austral grass-tree. In the most sheltered areas drooping she-oaks and eucalypts are found.
Native animals in the park are shy and mainly nocturnal and include wallabies, ringtail possums, echidnas and bandicoots.
More than 90 species of birds have been identified, including the little penguin, rufous bristlebird, pied and sooty oyster catchers, muttonbirds, marsh harriers, Australian kestrels, goshawks, peregrine falcons, various wrens, tawny-crowned honeyeaters, quails and parrots.
\BDescription:\b Port Campbell National Park. \I(Courtesy National Parks Services, Victoria)\i
\BPic2:\b np20084.jpg
\BDescription2:\b I Photo by Jamie Robertson. Courtesy Random House\i.
\BPic3:\b np705.jpg
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"Snowy River National Park",29,"b\7\np20098.jpg","c","0"
The Snowy River National Park (98,700 hectares) is 390 kilometres east of Melbourne and features unspoiled river country with cliffs, gorges and rapids. The Snowy River is one of the few wild rivers remaining in eastern Australia. Huge cliffs rise straight from its turbulent waters.
There are some fine sandy beaches along the river which lies 700 metres below the top of the surrounding ridges. The Snowy Valley's smaller creeks and tributaries are flanked by dense, luxuriant lowland forest.
This spectacular park, with its splendid river scenery, impressive deep gorges, picturesque forests and diverse vegetation and fauna, protects Victoria's largest forest wilderness, adjoining the Alpine National Park.
The main camping area is near MacKillops Bridge, however other camping spots, without facilities, are dispersed through the park. Numerous vehicle tracks offer plenty of opportunity for visitors to explore the region, with the Deddick Trail through the heart of the park being only suitable for 4WDs.
The Snowy River is also a mecca for canoeists, and trips from MacKillops Bridge take 3 to 4 days to reach the Buchan River junction.
The southern part of the park is reached 390 km east of Melbourne. For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Bairnsdale, ph: (051) 52 0400, or Orbost, ph: (051) 61 1222.
\BDescription:\b Snowy River National Park, near McKillops Bridge. \IPhoto by Ron and Viv Moon. (Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np20032.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Little River Gorhe, Snowy River National Park. \I(Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np714.jpg
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"Tarra-Bulga National Park",30,"b\7\npsvic16.jpg","c","0"
Situated at the eastern end of the Grand Ridge Road, Tarra-Bulga National Park is well known for its giant Mountain Ash trees and beautiful fern gullies. It protects remnants of the cool temperate rainforests of the Strzelecki Ranges in South Gippsland.
In 1903, the Alberton Shire Council asked the State Government to reserve an area of forest with fern gullies near Balook as a public park. 20 hectares were reserved and given the aboriginal name Bulga, meaning 'mountain'.
Six years later, an area of 303 hectares in the Tarra Valley was temporarily reserved, though the eventual park was only 140 hectares in size. This park and the Tarra River were named after Charlie Tarra, an Aborigine who guided Strzelecki and his party through Gippsland in 1840.
Following recommendations by the Land Conservation Council, the two separate National Parks were joined through a land exchange with A.P.M. Forests Pty Ltd. An enlarged and re-named Tarra-Bulga National Park of 1,230 hectares was declared in June 1986.
Tarra-Bulga National Park now covers 1,625 hectares of some of the best examples of original forests of the Strzelecki Ranges.
Tarra-Bulga National Park is popular for picnics, walks and scenic drives and nature study.
ò Call in at the Tarra-Bulga Visitor Centre on the Grand Ridge Road in Balook. The displays will introduce you to the historical and natural aspects of the Strzeleckis and features rainforests in Victoria. The centre is open only between specified times.
ò Bulga picnic area is a short distance north of the Visitor Centre, off the Grand Ridge Road. The self-guided Fern Gully Nature Walk starts here and includes the famous suspension bridge.
ò Tarra Valley picnic area is on the Tarra Valley Road about 8 km from the Visitor Centre. From here a 1.2 km walk take you through the rainforest past the lovely Cyathea Falls.
Fireplaces, picnic shelters, tables and toilets are provided at both Bulga and Tarra Valley picnic areas. There are also picnic facilities and toilets at the Visitor Centre.
Fern Gully Nature Walk and the Tarra Valley Rainforest Walk provide an introduction to the cool temperate rainforest of Tarra-Bulga National Park. Ferns are one of the main attractions, some 39 species having been recorded. There are more than 200 different kinds of fungi.
The park is an excellent place to see many birds, including the unique Lyrebird and others such as the Pilotbird, Crimson Rosella and Yellow Robin.
It is also rich in native mammals, many of them nocturnal. Wallabies and wombats are common, and platypuses, possums, bandicoots and native rats live in the park. There are also several species of bats and the park is home to numerous reptiles and countless insects.
\BDescription:\b Tarra-Bulga National Park. \I(Courtesy National Parks Service, Victoria)\i.
\Bpic2:\b np723.jpg
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"Toolangi State Forest",31,"b\7\np736.jpg","c","0"
Toolangi State Forest covers an area of 38,000 hectares. It is a favourite area, close to Melbourne, for many people, and the four wheel driver especially will find plenty of places to delight in and explore through the surrounding forests of messmate and mountain ash.
The area was, and still is, an important forestry centre and many reminders of the early logging days remain, such as the Dindi Mill Historic Site, which was first established in 1920 and was one of the largest sawmills in the area.
Although dispersed bush camping is allowed in the forest, one of the most popular areas with campers is the Murrindindi Scenic Reserve where pit toilets and fireplaces are provided. Out of school holidays it remains surprisingly quiet and even when all the campsites are full it's a most enjoyable place. There are trout in the river and there are any number of pleasant walks to do, such as the walk to Wilhelmina Falls. Horseriding is also allowed.
The Reserve is 110 km northeast of Melbourne. For further information contact the Toolangi Forest Discovery Centre, ph: (059) 62 9317.
\BDescription:\b Toolangi State Forest Location Map.
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"Wilsons Promontory National Park",32,"a\6\4_0061.jpg","c","0"
With its pristine beaches, spectacular granite rock formations, magical fern gullies, and remarkable variety of vegetation and rich wildlife, Wilsons Promontory National Park (49,000 hectares), or "the Prom" as it is usually called, is one of Victoria's most popular parks. It is also one of the oldest reserves in the state, originally protected in 1898. Surrounded on three sides by sea, a number of marine parks and reserves also stretch along the coastline and the area has long been a favourite with fishermen and boaters.
Activities range from surfing, diving, snorkeling, bushwalking, photography, nature study or just taking in the wildflower blooms in late winter and spring. The shallow waters of the Tidal River make it a great place for the kids to splash around in, while the nearby beaches are ideal for walking, swimming or lazing on.
Although vehicle track access is limited, there are over 80 km of marked walking trails traversing the park, many of them leading to secluded sandy beaches, or you could hike to the southernmost tip of mainland Australia and visit the lighthouse there.
The Tidal River Camping Area is the only vehicle based camping spot in the park. It's so popular that in summer and school holidays, campsites are selected by ballot, as are the group lodges, cabins and flats which are also available. If you're into carrying a backpack, a much greater choice of campsites is open to you.
The park is located 200 km southeast of Melbourne. For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Tidal River, ph: (056) 80 9555, or Yarram, ph: (051) 82 5155.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Random House\i
\BPic2:\b np20097.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Wilsons Promontory National Park coastline. \IPhoto by Ron and
\BPic3:\b np20087.jpg
\BPic4:\b np711.jpg
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"Wyperfeld National Park",33,"b\7\np20081.jpg","c","0"
Wyperfeld National Park covers an area of 356,800 hectares and is reached via Hopetoun, or the small township of Rainbow. It features a series of lakes and rivers which are normally dry lake beds connected by Outlet Creek. Only after exceptionally heavy rain do the river courses run.
With a wide variety of soil conditions, the vegetation varies considerably. In the west of the park the sand plains are covered in heath, with mallee dominating the eastern section. Cypress-pine woodlands prefer the sand dunes encircling the lakes, and river red gum and black box woodlands cover the flood plains of Outlet Creek and the lakes. Once again, this semi-arid environment comes alive in the spring when wildflowers put on a kaleidoscopic display, especially after good seasons.
The birdlife is one of the major attractions, and birdwatchers will find plenty to occupy their time. Emus and western grey kangaroos are also plentiful, along with stumpy-tail lizards and sand goannas.
There are a number of designated camping areas with facilities to choose from, with the camping around Lake Albacutya being especially enjoyable.
Many of the vehicle tracks which traverse the park are suitable only for 4WDs. During wet conditions, however, some tracks may be closed, such as the Murrayville Track in the western section of the park, and it is best to check with the Dept. CNR for current track closures.
When travelling in any harsh environment where water supplies are very limited, it is advisable to always carry water with you and observe all fire regulations.
The park is located 450 km northwest of Melbourne.
For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Mildura, ph: (050) 22 3000, Yaapeet, ph: (053) 95 7221, or Lake Albacuty-Rainbow, ph: (053) 95 7246.
\BDescription:\b Emu tracks on dry lake bed, Wyperfeld. \IPhoto by Ron and Viv Moon. (Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np702.jpg
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"Yanga-Nyawi (Murray-Sunset) National Park",34,"b\7\npsvic18.jpg","c","0"
Often termed Victoria's 'Outback', much of the country in the very northwest of the state is taken up by the Yanga-Nyawi National Park, the second largest park in Victoria, covering 63,000 hectares. This region is a disparity of environments, from the verdant surrounds of the wetlands, lakes and billabongs of the Murray River system, to the seemingly infertile semi-arid interior of Victoria's desert country. But don't be deceived by first appearances, as this dry region, relatively untouched by man, supports a well-adapted community rich in flora and fauna.
Sandhills, saltpans, occasional grasslands and a dense mantle of mallee scrub cover the vast areas of desert, and spring is the time to visit, when much of the heath country, and even the mallee, is in flower, turning the desert landscape into a botanical delight.
Birdlife is also plentiful, with water birds of all descriptions flocking in their thousands across the flood plains and billabongs of the Murray. Away from the water, parrots, wrens and warblers add colour and movement to the sea of green. Emus are common, as are birds of prey. Mallee fowl and Australia's rarest bird, the Black-eared Miner, can also be found.
Kangaroos, both western grey and red, reside in the park, and while they are easily seen, the smaller mammals such as planigales and native hopping mouse are more evasive. The area is also home to a large number of reptiles such as skinks, geckos and dragons.
Much of the park is declared 'Wilderness Area' and a number of the old tracks have been closed. However, a good network of 4WD vehicle tracks criss-cross the park, enabling visitors to explore and admire this scenic, yet remote and untamed tract of Victoria.
There are any number of picturesque spots within the park where you can camp, however for those who prefer a camp with basic facilities, there is an established camping site at Lake Crosbie, in the Pink Lakes area, in the southern section of the park, which can be reached by 2WD vehicle. The are some enjoyable walks around the nearby lakes and remains of the old salt workings, started in 1916, still exist, as does some antiquated farming equipment. Once you leave the immediate surrounds of the Pink Lakes and head deeper into the park, you need to be self sufficient and well set-up, and make sure you carry water with you.
In contrast, water is plentiful in the far northwest of the park, along the Murray River, and fishing is a favourite activity. Visitors should be aware of the latest regulations regarding fishing and yabbying in the waters of the park. An amateur Fishing Licence is now required for taking both in Victorian waters. Other regulations also apply.
Duck hunting is currently allowed on some sections of the Lindsay River, but not all, and not elsewhere in the park. Check with Dept. CNR for further details.
The park is located approximately 480 km northwest of Melbourne.
For further information contact the Dept. CNR, Mildura, ph: (050) 22 3000, Ouyen, ph: (050) 92 1322, or Red Cliffs, ph: (050) 24 1904.
\BDescription:\b \I(Courtesy National Parks Service, Victoria)\i
\Bpic2:\b np718.jpg
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50,0
"Auburn River National Park",1,"0","g","0"
Auburn River National Park is a tiny park not exceeding 400 ha. It is situated east of the Great Dividing Range, 25 km south west of Mundubbera.
In this park you can venture on a number of bushwalks that take you to beautiful lookout points. Along the way you may encounter many species of trees, including bottlebrush, forest red gums, ironbarks, tea trees and more.
Picnic facilities are included in the park as well as a small camping ground with only basic amenities. Take your own water with you as there is none provided within Auburn River National Park.
The Auburn River Gorge leads down into rock pools.
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"Barron Gorge National Park",2,"b\7\16_0043.jpg","c","0"
The Barron River drops dramatically from the tablelands carving a deep gorge through the mountains on its way to the coast. Tropical rainforest predominates, though casuarina groves, open woodlands, and small pockets of mountain heath are present, depending on exposure, soil type and moisture levels.
An historic railway winds through the gorge past waterfalls on Stony and Surprise Creeks and Barron Falls. Spectacular during floodtime, the Barron Falls are mostly curtailed by irrigation and hydroelectricity projects.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy of QLD Department of Environment and Heritage.\i
\BPic2:\b npab03.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \ICourtesy Anthony Butt\i
\BPic3:\b np401.jpg
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"Bellenden Ker National Park",3,"b\7\queens1.jpg","c","0"
Covering 31,000 ha, Bellenden Ker National Park contains two of the highest mountains in Queensland - Mount Bartle Frere at 1,622 m and Mount Bellenden Ker at 1,580 m. Both are usually swathed in cloud.
The park runs roughly parallel to the Bruce Highway between Cairns and Innisfail and the best way to get there is by way of Babinda. The park has tropical rainforest vegetation which changes its character as it ascends the slopes of the mountains and is a sanctuary for some of Queensland's rainforest birds and marsupials.
There is a newly opened Goldfields Track, originally created by miners with their packhorses, which goes over a low saddle into the Mulgrave Valley and is some 10 km long. The nearest accommodation is at Innisfail.
\BDescription:\b \I(Queensland Tourist and Travel Commission)\i.
\BPic2:\b np404.jpg
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"Blackdown Tableland National Park",4,"b\7\qttc06.jpg","c","0"
Blackdown Tableland rises like a green island from flat plains about 185 km west of Rockhampton. It is moist, cool and heavily forested, while the land below is hot, dry and largely cleared.
The plateau is the northernmost outpost of the chain of sandstone features across southern central Queensland that include Carnarvon Gorge. Though much smaller than Carnarvon, it still rises 600 metres above the plain and is protected by ramparts in places 350 metres high.
The Department of Environment & Heritage says of it: "Woodlands, tall open forests and heath cover the tableland, which is dissected by deep gorges. In sheltered areas, ferns and mosses thrive in moist environments fed by the plateau's streams. Waterfalls cascade up to 150 metres over sheer sandstone cliffs."
There are a number of walking tracks and scenic lookouts, as well as Aboriginal art and abundant birdlife. A camping area with basic facilities is set beside a creek. It will suit active bushwalkers on the one hand, and on the other, campers, who want only an occasional stroll in the bush, interspersed with long periods lying on a creek bank.
The last town (on the eastern side) before the turnoff to Blackdown Tableland is Dingo, 12 km from the turnoff on the highway to the national park. This is the nearest place to the plateau for food, fuel and telephone calls. Dingo also has a roadhouse that serves hearty meals.
The turnoff to Blackdown Tableland is well marked. This 20 km gravel road is unsuitable for caravans, though pop tops and camper trailers are okay. A sign warns: "Caution. Slippery gravel surface. Proceed with caution. Reduce speed. Take care on curves and steep sections of road." Watch out for narrow cattle grids and sharp dips into concrete causeways.
Also be wary of the "pea gravel" surface on the road in some places. As the name suggests, this gravel comprises small, fairly round stones about the size of peas. If you brake or corner too sharply you can loose control of the vehicle. Though not essential, a 4WD is helpful here in providing extra grip.
You will find a ranger at the camping ground in busy times and there is a self registration stand for other times. Book a campsite well ahead (up to 12 months) for school holidays and long weekends. This is a popular park and is often booked out.
The camping ground, Mimosa Creek, is about 29 km from the highway. Allow about 45 minutes to an hour for the trip. The camping area follows the line of a slight slope under a low sandstone ridge. The sites are set in open forest.
Amenities are pit toilets, tables, open fireplaces and water on tap. There are no showers.
The adjacent South Mimosa Creek has deep, spa-sized pools carved from the sandstone bed and into broader, shallower pools, and a 20 metre high waterfall between shattered blocks that have split from the cliff.
There are several walking trails on the plateau, some of them starting in the vicinity of the campground.
One of the most popular walks is to Rainbow Falls, at the end of a road five kilometres from the campground. A one and a half kilometre track cuts down a slope to a lookout over a gorge and the falls, then follows the edge of the escarpment round to the falls themselves. They feature a series of stepped falls and pools. There are more pools in the creek above the falls.
For a long time, stockmen were the only people to regularly visit the plateau. Then in 1971, the one and only access road was built to allow limited logging. In 1982, the national park was gazetted. The park covers 23,000 hectares. (It is in two sections, linked by State Forest.)
The forests that are such a feature of the plateau have species unique to the area, including a massive stringybark and two kinds of wattle. Even the common trees found here do not form forests like this anywhere else within hundreds of kilometres.
A mineral deficiency in the soil that sickens cattle also means there are few large native animals like kangaroos. There are plenty of birds, including black cockatoos, and currawongs and kookaburras around the camp.
The plateau is reputed to be free of ticks and leeches.
An attractive fold out colour leaflet on Blackdown Tableland is available through the DEH and Forest Service, as well as the normal DEH style leaflet. These are well worth reading when planning a trip and include a map that will prove helpful when you arrive.
For further information, contact Blackdown Tableland National Park, Via Dingo, QLD 4702, ph (079) 86 1964.
\BDescription:\b : Blackdown Tableland.\I (Courtesy Queensland Tourist and Travel Commission)\i
\BPic2:\b np20053.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Terns at Blackdown Tableland \I(Photo by John McCann. Courtesy Random House).\i
\BPic3:\b np415.jpg
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"Bowling Green Bay National Park",5,"b\7\qttc12.jpg","c","0"
Near Townsville, this park covers 55,000 ha. To the north, it runs to the rugged granite headland of Cape Cleveland and to the east, through mangrove swamps and saltpans to Cape Bowling Green, a long, flat, low sandspit formed by the silt from the Burdekin River. In the swamps live a wide variety of waterbirds including herons and jabirus. The highland section was originally called Mount Elliot National Park and is mainly covered by eucalypts and grasslands. The park contains Australia's southernmost tropical forest, on the slopes of Mount Elliot. Alligator Creek, which runs through the park, has some spectacular falls and pleasant swimming pools. There is camping in the park and accommodation available in Townsville.
\BDescription:\b \I(Courtesy Queensland Tourist and Travel Commission)\i.
\BPic2:\b np409.jpg
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"Brampton and Carlisle Islands National Park",6,"b\7\np414.jpg","c","0"
Brampton Island is 32 km north-east of Mackay and the 464 ha national park takes up most of it. There are frequent launch services to the island from Mackay. This is one of the most southerly of the Whitsunday Passage islands. It has a number of white sandy beaches and, moving inland, coconut palm groves. There is a lookout point on Brampton Peak (213 m) and the wildlife includes a wide variety of birds. There are boats for hire at the resort on the island.
Another 520 ha of the park is the nearby Carlisle Island - you can wade the 500 m across at low tide - which has a resort that started as a holiday farm in 1933. The farm had once run sheep and horses as remounts for the Indian Army. There is accommodation on the islands.
\BDescription:\b Brampton Island and Carlisle Islands National Parks Location Map.
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"Bunya Mountains National Park",7,"0","g","0"
Bunya Mountains National Park-declared in 1908-was the second national park declared in Queensland. It is well known for its bunya pines.
It covers an area of just over 11,000 ha and includes some of the only remaining bunya pines in the country. Settlers located themselves in this area from the 1860s and sawmills were soon set up. From the late 19th century, these pines were felled in huge numbers. These trees produce nuts that the Aborigines ate for thousands of years before European settlement.
Bunya Mountains National Park is a rainforest and grassland park. It also includes magnificent birdlife including king parrots. Unique to this national park is the Bunya Mountains ringtail possum. You can observe many of the nocturnal mammals at dusk, but don't feed them.
A number of walking tracks are included in Bunya Mountains National Park, ranging from a 500 m walk on the Bunya Bunya Track to a 10 km walk to Big Falls Lookout. The fairly easy 4 km Scenic Circuit walk takes you to Pine Gorge Lookout with magnificent waterfalls and spectacular views.
Facilities include picnic sites, visitor centre, camping grounds with toilets, showers and barbeques. Permits for camping are necessary, as are bookings. You can even stay in a guest house that boasts views of the Darling Downs.
Access is from any direction but is quite windy and steep. Bunya Mountains National Park is approximately 100 km from Toowoomba and 55 km from Kingaroy. Some of the roads are not suitable for caravans. Because the elevation is at about 1,000 metres, weather can be changeable and also quite cool at times, even in the summer months, so go prepared with warm clothing, wet weather gear and hats and sunscreen.
Bunya Mountains National Park is well worth a visit for its scenery, waterfalls, bunya pines, birdlife and spectacular views.
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"Burleigh Heads National Park",8,"b\7\qttc09.jpg","c","0"
This small 24 ha park is near the Gold Coast, only 16 km from Southport and 14 km from Tweed Heads. You get to it by driving off the Pacific Highway near Burleigh Heads. This park is a green oasis in the overwhelming residential and tourist development of the Gold Coast. It has tremendous views over the coast to Moreton Bay and is home to a colony of koalas as well as wallabies and lorikeets.
The principal headland is Big Burleigh, at the entrance to Tallebudgera Creek. There are short nature trails looping through the park, which has a mixture of eucalypt forest, tussock grassland and low woodland.
"Burrum Coast National Park",9,"b\7\np20054.jpg","c","0"
The Burrum Coast National Park comprises the former Woodgate, Burrum River and Kinkuna National Parks and covers over 21,000 hectares of estuary and open coastline just south of Bundaberg and about 300 km north of Brisbane.
Access to the main section of the park, the Woodgate section, is via the township of Woodgate, on the coast where the Bruce Highway from Maryborough to Bundaberg swings well west. From the turnoff immediately south of Childers, you have to drive about 45 km over a sometimes narrow bitumen road to Woodgate. Woodgate has a caravan park, shops and holiday houses.
The Woodgate section of the Burrum Coast NP extends south from the Childers road about 10 km to the mouth of the Burrum River. It protects a long sweep of beach, swings south and west round the north shore of the Burrum River entrance and the lower section of the Gregory River, and finally cuts back to the main road.
It consists of banksia wallum heathland, eucalypt and native pine forest, and brackish wetlands. In spring, the heath is carpeted with wildflowers and, after rain, the marshes host thousands of birds.
The camping area is out near Burrum Point where the river joins the sea, about 10 km from the Woodgate township. The last 5 km is a sand track, recommended for four wheel drives only.
Among the thousands of birds seen at the park are magnificent brolgas, jabirus, royal spoonbills and a wide variety of other water birds. More than 170 bird species have been identified in the park, so bird watching's popular.
The park has several walking tracks. A boardwalk through teatree swamp is 200 metres long. The Banksia Track through cabbage palms and wallum heath (seen at its best when the wildflowers are out in September, October), is the longest at six kilometres.
The Melaleuca Track runs through wallum scrub and past saltpans, swamps and mangroves, and another track leads into a specially constructed bird hide that, after some soaking summer monsoon rain, should overlook bird filled marshes. These tracks also link up with a spur to the Walkers Point road.
Walkers Point has a launching ramp and easy access to a narrow riverside beach and bait flats. From there, a four wheel drive-only sand track cuts up along the Gregory River and back to the Childers road.
Canoeists have a great time on the Gregory River. A board and chain ramp has been built at a spot called Hoppy Larks Creek. It is just off the Walkers Point to Childers Road sand track, but can be reached from the Childers road end by conventional vehicles. From there, canoeists can paddle six kilometres upstream through natural bushland or eight kilometres downstream to Walkers Point.
Four wheel drive vehicles are allowed to use the beach, below the high tide mark, south from Twelfth Avenue round to the camping area, a distance of seven or eight kilometres and providing access to some great fishing, swimming and sunbathing spots. There are rampways to the beach at both ends.
There is also access to the river and the Woodgate section by boat from Burrum Heads township, on the southern side of the Burrum River.
The Burrum River section of the park is on the southern side of the river, running from the river south east round the back of Burrum Heads. It has no facilities for visitors. It is mostly wallum scrub and puts on an attractive wildflower show in spring.
The Kinkuna section is north of Woodgate. It is an undeveloped stretch of coastline with a low sandy beach, wallum heath, woodlands, sedgelands and tall open forests. Again there are wildflowers in spring and early summer.
Access is by 4WD only.
For further information, contact the Department of Environment & Heritage, Burrum Coast NP, C/- Post Office, Woodgate, Q 4660, ph (071) 26 8810.
\BDescription:\b \I Photo by John McCann. Courtesy Random House.\i
\BPic2:\b np444.jpg
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"Byfield State Forest and National Park",10,"b\7\np440.jpg","c","0"
Byfield State Forest is about one hour's drive north of Rockhampton, via Yeppoon, and, with the adjacent National Park, is a popular camping and fishing spot.
About 22 km north of Yeppoon, tall pine trees mark the start of Byfield State Forest. There are three camping areas: Upper Stony Forest Park (a further 15 km); Waterpark Creek FP (15 km) and Red Rock FP (10 km). All three camping areas are attractive, but Upper Stony is the most popular, thanks to the rocky stream that borders the tent sites.
Along the main track through the forest you will see (just past the Red Rock turnoff) a Queensland Forest Service (QFS) office, workshops and houses. This office is open to the public on weekdays and rangers can provide detailed information on the area.
Camping permits are needed at Byfield State Forest. Use the self-registration permits at the camping areas. Prior bookings are not needed.
Byfield General Store, near the Waterpark campground, carries groceries etc. and is a valuable source of local knowledge.
Coming in through the forest you might not realise Byfield is the centre of a long established grazing and farming community. The district was first settled by Europeans in the 1850s and is rich in history.
Some of the side tracks winding to fishing or scenic spots like Corbetts Landing, Stockyard Point and Red Rock are suitable only for 4WDs. Corbetts Landing, down towards the mouth of Waterpark Creek, has a boat ramp. However, local fishermen warn visitors to take care because crocodiles have been seen here.
The road through the forest continues out to the coast. It ends at Stockyard Point, where there is a small settlement (mostly weekenders). This track passes through big dunes of soft sand and is strictly for four wheel drive vehicles only. It is a forest road, not a gazetted public road, and you will need a permit from the Forest Service to use it.
From Stockyard Point, Nine Mile Beach runs south to Corio Headland (also known as Waterpark Point). This is sometimes used by 4WDs, although the access track is very soft.
The southern end of Nine Mile Beach is covered by Byfield National Park. This park is small but takes in Corio Headland, at the northern end of Corio Bay, and runs back to the downstream section of Waterpark Creek. It has no amenities.
Department of Environment & Heritage (DEH) staff are concerned about damage being caused to the dunes and vegetation by 4WDs, trail bikes and fires. Before visiting the park, please contact the DEH at Rockhampton for advice.
For further information, contact: Queensland Forest Service at 109 Bolsover Street, Rockhampton, 4700, ph (079) 31 9700 or at Byfield direct on (079) 35 1115.
Department of Environment & Heritage, Royal Bank Building, 194 Quay Street, Rockhampton, 4700, ph (079) 27 6511.
\BDescription:\b Byfield State Forest and National Park Location Map.
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"Cania Gorge National Park",11,"b\7\qttc04.jpg","c","0"
Cania Gorge National Park, about 500 km north of Brisbane, is sometimes referred to as "a smaller Carnarvon Gorge".
Like Carnarvon, Cania Gorge has spectacular sandstone cliffs and rock formations that can be explored via several walking trails, with the addition of a dammed lake for water sports.
Cania (pronounced "Cane ia") Gorge National Park covers some 3,000 hectares of sandstone country, with cliffs and caves, mostly covered in thick bush, here and there pockets of rainforest, and cut by creeks.
The park is 26 km from Monto. The sealed road follows Three Moon Creek into the main gorge, and several of the most popular walks begin from a picnic area on the creek bank. About 12 km further on, the road ends at Cania Dam, where a wall has been built between cliffs to block the creek and provide, along with irrigation water for the district, water skiing, sailing, canoeing, swimming and fishing.
Just below the dam is Cania Gorge Tourist Park, the only place in the gorge where camping is allowed. The park has excellent facilities and plenty of open space, all set against the dramatic backdrop of sandstone cliffs. In its nine hectares are numerous flat, well grassed sites for tents and caravans, and abundant shade trees. It also has hot showers, flush toilets, a laundry, a camp kitchen and barbecues, and shelter sheds (with tables and fireplace) for larger groups.
Outdoor activities available include bushwalking, rock climbing, gold panning, fossicking and wildlife photography in the gorge area, and then swimming, boating, fishing, etc. up in the dam. It really does have a very wide range of activities on offer.
Of more than a dozen walks to major features in the area, Castle Mountain and The Overhang are rated two of the best. The Overhang walk is in the national park, on a graded track that starts at the Three Moon Creek picnic area. An easy walk of about 30 minutes will take you through vine and fern forests to a rock face where seeping water has encouraged the growth of mosses, thick ferns and piccabean palms.
Another 30 to 45 minutes through rougher terrain brings you to The Overhang, an outcrop of weathered sandstone, this time featuring a waterfall spilling into a shallow pool.
Large scale gold mining in the area ended early this century but fossickers can pan some colour from the creeks and also pick up semi-precious stones, such as chalcedony, agate, jasper and petrified wood.
Elsewhere in the district, bush camping is allowed in Kalpowar State Forest, which also has a number of forestry tracks that provide pleasant driving in a conventional vehicle or 4WD. Ask the locals for directions or contact the Forestry Department.
The tracks pass through hoop pine plantations and eucalypt forest, full of kangaroos (and cattle). There is a 28 km forest drive which winds through a variety of forest types, including rainforest.
The camping area is a beauty, broad and open, with a large shelter shed (the remains of a mill) and showers (with a large boiler for heating water).
Further information contact the Department of Environment & Heritage, Cania Gorge National Park, Monto, 4630, tel. (071) 67 8162.
Cania Gorge Tourist Park, PO Box 182, Monto, 4630, tel. (071) 67 8188.
Monto Shire Council, PO Box 216, Monto, 4630, tel. (071) 66 1155.
Forestry Department, C/ Post Office, Kalpowar, Q 4630, tel. (071) 66 2020, or at PO Box 219, Monto, 4630, tel. (071) 66 1433.
\BDescription:\b Cania Gorge rock cliff face. \I(Queensland Travel and Tourist Commission\i)
\BPic2:\b np419.jpg
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"Cape Hillsborough National Park",12,"b\7\np412.jpg","c","0"
This is a small national park, total area is only 818 hectares, but it offers a scenic and rewarding detour on any trip along the northern Queensland coast.
Cape Hillsborough is about 54 km (north) from Mackay and 100 km south of Proserpine. From the Bruce Highway take the Seaforth road and then turn onto the Cape Hillsborough road (well signposted). The last three kilometres is gravel.
It was inhabited by the Juipera Aborigines, who lived well on the wide range of foods available. In the mid-1800s they stoutly defended their territory before being displaced. The first European to see the cape was James Cook in June 1770; he named it after the Earl of Hillsborough.
The park has a camping ground and there are two adjacent grounds (one private, and one run by the local shire council). The park has beaches, walking trails, rainforest, freshwater creeks and abundant wildlife.
It is a great place for beachcombers and amateur biologists, fossicking around along the tide line and amongst the cape's ocean rocks and mangroves.
The cape had its origins in volcanic activity 30 million years ago and has been shaped by more recent geological upheaval, weathering and pounding by the sea.
Now, as the DEH describes it: "Rugged hills clothed in a dark green mantle of forest plunge steeply into the sea at Cape Hillsborough, rhyolite boulders flung from the volcanic plug of Pinnacle Rock scatter the beaches and between rocky headlands are broad sandy beaches where kangaroos can be seen in the late afternoon."
A feature of the park is the range of vegetation, including hoop pine rainforest, palms, ferns, open eucalypt forest and mangroves. Walking tracks will take you to all the vegetation types (and to viewing points above the sea before emerging at the water's edge).
The two main walks are along the Beachcombers Cove track (1.6 km) and the Andrews Point track (2.5 km). From the Andrews Point track you can cross a lowtide causeway to little Wedge Island.
The council and private camping grounds are on the south-eastern corner of the cape, at the end of the entrance road. The Department of Environment & Heritage (DEH) ground is tucked away at Smalleys Beach on the north-western corner.
This area is popular in winter. As with most areas in northern Queensland, marine stingers occur in summer and the weather can be hot and wet. In winter the area is dry and you should take your own water.
For further information, contact DEH at Cape Hillsborough on (079) 59 0410 or at Mackay on (079) 51 8788.
\BDescription:\b Cape Hillsborough National Park Location Map.
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"Cape Palmerston National Park",13,"b\7\np439.jpg","c","0"
Visiting Cape Palmerston National Park, south of Mackay, you will be able to say "I'm glad we've got a four wheel drive." Without a 4WD, you would have to pass Cape Palmerston by, and that would be a shame.
The cape was named by James Cook in June 1770 and has seen comparatively little development since. It is now regarded as one of the few undisturbed sections of coastline in the Mackay region.
This scenic coastal park backing Cape Palmerston encloses some 7,200 hectares of eucalypt woodland, grassy headlands, rolling dunes, long beaches, mangroves and swamps.
Access to Cape Palmerston is off the Bruce Highway, about 300 km north of Rockhampton and 100 km south of Mackay. Leave the highway at Ilbilbie, take the Notch Point Road for 4.4 km, turn left onto Greenhill Road and follow the gravel for 2.5 km, then turn left onto wheel tracks.
After 3.5 km you will come to a junction: both tracks lead out to the cape (about 20 km), the left one via the "inland road" and the right most of the way via the open beach before rejoining the inland road.
A track a kilometre or so before the cape turns off west and runs two kilometres to the main camping area at Cape Creek. Department of Environment & Heritage rangers advise allowing about one and a half hours' travelling time from the park boundary along the rough inland road to Cape Creek. They also warn the alternative access along the beach requires care, to avoid bogging in soft sand.
DEH rangers ask campers to be self-sufficient, carrying all food, water and fuel. (The nearest supplies are at Ilbilbie.) Man-made amenities are minimal (fireplaces and tables at Cape Creek) and basically you will be bush camping. Select your own site: Cape Creek is popular but there are also suitable sites just south of Coconut Point (a rocky point passed when driving in along the beach) and at Clarke Bay, adjacent to the cape.
The roads can be impassable during the "wet season". As with all the parks along the northern Queensland coast, summer will bring hot weather and often very heavy rain (especially December-March). Winter is mild and dryer.
Popular activities include fishing, bushwalking, photography and swimming (marine stingers may be present in summer). A lookout on top of the cape provides great views to sea and swamplands along the inland road hold numerous varieties of birds. (A guide to birds seen in the area is available from the DEH office in Mackay.)
For further information, contact DEH at Mackay, ph (079) 57 6292 or at Rockhampton, ph (079) 27 6511.
\BDescription:\b Cape Palmerston National Park Location Map.
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"Cape Tribulation National Park",14,"0","g","0"
Cape Tribulation National Park is roughly 140 km north of Cairns travelling along the Cook Highway. On the coast near Cape Tribulation and also close to the huge Daintree National Park, this rainforest park is approximately 16,000 ha.
Cape Tribulation National Park's rainforest leads right up to the coast where you'll find magnificent coral reefs. Snorkelling is a great way to explore these reefs. Walking tracks can also lead you to mountains, where along the way you may encounter wildlife such as tree kangaroos and the Daintree River ringtail possum.
Camping is permitted in the park, but look out for crocodiles.
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"Chillagoe-Mungana Caves National Park",15,"b\7\np405.jpg","c","0"
This park is well known for its jagged limestone outcrops and attractive caves and it draws considerable numbers of visitors being 200 km from Cairns.
Chillagoe-Mungana Caves National Park (Chillagoe NP for short) is reached via Mareeba and Dimbulah. The exact distance from Cairns is 210 km (including 45 km of gravel road). The trip should normally take about three hours. During the wet season (December-March) check on road conditions before leaving Cairns.
The limestone seen round Chillagoe is part of a 45 km by 5 km belt of limestone in the region deposited as reef when this area was a shallow sea 400 million years ago. It has weathered into "towers" up to 70 metres high and large caves.
The park is just outside the township of Chillagoe. There is a small camping area in the park itself (with limited space so booking is recommended) and caravan park, hotel and motel accommodation in town.
The park protects nine separate areas, the first declared a national park in 1940. They were known by local Aborigines and rediscovered by settlers more than 100 years ago. Along with living wildlife like bats, swiftlets and pythons, they found the bones of animals including crocodiles and the extinct giant kangaroo and giant wombat.
Several major caves can be explored, some without a guide. (Please contact a ranger before inspecting any caves.) Tours are available most days of the year but check with rangers for exact times.
A tour of the large Royal Arch Cave takes over an hour and passes through 1.5 km of passages and 13 chambers. You can explore a labyrinth of tunnels and lofty caverns with the aid of hand-held lamps. A tour of the Donna Cave also takes over an hour and, although not as large as Royal Arch, this system is electrically lit and very attractive.
Walking tracks lead through rock outcrops of all sorts of shapes and sizes. There are also galleries of Aboriginal rock paintings. The area was once important for its copper and lead mining (there are 150 disused mines) and you can fossick for minerals and inspect the ruins of the old smelters.
The limestone outcrops form "islands" of rainforest protected from fire. The species here include deciduous figs, kurrajongs, helicopter trees and batswing coral trees. They lose their leaves in winter, not to protect themselves from cold, but from the dry weather (when they would lose moisture through pores in the leaves).
For further information, contact DEH, Chillagoe, ph (070) 94 7163 or Cairns, ph (070) 51 9811.
\BDescription:\b Chillagoe-Mungana Caves National Park Location Map.
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"Carnarvon Gorge National Park",16,"b\7\np20063.jpg","c","0"
Carnarvon Gorge, in central Queensland, is made up of spectacular towering sandstone cliffs, a wide creek, narrow ferny and moss-covered side gorges, abundant wildlife, and Aboriginal art sites. Aborigines lived in the gorge for almost 20,000 years.
Some of Queensland's largest Aboriginal art sites are a reminder of their special culture. The entire area is part of Carnarvon National Park which covers 298,000 ha.
Over millions of years, Carnarvon Creek has gouged soft sandstone from the vertical white cliffs of the Gorge. The creek flows all year, giving life to many ferns, shrubs and trees. Narrow side gorges are shaded for most of the day, providing havens for ancient rainforest, ferns and mosses. Above the cliffs is a dry and rugged environment where the forest is more open.
Except in times of flood rains, Carnarvon's sandstones absorb most surface water. Only in a few places do creeks flow from the slopes of the Consuelo Tableland to the north and Carnarvon Range to the south.
In a few places, bands of rock are sufficiently hard to resist erosion and waterfalls occur. Creeks flowing into Ward's Canyon, a little off the main Gorge, pass over several bands of resistant rock.
Carnarvon Gorge is a micro habitat, more fertile and green than surrounding lands. Palms and tree ferns are remnants. Sheoaks, tall eucalypts and bottle brushes thrive in the moist environment. This habitat supports a diversity of animals. Eastern water dragons, green tree frogs and platypuses live in and around creek pools.
Eastern grey kangaroos, whiptail wallabies, brush-tailed possums, currawongs, gliding possums, owls, tawny frogmouths, and king parrots are common.
\BDescription:\b \I Photo by John McCann (Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np416.jpg
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"Conway National Park",17,"b\7\np411.jpg","c","0"
This is another of northern Queensland's coastal national parks. A beautiful location in its own right, part of the attraction for some visitors is that it is in the heart of the Whitsunday region, playground of the rich and famous.
Within sight of lookouts in Conway NP are resort islands like Daydream, Hamilton, Hayman, Lindeman and South Molle, and the park's camping ground is just a few kilometres from Shute Harbour and \JAirlie Beach\j. The region is a mecca for tourists from throughout Australia and all over the world.
At Conway NP you can enjoy easy access to world-class sceneries of beaches and blue reef waters for $45 per site per week for up to six people, or a fraction over $1 per person per night. It's the best value in the Whitsundays!
Don't be surprised that the park is popular. At peak times camping is limited to a maximum of four nights per group and at any time the maximum stay is a fortnight. Whatever the time of year, you are advised to book ahead.
The park takes its name from the Conway Range, which forms the spine of the prominent peninsula that juts out to sea immediately east of Proserpine (about 125 km north of Mackay and 65 km south of Bowen). As the sea level rose between 20,000 and 12,000 years ago, former mainland mountains were drowned, converting what were once peaks, into rocky islands.
The park covers 22,500 hectares, most of it covered by rainforest. In places, steep-sided valleys drop sharply to the sea. The forest is home to ferns, orchids, birds and butterflies. There are beaches of coral rubble where you might see turtles and dolphins offshore.
Access to Conway NP is via a turnoff from the Bruce Highway, one kilometre north of Proserpine. Follow the road 26 km to \JAirlie Beach\j. (Do not take the turnoff to Conway Beach.) The camping ground is 6.5 km past \JAirlie Beach\j beside the Shute Harbour road (which passes through the park).
Amenities at the Conway camping ground include toilets, cold showers and fireplaces. (Wood is provided.) You must have a camping permit before setting up camp. The permit will include a site number.
A number of walking tracks have been constructed. One of the most popular climbs is to a lookout tower on Mount Rooper. From here there is a spectacular view over the Whitsunday islands.
Another track follows a creek (only flowing in wet weather) down to Swamp Bay (more attractive than the name suggests). The beach at the end of the track is covered in bleached coral rubble and there is a view across blue water to the Molle Islands.
Swimming is popular but, as elsewhere in northern Queensland, marine stingers (best known is the so-called box jellyfish, which can deliver a potentially fatal sting) might be present in the summer months.
For further information, contact DEH at \JAirlie Beach\j on (079) 46 7022 or at Townsville on (077) 74 1411.
\BDescription:\b Conway National Park Location Map.
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"Crows Nest Falls National Park",18,"0","g","0"
Crows Nest Falls National Park is approximately 950 ha. Situated on the eastern fringe of the Great Dividing Range, this park is accessed from Toowoomba travelling on the New England Highway.
If you want to stay in the park, camping facilities are provided with only the basics provided. There is also a picnic area for day visitors where swimming is very popular.
Walking tracks are found throughout Crows Nest Falls National Park and a huge waterfall flows into a steep gorge. You can walk down to another gorge called the Valley of the Diamonds, encountering beautiful scenery along the way.
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"Currawinya National Park",19,"b\7\np20056.jpg","c","0"
One of Queensland's largest national parks, Currawinya encloses more than 150,000 hectares of semi-arid mulga country but, ironically, it provides inland eastern Australia's most extensive waterbird habitat.
The park is well and truly in the outback: south-west of Cunnamulla and immediately north of Hungerford (on the NSW border). However the Paroo River, the major river in the region, borders or flows through most of the eastern section of the park. It has long deep waterholes never known to run dry. There are also numerous other creeks, lakes and lagoons that seasonally carry large quantities of water.
All tracks in the park are unsealed and four wheel drive vehicles are recommended. Check on conditions with the Department of Environment & Heritage (DEH) rangers in the park or the police at Hungerford or Cunnamulla before heading for Currawinya. Watch out for stock, feral pigs, kangaroos and other animals along the roads.
Access to the park is via Cunnamulla and Eulo, Thargomindah and Bourke (NSW). The distances to the park boundary are approximately 60 km from Eulo, 100 km from Thargomindah and 220 km from Bourke. The greatest distances (as the crow flies) border to border within the park are roughly 85 km south-west to north-east and about 45 km north-west to south-east.
Bush camping is allowed in the park. There are few man-made amenities but popular campsites include spots known as the Ten Mile, Corni Paroo Waterhole and Lake Numalla. Ask the rangers for advice. Camping permits are required.
Lake Numalla (pronounced "numb-a-luh") is a large freshwater lake covering more than 2,200 hectares (yes, two thousand two hundred hectares). However after rain hundreds of small lakes, swamps and claypans form a mosaic through the dunes. The largest lake, Wyara, not far from Numalla in the north-western section of the park, is salt but still attracts large numbers of waterbirds.
Apart from the striking beauty and contrast of the countryside itself, wildlife is one of the great attractions at Currawinya, especially the birdlife.
Birds you might see here include spoonbills, egrets, ibises, black swans, pelicans, seagulls, ducks (including pink eared, hardhead, black, wood and rare freckled ducks), sandpipers, godwits, snipes, rails, dotterels, avocets, stilts, mulga parrots, Major Mitchell parrots, blue bonnets and budgerigars.
Vegetation in the park is diverse, ranging from the dominant mulga (an acacia) scrub to river red gums, salt-tolerant samphire, bluebush and gidgee (whose flowers give off a pungent aroma before and during rain).
The lakes and other waterways here, including the impressive Paroo River, are closed water systems. They do not flow into the Murray-Darling system, or even into the Lake Eyre system. The Paroo continues into New South Wales and ceases flowing north of Wilcannia.
Rangers give specific advice to Currawinya visitors, including:
ò leave any firearms at the police station in Hungerford as they are not allowed in the park;
ò drivers must stay on the tracks marked on the map provided by DEH;
ò tracks are narrow, with several blind corners, so travel at safe speeds (never more than 40km/h in the park: and
ò take all rubbish out of the park, as buried rubbish can be dug up by feral pigs and foxes.
They say that visitors to the park should be aware that the area is remote, and so should be self-sufficient for extended periods, with careful trip preparation and adequate food, water, fuel, vehicle spares and medical supplies. (Limited grocery supplies are available in Hungerford and provisions can be obtained in Cunnamulla, Eulo, Thargomindah and Bourke.)
Local water might not be suitable for drinking. Allow five litres per person per day for drinking and cooking, and carry an extra four to five days' supplies in case you are stranded.
Before setting out for the park, inform someone of your itinerary. It is easy to get lost. If your vehicle breaks down, stay with it. The police at Hungerford can be contacted direct on UHF CB Channel 4.
Fur further information, contact DEH at Currawinya on (076) 55 4001 or at Charleville on (076) 54 1418.
\BDescription:\b \I Photo by John McCann. (Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np20079.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Currawinya National Park. \IPhoto by John McCann. (Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np434.jpg
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"D'Aguilar Ranges National Park",20,"b\7\np421.jpg","c","0"
The D'Aguilar Range overlooks Brisbane from the north-west and its ridges provide views over the city and out across Moreton Bay.
Just 30 minutes drive from the centre of Brisbane, it has the closest rainforest to the city and offers a quiet and cool escape from the hustle and bustle. With a ridge line 600 to 750 metres above sea level, it is said to be five degrees cooler than Brisbane summer and winter. (Snow has been recorded here, though it is a very rare phenomenon.)
So, if you are in Brisbane and want to go bush, it's right here in the city's "backyard".
Four national parks, covering a total of some 1,300 hectares, lie along the D'Aguilar Range. Along with other public lands (State Forests, Brisbane City Council reserves, etc.), they make up the Brisbane Forest Park (BFP), covering a total of more than 26,000 hectares.
Despite its proximity to Brisbane, this area can still provide a "wilderness experience", especially the northern end of the BFP, where steep ridges are covered in thick scrub and rainforest, and cut by tumbling rocky streams.
BFP stretches west from the slopes of Mount Coot-tha to Lake Manchester and north past Mount Glorious half way to Dayboro. It covers 30 km north-south and is almost 25 km across at its widest point.
The park is cut by one major bitumen road from The Gap through Mount Glorious to Wivenhoe Dam, with an offshoot down to Samford. It also has several fire trails and logging roads.
A camp ground with basic facilities (toilets, barbecues and cleared sites) has been built at Manorina, just past Mount Nebo. This is popular with families wanting to make a tentative first exploration of camping in the forest, and is also used by bushwalkers as a base. Bush camping is allowed elsewhere in the park.
The park's fire trails are closed to vehicles (including 4WDs) because these and other tracks are intended for backpackers. Rangers say the park plan is to encourage the enjoyment of nature with as little disruption of the natural experience as possible.
The park generally is dominated by ridges covered by eucalypt forest, with rainforest along the creek valleys. In some places you will strike belts of lantana and bracken fern (particularly where eucalypt and rainforest meet). What changes is the steepness and height of the ridges (generally increasing from south to north through the park) and the thickness of the vegetation.
One of the easiest areas for walking and camping is between Bellbird Grove and Camp Mountain in the south-eastern corner of the park. It is rated Grade 1. The area around Mount Nebo is rated 2 to 3, rugged but accessible.
Steeper, wetter country around England and Northbrook Creeks, near Mount Glorious, is rated 3 to 4, Grade 5 is the rating awarded to the Kobble Creek area, steep country north of Mount D'Aguilar at the far northern end of the park, best suited to the fit and fanatical.
Rangers recommend late August and September as a good period to walk and camp in the park, in part because of the warming weather but particularly for the wild flowers (best in the England Creek area).
Wildlife is one of the attractions. Wrens, finches, fly catchers and other small colourful birds flit through the undergrowth throughout the day, and parrots feed in taller trees morning and afternoons. After dark, possums can be spotted by torch light in the surrounding trees (they also raid campsites looking for scraps). Other night time visitors include bandicoots, owls and kangaroo rats.
Further information - Brisbane Forest Park, (07) 300 4855, or the Information Centre at 60 Mount Nebo Road, The Gap, QLD 4068.
\BDescription:\b D'Aguilar Ranges National Park Location Map.
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"Deepwater and Eurimbula National Park",21,"b\7\np20080.jpg","c","0"
Deepwater National Park (4,390 hectares) and Eurimbula National Park (12,500 hectares) protect sensitive coastline south and north respectively of the town of Seventeen Seventy, about 100 km north of Bundaberg and 400 km north of Brisbane.
Deepwater National Park is only accessible by four-wheel-drive, and in Eurimbula National Park, 4WD is recommended. The track through Deepwater runs just behind the coastal dunes and comprises mostly soft sand. The Eurimbula track is rocky and boggy in places, with some soft sand along the trackside at the end of the track, where it emerges behind a beach.
Seventeen Seventy and the adjacent township of Agnes Water provide between them three camping/caravan parks, groceries, petrol, ice, gas and other amenities for a permanent population of a few hundred.
Seventeen Seventy (it takes its name from the year Captain Cook landed there) is north of Bundaberg and south of Gladstone, roughly east of Miriam Vale on the Bruce Highway. It is a couple of hours' drive from Bundaberg or Gladstone and about an hour from Miriam Vale.
Deepwater National Park, immediately to the south, backs about 9 km of beach, studded with a number of rocky outcrops, and all told covers some 4,390 hectares. It protects not only outstanding coastal landscapes, but also one of Queensland's most important turtle breeding beaches: Wreck Beach.
The Department of Environment & Heritage (DEH) has a leaflet on Deepwater National Park, which details the routes into the park from both the south and the north. Be sure to obtain a copy of this leaflet from the DEH offices in Brisbane, Bundaberg or Agnes Water.
A concrete ford at the southern approach to the park crosses Deepwater Creek. At this point there is a long stretch of water lined by bottle brush trees, cabbage palms and eucalypts. The water is dark (stained by tannin) and gives 100% mirror reflections of the surrounding vegetation when the surface is still in the early morning. You can launch a canoe and paddle on this long waterhole immediately above the ford. DEH rangers say that some of the waterholes are up to 1.5 km long and 60 metres wide, but the creek is broken in places by shallow sections of reed bed and paperbark forest, where water flows only in wet seasons and they advise that canoeists should be prepared for long portages.
Deepwater Creek and its tributaries are regarded as one of the few coastal freshwater systems in Queensland that remains in its original undisturbed condition.
The main camping area, at Wreck Rock, is a few hundred metres off the road, set amongst low scrub dominated by banksias, wattles, eucalypts and palms. The camping area runs for a couple of hundred metres parallel to the beach (a two minute walk from the tentsites). Man made amenities include a composting toilet, water on tap (boil before drinking) and tables. In extended dry periods there might not be any rain water or bore water available and it might be necessary to bring your own water. (Check with the rangers.)
The other camping area is at Middle Rock, 3 km north of Wreck Rock. Again ten sites are immediately behind the beach. There are no man-made facilities here.
Wreck Rock Beach is very important to the turtle population of the south eastern Pacific. Along with Mon Repos Beach, nearer Bundaberg, it is one of the main nesting beaches for loggerhead turtles. It is also used by flatback, green and occasionally leatherback turtles. Turtles lay their eggs in the sand at night between November and February, and hatchlings emerge between January and April.
Vehicles are not allowed on the beaches. The danger to turtle nests is one of the main reasons, and to keep these beaches (comparatively narrow in some places) safe for children is another.
Deepwater National Park draws considerable numbers of people during the summer school holidays. It is quieter here during the winter and if you're lucky you might have the camping areas just about to yourself.
A campsite booking system is operated from the DEH Agnes Water office. Rangers warn that you must book early for school holiday periods.
Fishing is popular in the park. You can catch bream and sweetlip, and sometimes mackerel, kingfish and trevally, all off the rocks. One of the most popular fishing spots is at Red Rocks, a low headland immediately north of the park boundary. At least two tracks lead down to the rocks and an attractive beach on its northern side. These tracks are steep, very soft in places and often badly eroded. It's best to park your vehicle at the top and walk the tracks.
Eurimbula National Park is for self-sufficient campers who really want to get away from it all. It is a popular with people who like quiet beaches and fishing. Eurimbula NP is directly across Round Hill Creek from the Town of 1770. This creek forms the eastern boundary of the park, and the semi-surf Bustard Beach, three to four kilometres long, is part of the northern boundary.
The camping area is behind Bustard Beach, at the point where Eurimbula Creek runs to sea. A rough track winds in through the centre of the park from the Miriam Vale to Agnes Water road. It is also possible to get in by boat (via an open water run and then through the creek) by launching at Seventeen Seventy.
Eurimbula National Park covers about 12,500 hectares. It includes the western bank of Round Hill Creek, Bustard Beach, the southern bank of Eurimbula Creek and a large block of hinterland country.
The park reflects the transition from temperate to tropical vegetation, something botanist Joseph Banks noted when he came ashore from the "Endeavour" in May 1770 and saw tropical palms. Botanically, this is a key coastal area preserving a complex array of vegetation, including some plants common in southern areas and others found in northern forests.
There is diversity in the land forms and vegetation, ranging from sand dunes and salt marshes to extensive hilly country, and from mangrove lined estuaries and freshwater paperbark swamps to coastal lowland eucalypt forests and tall rainforest with bright green fan palms.
The track to the camping area is 15 km from the main Seventeen Seventy road. Allow about 45 minutes' driving time. Bring everything you are likely to need, including water. By road the nearest supplies are at Agnes Water, about 25 km away.
For further information contact DEH, Agnes Water, ph (079) 74 9350.
\BDescription:\b Deepwater National Park. \IPhoto by John McCann (Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np442.jpg
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"Eungella National Park",22,"b\7\np413.jpg","c","0"
This is a popular park in the ranges north-west of Mackay and not to be missed on a 4WD tour of northern Queensland.
This 53,000 hectare park protects a mix of tropical and sub-tropical rain forest. Most of the park is rugged and inaccessible but the southern section, adjacent to the access road, is popular with campers and day visitors.
The park can provide a special treat for visitors lucky enough to see one of the resident platypuses in the creek by the camping area, but spotting one of these shy animals cannot be guaranteed.
Eungella NP is adjacent to the township of the same name, 80 km west of Mackay. The basic route is to start from Mackay and drive west on the Pioneer Valley road. (Other roads leave the Bruce Highway south and north of Mackay to join the Pioneer Valley road. These can shorten the trip or add variety. See maps for details.)
The road eventually leaves the Pioneer Valley and winds steeply up the Clarke Range. (It is not recommended for caravans, certainly not for larger vans. If in doubt, telephone the rangers for more information.) When you reach Eungella (also known as Dalrymple Heights), follow the road sweeping to the left to Broken River, six kilometres south.
At Broken River you will find the main camping area and the ranger's office. Amenities here include a kiosk. Both Broken River and the nearby Fern Flat camping areas have showers, toilets and fireplaces. (Rangers prefer the use of gas stoves and ask that no wood be collected in the park.)
The most popular activity with campers, apart from watching for a platypus and simply relaxing, is bushwalking. The northern section is for experienced, well-prepared walkers only; the southern section around Broken River has a number of well-made tracks where you can enjoy an easier walk from less than an hour to more than five hours.
Back on the other side of Eungella township, a road turns off north to Finch Hatton Gorge on the edge of the northern section of the park.
The gorge is worth seeing. The narrow road to the gorge is 12 km long, half of it gravel. Creek crossings along the way can be flooded from highland rainfall runoff, sometimes forcing the road to be closed. At the end of the track is a parking area and picnic facilities but camping is not allowed.
More walking tracks start here. One is the Araluen Falls track, which takes about two hours return. Reward for your efforts is a spectacular waterfall and a deep "plunge pool" surrounded by rainforest.
For further information, contact DEH at Eungella NP, ph (079) 58 4552 or Mackay, ph (079) 51 8788.
\BDescription:\b Eungella National Park Location Map.
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"Expedition National Park",23,"b\7\np417.jpg","c","0"
Originally called Robinson Gorge National Park but now called Expedition - it straddles the Expedition Ranges - the park is centred around the 12 km long Robinson Gorge and covers 8,900 ha.
Access is by four wheel drive vehicles off the Leichhardt Highway 9 km north of Taroom, and the park is 89 km further on. Expedition National Park is on the Dawson River watershed, and cliffs in the gorge rise to 100 m, with the gorge sometimes narrowing down to only a few metres.
There are waterholes in the gorge, including Cattle Dip which is 240 m long. The Starkvale Creek gorge which joins the Robinson Gorge is a narrow sandstone crevice but rises to heights of up to 100 m.
The vegetation in the park ranges from ferns to cabbage palms and there are eucalypts up on the dry plateaus.
The only accommodation is camping in the park.
\BDescription:\b Expedition National Park Location Map.
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"Forty Mile Scrub National Park",24,"b\7\np406.jpg","c","0"
The park covers 4,619 ha astride the Kennedy Highway and is about 70 km south-west of Mount Garnet. This is an area of botanical significance because it contains probably the largest stand of unique hard corky-barked vines in Australia. The vegetation by the roadside is mainly white cedar, coffee senna and poison peach, behind which is low scrub of Burdekin Plum. Then come thickets of hard vines and bottle trees. The vines perhaps trace back 300 million years to when Australia was part of Gondwanaland.
Both wallabies and padmelons live in the scrub which characterise the park. Behind is eucalypt woodland and some ironbark forest.
The nearest accommodation is at Mount Garnet.
\BDescription:\b Forty Mile Scrub National Park Location Map.
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"Gemfields National Park",25,"b\7\np441.jpg","c","0"
The Gemfields is an area in western central Queensland famous for sapphires. It has produced world-class gems, some of them found by fossickers on a camping holiday.
The area generally known as the Gemfields is a broad sweep of country covering about 60 km north-south and 40 km east-west. Its gems are highly prized internationally and support commercial mining operations. However, at least 9,000 hectares of sapphire-bearing ground has been set aside for fossicking by visitors.
The gateway to the Gemfields is the township of Anakie, on the Capricorn Highway 42 km west of Emerald (and about 300 km west of Rockhampton). Other townships on the fields are Sapphire and Rubyvale, respectively 10 and 18 km directly north of Anakie, and The Willows, about 37 km to the south-west.
There are caravan parks in each of these townships and you can also camp in the bush, provided you have a camping permit and a fossicking license. While the area might seem remote, you could be surprised how many people get out there, particularly during winter.
Because the Gemfields does attract so many tourists, visitors will find general information easy to come by out here, and plenty of people willing and able to advise how and where to find gems.
The best time to visit the Gemfields is in winter, or at least between March and October. During summer the area is very hot and also can be very wet.
Armed with a Department of Minerals & Energy fossicking license and a camping permit, you are allowed to camp in a number of areas on the fields. These permits are readily available on the fields when you arrive, or beforehand from the Department's offices in Brisbane or Emerald.
Camping is allowed at Big Bessie and Graves Hill, near Sapphire; at Reward and Middle Ridge, near Rubyvale; at Glenalva, just south of the highway 22 km west of Anakie; and at Tomahawk Creek, 70 km north west of Anakie. None of these areas has any man-made facilities, so you must be self-contained.
For further information, contact the Central Highlands Tourist Organisation, Clermont Street, Emerald, 4720, ph (079) 82 4142.
\BDescription:\b Gemfields National Park Location Map.
#
"Girraween National Park",26,"b\7\qttc01.jpg","c","0"
Close to the NSW border on the New England Highway and 34 km south of Stanhope, Girraween National Park covers 11,100 ha and contains two rugged granite mountain peaks, Castle Rock at 1,112 m and Mount Norman at 1,267 m. A feature of the park is the collection of odd rocks and stacked-up tors which seem to defy gravity. The park has many rock pools and clear-running mountain rivers and in season has superb displays of wildflowers. It is home to numerous species of birds and also contains wombats and possums.
There are many walking tracks in the park and the easiest and most popular is the Granite Arch track which takes something over half an hour. There is a camping-caravan area.
\BDescription:\b \I(Queensland Tourist and Travel Commission)\i.
\BPic2:\b qttc05.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Girraween Downs Boulder \I(Queensland Tourist and Travel Commission)\i
\BPic3:\b np422.jpg
#
"Great Sandy National Park",27,"b\7\np20047.jpg","c","0"
Fraser Island is the largest sand-massed island in the world - 120 km long and an average of 15 km wide. The island, half of which is the Great Sandy National Park and the rest regional park, was named after Mrs Eliza Fraser who was shipwrecked here in 1836. Captain James Cook, when he saw it in 1770, thought it was part of the mainland.
Fraser Island was declared a native reserve in 1860 and then had an Aboriginal population of between 2000 and 3000. There was a mission founded in 1897 but when it closed in 1904, the Aboriginal people dispersed to the mainland.
In 1913 a Queensland Forestry Department camp was set up to manage timber but the mill was abandoned in 1925. The first mineral sands leases were granted in 1949, with a further 3240 hectares applied for in 1971. This brought strong opposition from conservation groups. Sand mining effectively ended in 1976 and the island was nominated for the World Heritage List.
You can get there by vehicular barge from River Heads, Moon Point and Inskip, but once there you will need a four-wheel-drive vehicle. There are coach services from Rainbow Beach.
Noosa National Park was established in 1930. There is bushwalking and surfing in the Noosa National Park between Noosa Heads and Sunshine Beach and a tremendous view of the river and Lakes from the Laguna Lookout.
There is much to do in the area, from camel rides on Noosa's north shore beach to four-wheel-drive expeditions into the Noosa River Everglades and Cooloola National Park.
Boating, sailing and windsurfing are popular on the Noosa Lakes, which are navigable for some distance into the Cooloola National Park.
\BDescription:\b Fraser Island. \IPhoto by Oliver Strewe. (Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np20048.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Lake Birrabeen, Fraser Island. \IPhoto by John McCann. (Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np20051.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Lake Wabby, Fraser Island. \IPhoto by John McCann. (Random House)\i
\BPic4:\b np20060.jpg
\BDescription4:\b Barge crossing Noosa River. \I Photo by John McCann. (Random House)\i
\BPic5:\b np20061.jpg
\BDescription5:\b Cooloola National Park.\I (Photo by Carmen Vila. Courtesy Random House)\i
\BPic6:\b np10005.jpg
\BDescription6:\b Cooloola National Park\I (Courtesy Random House)\i
\BPic7:\b npab07.jpg
\BDescription7:\b Coloured Sands - Fraser Island.\I (Courtesy Anthony Butt\i.)
\BPic8:\b np445.jpg
#
"Hinchinbrook Island National Park",28,"b\8\qttc02.jpg","c","0"
Hinchinbrook Island is Australia's largest island national park, covering 39,900 hectares. Rugged and richly vegetated, it is separated by a mangrove-line passage from the mainland a little less than halfway between Townsville and Cairns.
The island cannot be reached by vehicle and its tracks are wide enough only for walkers. However it is well worth leaving your vehicle safely stored on the mainland and visiting Hinchinbrook Island for a few days.
The island has one resort (secluded, low-key and managed in sympathy with the magnificent natural environment that surrounds it). This is at Cape Richards, on the far northern tip of the island. Bush camping is allowed and limited amenities are provided at two points.
Backbone of the island is a chain of rugged granite peaks in the south, giving way to lesser peaks in the north-west of the island. The highest point is Mt Bowen, rising to 1,142 metres above sea level. The spectacular north face of Mt Bowen drops in cliffs and rocky forested slopes almost to sea level. From here a narrow, eight kilometre long strip of sand connects with Cape Sandwich and Cape Richards to the north.
On the western side of the island is an extensive mangrove forest, one of the largest stands of mangrove trees in Australia. Particularly striking is the large Missionary Bay in the north-west of the island, where finger-like tidal creeks cut deep into the rich green canopy of mangroves.
Above the mangroves, deep soils support dense rainforest climbing towards the mountain tops. Closer to the top, the vegetation thins to scrub and heath. Over on the exposed eastern slopes, there are eucalypts.
Bushwalking and camping are popular on the island and there are a number of tracks.
A two kilometre track links the resort at Cape Richards with the northern beach of Shepherd Bay. Then from the southern end of this 1.3 km beach, a 2.2 km track leads round the base of Kirkville Hills to Macushla Bay camping area.
At Scraggy Point (shown as "The Haven" on some maps) a one kilometre circuit track from a camping area flanks a small creek through mixed vine forest.
A boardwalk along one of Missionary Bay's southern creeks provides a path through dense mangroves. Then a track leads through a sandy area and over dunes to the open eastern beach at Ramsay Bay. From here, a 32 km track (Thorsborne Trail) runs down the eastern side of the island, sometimes paralleling the beach, sometimes winding inland.
When planning a trip to Hinchinbrook Island, contact the Department of Environment & Heritage for details of walking trails, camping permits, charter boat operators (who can drop you at the northern or southern ends of the island) and special conditions applying here.
For further information, contact DEH at PO Box 74, Cardwell, Q 4816, ph (070) 66 8601 or PO Box 1293, Ingham, 4850 or ph (077) 76 1700.
\BDescription:\b \I(Queensland Tourist and Travel Commission)\i.
\BPic2:\b np438.jpg
#
"Idalia National Park",29,"b\8\np20057.jpg","c","0"
Idalia National Park is in central western Queensland, about 100 km south-west of Blackall. It is a large park, 144,000 hectares, and was gazetted to preserve major vegetation habitats associated with mulga.
Department of Environment & Heritage (DEH) rangers warn that only people who are well-equipped and self reliant should visit this low-key area. The park can only be reached with 4WD vehicles.
The park takes in the headwaters of the Bulloo River and several tributaries. The river and creek beds are wide, sandy and dry except following heavy rain. The watercourses are lined with magnificent river red gums.
Rangers suggest the cooler period of March to September is the best time to visit. This is a semi-arid area where summer temperatures reach over 40 degrees C; the average January temperatures are 36 during the day and 22 at night; in July, 22 degrees during the day, seven degrees at night.
Idalia NP is in the Gowan Ranges, which have steep escarpments and flat-topped peaks. The sandy red soil supports a variety of vegetation, with mulga the most common. Wallaroos and yellow-footed rock wallabies enjoy the rocky country and you will also see red and grey kangaroos and black-striped wallabies on the flatter country. You will see a variety of birds, including mulga parrots and crested bellbirds.
To reach Idalia NP from Blackall, take the Isisford road, then turn onto the Yaraka road and finally, about 70 km from Blackall, turn south at the Benlidi railway siding. From here, follow the Benlidi-Idalia road for 30 km to the park's northern boundary and a further 12.5 km to the park office. (Rangers ask that you close the gates along this track.)
Driving to and within the park requires a 4WD vehicle, although in very wet conditions roads become impassable altogether. Check on conditions with the rangers before heading for the park. On arrival, all visitors must call at the park office.
Camping permits are required. These are available at the park office or from the DEH office in Longreach. The recommended camping area is at Monk's Tank, about 14 km from the office. All campers must be self-sufficient, particularly bringing all the water you are likely to need (plus some extra in case you are stranded, a standard precaution in the drier parks).
The rangers say the mulga country here is suitable for bushwalking, bird watching, spotting wildlife and enjoying panoramic views.
At a site called Old Idalia, down a side track on the way to the camping area, is an eroded "wave cliff". There are terrific views from the top of this cliff too.
Rainbow Gorge, about four kilometres from the camping area, has coloured rock formations along the headwaters of a creek. From here you can walk five kilometres down along the creek to where it intersects with a road track on the park's north-western boundary. (Rangers say not to attempt this walk unless you are carrying water and have arranged a pickup at the other end.)
Murphy's Rockhole, nine kilometres north of the camping area, can be reached by driving through thick mulga scrub. The gorge, shaded by river red gums, is a watering point for birds and animals.
For further information, contact DEH at the park on (076) 57 5033 or in Longreach on (076) 58 1761.
\BDescription:\b \I Photo by John McCann. Courtesy Random House.\i
\BPic2:\b np435.jpg
#
"Jardine River National Park",30,"0","g","0"
Jardine River National Park covers an area just over 230,000 ha. It is situated right on the eastern fringe of Cape York Peninsula. The Jardine River's catchment area is located and protected within this park. This river was named after the Jardine brothers, after they discovered it in 1865 while on a cattle run from Rockhampton to Somerset. The Jardine River is the largest perennial river in Queensland. There are plenty of swimming spots along this river but stay away from the deeper areas as crocodiles may be near.
Many species of animals are found in the Jardine River National Park, including some native to New Guinea. You will find both rainforest and open forest in this wilderness park.
This park is very close to the Injinoo Aboriginal land, where the Jardine River's lower section is located.
Picnic facilities are provided within the park and camping is permitted but booking is essential and you must obtain a camping permit.
#
"Kroombit Tops National Park",31,"b\8\qttc11.jpg","c","0"
Kroombit Tops is a cliff-edged sandstone plateau with lush rainforest and expansive views, 85 km south west of Gladstone and 900 metres above sea level.
Travelling to and from this plateau will indeed test your vehicle's cooling system and brakes but if they are in good order then you will find the effort worthwhile. While some areas can be reached in a conventional vehicle, you will see more of the plateau in a four wheel drive.
Kroombit Tops is described as "a temperate island in the sub tropics". The plateau is generally cooler than the surrounding countryside hundreds of metres below. It is heavily forested and dominant trees include "southern" species such as Sydney blue gum and New England blackbutt.
The plateau has been formed at the junction of the Dawes, Calliope and Milton Ranges. The highest point, Amy's Peak, is 930 metres above sea level. The plateau sides are steep, in many places forming sheer sandstone cliffs.
Two roads clamber up. One comes from the northern side, via Calliope, and is usually passable for two wheel drives. The second comes in from the south-east, through a little town called Ubobo, and is recommended for 4WDs only. Allow an hour and a half to two hours from either town up to the Tops.
Rangers strongly recommend visitors go up from Calliope. Timber trucks use the Ubobo road. When coming down this very steep road they are fully laden and so find it hard to stop suddenly. There are several narrow sections where you would not want to meet an oncoming timber truck in these circumstances.
Most of the plateau is included in a 34,000 hectare State Forest, managed by the Queensland Forest Service (QFS), with some also in the adjoining Kroombit Tops National Park. Camping is allowed in the State Forest. There are no designated camping areas so you can pick your own site.
Man made amenities are minimal: tank water at one spot and a shelter shed at another. There are no barbecues, toilets or showers. There are no graded walking tracks (though the Cooktown to Melbourne National Trail passes through here). It does have some terrific natural lookouts.
There are no shops, petrol bowsers or public phones along the Kroombit Tops road between Calliope and Ubobo. It is roughly 110 km between the two towns. If you return to Calliope, rather than pushing on to Ubobo, the usual turn round point is about 60 km from Calliope and so you should expect to travel at least 120 km, not counting any detours. A number of visitors have run out of petrol along the way through not allowing for the distance involved and the extra fuel consumption caused by the low gear work and climbing.
Rangers say Kroombit Tops is regarded as suitable for short-term camping. It is intended to provide a primitive experience so facilities have been kept to a minimum. Be sure to take water with you. Take warm clothing too. Nights are cool in summer and frosty in winter.
The main track through Kroombit Tops winds through impressive thick forest, with eucalypts and occasional hoop pines. There are half a dozen or more 4WD tracks. They lead to some spectacular lookouts above Kroombit Creek Gorge, Dry Gully Gorge and Annie Creek Gorge.
For further information, contact the Queensland Forest Service at Roseberry Street, Gladstone, 4680, ph (079) 76 0705 or at 109 Bolsover Street, Rockhampton, 4700, ph (079) 31 9700. With your permits, the QFS will give you a photocopied map of the area that's very helpful.
\BDescription:\b \I(Queensland Tourist and Travel Commission\i).
\BPic2:\b np443.jpg
#
"Lakefield National Park",32,"b\8\np20055.jpg","c","0"
This is one of the largest national parks in Queensland covering 537,000 ha. It is set between Laura and Princess Charlotte Bay and is on the road from Laura that heads on north to Weipa.
This is an outstanding wildlife park, with vast wetlands and lagoons attracting waterbirds in large numbers. There are also crocodiles, kangaroos and wallabies. The park covers the lower reaches of the North Kennedy and Normanby Rivers and is flooded in the Wet when the roads are generally impassable. In the Dry it is covered with lagoons and waterholes.
The nearest accommodation is in Laura.
\BDescription:\b Magpie Geese Waterhole in Lakefield. \IPhoto by John McCann. (Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np20046.jpg
\BPic3:\b np403.jpg
#
"Lamington National Park",33,"b\8\np10004.jpg","c","0"
Dominant on the skyline behind the Gold Coast beaches are the green peaks and plateaus of the border ranges.
Here the 20,000 hectare Lamington National Park protects magnificent subtropical rainforest rising to more than 1,100 metres along the crest of the McPherson Range (most of its southern boundary following the Queensland-NSW border).
This park protects the largest area of undisturbed rainforest in south-eastern Queensland. Although road access is limited, an extensive network of walking trails allows exploration of the park's forests, heaths, mountain streams and clifftop lookouts.
The two main starting points for exploring Lamington National Park are Binna Burra and Green Mountains (also known as O'Reilly's). Both are approximately an hour-and-a-halfs drive from Brisbane and a little less than an hour from the Gold Coast.
Binna Burra is well known for its long-established lodge that provides comfortable accommodation. There are also sites for tents and caravans. Binna Burra is at the end of an 11 km sealed road from Beechmont. Beechmont can be reached via Beenleigh-Tamborine-Canungra or Nerang. The easier route is via the Pacific Highway to Nerang, then up the mountainside from there.
In this part of the park are about 160 km of graded, signposted tracks. There are longer walks, such as the Shipstern Circuit of 19 km and the Lower Ballunjui Falls at about 11 km return, and shorter walks, such as Picnic Rock, only about 5 km, and even shorter walks, like Bellbird Lookout, just 2 km, but providing spectacular views.
Green Mountain is one of Queensland's most popular national park camping areas.
This area (sometimes referred to as O'Reilly's) is the gateway to the western section of Lamington National Park. There is a Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH) ranger station and 50-site camping ground here, adjacent to the large guesthouse run by the O'Reilly family.
Brisbane to Green Mountain is about 120 km, all bitumen road. From Brisbane, the most direct route is via Beenleigh, then Tamborine Village to Canungra. You can stay on the highway a little longer by going down to Oxenford before turning off to Canungra. It is only a few kilometres longer and may actually be quicker. From the south, you go to Nerang, then Canungra.
From Canungra, it is 37 km of steady climbing to the camping ground. (Elevation is about 850 metres above sea level). It is winding with many hairpin bends, and narrow. Torrential rain will sluice mud and rocks onto the road. Caravans cannot be towed up. A sign just after Canungra warns: "Steep grades, sharp curves ahead. Road unsuitable for cars with caravans."
One other road does lead up to Green Mountain: the Duck Creek Road from Beaudesert. This is generally recommended for four wheel drives only and will certainly be impassable by conventional vehicles after wet weather.
For a visit to Lamington National Park, three items are essential: a raincoat, insect repellent and a bird identification book. This splendid rainforest retreat is overrun with birds. The repellent is for abundant leeches. Of course the coat is needed for the rain that gives rainforest its name.
At both Binna Burra and Green Mountains, pademelons (tiny wallabies) graze the lawns early and late in the day, and spotlighting in the forest at night will reveal brushtail, ringtail and gliding possums, bandicoots, frogs and geckoes. DEH staff organise slide evenings, etc. during holidays.
Darlington Park is a camping ground adjacent to the bottom end of Duck Creek Road (the 4WD track to Green Mountains-O'Reillys). It is a level, grassy area beside the upper Albert River.
It is about 90 km from Brisbane and 24 km south of Beaudesert, on the road that passes through Kerry and ends at Lost World (at the foot of the McPherson Range and just outside Lamington National Park).
In the shadow of Lamington National Park is a camping area that's a monument to one of Australia's most celebrated feats of bushmanship: Stinson Memorial Park, beside Christmas Creek, south of Beaudesert.
In 1937, local farmer and timbergetter Bernard O'Reilly (of the Green Mountain O'Reilly family) searched for and located the wreck of a small commercial passenger plane, a Stinson, and then organised the successful rescue of the survivors.
Stinson Park's proximity to the rainforest of the McPherson Range is one of the main attractions for visitors. The peaks loom large behind the camping ground and this is the base for bushwalkers.
Walking in this area is great fun but also has its dangers, and demands commonsense. A sign at Stinson Park provides basic advice. In part, it suggests anyone interested in bushwalking there should seek advice from the warden at an adjacent Department of Tourism & Sport (DTS) recreation complex. (The DTS manager here, Robin Lather, has been walking in the area for 25 years, has taken part in several searches for lost walkers, is involved with the local State Emergency Service crew, and lectures on bushcraft and survival techniques.) This western section of Lamington National Park is a wilderness area, much of it without marked trails.
More information: The Ranger, Green Mountain, via Canungra, QLD, 4275; fax no (075) 44 0633, or telephone on (075) 44 0634 between 1 and 3:30pm on weekdays.
Binna Burra Lodge, (075) 33 3622 (or write to Binna Burra Lodge, Beechmont, via Nerang, QLD 4211.
Darlington Park: Beaudesert Shire Council, PO Box 25, Beaudesert, QLD 4285 or on (075) 41 9199.
Stinson Park: Call into the office at the DTS complex or telephone ahead on (075) 44 8100.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Random House.\i
\BPic2:\b np20059.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Canopy Walk, Lamington National Park. \IPhoto by John McCann (Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b 16_0046.jpg
\BDescription3:\b \I(QLD Dept Environment and Heritage)\i
\BPic4:\b np446.jpg
#
"Lawn Hill National Park",34,"b\8\qttc07.jpg","c","0"
Lawn Hill National Park surrounds a spectacular oasis in arid far north-western Queensland: a beautiful creek lined by lush tropical vegetation winding through a gorge of multi-coloured sandstone.
Despite its remoteness, hundreds of kilometres beyond even Mount Isa, many four wheel drivers are prepared to trek over seemingly endless dry plains to see Lawn Hill NP. In fact, bookings for campsites beside the gorge are essential in the cooler, drier months from April to October.
At one time, this park covered only some 12,000 hectares round the gorge but it has been progressively enlarged to its present 282,000 hectares (making it one of Queensland's very largest national parks). A notable inclusion in 1992 was the Riversleigh Section, protecting internationally significant fossil deposits.
As the Department of Environment & Heritage (DEH) explains, the section of park around the gorge is set where the ancient sandstone ramparts of the Constance Range separate the edge of the Barkly Tableland from the black soil plains stretching north to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Today it is dry and forbidding, but once the fossil-rich limestone of the Barkly Tableland and the more ancient sandstones of the Constance Range were under an extensive inland sea that existed here more than 500 million years ago.
The large Lawn Hill Creek flows continuously at surprisingly high volumes, thanks to numerous springs in the honeycombed limestone plateau to the west. It has made its way through fissures in the Constance Range, creating a scene, where for kilometres, walls of red, orange and grey sandstone fall 60 metres to the pools and waterholes of the creek that, as the DEH says, "snakes its way through the gorge like some emerald-green serpent of the Dreamtime".
Vegetation surviving in this oasis includes cabbage palms, figs and the prominent dark green, broad-leaved Leichhardt trees, while beyond the gorge walls, the countryside supports little more than spinifex grass, some eucalypts and other stunted trees and bushes.
The water and vegetation have also attracted large numbers of birds and other animals. These include animals that make their homes in the rocks, such as wallaroos, the rock ringtail possum (very rare in Queensland) and fairy martins (which build mud nests under the ledges). The creek is home to crocodiles but they are the freshwater variety, considered harmless to humans.
Lawn Hill Creek is popular for swimming. The upper and middle sections of the gorge are open to swimming and boating. (The third, lower section is closed to water activities.) A great way to explore is by canoe, and if you don't bring your own, canoes are available for hire here. (Note: Power boats are not allowed.) There is a launching ramp and steps adjacent to the camping area where you can get in and out of a canoe, plus a portage over a natural dam wall along the gorge. Amenities at the camping ground include toilets, showers, tables and fireplaces. Gas stoves are preferred and firewood must not be collected inside the park.
People have been attracted to this oasis for thousands of years. Its Aboriginal heritage stretches back at least 17,000 years, perhaps far longer. Aboriginal art has been painted and etched in rock shelters and on gorge walls. Two sites have been made accessible to visitors.
At least 20 km of walking trails will take you to a number of features round the gorge. Rangers can point the way to popular destinations like a large rock "plug" known as the Island Stack, and a natural dam of recrystallised limestone, complete with a two-metre waterfall and natural spa.
The park is a long way from anywhere else. It is about 400 km north-west of Mt Isa and 220 km south-west of Burketown. The last 280 km from Mt Isa and the entire distance from Burketown are unsealed and can be impassable for extended periods after rain. The December-March wet season may cut access altogether.
Rangers recommend travel by four wheel drive. Caravans may be taken in if you travel via the Burke & Wills Roadhouse (at the junction of the Burke Development Road north from Cloncurry and the Wills Development Road north from Julia Creek). Go well armed with fuel and spare parts.
The nearest centres providing a full range of supplies and services are Burketown and Mt Isa. Fuel, along with ice and some supplies, is available at Adel's Grove, just outside the park and about 10 km from the gorge. (There is also a privately-owned camping ground at Adel's Grove.)
There are DEH rangers permanently stationed at Lawn Hill NP and they can provide up-to-date information before you head for the park, plus of course local details once you arrive.
The Riversleigh Section, south of Lawn Hill Gorge, has no developed facilities for visitors and also the famous Riversleigh fossil sites being excavated by paleontologists are out of bounds.
Camping is allowed on a public (stock) reserve where the only major road in the area crosses the Gregory River. This is just outside the park. Please bear in mind there are no facilities at all here and that the Riversleigh homestead draws drinking water just downstream.
There is an "interpretive" shelter shed, with fossil material and an explanation about the Riversleigh fossil beds, beside the road about four km north of the Gregory River crossing.
For further information, contact the DEH rangers at Lawn Hill NP, ph (077) 48 5572 or alternatively at Mt Isa, ph (077) 43 2055.
\BDescription:\b Lawn Hill Lagoon. \I(Queensland Tourist and Travel Commission)\i
\BPic2:\b np436.jpg
\BDescription:\b Cliff at Lawn Hill National Park \I(Queensland Tourist and Travel Commission)\i.
#
"Lumholtz National Park",35,"b\8\np407.jpg","c","0"
Lumholtz National Park is one of a number of national parks and forestry reserves that deserve a visit in the Ingham-Cardwell-Tully region, between Townsville and Cairns.
These are in an area where ranges rise steeply from a narrow coastal plain, and where rock, water and rainforest tumble down the hillsides.
Lumholtz is a large park (125,000 ha) that protects part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. Much of the Park is inaccessible but its best known feature is easy to reach: Wallaman Falls. With a straight fall in one section of 305 metres, Wallaman claims the record as the largest permanent 'clear drop' waterfall in Australia.
The dominant river in this area is the Herbert River. Wallaman is one of seven major waterfalls where the Herbert and its tributaries tumble over the coastal ranges. (Wallaman Falls are formed by Stony Creek spilling at east 500 metres off the Seaview Range.)
Wallaman Falls is 51 km west of Ingham (35 km on unsealed road). From Ingham, drive 8 km west to Trebonne and turn left. Turn right over the Stone River and then left again. Take care on the steep range section: it is slippery when wet and is used by timber trucks. It is not recommended for caravans.
This road brings you to a camping area on the gorge top above Wallaman Falls. Normal travel time from Ingham is about one hour. Amenities here include toilets, shelter sheds and fireplaces. Permits are required and bookings recommended. Contact the Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH) office at Ingham.
From the camping area, a short track leads to a popular swimming hole in the rocky creek. A 2 km road leads to a lookout over the falls and then there is a 2 km foot track to the base of the falls. Rangers warn that this foot track is steep in places and should only be used by people who are physically fit.
They also advise that anyone wanting to undertake the walk to the Herbert River from here - described as a "high risk" walk for experienced bushwalkers only - must contact the Ingham DEH office well in advance of their visit.
Other parts of the park can be reached by fit walkers and in some cases by four wheel drivers. Again, check with the DEH office for details.
Another attractive area in this region is Abergowrie State Forest. This is in the Herbert River Valley west on Ingham and accessible by conventional (2WD) vehicles.
There is a camping area on the banks of scenic Broadwater Creek. There are sites for small tents or large, even caravans, and amenities include toilets, tables, fireplaces and showers. Local rock pools are popular for swimming.
There are walking tracks along Broadwater Creek and the 9 km Dalrymple Gap hiking trail along the pioneer route across the Cardwell Range.
Another beautiful tropical forest retreat is Murray Falls State Forest, north-west of Cardwell. The falls are locally famous. A walking track leads to the top of the falls but take care, as Forestry staff warn that there have been serious injuries and even deaths at the waterfalls.
Access is by conventional vehicle from the Bruce Highway at either Bilyana or Muwigal. A campground adjacent to the falls has toilets, showers, fireplaces and tables.
North of Tully, visit Tully Gorge State Forest Park. Follow the Cardstone Road for a very picturesque drive through the valley to a camping area on the banks of the Tully River (about 45 km from Tully). Amenities include toilets, fireplaces and tables.
This is a popular spot for a swim and an exit point for white water rafting and canoeing. (Seek expert local advice.) There is good walking. The scenery of the gorge is on a grand scale, with steep rainforest slopes and creeks cascading down to meet the river. Keep an eye out here for rainforest butterflies, including the Blue Ulysses or Cairns birdwing.
Remember why this is called the wet tropics. Average annual rainfall is over 2,000 mm (about 80 old fashioned inches). Most of it falls in the summer "wet" season from November-December through till March. The area can look spectacular then but check on road (i.e: flood) conditions before setting out.
For further information contact: DEH at Ingham, ph (077) 76 1700; DPI Forest Service at Ingham, ph (077) 76 2354, or DPI FS at Cardwell, ph (070) 66 8804.
\BDescription:\b Lumholtz National Park Location Map.
#
"Magnetic Island National Park",36,"a\8\16_0048.jpg","c","0"
Magnetic Island was named by Captain Cook in 1770 because he thought it affected the compass on the \IEndeavour.\i The island, one of the largest of the \JGreat Barrier Reef,\j is 8 km from Townsville and easily reached by launch or catamaran. The 2,533 ha of park, which takes up more than half the island, has most attractive coastal scenery with rugged headlands, bays, sandy beaches and some coral reefs.
There is a koala colony as well as wallabies and a wide variety of birds. On the island is 20 km of graded walking tracks with one to Sphinx Lookout (331 m), but not to the summit of Mount Cook (512 m).
Accommodation is available on the island, outside the park's boundaries.
\BDescription:\b Magnetic Island \I(QLD Department of Environment and Heritage)\i
\BPic2:\b qttc10.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Magnetic Island Beach \I(Queensland Tourist and Travel Commission)\i
\BPic3:\b np408.jpg
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"Main Range National Park",37,"0","g","0"
Declared a national park in 1980, Main Range National Park covers an area over 12,000 ha. It is approximately 110 km from Brisbane along the Cunningham Highway. The western approach can only be reached by 4WD vehicles.
Main Range National Park includes rainforests and eucalypts, including forest red gum, Sydney blue gum and stringybarks. Tea trees are present here also. Not to be missed are Cunninghams Gap, discovered by Allan Cunningham in 1828, and Spicers Gap, discovered by Henry Alphen in 1847.
This park is a host to a variety of native mammals and monotremes, including both echidnas and platypuses, many bat species, pademelons, potoroos, bettongs, wallabies and the fawn-footed melomys. As well there are over 250 species of birdlife here and many frog species, including rare mountain frogs. Blue-tongued lizards, skinks, geckos and snakes are also common in Main Range National Park.
Two notable attractions of the park are the rocky bluff Governor's Chair and Queen Mary Falls, where the Condamine River starts and then goes on to be a part of the Murray-Darling.
Views of the Great Dividing Range are evident on many of the walking tracks that lead you through rainforests with spectacular scenery.
There are camping facilities at Cunninghams Gap and Spicers Gap-permits and bookings essential. Camping is also permitted at Condamine Gorge, where a 4WD is necessary to gain entry.
Mon Repos is 15 km north-east of Bundaberg and is an easily accessible mainland nesting site for turtles - loggerheads, greens and Australian flatbacks. The turtles typically mate in September, come out of the ocean to nest between November and January, and then the hatched turtles emerge during January to March to make their way to the sea.
This is one of the most important turtle rookeries in the southern hemisphere and ramps have been constructed for easy access to the beach. There is a ranger present every night during the season to see that tourists do not unduly interfere with the turtles, and numbers are restricted by issuing tickets.
\BDescription:\b Mon Repos Environmental Park Location Map.
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"Moogerah Peaks",39,"b\8\np424.jpg","c","0"
Lake Moogerah is about 16 km south-west of Boonah in south-east Queensland and has as a scenic backdrop, Mount French, 446 m; Mount Greville, 760 m; Mount Moon, 773 m; and Mount Edwards, 624 m. The park is a series of small areas around the individual peaks. You reach the park by way of the Cunningham Highway.
There are walking tracks and picnic facilities at Mount French, which also has 150 different rock climbs to the summit. On most weekends, a fair number of rock climbers can be observed there from the cool safety of Fassifern Valley with its eucalypt forest. The nearby accommodation is at Brisbane, 110 km away.
\BDescription:\b Moogerah Peaks Location Map.
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"Mount Barney National Park",40,"b\8\np425.jpg","c","0"
The northern section of this park was formerly called Mount Maroon-Mount May, while the southern part encompasses what was formerly Mount Lindesay National Park. The combined park now covers 11,500 ha and is 130 km south-west of Brisbane.
Access is by an unsealed road off the Lindesay Highway. Mount Barney, at 1,362 m, is Queensland's second highest mountain. Much of the park is wilderness and the walks only suited to experienced bushwalkers, although the walk from the car park to the Lower Portals is suitable for beginners.
The vegetation is mainly eucalypt, with the gullies having luxuriant shrub growth, and on the drier eastern slopes of Mount Barney more than 20 species of orchid have been noted.
There are camping facilities nearby at Yellow Pinch, otherwise the nearest accommodation is on the Gold Coast.
\BDescription:\b Mount Barney National Park Location Map.
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"Mount Cougal National Park",41,"b\8\np428.jpg","c","0"
One of the four separate sections of the Springbrook National Park, Mount Cougal is near the State border and 124 km from Brisbane along the Pacific Highway by way of West Burleigh and then along the Tallebudgera Creek Road. Mount Cougal climbs to 715 m in two peaks, and the park contains, in its 674 ha, magnificent specimens of rainforest trees and also clear mountain streams with cascades and waterfalls.
The walks are more suited to experienced bushwalkers. There is camping in the park, otherwise the nearest accommodation is at Springbrook, which is said to have the first buildings in Australia to catch the sunrise in the morning.
\BDescription:\b Mount Cougal National Park Location Map.
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"Natural Arch National Park",42,"b\8\np427.jpg","c","0"
This park in south-east Queensland is also known as Numinbah and is in the Nerang River valley. It is 112 km south of Brisbane and 43 km from the Gold Coast by way of Murwillumbah. The park is another of the three separate sections that make up Springbrook National Park, and its 212 ha is set in the river valley between escarpments of the Beechmont and Springbrook Ranges.
The park is noted for its birdlife, with over 100 species noted, and there are some marked walking tracks. The park has several waterfalls including Cave Creek Falls. The main attraction is the Natural Arch, where the waters of Cave Creek plunge through the eroded roof of a basalt cave which contains glow worms.
There is guesthouse accommodation in Numinbah.
\BDescription:\b Natural Arch National Park Location Map.
History was written rich and bold on the Palmer River goldfields in the 1870s.
Discovery of rich alluvial gold deposits inland from Cape Tribulation, between Cairns and Cooktown, lured thousands of miners on an arduous trek into the hinterland, where they battled arduous living conditions for the chance to make their future.
The fields are easier to reach today - though a 4WD vehicle is essential - but it is not hard to imagine the conditions faced by the old miners.
Gold was discovered on the Palmer River on June 29, 1873. The news spread quickly, surveyors and miners blazed a rough trail from Cooktown to the fields, and within two years an estimated 9,000 people were there, both European and Chinese miners. It was northern Queensland's biggest ever goldrush.
Aborigines understandably defended their traditional country. Many miners were speared (there were stories of cannibalism too) and Aborigines were shot down in retaliation. Then there were problems of heat, rain, flooding, isolation, disease, accidents, starvation, murder..... they were hard times in a hard place.
The alluvial gold was worked out within a few years and the reef gold, locked away in hard rock , proved difficult to extract. By the 1880s, it was costing more to win the remaining gold than the gold was worth.
The Palmer area has produced some fascinating stories in this century as well. For instance, modern-day explorers finding a skeleton with a bag of gold around its neck, and another skeleton in a cave with a cocked (but rusted) rifle. These and other stories may be true, may be not....
In 1986 the area was proclaimed a reserve to protect the historical remains. These consist mainly of old diggings and machinery. It is jointly managed by the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) and the Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH) to ensure both mining interests and historic sites are considered.
The reserve is 280 km by road from Cairns. The preferred route is via the Mulligan Highway (named for the discoverer of gold on the Palmer) and the Dianne Haul Road to Granite and Cannibal Creeks, then north to cross the Palmer River at Dog Leg Creek or west of Maytown.
Alternative routes to Maytown (at the southern end of the reserve) are via a rough six-hour journey from Laura or the track from Chillagoe via Wrotham Park homestead and the Mitchell River. (To find the Palmer Reserve on a map, look along an imaginary line from Chillagoe in the south to Laura in the north, towards the Laura end.)
DEH rangers advise that a 4WD vehicle is essential because the roads are rough, with numerous creek crossings. Carry extra fuel, spare parts, food and water.
Camping is allowed on the reserve, though there are no facilities. All visitors should be completely self sufficient. The necessary camping permits are available from DEH offices.
For camping and general information, contact DEH at Cairns, ph (070) 52 3096 or at Chillagoe, ph (070) 94 7163 and for information about mineral exploration contact the DME at Mareeba, ph (070) 92 4211.
\BDescription:\b Cape Tribulation. \I(Courtesy Anthony Butt)\i
\BPic2:\b npab06.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Cape Tribulation. \I(Courtesy Anthony Butt)\i
\BPic3:\b np437.jpg
#
"Porcupine Gorge/Great Basalt Wall National Parks",44,"b\8\16_0049.jpg","c","0"
These national parks are south-west of Townsville, north of the Flinders Highway to Mt Isa and both feature striking geological formations.
Porcupine Gorge NP can be reached easily by conventional vehicle, Basalt Wall NP with more difficulty. If you are exploring this country, 4WD is generally recommended: the backroads are deep in bulldust during the dry, deep in mud during the wet.
Porcupine Gorge is locally famous for its cool clear creek flowing between towering cliffs of coloured sandstone. The comparatively dense vegetation along the creek contrasts with the dry flat plains that surround it.
Porcupine Creek has formed the gorge by excavating through layer after layer of earth laid down as much as 500 million years ago. On top is a volcanic basalt cap, then mudstone, then conglomerate, then dark sandstone and then white sandstone, all but the basalt deposited by ancient rivers between five and 200 million years ago. Near the foot of the gorge is conglomerate left behind by even older glaciers and then a base of schists and gneiss rock, the oldest of all. The sun striking these multi-coloured layers is an impressive sight (particularly when you are laying in the shade in a clear pool of gently flowing water).
Water and wind have carved-out channels, boulders, potholes and shallow caves. Permanent deep pools are lined with sheoaks and paperbarks, while other trees cling to footholds on the walls. The water is home to tortoises and attracts numerous varieties of birds and animals like walleroos and wallabies.
The easiest route to Porcupine Gorge NP is via Hughenden (380 km west of Townsville on the Flinders Highway). From Hughenden, drive north on the Kennedy Development Road and after about 45 km you will see the southern end of the gorge. Some kilometres further north you will see turnoffs to lookouts above the southern end of the gorge.
A few kilometres further north, the Kennedy Road swings west towards Lyndhurst; stay on the track that runs north, paralleling the gorge. A few kilometres further on, you will see a sign to The Pyramid. This refers to a large rock in the bed of the gorge and adjacent to this is a camping area. (Amenities are a pit toilet and shelter shed.)
Regardless of the fact there is a creek here, bring your own water. Also carry plenty of fuel and spare parts. The temperature in the gorge can be surprisingly cool, in fact very cold during the winter dry season, so bring some warm clothes outside the summer months.
Great Basalt Wall National Park is closer to Townsville but the roads are nowhere as good as the Kennedy Road to Porcupine Gorge. Four wheel drive is recommended.
This park is regarded as remote and reaching it will involve about 90 km of unsealed road, starting from near either Dalrymple, north of Charters Towers, or Powlathanga, west of Charter Towers. When planning a visit, check with the Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH) rangers at Charters Towers about the best current route.
The park has no facilities and is very rough. You will see a fascinating landscape: basically a series of lava flows from the last major volcanic activity in north-east Australia. Walking over these flows is very difficult and recommended only for the fit.
You can camp at Red Falls on Lolworth Creek, just inside the park (though there might not be any water running over the falls in dry weather). To find the falls, you drive about 60 km north from Charter Towers on the Gregory Development Road (also known as the Lynd Highway) and then a further 44 km west to the falls.
While in the region, visit Dalrymple National Park, an historic site round the former Dalrymple township, featuring lava flows and fossil limestone. Also ask about White Mountains NP, a large undeveloped reserve on the Flinders Highway west of Pentland, about halfway between Charters Towers and Hughenden.
For further information, contact DEH at Charters Towers, ph (077) 87 3388 or Townsville, ph (077) 21 2399.
\BDescription:\b Porcupine Gorge National Park \I(QLD Department of Environment and Heritage.)\i
\BPic2:\b np410.jpg
#
"Queen Mary Falls National Park",45,"b\8\np423.jpg","c","0"
The park is 10 km east of Killarney and access is off the Warwick-Legume road 4 km south of the town. The park covers 340 ha and contains the headwaters of Spring Creek, a tributary of the Condamine River, which comes tumbling down over a series of cascades before dropping 40 m at the fall.
There is a pathway to the falls and a picnic area at the park entrance. There are well-guarded walks along the cliff edge above the falls. Daggs Falls, which drop 36 m, can be seen from the road and there are panoramic views from the Spring Creek Cliffs. There are said to be platypuses in the creek but these are rarely seen.
The nearest accommodation is at Killarney.
\BDescription:\b Queen Mary Falls National Park Location Map.
#
"Rokeby National Park",46,"b\8\np402.jpg","c","0"
Combined with its neighbour, Archer Bend, this park covers 457,000 ha, and contains both the Archer and the Coen Rivers which originate high in the McIlwraith Range, wind through the park and end up in the Gulf of Carpentaria. These rivers are periodic, and summer flooding over a wide area is common. In the dry winter season the water retreats and leaves lagoons and swamps which sustain an amazing variety and quantity of birdlife including ducks, pelicans, palm cockatoos and jungle fowl. There is a large population of freshwater crocodiles.
The park is 25 km north of Coen and access in the dry season is normally restricted to four wheel drive vehicles. During the wet season it is often totally impassable. This park is only suitable for properly equipped expeditions.
\BDescription:\b Rokeby National Park Location Map.
#
"Simpson Desert National Park",47,"b\8\np480.jpg","c","0"
The first thing to say about Simpson Desert National Park is that no-one should visit it without extensive preparation and planning.
Covering one million hectares, or 10,000 square kilometres, this is by far Queensland's largest national park. It lies against the Northern Territory and South Australian borders, taking in Poeppel's corner, where the borders of Queensland, NT and SA meet. It is west of Birdsville and Bedourie, out the back of beyond.
The park, a true desert, is characterised by sand dunes and hummock grasslands. It is home to wiry vegetation and hardy wildlife. But it does rain here and then the desert blooms. Ironically, travellers can also be trapped by flooding.
Department of Environment & Heritage rangers describe it as "only for the well-equipped and adventurous". Of course the park is only accessible by 4WD vehicle and it is recommended that a minimum of two vehicles cross together and that they carry radio transmitters.
A 93 km route has been marked out from the eastern boundary of the park to Poeppel's Corner. This begins approximately 80 km west of Birdsville. (Birdsville to Peoppel's Corner = 173 km approximately).
Advise the police at Birdsville about your trip details.
For further information, contact the Department of Environment and Heritage at Longreach, ph (076) 58 1761 or Charleville, ph (076) 54 1255, or the police at Birdsville, ph (076) 56 3220.
\BDescription:\b Simpson Desert National Park Location Map.
#
"Springbrook National Park",48,"b\8\np429.jpg","c","0"
You get to Springbrook, which is just 20 km inland, by way of the Pacific Highway from Mudgeeraba. This is a chain of four connected national parks that altogether cover over 2,000 ha and range from the high Springbrook Plateau, a spur of the McPherson Ranges in the north, down through dense subtropical rainforest and eucalyptus forest. There are many streams and watercourses in the park and impressive rapids, cascades and falls, including the Purling Brook Fall which has a drop of 109 m.
There are well-signposted tracks with easy 4 to 5 km walks and several picnic areas and camping grounds.
Otherwise the nearest accommodation is at Springbrook.
\BDescription:\b Springbrook National Park Location Map.
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"Sundown National Park",49,"0","g","0"
Sundown National Park is managed by the QLD Department of Environment and Heritage and covers an area of approximately 15,000 ha. It is located 250 km from Brisbane, southwest of Stanthorpe and northwest of Tenterfield.
During the late 19th century, tin and copper were mined in this area, although it proved unsuccessful.
Sundown National Park is very popular with four-wheel-drivers, although some areas can only be explored on foot. It contains traprock-an extremely dense sedimentary rock. Some of the many trees you may recognise include stringybarks, yellowbox, cypress pines, red ash, wattles, ironbarks, river red gums and bottlebrushes. Some of the native mammals you may encounter are kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos. Lyrebirds, kingfishers, parrots and herons are also found in Sundown National Park.
The summer months can be very hot and winter temperatures can reach below zero at night time.
Camping is permitted in Sundown National Park at Burrows Waterhole, Broadwater, Reedy Waterhole and Rats Waterhole-the most popular camping spot is at Burrows. Camping permits and bookings are essential.
There are many walking tracks in this park that offer superb scenery. Swimming and fishing in the river are also attractions of this park.
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"Tamborine National Park",50,"b\8\qttc08.jpg","c","0"
This was the first national park to be declared in Queensland, in 1908, although many extra areas have been added since. Access is from Brisbane, 75 km away, by way of the Pacific Highway via Beenleigh.
The park is on the north slope of Mount Tamborine and consists of a number of adjoining small park areas: Cedar Creek, which has waterfalls and swimming holes and is the largest area at 230 ha; Joalah, with rainforest, falls and a creek walk; the Knoll, more falls and rainforest and another creek walk; Witches Falls, where the first 130 ha of park was declared; Macrozamia Grove, which abounds with cycads; McDonald Park, high rainforest; Palm Grove, bangalow palms.
The parks have excellent displays of wildflowers from September to November.
Accommodation is available at Tamborine, near the park.
\BDescription:\b Sunset over Tamborine Mountain. \I(Queensland Tourist and Travel Commission)\i.
\Bpic2:\b np431.jpg
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!,!,!,!,!
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22,0
"Belair National Park",1,"b\8\sa035.jpg","c","0"
Belair Recreation Park was established in 1891 and is one of the oldest national parks in the world. It is the most popular South Australian park. As Australia's second 'national park', Belair is full of reminders of the way the national park concept has developed over the past 100 years. In Minnow Creek, south of Old Government House, are the rubble remains of the cottage erected by the first white occupant of the land, Nicholas Foot, in 1839. Up until this time the area was part of the traditional hunting grounds of the Kaurna Aboriginal people of the Adelaide Plains and the Peramangk people from the Mount Barker area. There are now virtually no traces of their visits for hunting and gathering.
In recent years, increased emphasis has been placed on restoring the balance between development and protection of Belair's natural values in favour of the latter. Tall gum trees, native grasses, orchids and lilies cover the hills surrounding the valleys. Prickly shrubs and stringybark forest clothe the high eastern ridges. The quiet observer may see over fifty species of resident bush birds, as well as echidnas, possums, skinks and ten to fifteen other small reptiles. Introduced species from surrounding suburbs pose a problem to the survival of native fauna in the remnant bushland. Work is under way to restore the natural vegetation as habitat.
Activities in this park include picnics, barbecues, walking along marked walking trails, adventure playground for children, tennis, ball games on the hired ovals, golf on a course privately leased, horse-riding on designated trails, nature study, feeding waterbirds on Playford Lake, jogging, guided tours through Old Government House, buying native plants from the Woods and Forests Department nursery.
By car enter from Upper Sturt Road in the hills suburb of Glenalta. Surburban buses also pass this western entrance and you can catch a train to Belair. Vehicle entry fee applies. The park may be closed on days of extreme fire danger.
\BDescription:\b Manna Gums past Echo Tunnel. \ICourtesy Peter Bird, Animal and Plant Control Commission, South Australia.\i
\BPic2:\b sa033.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Manna Gums. \ICourtesy Peter Bird, Animal and Plant Control Commission, South Australia.\i
\Bpic3:\b np310.jpg
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"Coffin Bay National Park",2,"b\8\np20005.jpg","c","0"
This park covers an area of 30,380 hectares. The Coffin Bay Peninsula is a large wilderness area, almost surrounded by water, reaching out into the great Australian Bight.
The exposed western and southern sides of the peninsula are wracked by the constant pounding of the ocean's heavy swells which gash their way into the shelving outcrops of smooth granite and the limestone cliffs and headlands, which form much of the landscape of this coastline. In contrast to the harshness of the coastal rocky terrain, the Coffin Bay Dunes are an area of large drifting sand dunes, while the calmer lee side of the peninsula protects a sheltered estuary of beaches and inlets.
Rich in flora, the peninsula is covered in dense coastal heathland and mallee, with black teatrees being a feature. The park also has a good variety of birds, especially where they congregate in areas such as the low lying swamps and along the beaches. In fact, the beaches are breeding grounds for many seabirds. Western grey kangaroos are easily seen, while it may be a little more difficult to spy the park's population of lizards and snakes.
The area has some idyllic bush camping spots (no facilities provided) and is popular with bushwalkers, divers, campers and birdwatchers. Fishermen also enjoy the region, with its accessible wide, white sandy beaches and headlands, particularly at spots such as Reef Point, where large reef areas abut the beach, making it an excellent fishing location.
While conventional vehicles can gain access to Point Avoid and Yangie Bay, a 4WD vehicle is needed to get around the majority of the park and 4WD tracks lead to points of interest such as Black Springs, Misery Bay and Point Sir Isaac. To reach the end of the peninsula, vehicles have to travel along Seven Mile Beach, and drivers should use particular caution and be aware of the tide times when doing so. This beach is also used by seabirds for breeding, and vehicles should not travel above the high tide mark, keeping as close to the water's edge as possible.
Numerous walking trails in the park enable the visitor to get a lot closer to nature than viewing it through a car window, and in fact the only access to the Whidbey Wilderness area at the southwestern tip of the peninsula is by foot.
The park is located 720 km west of Adelaide and 50 km west of Port Lincoln.
For further information contact the NP&WS at Port Lincoln, ph: (086) 88 3177 or Coffin Bay, ph: (086) 85 4047.
\BDescription:\b Avoid Bay at Coffin Bay National Park \I(Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b sa001.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \ICourtesy South Australian Tourism Commission.\i
\BPic3:\b sa005.jpg
\BDescription3:\b \ICourtesy South Australian Tourism Commission.\i
\BPic4:\b np302.jpg
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"The Coorong National Park",3,"b\8\sa034.jpg","c","0"
The Coorong National Park covers an area of 46,745 hectares.
A unique area in this the driest state, of the driest continent in the world. This beautiful part of South Australia protects ancient shifting dune formations, tranquil waterways and marshlands, with the pounding surf of the Southern Ocean crashing against 60 km of coastline from the Murray River mouth south.
The ending of one mighty river, the Murray, gives birth to the Coorong. Having reached the end of its journey, the Murray River seldom gains access to the sea and its sluggish and silted waters fan out into Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert and down into the shallow Coorong, creating perfect wetland environments and breeding grounds for a seemingly endless assemble of birdlife.
Designated camping sites (no facilities are provided) are located at Salt Creek, Tea tree Crossing (summer only), 42 Mile Crossing and Wreck Crossing. However bush camping within the park is also permitted, except on the bird nesting islands. When camping along the ocean beach, you are allowed to camp between the high and low watermark or in one of the defined camping areas behind the foredune. Please take care not to damage the fragile dune vegetation.
There are a number of 4WD tracks through the park, enabling you to fully explore and delight in what the area has to offer.
Besides just the sheer pleasure of camping in such a magic region, other activities to be enjoyed are beachcombing, fishing, photography, birdwatching, bushwalking and canoeing.
The shallow waters of the Coorong are ideal for canoeing and boating, but keep an eye out on the weather conditions.
Duck hunting of certain wild duck species, in season, is also permitted in the 9,000 ha game reserve on Younghusband Peninsula, a large dune barrier which has been pushed up by the unrelenting force of the winds off the Southern Ocean. You must have a shooters license and a Duck Hunting permit.
The park is located 210 km southeast of Adelaide.
For further information contact the NP&WS at Meningie, ph: (085) 75 1200 or the Salt Water Creek Visitor Centre, ph: (085) 75 7014.
\BPic3:\b sa021.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \ICourtesy South Australian Tourism Commission.\i
\BPic4:\b sa017.jpg
\BDescription3:\b \ICourtesy South Australian Tourism Commission.\i
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Peter Bird, Animal and Plant Control Commission, South Australia.\i
Not far out of Quorn is the Dutchmans Stern Conservation Park (3,500 hectares), its craggy heights jutting out of the surrounding plains. This area is renowned not only for its dramatic scenery, but also for its birdlife and orchids and is well worth a visit. The car park and picnic area is reached 3 km from the main road and from this point access to the park is by foot, or by joining one of the 4WD tour operators who are allowed to run trips into the area.
To appreciate the wild grandeur of this park you need to venture into its interior. The views from the top of the range over the flat plains to the distant gulf and back towards the bluffs and escarpments are astonishing, especially in the soft evening light.
The rare Quorn wattle is found in this park, along with acacias, gums, sheoaks, yakkas, mallee, spinifex and native grasses. Animal life is varied, with euros and the occasional yellow-footed rock wallaby seen bounding across rocky slopes.
Although there is no vehicle-based camping allowed, the original homestead and shearers quarters on the outskirts of the park have been refurbished and are available for families or groups to hire out, with accommodation available for up to 15 people. You need to supply your own bedding and food.
The park is located 7 km north of Quorn.
For further information on the park or the homestead accommodation, contact the NP&WS in Quorn, ph: (086) 48 6008.
\BDescription:\b Dutchmans Stern Conservation Park, Quorn. \I(Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np309.jpg
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"Flinders Chase National Park",5,"b\9\8_0010.jpg","c","0"
The Flinders Chase National Park is 73,841 hectares and covers nearly 17% of Kangaroo Island and occupies the entire western end of the island from Cape Borda on the north coast to Sanderson Bay in the South. Much of the park is in its natural state, and its animal and plant species are untainted by introduced disease. This important area is a major sanctuary for a wide variety of native animals, there being no dingoes or introduced predators such as cats and foxes to contend with for survival.
Visitors are drawn to the park's striking and spectacular scenery. High rocky cliffs drop into a wild and rugged ocean. The constant battering of the Southern Ocean's swell and nature's elements have carved into the limestone and ironstone formations creating the most sensational geological configurations, such as those to be seen at Remarkable Rocks. Here, groups of graphic orange coloured granite boulders seem to balance precariously on a smooth granite dome.
Its coasts, weather-worn by the elements and time, are a haven for sea lions, sea eagles, osprey and Cape Barren geese. Inland, kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, brushtailed possums, echidnas and even platypuses inhabit the bushlands of the park.
The park is also rich in flora. Along the coast melaleucas and banksias form a dense scrub, while inland mallee and stringybark woodlands are prevalent, with sugar gums towering over all. In spring the heathland flowers are a riot of colour, competing with native orchids and other flowering shrubs.
The NP&WS headquarters are based at Rocky River, where there is also a major camping area set amongst a sugar gum forest. The wildlife is certainly very 'at hand' at this spot, with wallabies, emus and koalas easily seen. In fact the picnic areas at Rocky River are fenced, to keep the cheeky and bold emus and western grey kangaroos out. Other designated camping areas exist at Snake Lagoon, Harveys Return and Vennachar Point.
Scenic spots not to be missed are the Admirals Arch, a natural arch below the Cape du Couedic lighthouse; Weirs Cove, where supplies were loaded for the lighthouse; Cape Borda and its historic lighthouse settlement, and of course Remarkable Rocks.
A good range of vehicle tracks take visitors through much of the park. Kangaroo Island itself has an excellent gravel road network making it relatively easy to explore the whole of the island.
The island is reached by vehicle ferries which operate from Adelaide and from Cape Jervis on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
The park is located 210 km southwest of Adelaide and 100 km west of Kingscote on Kangaroo Island.
For further information contact the NP&WS at Rocky River, ph: (084) 83 7235, or Kingscote, ph: (084) 82 2381.
\BDescription:\b Flinders Chase National Park \I(South Australian Tourism Commission).\i
\BPic2:\b 6_0030.jpg
\BPic3:\b np20006.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Remarkable Rocks, Flinders Chase, Kangaroo Island National Park \I(Random House).\i
\BPic4:\b sa014.jpg
\BDescription4:\b Boxer Drive, Flinders Chase. \I Courtesy South Australian Tourism Commission.\i
\BPic5:\b np20069.jpg
\BDescription5:\b \Iby Ron and Viv Moon (Random House)\i
\BPic6:\b sa018.jpg
\BDescription6:\b \ICourtesy South Australian Tourism Commission.\i
\BPic7:\b np311.jpg
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"Flinders Ranges National Park",6,"b\9\8_0018.jpg","c","0"
Flinders Ranges National Park has an area of 92,746 hectares. The Flinders Ranges, made up of primarily national parks, are divided into three sections; the southern, central and northern ranges. Areas of the Flinders Ranges have been dated back to 1,600 million years ago which makes it one of the most ancient landscapes on earth.
Parts of the Flinders Ranges hold some of the richest mineral and precious stone deposits in Australia. Deposits of scholzite, barytes, sub-bituminous coal, talc, granite, quartzites, copper, zinc, silver, gold, limestone and dolomite have all been found at various times throughout the area.
The Ranges were home to Aboriginal indigenous people for tens of thousands of years. These people were able to live harmoniously in arguably one of the most hostile environments in the world, because of their incredible knowledge and connection with the land.
The Aborigines passed knowledge from one generation to the next through stories, rituals, rock drawings and paintings. In this way their culture remained strong and complete (until the arrival of white people). Set in the Dreamtime, the myths surrounding their depictions involve supernatural forces that helped create the earth.
You can still see their intricate artwork at a number of heritage sights throughout the area, such as Arkaroo Rock, Yourambulla Cave, Chambers Gorge, Wilpena Range and Sacred Canyon.
The sheer natural and rugged beauty of the Flinders Ranges is unsurpassed and its earthy hues an enchantment to the eye. It is a photographer's paradise, an artist's mecca and just a sheer pleasure for nature lovers to experience.
The ranges are first noticeable to the traveller around Port Pirie where they rear up from the narrow coastal plains as you head east. Heading further north the ranges become grander, the harsh desert climate adding a magnificent starkness to the torn and twisted rocks which appear like petrified waves, forming the many rugged and imposing faces of the Flinders Ranges. Once they were mighty mountains, the size of the Himalayas, but time and the forces of nature have seen the ranges worn down to what we see today.
The Flinders Ranges and surrounds have taken a battering over the years; stripped of timber and ploughed for cereal crops, pasture and stock. Feral animals, especially rabbits and goats, have also created havoc with the vegetation and still do so in many areas today. Even so, with such great modifications the intrinsic splendour of the ranges still reigns supreme.
The vegetation is very dependent on the rainfall the area receives and the soils the region contains, with much of the region semi-arid or arid. Major plant formations such as salt marsh, mallee and savannah can be found throughout the area, while the majestic orange red peaks of the ranges are lightly clothed with spinifex, and the valleys dotted with eucalypts, sheoak and native pine, which has flourished since grazing was stopped. River red gums are confined to the many rocky creeks beds.
In spring, and especially after good rains, the Flinders is transformed from its barren, red rocky outlook to a landscape coloured in a kaleidoscopic patchwork of wildflowers and fields of lush green grass. The most noticeable flowering plants are both introduced, salvation Jane and wild hop, which add a frenzy of colour.
The Flinders is also well known for its wildlife which is abundant in mammals, reptiles and birds. Red kangaroos prevail throughout the ranges in open woodland or out on the surrounding plains, where you're more likely to see western grey kangaroos. The more bulky and stocky euro and the rare yellow-footed rock wallaby prefer the rocky slopes. Family groups of emus wander throughout the park and birds of prey are a common sight, with wedgetailed eagles often seen gliding aloft on the thermals.
Bush camping amongst the gorges and valleys of the Flinders is one of the delights of visiting this region and a network of good gravel roads give access to these areas, as well as leading to popular and well known spots throughout the park. One such area not to be missed is along the western margin of the ranges, north of Wilpena, where the creeks flowing towards Lake Torrens have carved a succession of spectacular gorges, namely Parachilna, Brachina and Bunyeroo.
For those who prefer a few amenities, or have a caravan, a very pleasant camping ground set amongst tall stately gums is located at Wilpena Pound. Run by the Wilpena Pound Holiday Resort, hotel accommodation is also available. A small general store has limited supplies and all fuels. For bookings or further information contact the resort on ph: (086) 48 0004.
While it is possible to explore much of the region by vehicle, to experience the full magnificence of the Flinders Ranges you have to get out of the car and walk, and luckily many of the walking trails which lead to places of scenic beauty or of historic significance are relatively short. The keen bushwalker will find a wide selection of tracks to choose from, from full day or even extended walks from one end of the park to the other along the Heysen Trail.
The park is located 470 km north of Adelaide and 55 km north of Hawker.
For further information contact the NP&WS at Wilpena Pound, ph: (086) 48 0048, or Oraparinna, ph: (086) 48 0047, or the regional office at Hawker, ph: (086) 48 4244.
\BDescription:\b Flinders Ranges \I(South Australian Tourism).\i
\BPic2:\b np20003.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Highway through Flinders Ranges. (Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np10023.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Brachina Gorge. Photo by Ron and Viv Moon. \I(Random House)\i
\BPic4:\b np10025.jpg
\BDescription4:\b Southern rim of Wilpena, Flinders Ranges National Park. \IPhoto by Ron and Viv Moon. (Random House)\i
\BPic5:\b np10026.jpg
\BDescription5:\b \IPhoto by Ron and Viv Moon. (Random House).\i
\BPic6:\b sa015.jpg
\BDescription6:\b \ICourtesy South Australian Tourism Commission.\i
\BPic7:\b sa011.jpg
\BDescription7:\b \ICourtesy South Australian Tourism Commission.\i
\BPic8:\b np312.jpg
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"Flinders Ranges National Park - Wilpena Pound",7,sa004.jpg,c,0
Wilpena Pound contains a naturally occurring amphitheatre covering 83 square km. The area contains wildlife not found in any of the surrounding land, due to the more sheltered conditions of the pound.
The Gammon Ranges has an area of 128,228 hectares. This wild and formidable country forms the far northeast of the Flinders Ranges, and is in fact one of the most rugged areas in Australia. The park takes in not only the rough and craggy heart of the ranges, but also a section of the surrounding plain leading to the salt expanse of Lake Frome.
The geology of the ranges consists mainly of heavily dissected granites and allied rocks, rich in minerals, that were formed about 1.8 billion years ago. After millions of years of battling nature's elements, the skeletons of these once towering mountains are now worn down to awesome chasms, gorges, sheer bluffs and overhangs, with creeks that sometimes plunge downwards as waterfalls, draining the plateau wilderness.
The northern Flinders is drier and harsher than the more southerly sections, and the vegetation is typical of the semi-arid and arid zones of Australia, with eucalypts being replaced by acacias and cassia bushes, as well as native poplar and others. These bushes, along with other flowering plants, add colour to the dull green and rich browns of the region, especially after rain. On the plains and low hills, the bulk of the vegetation consists of blue bush, salt bush, bindyi and spear grass, while mallee scrub, native pine and porcupine grass prefer the rocky slopes. In the valleys river red gums, coolibahs, wattles, melaleucas, hakea and cassias can be found.
Probably two of the most beautiful flowering plants that occur in the park and surrounds, and that immediately attract the eye, are the magnificent Sturt's Desert Pea and the delicate Sturt's Desert Rose. The desert pea can, in places, form a velvety carpet of rich reds and blacks, while the larger flower of the desert rose is pale purple or pinkish in colour, with a large dark red blotch at the base of each petal.
Animal life is common, if not a little harder to detect in this unrelenting environment. Euros enjoy rocky terrain, while again red kangaroos prefer the more open areas and the elusive yellow-footed rock wallabies find sanctuary in the gorges and ravine country. The birdlife is quite good and typical of dry range country, but can be a little difficult to see. Birdwatching is best done in the early morning or late afternoon, and is especially rewarding around water points.
Although the area is rich in wildlife, and earth rich in minerals, permission is required for visitors to collect specimens.
Dotted throughout the park is evidence of the activities of early pastoralists and miners who tried to tame this land, and failed. Grindell's Hut, located at the western end of Weetootla Gorge, was built by John Grindell, the first land owner to take up this arduous country in the early 1900s. The view from this hut, overlooking the Illinawortinna Pound and the Gammons, is breathtaking in its sheer grandeur, and the hut is available for rent. For details contact the Ranger at Balcanoona.
Another site well worth visiting is the Bolla Bollana smelter and brick kiln, located in the far north of the park. Built in 1873, its purpose was to smelt ore from the Stanley and David copper mines.
It is typical of Australia's outback that the harshest and most hostile environment yields some of the richest treasures. For the Aboriginal people they were in the form of spiritual wealth.
There are basically only two vehicle tracks through the park - the main road cutting across the south of the park and the 4WD Yankaninna-Yadnina-Balcanoona track which winds its way through the centre of the park. This track will take you through some of the most spectacular scenery and along the way there are plenty of places which make great bush camping spots.
While there are no formal camping areas in the park, the NP&WS have established suitable camping sites at Italowie Gorge, Weetootla Gorge and Arcoona Creek.
Bushwalkers are only limited by their own experience and fitness. Remember that the Gammons are a remote, harsh, hot area and the country is hard going and unforgiving. Make sure you contact the Ranger before commencing any walk in the park and carry your own drinking water needs. Do not rely on water holes, or the like.
The small tourist village of Arkaroola, ph: (086) 48 4848, is situated just outside the park's boundary in the far northeast corner of the park. This 61,000 ha wildlife sanctuary can offer the visitor a wide range of activities, as well as accommodation and a caravan and camping ground, fuel and limited supplies.
A Visitors Information Centre can help with details of what there is to see and do around Arkaroola, from walking trails and scenic drives, to scenic flights, guided 4WD tours and a look at the universe from the astronomical observatory.
The Gammon Ranges National Park is located 750 km north of Adelaide and 110 km east of Leigh Creek.
For further information contact the NP&WS, Balcanoona, ph: (086) 48 4829.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy of Readers Digest\i
\BPic2:\b gmmnrng2.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \ICourtesy Readers Digest.\i
\BPic3:\b np20070.jpg
\BDescription3:\b \ICourtesy Random House\i
\BPic4:\b np315.jpg
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"Innes National Park",9,"b\9\np20038.jpg","c","0"
Innes National Park covers an area of 9,141 hectares.
The first view of the coast as you head towards the tip of Yorke Peninsula, once seen, is never forgotten. The striking coastline with its rocky cliffs and extrusive headlands is broken up by beautiful sandy beaches and secluded coves, with a number of offshore islands protruding out of a shimmering sea.
The park was originally established to protect the rare western whipbird and its habitat of dense heath and mallee scrub, which is the most prevalent flora. The woodlands however are interspersed with grassy patches and scattered stands of casuarinas and cypress pine, while a coastal sand dune system, which runs along the northern shores of the park, is covered in stunted, wind blown heath.
Avid birdwatchers will find a diverse bird population to observe, along with waders which can be seen feeding around the chain of salt lakes which stretch across the interior of the park.
Gravel roads circumnavigate the park, leading to idyllic sheltered bays, scenic lookouts and campsites, and the area is a favourite destination for nature lovers, birdwatchers, campers, fishermen, divers and surfers.
The historic Inneston site is well worth a visit, dating back to the early gypsum mining operations. There are also three shipwrecks scattered along the park's coastline, with the scattered remains of the rusting hulk of the \IEthel\i being the most obvious.
There is quite a selection of bush camping areas within the park, with Pondalowie being one of the most popular. Basic toilet and shower facilities are provided, and the camping area is set back a little from the sweeping expanse of Pondalowie Bay.
The park is located 300 km west of Adelaide.
For further information contact the NP&WS, Stenhouse Bay, ph: (088) 54 4040.
\BDescription:\b Cape Spencer Lighthouse, Innes National Park, Yorke Coast. \I(Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np20073.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Gym Beach, Innes National Park. \I(Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b sa008.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Emus at Innes National Park. \I(South Australian Tourism Commission.)\i
\BPic4:\b np316.jpg
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"Lincoln National Park",10,"b\9\np20040.jpg","c","0"
Lincoln National Park is 29,060 hectares and was established in 1941. The outstanding feature of Lincoln National Park, on the Eyre Peninsula, is a superbly picturesque coastline. A walk to the Flinders Monument vantage point on Stamford Hill commands magnificent views over the rugged coast, surrounding bays, offshore islands and across the water.
Separated from the town of Port Lincoln by Port Lincoln Proper Bay, and a narrow strip of land between Port Lincoln Proper Bay and Sleaford Bay to the south, the park occupies much of Jussieu Peninsula. It is a rugged and varied headland surrounded by a host of small islands, several of which are part of the park. Rough slopes and cliffs run the length of the eastern coast. Along the protected northern coast, where low limestone cliffs separate wide sandy bays, tall mallees grow almost to the water's edge.
An extensive coastline of precipitous cliffs marks the southern end and western extremities of the park and peninsula. Granite outcrops from these cliffs and a low range of sharp relief (210 metres high) runs along the eastern side of the park. Many of the surrounding offshore islands similarly present high rocky cliffs to resist the forces of the pounding seas.
Much of the park has very shallow soil studded with limestone outcrops and clothed with mallee, mostly coastal white mallee and yorrell, with some red, ridge-fruited and white mallees. The under-storey includes jointed native cherry, wattles, guinea-flowers and velvet bush. The brilliant colour of the Port Lincoln parrot can be seen in the mallee.
Mammals of Lincoln National Park include western grey kangaroos and bush rats, found in the coastal heath. Dolphins and southern right whales have been seen in surrounding waters.
Reptiles that live throughout the mallee areas include sand monitors, bearded dragons, Jacky lizards and brown snakes, while the peninsula dragon basks in the rocky outcrops.
Along the coast sooty oystercatchers, dotterels and wading birds, greenshanks and sharp-tailed sandpipers forage in the soft sands. White-breasted sea eagles and ospreys catch thermals over the coastal cliffs.
Aboriginal campsites and stone artifacts are conserved within the park and features of the landscape and the existence of the islands are explained in legends of the Nauo, the Aboriginal tribe of lower Eyre Peninsula.
Activities include bush camping, vehicle camping, fishing, hiking and bushwalking, swimming, boating, nature study and photography. Some rainwater, and toilet facilities are available. Caravan and camping grounds are available (no power sites). Camp Donington Cottage is available to school or community groups.
Please be cautious about swimming in open seas; sharks will feed on humans as well as fur seals.
The park is situated 25 km south of Port Lincoln. The park is accessible to conventional vehicles in all weather. However, people intending to take caravans into the park should contact the Eyre District Office, Port Lincoln, for up-to-date information on road surface conditions. Some vehicle tracks within the park can be negotiated by conventional vehicles.
\BDescription:\b Sleaford Mere Conservation Park, Port Lincoln. \I(Random House).\i
This park is part of a group of conservation parks which stretches from the SA/Vic. border north up towards Kingston, and includes the Canunda National Park. The parks are dotted along a rugged limestone coastline, interspersed by low rocky headlands with sandy beaches and sweeping dunes. The parks preserve a coastal wilderness of complex dune systems, with vegetated areas of plants and grasses on shore line foredunes, to low trees further inland. The region also encompasses numerous inland fresh and saltwater lagoons and lakes which provide a watery sanctuary for large numbers of waders and waterbirds.
With few vehicle tracks, access is limited, however there are designated tracks that follow the coastline and meander through the sand dunes and these are definitely 4WD only. When driving along the long stretches of beach, remember that the waves of the Southern Ocean are constantly changing the beach conditions, and what may have been hard-packed sand last time you drove along a section of beach, may this trip be extremely soft and boggy.
The keen fisherman will find plenty of places to do some good beach fishing, however swimming is not recommended as all the beaches along this coastline are dangerous, with strong tides, rips and undertows. While the wildlife is not abundant, occasionally you will see a seal resting on the beach. However the birdlife is more obvious and there have been 200 species of birds recorded, with many migratory waders.
There are a number of basic, designated bush camping sites within the park and visitors should carry all their own drinking water.
The park is located 410 km from Adelaide.
For further information contact the NP&WS, Robe, ph: (087) 68 2543.
\BDescription:\b Little Dip Conservation Park \I(Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np20058.jpg
\BDescription2:\b I Photo By Ron and Viv Moon (Random House)
\BPic3:\b np313.jpg
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"Mount Remarkable National Park",12,"b\9\np20072.jpg","c","0"
Forming the southern end of the Flinders Ranges, Mt Remarkable National Park is divided into two sections; the Alligator Gorge Section in the west, and the Mt Remarkable Section in the east. The park covers an area of 8,584 hectares.
Here, sandstone ridges surge out of the surrounding lowlands, culminating in the east in Mt Remarkable itself. Elsewhere, a circle of ridges, which encompass a basin of valleys and creeks, form the Alligator Gorge section of the park. These ridges account for the region's good rainfall, which feeds the creeks that cut swaths through the quartzite sandstone, shaping cool, deep gorges such as Mambray and the spectacular Alligator Creeks.
The heights of the ridges support a variety of vegetation, from imposing sugar gums and blue gums to delicate ferns and orchids. Lower down in the more fertile soils of the basin area, the grasslands are transformed into a multi-coloured display of wildflowers in the spring, and majestic river red gums and cypress pines hold tenacious footings along the creek beds.
With such varied habitats, and a reasonably reliable rainfall for this part of the state, the area is home to many animals and birds. When walking through the park you are sure to see the bulky outline of a euro, and maybe even get a glimpse of a yellow-footed rock wallaby.
The eastern section of the park has its southeastern boundary just on the outskirts of Melrose. From Melrose a number of walking trails take people to the top of Mt Remarkable where you have good views to both sides of the ranges.
Wildflower lovers will particularly enjoy these walks in spring, when the slopes can be ablaze with flowers, including a number of orchids and peaflowers.
Alligator Creek, in the west, has cut a deep path through the red quartzite along the creek bed, creating a number of impressive cliff-lined gorges and is a walker's delight. Alligator Gorge was in fact the first section of the national park to be protected in the Flinders.
The park is a favourite area for bushwalkers, and although vehicle based camping and vehicle access to the park is very limited, there is a delightful designated camping area at Mambray Creek, in the south of the park. From here it is possible to set out for a number of short walks into Alligator Gorge and Daveys Gully. It is recommended that you book a camping site in advance during public and school holiday periods.
The park is located 270 km north of Adelaide and 50 km north of Port Pirie.
For further information contact the NP&WS, Mambray Creek, ph: (086) 34 7068, or North Regional Office, Port Augusta, ph: (086) 48 5300.
\BDescription:\b Mount Remarkable National Park, old ruins. \IPhoto by Ron and Viv Moon. (Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np301.jpg
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"Ngarkat Group Of Conservation Parks",13,"b\9\sa030.jpg","c","0"
The park takes in the Ngarkat, Scorpion Springs, Mt Rescue and Mt Shaugh Conservation Parks and is considered a significant wilderness area, linking with Victoria's Big Desert region. Its landscape of disordered, undulating sandhills is covered in a mantle of mallee eucalypts, while heath, dominated by desert banksia, blankets the plains between the dunes. This group of parks covers an area of 270,152 hectares.
In a few places where surface soaks provide water and the surrounding countryside is normally more open and grassy, larger trees such as stringybarks, sheoaks, bulokes and gums take advantage of the moisture.
An attractive array of wildflowers colour this semi-arid wilderness in spring, attracting not only birds and bees, but also apiarists. The parks are also home to some unusual animals such as the ningau, silky mouse and pygmy mouse, along with the more common echidnas and western grey kangaroos. A wide variety of reptiles, from geckoes to snakes, live amongst the dunes and plains.
While conventional vehicles can reach the edge of the park, the internal network of vehicle tracks, often sandy, are better suited for four wheel drive vehicles. These tracks take visitors to places of interest such as Scorpion Springs, Pertendi Hut and Gosse Hill.
Bush camping is recommended at Box Flat, Pertendi Hut, Bucks Camp, Rabbit Island, Comet Bore and Pine Hut Soak. Remember these spots are also important drinking points for the wildlife, so don't camp too close to the actual soaks.
This region of Australia can get extremely hot during the summer months, and is best visited in late autumn, winter and early spring. You should carry your water needs with you at all times, as well as food and fuel supplies.
The park is located 300 km southeast of Adelaide.
For further information contact the NP&WS, Tintinara, ph: (087) 57 2261.
\BDescription:\b Sand Dunes. \ICourtesy South Australian Tourism Commission.\i
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"Nullarbor National Park",14,"b\9\a2_0040.jpg","c","0"
Approximate Size: 230,000 ha.
The Nullarbor Plain, on first appearance, looks a desolate and featureless countryside of saltbush and bluebush with the occasional patch of mallee scrub, with little to offer the visitor in way of scenic attractions or interest. The natural wonders of the park are hidden, literally, underground, and where the plains end abruptly along the coastline. To see both you'll need to slow down and detour off the Eyre Highway.
The park protects the world's largest semi-arid karst (limestone) landscapes and the area is an underground labyrinth of cave systems and caverns formed by water dissolving and eroding through the limestone layers. In places, where the surface has collapsed to form sink-holes, these caverns are exposed and provide shelter and sanctuary for the bird and mammal population, such as the hairy-nosed wombat, which has adapted to survive in this seemingly infertile and hostile environment.
The other outstanding feature of the park, and the easiest to see, is the dramatic coastline of the Great Australian Bight. Here, the flat plains end suddenly in confrontation with the mighty force of the Great Southern Ocean. The spectacle is that of precipitous towering cliffs, 60 metres high, that stretch for 200 km along this section of coast, with the deep, indigo colouration of the ocean a distinct disparity to the mottled browns and greens of the rocky plain high above.
For those willing to detour off the Highway along any of the dirt tracks leading to lookout points, they will be rewarded with incredible views.
The coastal waters at the head of the Great Australian Bight are frequented by Southern Right Whales in the winter and spring. However, to reach the coastline along which the whales congregate, you need a permit to enter Yalata Aboriginal land. It's easy to obtain from the Nullarbor Roadhouse.
The park is located 330 km west of Ceduna.
For further information contact the NP&WS, Ceduna, ph: (086) 25 3144.
\BPic2:\b np20004.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Nullarbor Plain, South Coast \I(Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np308.jpg
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"Parks of the Far North",15,"0","g","0"
The Desert Parks in the far north of the state cover nearly 8 million hectares, forming one of the largest arid region parks systems in the world.
To enter these parks, travellers must have a Desert Parks Pass, which can be obtained from various locations. Contact the NP&WS for full details.
This package allows you to bush camp in the following parks and reserves :
ò Lake Eyre National Park
ò Innamincka Regional Reserve
ò Simpson Desert Conservation Park
ò Simpson Desert Regional Reserve
ò Witjira National Park
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"Lake Eyre National Park",16,"b\9\sa024.jpg","c","0"
This national park covers an area of 1,228,000 hectares and takes in all of Lake Eyre North and the Tirari Desert. A drier, more inhospitable landscape you could hardly imagine. Lake Eyre has international significance, both for its large expanse of salt pan and its occasional floodings.
The Lake Eyre National Park protects a major part of the heat-hazed, shimmering salt flats of Lake Eyre, the largest salt lake in Australia.
The Tirari Desert is noted for its vast north-south dunes and salt lakes; in one, Lake Ngapakaldi, important fossil deposits have been discovered.
Lake Eyre is both a dry salt lake and a playa lake (which is one that occasionally floods), and is split in two, with the north and south lakes connected by the 13 km long Goyder Channel. When the great rivers of the channel country far to the north flood, they set course for Lake Eyre, and occasionally, in times of very heavy rainfall, the life-giving waters arrive at the lower reaches of Lake Eyre, and may even span out to fill both lakes, creating an inland sea nearly one-sixth the size of Australia. This then was the inland sea that Charles Sturt and his party set out to discover back in 1844 - a sea of salt.
At times of flooding, the lakes' waters, for a short time, teem with fish life which is brought down by the flooding rivers, and the lake is considered by water birds, such as pelicans, gulls and ducks, a utopia. They flock in enormous numbers to gorge themselves and breed around the water's edge, and at these times the area is a birdwatcher's delight.
As nature takes over once again and the waters evaporate under the furnace like the blaze of the sun, so too the fish life struggle and die in the quickly evaporating waters, and the lake returns to its desolate, barren bed of grey mud, covered with a dirty, crusty layer of salt. It is a lifeless platform, sitting 16 metres below sea level in places, on which virtually nothing can exist.
Vegetation in the park tends to be low and stunted, consisting mainly of samphire, saltbush and bluebush, with some acacia and cassia. Lake Eyre has only been full of water three times in the last fifteen years.
Lake Eyre is a unique part of the Australian landscape and whether full with water and abounding with life, or just a glaring white expanse as far as the eye can see, it is something well worth experiencing. It is however a remote and desolate country and visitors should use caution and be well prepared. Make sure you carry your water requirements with you.
Two access tracks lead to the lake perimeter; one via Muloorina Station, or the other from the turnoff near William Creek. Both tracks are 4WD only. Do not attempt to drive on the lake bed, no matter how firm it looks, as your vehicle will quickly break the hard surface and sink in the mire. Bush camping is possible around the edge of the lake, however open fires are prohibited within the national park and there isn't much in the way of shade.
The park is located 720 km from Adelaide.
For further information contact the NP&WS, Hawker, ph: (086) 48 4244.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy South Australian Tourism Commission\i.
\BPic2:\b np20077.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Lake Eyre National Park. \IPhoto by Ron and Viv Moon. (Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b sa020.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Outback Lake Eyre. \I(South Australian Tourism Commission.\i)
\BPic4:\b sa016.jpg
\BDescription4:\b \I(South Australian Tourism Commission.)\i
This reserve covers an area of 13,800 sq. km and is a unique and historic part of Australia, with a contrasting but impressive landscape of sand dunes, clay pans and gibber desert, and the oasis of the mighty Cooper Creek. This stream, whose vein-like tendrils creep out across the Strzelecki Desert, takes life-giving water in times of flood to a dried and dusty land, filling freshwater lakes and waterholes and creating extensive wetlands.
With such a diverse range of environments and ecosystems, the reserve is rich in flora and fauna. One of the most significant habitats in the reserve is the Coongie Lakes system, in the northwest. This large wetland area, made up of a myriad of lakes, is an important retreat for birds, especially when filled with water, at which times the birdlife is phenomenal. Unfortunately visitors are only allowed access to Coongie Lake itself, which is the southernmost lake of the system.
Cooper Creek and its waterholes are well stocked with fish, and there is a good chance of catching a feed of yellowbelly. High above, amongst the branches of imposing river red gums and coolibahs that line the creek's banks, a multitude of birds have made their homes, while below, hundreds of smaller birds flit tirelessly between bushes in search of a meal.
The area is also an important part of our history, and famous explorers such as Charles Sturt in 1845-46 and the ill-fated expedition of Burke & Wills in 1860-61 passed through this country on their expeditions.
A small boat, or a canoe especially, is a must if visiting this region. Paddling serenely along one of the Cooper's waterholes gives you a chance to get really close to nature, little disturbed by your slow passage, and to simply enjoy the scenic beauty that surrounds you.
There are some great camping spots along Cooper Creek, both up and downstream from Innamincka, with one of the most popular sites being Cullyamurra Waterhole. There are also some pleasant camping spots on the run out to Coongie Lakes, 106 km northwest of Innamincka, and at the lake itself it is possible to camp along the lake shore.
Within the reserve, the small settlement of Innamincka exists on the banks of Cooper Creek and boasts a hotel and a trading store, and can supply travellers with all their needs, from accommodation, food, fuel and supplies. You can also obtain a Desert Parks' Pass from the Trading Post and from the NP&WS office.
Innamincka is 1,024 km from Adelaide.
For further information ph: (086) 75 9909.
\BDescription:\b Innamincka Regional Reserve. \IPhoto by Ron and Viv Moon. (Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b sa027.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \ICourtesy South Australian Tourism Commission.\i
Para Wirra (1,409 hectares), the second of South Australia's recreation parks, lies in the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges some 40 km north-east of Adelaide. The South Para River, discovered in 1837, runs through the northern part of the park. The land was part of the territory of the Peramangk Aboriginal people.
Para Wirra was reserved as a national park in 1962 to provide bush recreation for the expanding metropolis, particularly the Elizabeth-Salisbury area. It was reclassified as a recreation park under the National Parks and Wildlife Act of 1972.
The park consists of elevated rolling ridges cut by the steep-sided valleys of the South Para River, Hamlin's Gully and Mack Creek, with the highest point some 350 metres above sea-level. The rocks are metamorphic (affected by heat and pressure) from mainly two main eras - 2,500 million years and 1,000 million years ago. The mining period has left old mine shafts and tunnels, especially in Hamlin's Gully and the South Para valley, and walkers should take care in the bush in these localities.
The average annual rainfall of 650 millimetres results in a vegetation mantle of open forests of long-leaved box and pink gums with some blue gums and scattered native pines. The rocky soils also favour hardy plants like the tall yacca, needle-bush and several wattles, and there are colourful ground-clinging plants such as flame heath, native orchids and rock ferns in spring. Tall river red gums grow alongside rock pools in the South Para River gorge, and north of the river occur whipstick mallee and patches of malaleuca heath.
Indigenous wildlife in Para Wirra includes the western grey kangaroo, brushtailed and ringtail possums, the echidna and the yellow-footed marsupial mouse. Over 100 species of birds occur - the emu, Adelaide rosella, galah, red-rumped parrot, purple-crowned and musk lorikeets, Australian magpie, red wattlebird, and many others. Skinks and dragons of the lizard family occur, as well as eastern brown, red-bellied black and little whip snakes.
Para Wirra is a park for outdoor recreation in a bush setting. Picnics, barbecues, bushwalking, nature study, photography, orienteering, horse-riding on designated tracks, tennis and other ball games are all provided for.
Facilities include picnic shelters, tennis courts and ovals for hire, walking trails, barbecue fireplaces, a kiosk, information centre, drinking water taps, and public toilets (including facilities for handicapped persons). There is an entrance fee for vehicles.
\BDescription:\b Black Boys in Para Wirra Recreation Park. \I(Random House).\i
\BPic2:\b np318.jpg
#
"Seal Bay Conservation Park",19,"b\9\np20068.jpg","c","0"
The early sealers killed sea lions and seals without compunction. A breeding colony of sea lions managed to escape in this small corner of Kangaroo Island but as late as the 1950s they were still being killed by fishermen to be used as shark bait. This sanctuary was proclaimed in 1954 and the remnants of the colony managed to survive and breed. Now this one colony represents 10 percent of all the sea lions in the world. Not only are they protected but there is an aquatic reserve which restricts fishing along the full length of the park and for 1 km out to sea. The sea lions have been known to attack tourists.
The nearest accommodation is at Kingscote.
\BDescription:\b Seals at Kangaroo Island, Seal Bay Conservation Park. \IPhoto by Ron and Viv Moon. (Random House.)\i.
\BPic2:\b np314.jpg
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"Simpson Desert Parks and Reserve",20,"b\9\np305.jpg","c","0"
The Simpson Desert National Park (QLD) is 550,00 ha, the Simpson Desert Conservation Park (SA) 695,870 ha and the Simpson Desert Regional Reserve (SA) is approx. 2.96 million ha.
Abutting the eastern boundary of the Witjira National Park, the Simpson Desert Regional Reserve is joined by the Conservation Park, and in Queensland, the Simpson Desert National Park, creating a forbidding yet extraordinarily beautiful wilderness area of Australia.
Still largely untouched by man with few vehicles tracks to blemish its surface, the Simpson Desert is the largest parallel sand dune desert in the world. The panorama is dominated by endless sand dunes of varying earthy red colours cresting in waves, up to 30 metres in height, and running unimpaired the full length of the park from southeast to northwest. The landscape, however, is not a barren one of wind-blown sand, but scattered with dry playa lakes and clay pans. Tough, hardy plants such as spinifex and sandhill cane grass cover the sandy slopes and valleys, along with good growths of acacia. In more sheltered areas, shrubs such as wattles, grevilleas and emu bush endure.
Only the Sahara desert receives more rainfall than the Simpson Desert. However, when it does rain, the salt lakes fill with water, the clay flats become wet and boggy and a major hazard to cross by vehicle, and the desert blooms, becoming a flourishing area of growth and ephemeral flowers for a brief time, before nature reverts the land back to its normal parched state.
This is definitely not the 'dead heart', as described by early pioneers, and contrary to what you mightn't see, the desert is home to a large number of animals such as the hopping mouse, dunnart and rabbit-eared bandicoot, all of which prefer to forage for food during the cool of evening and under the safety of darkness. The area also supports an abundant and varied birdlife, even more so after rain when wildflowers and rabbits are abundant.
This area is a challenge for four wheel drivers and any trip should be well prepared and planned. It can get extremely hot and very wet, both of which can cause major problems.
The park is located 1,200 km from Adelaide.
For further information contact the NP&WS, Hawker, ph: (086) 48 4244.
\BDescription:\b Simpson Desert Parks and Reserve Location Map.
#
"Sir Joseph Banks Group Conservation Park",21,"b\9\np20030.jpg","c","0"
Sir Joseph Banks Conservation Park is 2,033 hectares and was established 1967.
By the time the sea had reached its present level 6,000 years ago, it had isolated a large number of islands along the west coast and particularly around the end of the Eyre and Yorke peninsulas. During low sea-levels the coastal plain was much wider than today, with fields of shelly sand dunes. Scrub covered, and scattered about were ancient granite hills, some capped with aeolianite. The granite hills, as today, acted as water catchments, and in the area of increased run-off about their bases were tall woodlands. There were islands, in a sense, even then, and would have been comparatively rich in wildlife. As the seas swept in and isolated these high places, wildlife was caught on them. None remained large enough to sustain large animals, such as western grey kangaroos, through all of the good and bad seasons over the past ten or so thousand years of isolation. Each island with its different area, form and vegetation community, was unique in itself, retaining only the plant and animal mix that it could sustain. Under such circumstances, the record of the animals on the island tells us a great deal about the survival capacity of each species. Some would survive easily, others struggling. As soon as humans added an extra pressure such as feral cats, foxes, rabbits or stock, the whole dynamic balance was altered and some of the native strugglers succumbed.
The Sir Joseph Banks Group Conservation Park, which covers eighteen of the twenty islands, like the many other island parks, is thus potentially one of very great significance.
Sea-lions bake in the sun along the beaches where ruddy turnstones, visitors from distant northern hemisphere beaches, probe the soft sand. The islands were originally acquired to protect Cape Barren geese nesting areas, the most important areas for South Australia. From about November, white-faced storm-petrels arrive to breed in burrows under vegetation of the cliff edges. These birds spend the day at sea, returning after dark. Large breeding colonies of black-faced cormorants scrape together dry seaweed, driftwood, grass and pigface for nests on Winceby and English islands. The black tiger snake is found on Hareby, Roxby and Reevesby islands.
The sea abounds with fish such as snapper, flathead, salmon and the King George whiting. Oysters and scallops are also sought, but divers should take great of the Great White Sharks that favour local sea-lion and seals as prey.
Exploring the islands, fishing and studying nature of the places, particularly birdwatching, are the most common activities. However, before visiting them, one should check with the Eyre District Office in Port Lincoln on the presence of venomous black tiger snakes, safe anchorage's and permissible activities. Weather conditions over the visit period should be thoroughly checked. Camping is permitted on Reevesby Island only, on the beach of Home Bay or near the homestead. The building is for emergency use only, during storms. Wood fires are not permitted - use gas or oil burning stoves. There is no freshwater on the islands. Rubbish should be removed by picnickers and campers when leaving the islands.
\BDescription:\b Tumby Bay. \I(Random House).\i
\Bpic2:\b np304.jpg
#
"Witjira National Park",22,"b\9\np306.jpg","c","0"
The Witjira National Park (776,900 hectares), forming the western edge of the Simpson Desert, protects a vast desert landscape of sand, stony tablelands, gibber plains, mound springs and transitory river systems that includes the Finke River flood plains. The jewel in the crown of this park is considered by many to be the Dalhousie mound spring complex.
The springs rise abruptly from the gibber plains that seem to continue forever. Splotches of green mark the areas of rich vegetation, dependent on the life-giving source of water hidden from view by the thick foliage surrounding the mounds.
Dalhousie Springs, with its large expanse of water, is the largest, most active artesian spring in Australia, and the area around it constitutes the largest area of active artesian springs on the continent.
The water in the region is very old, welling up from deep underground, it started its long journey from the Great Dividing Range over 2 million years ago. And, as the water flows out of the springs, the dissolved salts and minerals it carries are slowly deposited, hence building up the characteristic mounds around them, and hence their name.
The mounds and springs are an important habitat for invertebrates, fish and birds, and there's plenty of activity to keep the avid birdwatcher occupied. The animal life isn't so easy to see, most being nocturnal, and kangaroos only very occasionally use the region.
While the warm waters of the springs are the main attraction for visitors, the ruins of the original European settlement are a poignant reminder of man's battle to make a living in this remote and harsh land.
The Dalhousie ruins lie some 9 km south of Dalhousie Springs and are located near another spring complex that is dominated by the tall, giant frames of date palms. Roofless, crumbling stone buildings surround the springs, while nearby decaying cattle yards testify to a dream that really had little hope of ever succeeding.
Another man-made object well worth visiting is Purnie Bore, found in the east of the park, just before entering the Simpson Desert Regional Reserve. The bore was drilled in 1962 when an exploring party was searching for oil. Since that time it has been spurting forth hot water, forming a ribbon of wetlands which attracts, like the natural mound springs, a vast assemblage of plants and animals.
Travel within the park is definitely by 4WD and bush camping is permitted, however the only designated camping area, with basic facilities, is at Dalhousie Springs. Mt Dare Homestead, situated in the far northwest corner of the park, offers not only accommodation and a camp ground, but also provides fuel, water, first aid and information on the park. It is also possible to obtain a Desert Parks' Pass at the homestead.
The park is located 120 km north of Oodnadatta and 1,200 km from Adelaide.
For further information contact the NP&WS, Far North Region Office, Hawker, ph: (086) 48 4244. The Mt Dare Homestead tourist facility can be contacted on ph: (086) 70 7835.
\BDescription:\b Witjira National Park Location Map.
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17#
37,0
"Avon Valley National Park",1,"b\9\np511.jpg","c","0"
This national park is 80 km north-east of Perth. Car access is by way of the Toodyay road and after the turnoff you have 19 km of unsealed road.
The park covers 4,377 ha and is unusual in Australia in that a railway passes straight through its centre. The park is on the Avon River, which towards its mouth becomes the Swan River and flows through Perth.
There are excellent views from Bald Hill and, after winter rains, you can see Emu Spring Brook spilling 30 m on its way down to the Avon River.
The dry eucalypt forest that covers most of the slopes has mainly jarrah and marri.
There are graded paths and one, which requires an overnight stop, follows the Avon down to Walyunga National Park.
There is a camping site, otherwise the nearest accommodation is at Northam.
\BDescription:\b Avon Valley National Park Location Map.
#
"Cape Arid National Park",2,"b\9\np522.jpg","c","0"
This park is one of the largest in WA covering nearly 280,000 ha on the far south coast, 120 km east of Esperance and approximately 820 km south-east of Perth. The area is famous for its magnificent beaches and headlands but also includes sandplains, heathland, granite hills and in the northern section can be found Mt Ragged, the highest peak of the Russell Range at 594 m. As the name Cape Arid suggests, life in the park is dependent on rainfall, and being a windswept coastal area, the vegetation has to also be salt tolerant. Heathland and mallee dominate the landscape as far north as Mt Ragged, where they give way to woodlands of saltbush and bluebush. The granite hills and occasional pools of permanent water provide habitats for plants and animals found nowhere else in the park.
On and around Mt Ragged a variety of ferns and orchids have been identified. The fauna of the park consists of animals common to the south-west of WA including the western brush wallaby, southern bush rat, along with other small marsupials, reptiles and amphibians. The birdlife is prolific, the rare Cape Barren Goose being a regular visitor, and flocks of the endangered ground parrot are surviving here. During winter, Southern Right Whales can be spotted close inshore and on occasions seals are seen on the beaches.
Bushwalking is popular with several formed paths located within the park, the Tagon Coastal Walk being one of the longest at around 7 km return, and taking approximately 4 hrs to complete. Its highlight being the spectacular views along the wild unspoilt coastline. For those who prefer less organised walks, exploring the beaches has its own attractions.
The coastal fishing is good all year round and some beaches are open to 4WDs; designated 4WD tracks traverse the coast and across the park, Mt. Ragged is only accessible by 4WD. Once there, the Mt Ragged Walk Trail takes you on a fairly hard walk to the top of Tower Peak at 585 m. Allow around 3 hrs to cover the 3 km return trip. Several camping areas are provided within the park, of these, Seal Creek, Jorndee Creek and Thomas River are all accessed by a gravel road. Take your own water as supplies within the park are undrinkable and a portable gas stove is recommended for cooking.
Motel and caravan park accommodation is available at Esperance.
\BDescription:\b Cape Arid National Park Location Map.
#
"Cape Le Grand National Park",3,"b\9\calm02.jpg","c","0"
Cape Le Grand National Park is situated about 40 km east of Esperance and a leisurely 45 minute drive on sealed bitumen roads from the town centre.
Cape Le Grand was named after Le Grand, an officer on the ship \IL'Esperance,\i during a French expedition in 1792 under the command of Admiral D'Entrecasteaux.
The park protects an area of 32,000 ha and is well known for its sandy beaches, beautiful bays and rocky headlands. The most spectacular feature of the park can be found in the south-west corner between Le Grand Beach and Rossiter Bay, here a chain of massive outcrops of granite and gneiss dominate the landscape. These include Mt. Le Grand (352 m), Frenchman Peak (262 m) and Mississippi Hill (180 m). Several outcrops within the park have large caves and overhangs the origins of which are not fully understood but are thought to have been formed by the action of waves and underwater currents when, about 40 million years ago, sea levels were at least 300 m higher than their present level and the peaks would have been submerged.
Cape Le Grand has a mild climate with cool wet winters and warm dry summers and while the average rainfall over most of the park is about 560 mm, the "Cape" and peaks average over 700 mm. The park mainly consists of sandplains which support heathland, banksia and paperbarks. The granite hills are home to several species of mallee, some of which are found only in this area. Mammals of the park include the western grey kangaroo, pygmy and honey possums and bandicoots. The birdlife of the area is spectacular, and from the many vantage points you can see albatrosses, penguins, petrels and shearwaters as well as the smaller birds of the bush such as honeyeaters, the beautiful red-eared finch and the tiny western emu wren.
Fishing and boating are popular activities and the best launching facilities are at Lucky Bay, although small boats can also be launched at Le Grand beach. Launching elsewhere is not recommended, as the beaches are treacherous and vehicles are easily bogged in the most innocent looking sand. Fish caught in the region include Australian salmon, herring, whiting, black and silver bream as well as larger species such as mulloway, blue groper and sharks.
Bushwalking is encouraged and several trails of varying difficulty have been established, ranging from an easy 45 minutes to hard walking for 3 hours.
Cape Le Grand National Park has two designated camping areas and facilities include toilets and showers. It is advisable to bring your own portable gas stove as firewood is hard to find.
Supplies and all types of accommodation are available nearby at Esperance.
\BDescription:\b Thistle Cove.\I Photo by John Hunter. (Department of Conservation and Land Management, WA.)\i
\BPic2:\b calm04.jpg
\BPic3:\b np521.jpg
#
"Cape Range National Park",4,"b\10\mel010.jpg","c","0"
Cape Range National Park covers an area of approximately 50,600 ha and is situated on the Exmouth peninsula about 1,250 km north of Perth. The western edge of Cape Range National Park borders the Indian Ocean and the entire area has now been incorporated into the Ningaloo Marine Park set up by the State and Commonwealth Governments in 1987 to protect 260 km of coastline from Amherst Point in the south, to Exmouth in the north (i.e. the Coral Coast).
Cape Range itself is best described as a rough, stony, limestone ridge (at the highest point the range is only 311 m above sea level) intersected by gorges some of which are deep and steep sided. Descending from the range, you cross the arid coastal plain, in places with moving sand dunes and then to the Indian Ocean with its magnificent Ningaloo Reef.
The area has unreliable rainfall being situated in the hot arid tropics of the north-west. Summer temperatures can reach 40 degrees Celsius and cyclones sometimes influence the region between the months of November to April; consequently the winter months are the best time to visit Cape Range National Park.
Trees that manage to survive on top of the range are usually small and stunted as the high summer temperatures and erratic low rainfall make growing conditions less than ideal. Other vegetation comprises spinifex, acacias and sennas, while along the creeks and cliffs, kurrajong and native figs maintain a clinging existence. Mammals common to the area include bats, black-footed rock wallabies, euros and numerous western grey and red kangaroos, which make any attempt at night driving extremely hazardous! The park is also home to numerous bird species including emus, galahs, corellas, butcher birds and wedge-tailed eagles, along with a large variety of sea birds and waders.
The main attraction of Cape Range National Park is without doubt the unspoilt beaches and easy access it provides for fishing, diving or just swimming in the adjacent Ningaloo Marine Park. Special bag and weight limits apply for fish caught in the Ningaloo Marine Park so check these regulations with the Fisheries Dept or CALM before your trip.
Walk trails of varying grades have been established on the eastern and western sides of the range and these have been graded according to their degree of difficulty. When using these trails you must carry enough drinking water for your own needs as there is no water in the range.
Milyering Visitor Centre, situated in the top section of the park, has displays, videos, booklets and brochures to provide visitors with information on all aspects of the Coral Coast. The majority of roads within the park are 2WD and unsealed, however 4WD is needed to cross Yardie Creek near the southern boundary of the national park. Camping is allowed at the designated sites spread along the coast where only limited facilities are provided. Water can be obtained at one bore in the park but you must bring your own drinking water.
Accommodation and supplies are available at Exmouth, 39 km from the northern boundary of the park.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Webster Publishing.\i
\BPic2:\b mel011.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Torquoise Bay - Cape Range National Park. \I(Webster Publishing\i)
\BPic3:\b calm07.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Photo by John Hunter. \I(Department of Conservation and Land Management)\i
\BPic4:\b np506.jpg
#
"Christmas Island National Park",5,"b\3\dfat61.jpg","c","0"
Christmas Island lies 2,600 km northwest of Perth, 360 km south of Jakarta, Indonesia, and is 135 square km in size.
It took millions of years for the island to emerge from the immense depths of the Indian Ocean. Isolation has limited the number of plants and animals able to reach these distant shores and then survive. As a result the island's ecology has developed in a distinctive way.
Some species can only be found here while others are threatened or considered to be endangered elsewhere.
The Christmas Island National Park was declared under Australian Commonwealth law and currently protects 85 square km, over 60% of the entire land and much of the fringing reef. The park protects and preserves the important ecological systems which characterise this beautiful tropical island: the magnificent rainforests, and ocean shores and reefs.
Christmas Island has moved about 700 km from where the island was originally formed. It is on a plate on the earth's crust which is creeping northwards a few centimetres each year.
Geologists think that about 60 million years ago the cone of an undersea volcano surfaced, forming a basin on which a coral atoll then began to emerge from the sea in a series of uplifts. Each of the island terraces was formed by the development of the fringing reef and sea cliff erosion before being uplifted. The lagoon drained and the central plateau was formed.
Evidence of volcanic origins can be seen at The Dales and Dolly Beach. Here the basalt rock, which underlies the limestone and forms the bed of freshwater streams, is exposed.
\BDescription:\b A Booby bird and its chick on Christmas Island \I(DFAT.)\i.
\BPic2:\b np544.jpg
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"D'Entrecasteaux National Park",6,"b\10\np10011.jpg","c","0"
D'Entrecasteaux National Park covers an area of approximately 115,000 ha, which includes 130 km of coastline from Black Point in the west, to Cliffy Head in the east, and extends inland from the low water mark for around 5 km to 20 km. The park is located on the coast between Augusta and Walpole, some 380 km south of Perth.
This park comprises many different landscapes, the long white beaches, cliffs and immense sand dunes of the coast as well as the wetlands and karri forest of the inland. Rivers of the park include the Shannon, Warren and Donnelly, whose estuaries usually only break through to the ocean in winter when the water flow is at its peak. Broke Inlet, which is the largest, has an area of around 4,500 ha. The wetland areas of the park support many freshwater lakes, the majority of which have formed behind the coastal sand dunes, these include Lake Jasper, Lake Maringup and Lake Quitjup.
D'Entrecasteaux National Park provides numerous opportunities for bushwalking, canoeing, camping, swimming, diving, surfing, photography and much more, but the area is probably best known for its excellent fishing both in the rivers and from the beaches. The majority of D'Entrecasteaux National Park cannot be accessed by developed public roads and tracks into the park can be rough and sandy and definitely require a 4WD vehicle. The many tracks are of varying standards and are prone to seasonal flooding and subsequent erosion.
\BDescription:\b Rugged coastal scenery D'Entrecasteaux National Park. \IPhoto by N Wehrack. (Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np10012.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Through the Karri Forest. \IPhoto by N Wehrack. (Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np10016.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Track over heathland on way out to 'Fish Creek' - eastern end of D'Entrecasteaux National Park. \IPhoto by N Wehrack. (Courtesy Random House)\i
\BPic4:\b calm03.jpg
\BDescription4:\b Lake Marangup. \IPhoto by John Hunter. (Department of Conservation and Land Management, WA)\i.
\BPic5:\b np514.jpg
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"Devonian Reef National Parks",7,"b\10\calm08.jpg","c","0"
Windjana Gorge, Tunnel Creek and Geikie Gorge National Parks (see separate entries) are also known as the Devonian Reef National Parks, as the geology of this region provides an idea of what life was like during the Devonian period before the existence of reptiles or mammals. About three hundred and fifty million years ago much of WA's north-west was covered by sea, and in the warm shallow water surrounding the Kimberley, an enormous coral barrier reef existed, thought to be at least 1,000 km long and over 20 km wide. At Windjana Gorge, Tunnel Creek and Geikie Gorge, all located approximately 2,500 km north of Perth in the Kimberley region, the flood waters of the rivers have deeply eroded the ranges and exposed layers of fossils and a cross-section of the limestone strata of the ancient reef.
The Kimberley has distinct wet and dry seasons and as all the rivers flood each year during the wet, the best time to visit the area is May through September, the dry season, when the days are clear and hot and the nights cool.
\BDescription:\b Geikie Gorge. Photo by John Hunter. \I(Department of Land and Conservation Management, WA)\i.
\BPic2:\b np502.jpg
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"Drysdale River National Park",8,"b\10\np535.jpg","c","0"
Drysdale River National Park is in the northern Kimberley region of Western Australia. Over 3,000 km from Perth, it is the state's most northerly national park with an area of 448,264 ha.
The Drysdale River runs through the park, and during the dry season, forms large pools which support tall trees, and although the majority of the park is open woodland and savannah, remnant pockets of rainforest are found along the Carson Escarpment and in some gorges such as Worriga Gorge. The rivers and creeks of the area contain many steep-sided gorges, cliffs and waterfalls, the largest being Morgan Falls and Solea Falls.
Surveys of the park have identified almost 600 plant species, two of which have not been found anywhere else in WA and the bird and animal life is equally diverse. It includes short-eared rock-wallabies, sugar gliders, water rats and native mice and birds such as the purple-crowned fairy wren, gouldian finches and grey and peregrine falcons. Not to be forgotten are 47 reptile species, 13 species of frogs and 26 species of freshwater fish!
Drysdale River National Park is best visited during the dry season (May-October) as during the wet most rivers of the Kimberley region are in flood. This is a wilderness park which provides great opportunities for bushwalking and nature observation, as there are no facilities and no authorised vehicle tracks within the park. Access is from the west off the Gibb River/Kalumburu Road and a 4WD vehicle is essential as the only way into the national park is via station tracks. Intending visitors must obtain permission from the respective stations BEFORE crossing their pastoral leases.
Northern access is via Carson River Station where you can get through to the Carson Escarpment, however camping is restricted to the Bulldust Yards camp site on the banks of the Drysdale River, approximately 30 km from the homestead. Phone: (091) 614330.
Theda Station enables vehicle access to the Carson Escarpment in the mid-section of the park, Palmoondoora Creek and Worriga Gorge. Phone: (091) 614329.
From King Edward River Station, access into the southern section of the park is only with the consent of the station manager. Phone: (091) 614328 Fax: (091) 614344.
The nearest fuel, supplies and limited accommodation are available during the dry season at Drysdale River Station, south of the park on the Gibb River/Kalumburu Road. Phone: (091) 614326.
\BDescription:\b Drysdale River National Park Location Map.
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"Fitzgerald River National Park",9,"b\10\fitzrvr.jpg","c","0"
Covering 329,039 ha, Fitzgerald River National Park is on the south coast between the towns of Bremer Bay to the west, to Hopetoun in the east. The park is located approximately 410 km south-east of Perth. Not only is this one of the largest parks in Western Australia, but is also the most botanically important, as it contains about 20 per cent of the State's known plant species. The fact that there are 3 resident Rangers is an indication of the great significance of this area. Fitzgerald River National River Park is a Biosphere Reserve, internationally recognised under the Unesco "Man and the Biosphere Program", the area under protection is big enough to provide a baseline from which changes to the environment can be evaluated on both a local and worldwide scale.
Fitzgerald River National Park is 420 km south-east of Perth. It is a landscape of coasts, heath covered plains, river gorges and mountain ranges. There are few roads, tracks or facilities and there are extensive areas free of any signs of human activity.
Much of the wildlife in Fitzgerald River National Park is unique. It has evolved, isolated from wildlife in eastern Australia by formidable deserts. One of the greatest threats to the unique plants in the park is a disease called 'dieback'.
The dieback fungus lives in the soil, destroys plant roots and is transported on shoes and car tyres. Because the disease spreads quickly, many roads and tracks have been closed, and access to certain areas can be restricted when it is wet.
Two major gravel roads provide access to the park for 2WD vehicles, Hamersley Drive for the eastern section and Pabelup Drive in the west. It is not possible to drive across the park, access is restricted to either end in an effort to control the spread of Dieback disease as Fitzgerald River National Park is one of the least infected parks in the south-west.
From the east, Hamersley Drive is the main gravel road and can be accessed at Hopetoun or via West River Road from the north. This is a scenic drive through the central area of the park and enables you to visit such beaches as Four Mile, Barrens, Mylies and West. Many of the tracks are 4WD only and these include the Moir Track, Whale Bone Beach Track and the Quoin Head Track.
From the west, Pabelup Drive does a loop through this end of the park and is accessed off Highway One from Quiss Road in the north or Devils Creek Road to the west. Normal 2WD vehicles can be driven to such places of interest as Mt. Maxwell, West Mt. Barren, Point Ann and possibly with care, Twertup. The main 4WD tracks in this area are to Fitzgerald Inlet and Trigelow Beach. The 4WD tracks in both the east and west sections of the park can be closed to all vehicles after periods of heavy rain.
The landscape is very diverse, going from protected beaches, sea cliffs, steep ranges and extensive plains, to river systems that empty into the Southern Ocean via broad estuaries. As a consequence, there is an abundance of flora and fauna to be seen in this area. To date, 1,784 plant species have been identified, 75 of which are found nowhere else. The park protects 22 mammal species, 41 reptiles and 12 frogs. The region is a bird watchers delight, as 184 bird species are found here and these include rare ones like the ground parrot, western bristle bird and the western whip bird.
Other attractions include the prolific wildflowers in spring, whale watching from August to November and numerous bushwalking opportunities, some of which are marked trails. It goes without saying that the extensive coastline within the park provides numerous opportunities for the fisherman where normal fishing regulations still apply.
Vehicle-based camping is allowed at several locations within the park and in some of these, free gas barbecues are provided. Otherwise use your own portable stove and carry fresh water as there is no reliable supply within the park.
Various types of accommodation are available at both Bremer Bay and Hopetoun.
\BDescription:\b \I(Readers Digest.)\i.
\BPic2:\b np519.jpg
#
"Francois Peron National Park",10,"b\10\np541.jpg","c","0"
This is a coastal park of approximately 53,000 ha situated 835 km north of Perth. Most of the Shark Bay area was given World Heritage Listing in 1991. Access to the park is off the Monkey Mia Road turning left 4 km out of Denham.
The park is named after the French explorer and naturalist, Francois Peron, who visited the Shark Bay area as part of the \IGeographe\i expeditions of 1801 and 1803. The now famous Peron journals give detailed accounts of the wildlife and Aborigines he encountered.
From the late 1880s, until purchased by the State Government in 1990, Peron Peninsula was operating as a sheep station. The homestead is now used to give visitors a taste of what life was like in this era. About the same time, a pearling camp existed in Herald Bight and the pearl shell remains are still to be found on the beach.
The road into the Peron homestead can be used by two-wheel drives but a 4WD is a MUST for travel further into the park, even low clearance 4WDs are not suitable for the peninsula tracks. This park offers the traveller a wilderness experience and protects rare wildlife while offering impressive coastal scenery, boating, fishing and swimming.
The land content consists mainly of undulating sandy plains broken only by gypsum claypans also known as birridas. The majority of the birridas were landlocked salt lakes when the sea levels were higher and the gypsum was deposited on the lake beds. On the peninsula at Big Lagoon, the sea has access and shallow inland bays are created on the claypans. Vehicles trying to cross the birridas will get stuck. There is only a very thin surface crust over a bog mire which is kept that way by the groundwater. Stay on the designated tracks and prevent damage to the samphire and other salt-tolerant flora of the birridas which are very difficult to rehabilitate.
The park is home to two arid vegetation types, wattles are abundant on the sandy plains and are typical of the region, while the hakeas and grevilleas so common in the south are at their northern limit on Cape Peron. The Shark Bay daisy, a creeper which covers shrubs and has vivid purple flowers, is one of the areas most striking plants and along with other species such as Dampiera, is known to have left an impression on navigator William Dampier in 1699. The white myrtle and yellow wattles all add to the colourful spring wildflower display.
Peron Peninsula has a wide variety of both land and sea birds, fairy wrens, scrubwrens, finches and wedgebills. The region also boasts euros, other small wallabies, small rodents and lizards. Snakes which frequent the park include the gwardar and mulga, and thorny devils are also very common and can be seen practically everywhere feeding on the abundant ant population. From the high vantage point of the cliffs at Cape Peron it's possible to see dolphins, dugong, green and loggerhead turtles and even large manta rays. However the cliffs at Cape Peron are unstable and care should be exercised around their eroded edges.
For the fishing enthusiasts, small boats can be launched from the beach at Big Lagoon, Gregories, Bottle Bay and Herald Bight and you could catch such species as snapper, mulloway, mackerel, whiting and bream. Camping areas are located at the beach launching sites but with only minimal facilities. Carry your own drinking water as none is available in the park. Limited firewood is supplied but whenever possible use a gas stove for cooking.
The nearest town with accommodation is Denham, 4 km from the park entrance.
\BDescription:\b Francois Peron National Park Location Map.
#
"Geikie Gorge",11,"b\10\calm08.jpg","c","0"
Geikie Gorge is only 16 km from Fitzroy Crossing, or around 280 km from Derby. It is situated where the Oscar and Geikie Ranges meet and was formed by the mighty Fitzroy River, carving a 30 m deep canyon through the limestone. The unusual name is taken from Sir Archibald Geikie, the Director General of Geological Survey for Great Britain and Ireland, when the gorge was named by Europeans in 1883.
The Aboriginal people from this region, the Bunuba, call the gorge Darngku, and in conjunction with CALM (Dept. of Conservation and Land Management) they operate a boat tour of Geikie Gorge, providing visitors with an Aboriginal perspective of the park, its plants and animals.
The banks of the river are a wildlife sanctuary, meaning that no-one is allowed to set foot within 200 m of either bank, except for the permitted area along the west bank. There is a pleasant (1 km return) walk of moderate difficulty to the gorge wall but the best way to experience Geikie Gorge is on one of the boat tours.
A list of over 100 species of birds for Geikie Gorge alone includes the rare lilac-crowned wren and the white-breasted sea eagle, not often found so far from the sea. Sawfish and stingrays have adapted to a freshwater life in the gorge while barramundi and schools of archer fish can also been seen. Geikie also hosts a large number of freshwater crocodiles which are commonly seen sunning themselves on rocks in the gorge. Most of the native mammals are small, nocturnal and shy but occasionally during the day or evening you may see wallabies or euros.
There is no camping allowed at either Geikie Gorge or Tunnel Creek but a camping and caravan area has been designated at Windjana Gorge. Facilities include toilets, showers and water. Firewood is also available from the Ranger and portable generators are allowed in the designated area between 7am and 9pm.
Varying standards of accommodation are available at either Derby or Fitzroy Crossing.
\BDescription:\b Photo by John Hunter. \I(Department of Land and Conservation Management, WA)\i.
\BPic2:\b np503.jpg
#
"Hamersley Range National Park",12,"b\10\4_0004.jpg","c","0"
Hamersley Range National Park consists of a massive block of weathered iron ore rock stretching for 320 kilometres. The range looms above the horizon in an undulating, horizontally striped band. It contains some of the largest known deposits of iron ore in the world. This is being mined from nearby Mt. Newman and Mt. Tom Price.
The park features many gorges; Dales Gorge is a cool green oasis far below the park's stony, spinifex-dotted plateau.
This group of islands, 50 km off the coast and 80 km in length, is to the west of Geraldton.
The islands were originally discovered by the Dutch and were the scene of many shipwrecks.
They are the main breeding places for sea birds - terns, gulls, shearwaters and noddies - on the western coast. Also found on the islands is the tammar wallaby.
These small, low islands are remnants of coastal dunes and the highest point is only 12 m above sea-level. Of the islands, only East Wallabi has trees; most have low scrub with mangrove fringes. The Abrolhos consists of three groups: Wallabi Group, Easter Group and Southern Group.
The waters are clear with extensive reefs, luxuriant coral growth and abundant marine life, and are excellent for skin diving.
Camping on the islands is not allowed and the nearest accommodation is Geraldton.
"Kalamunda National Park",14,"b\10\np512.jpg","c","0"
Near the hill town of Kalamunda and about 25 km east of Perth, this 375 ha park is a green oasis in the middle of spreading suburbia. It is managed primarily as a plant reserve.
The park is on the Darling Ranges and the principal vegetation is dry sclerophyll eucalypt forest. Running through the park is the Piesse Brook which is periodic. There are tremendous displays of wildflowers from August to November, with some outstanding species flowering in December.
Several marked trails provide pleasant walks through the reserve.
The nearest accommodation is at Kalamunda.
\BDescription:\b Kalamunda National Park Location Map.
#
"Kalbarri National Park",15,"b\10\np20029.jpg","c","0"
This park is located approximately 150 km north of the port city of Geraldton while the town of Kalbarri itself is situated around 590 km north of Perth at the mouth of the Murchison River. Kalbarri is not only a very successful fishing port but also a good base for visitors to the area. The Kalbarri National Park covers an area of 186,000 ha and is a walker's and serious hiker's paradise offering spectacular coastal scenery along with the magnificent gorges of the Murchison River which flows through the park.
In general the wettest months are June and July after which the wildflowers, which this area is famous for, begin to blossom. The cooler months before the onset of summer are the best time for exploring the park.
The spectacular red and white banded gorges created by the Murchison River meandering its way to the sea stretch for over 80 km. The gorges provide walking opportunities from a short 500 m to as long as 38 km of strenuous hiking, taking at least 4 days. Drinking water is not available within the park so you will have to carry your own. Anyone contemplating an overnight trek must always check-in with the ranger before and after the trip.
Soon after heavy rains, the Murchison River becomes navigable but it is recommended that only experienced and well-equipped persons attempt to canoe or raft the river and only after consultation with the Park Ranger.
Along the coastline, the constant process of erosion has resulted in some unusual rock formations and the views from the cliffs are stunning. Caution must be exercised here as huge "King" waves have taken lives and the cliff edges are unstable. There are two coastal walk trails ranging from a leisurely 2 hour return walk to an 8 km one-way hike taking 3-5 hours. The fishing is also excellent along the rock platforms and beaches for tailor, mulloway and small sharks, or in the estuary for smaller species like bream and whiting.
There are no camping areas within the park but all services and styles of accommodation are available nearby at Kalbarri.
\BDescription:\b Kalbarri National Park \I(Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np20028.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Hawkes Head, Kalbarri National Park. \I(Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b calm06.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Hawkes Head Lookout. \IPhoto by John Hunter. (Department of Land and Conservation Management, WA\i)
\BPic4:\b mel013.jpg
\BPic5:\b np507.jpg
#
"Karijini National Park",16,"b\10\np10019.jpg","c","0"
In this park can be found the second highest mountain in Western Australia, Mt. Bruce (Punurrunha) at 1,235 m and a truly spectacular view is the reward for taking an early morning walk on the north face. It should be noted, however, that although this is only a 2 km walk, you need to allow 4 hours for the return trip.
This is only one of the many delights to be experienced when visiting the second largest national park in the state, covering an area of approximately 628,000 ha. Karijini is part of the Hamersley Range situated in the heart of the Pilbara region, 310 km from Roebourne and 285 km from Port Hedland.
The best time to enjoy this area is winter and spring (May-October). The variable rainfall occurs mainly in summer, usually as a result of thunderstorms and cyclones and is often accompanied by temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius. The park contains mountains and escarpments that rise up above the flat valleys and it's these high plateaus that have been eroded by the elements to form a series of magnificent gorges. The scenery is rugged and ancient, the banded-iron formations clearly visible in and around the gorges date back more than 2,500 million years. The majority of the southern section of the park is inaccessible with most visitors spending their time in and around the spectacular gorges of the north, with their clear rock pools and waterfalls.
Wildflowers vary with the season and rainfall, but there is usually something interesting in flower in the park. In the cooler months you may see yellow flowering sennas and acacias, northern bluebells and purple mulla-mullas. The hills, ridges and plateaus are dotted with hummocks of spinifex and scattered eucalypts, and lower down there are mulga woodlands and tall trees growing along the watercourses.
The fauna of the area is equally impressive with red kangaroos and euros, and you may even catch a glimpse of the rare Rothschild's rock wallaby. The park is also home to bats, dingoes, native rodents, native marsupials and many different reptiles. Pythons and other snakes are common as well as legless lizards, goannas and frogs. The rock-pile homes of the pebble-mound mouse are common on the track to Red Gorge Lookout, please do not disturb them. The area is also rich in birdlife and many varieties can be seen around the pools and streams.
The traditional owners, the Panyjima, Innawonga and Kurrama people, called the Hamersley Range, Karijini, and changing the name of the national park recognised their occupation of the area which goes back more than 20,000 years. During that time, the Aborigines practised "fire stick farming" which has resulted in the diversity of flora and fauna which inhabits the area today.
Many walk trails and lookouts have been constructed to best enjoy the spectacular and dramatic scenery of the gorges, waterfalls and pools. The trails have been graded into four different categories to cater for all types of walkers with varying degrees of experience.
Camping is permitted in designated areas only, with provision made for caravans, buses and generators. Drinking water is available within the park and gas barbecues are provided at the camping areas.
Roebourne and Port Hedland are the nearest towns for accommodation and supplies.
\BDescription:\b Four gorge lookout, Karajini National Park, Pilbara. \IPhoto by Oliver Strewe. (Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np10018.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Karijini National Park in the Hamersley Ranges. \IPhoto by N Wehrack. (Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np505.jpg
#
"Kennedy Ranges National Park",17,"b\10\np540.jpg","c","0"
The Kennedy Range is located approximately 170 km east of Carnarvon and can be accessed by taking the main gravel road north from Gascoyne Junction (i.e. the road to Mt. Augustus) and after about 60 km you take a left turn, heading west into the national park. This road is suitable for 2WD vehicles but other tracks within the park are 4WD only and can be slow, rocky-going. Take note of your route when using these tracks, as it is fairly easy to get lost.
The Kennedy Range was named by the explorer F.T.Gregory in 1858 after the Governor of Western Australia. The national park now covers an area of 141,660 ha and has a desert climate, with the average 200 mm of rainfall occurring mainly as a result of summer cyclones or winter cold fronts. As much of the national park is without water and the land isn't very suitable for grazing, it hasn't been degraded to the same extent as many of the surrounding pastoral leases.
The range is an eroded plateau about 75 km long and close to 25 km wide with the eastern and southern sides forming tall cliffs which reach up to 100 m above the Lyons River flood plain. The cliffs in turn have been eroded by the elements to form a maze of steep-sided ravines which have running water for a short time after rain. Springs are located on the western side of the range which flow even in times of drought and pastoralists have taken advantage of this and put down bores for stock watering.
In the area where the springs are located also occur deposits of chert, a form of silica (e.g. flint) which were used by the Aboriginal inhabitants to make stone tools. The springs provide water for the wildlife which in turn provided food for the Aborigines who lived in this region for at least 20,000 years before the arrival of the Europeans. Many artifacts have been discovered in the area and it is well known that the Kennedy Range was also an important ceremonial meeting place.
Around 250 million years ago, the Gascoyne area was part of a shallow ocean floor which was eventually compressed into layers of sandstone and shale and lifted up above sea level by movements in the earth's crust. The elements have eroded much of the surface rock and marine fossils can easily be found in the sandstone, many being of scientific importance. Lapidary enthusiasts are attracted to the park by the presence of Mookaite (semi-precious coloured chert), fossil wood and marine worm (teredo) borings which have been filled by other coloured minerals.
The surface of the plateau is covered by rows of red sand dunes and the vegetation is limited to spinifex, scattered wattle, mallee and a few small shrubs. Almost 40% of the 295 plant species identified in the national park are annual wildflowers which are at their best in August and September if there has been good winter rains. Euros and rock wallabies use the caves on the eastern side for shelter; numerous reptiles can be found on the plateau and as many as 50 different species of birds have been noted in the park. The inaccessibility of the Kennedy Range has meant that many of the plants and animals that live in the area have not been fully recorded.
The Kennedy Range has long been considered to have mineral potential and has been explored for oil, coal, diamonds, uranium and base metals, however a recent geological report for the Dept of Minerals and Energy considers this potential to be low. When exploring the national park for yourself, you will need good footwear as many of the trails are steep and rocky, and always carry enough water for your requirements. Bush camping is allowed at the designated areas, with only basic toilet facilities provided. Limited supplies, fuel and accommodation are available at Gascoyne Junction some 60 km from the park.
\BDescription:\b Kennedy Ranges National Park Location Map.
#
"Lesueur National Park",18,"b\10\np543.jpg","c","0"
Lesueur is one of the three most important areas for flora conservation in southern Western Australia, the others being Stirling Range and Fitzgerald River. Mt. Lesueur is named after Charles-Alexandre Lesueur who was the topographical and natural history artist on the French ship \INaturaliste\i in June 1801. The park protects 26,987 ha and was only gazetted in January 1992 after a proposal to mine coal and construct a power station in the area was defeated. Access to the national park is off Cockleshell Gully Road about 8 km from the coastal town of Jurien and some 220 km north of Perth. The track into Lesueur National Park is 4WD only.
James Drummond, a colonial botanist, first explored the area in 1850 and he commented then on the exceptionally diverse flora. Since then, more than 800 species have been recorded which represents approximately 10% of the State's known flora. It is considered that the most likely reason for the enormous diversity in the region's flora is the corresponding variety of landforms within the national park which include dunes, heathlands, salt lakes, breakaways, valleys and undulating hills. The climate of the area is of a Mediterranean style with cool wet winters and hot dry summers and a reasonably reliable rainfall of about 550 mm usually falling between June-August. The vegetation comprises various acacia, banksia, hakea, melaleuca, marri, wandoo and even jarrah, which is at its northern limit in the national park. Mammals of the region include bats, echidnas, dunnarts, honey possums and kangaroos.
Bird species are particularly prolific, with 124 species being recorded. Lesueur is thought to be the only place where four species of fairy-wren occur together. Other birds seen in the park are the wedge-tailed eagle, Carnabys' black cockatoo, corellas, galahs, the western rosella and owls. The salt lakes are also important refuges for several resident and migratory wading birds. Reptiles of the area are equally diverse with 48 species identified, including 9 species of geckoes and 6 species of legless lizards.
Bushwalking the best way to explore the park but you must carry enough water for your needs as there are no facilities or designated camping areas provided within Lesueur National Park. A good tick repellent is also strongly recommended as they are very prolific in the area.
Supplies and various types of accommodation are available nearby at Jurien Bay.
\BDescription:\b Lesueur National Park Location Map.
#
"Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park",19,"b\10\np10015.jpg","c","0"
The Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park is only 280 km south of Perth and has always been a popular destination for West Australian holiday makers attracted by the beautiful beaches, sheltered bays, excellent fishing and world-class surfing. The park extends 120 km along the coast from Cape Leeuwin to Cape Naturaliste and covers an area of approximately 19,200 ha. Matthew Flinders named Cape Leeuwin in 1801 and Nicholas Baudin named Hamelin Bay and Cape Naturaliste.
An important feature of the area is the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge, which runs almost the full length of the park and is comprised of granite and limestone. It is thought to be about 600 million years old and is included in the Register of National Estate as "one of the most important areas of conservation in Australia".
Close to the coast at its western edge, it rises up to 200 m above sea level while at the eastern end, some 2 to 5 km inland, it has an undulating surface of rolling hills. The winters are cold and wet with average rainfall at Cape Leeuwin of 994 mm and 838 mm at Cape Naturaliste. The climate is cool, rarely reaching 30 degrees Celsius even in summer, and the combination of temperature and rainfall make conditions ideal for the growing of dense forests. The flora of the park is very diverse, ranging from coastal heathland on the wind-swept western face of the ridge, through to forests of jarrah, marri and karri on the sheltered eastern side.
The majority of animals in the national park are nocturnal and these include grey kangaroos, western ringtail and honey possums, fat-tailed dunnarts and western water rats. The red-tailed tropic bird is only one of the 200 species that have been identified in Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park. A tiny, rare snail only found in freshwater pools in this region also enjoys the cold and damp environment.
Underneath the landscape, more than 360 caves exist containing stalagmites and stalactites along with the fossils of marsupial lions, Tasmanian tigers and koalas. Evidence has also been found in the caves confirming human occupation going back 40,000 years. The caves range in size from potholes to huge caverns over 14 km long, and daily guided tours are conducted in summer through some of the more spectacular ones.
Water-oriented activities would be the most popular past time for visitors to the national park, and these include whale watching, swimming, surfing, wind-surfing, fishing and diving. There are 14 shipwrecks along this coast and a dive trail has been established at Hamelin Bay to explore four wrecks that are visible in this area.
Bushwalking provides visitors with an ideal way of really experiencing the national park and the many trails explore the forests, hidden valleys, springs and magnificent coastal scenery. Camping is allowed at designated areas only and basic facilities are provided, i.e. tables, BBQ's, firewood and toilets, but not drinking water.
Supplies and all types of accommodation are available at Busselton, Margaret River and Augusta.
\BDescription:\b Quininup Falls, Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park. \IPhoto by N Wehrack. (Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np10021.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Ellen Brook. \IPhoto by N Wehrack. (Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np513.jpg
#
"Millstream-Chichester National Park",20,"b\10\np504.jpg","c","0"
Millstream is an oasis in the 200,000 ha park with a climate which is classified as the arid tropics. The park has a landscape of rolling spinifex hills, spectacular escarpments and meandering tree-lined watercourses.
The park includes the Chichester Range to the north, with its rocky peaks, quiet gorges and hidden rock pools, which slope down gradually to the plains of the Fortescue River before the land eventually rises again to form the bulk of the Hamersley Range away to the south-east. The Millstream oasis lies on the Fortescue River and consists of deep spring-fed pools surrounded by palm groves and paperbark forest. Millstream-Chichester National Park can be accessed 150 km from Roebourne along the Roebourne-Wittenoom road in the Pilbara region of WA.
Millstream is the result of an aquifer or natural underground reserve of water contained in the porous dolomite rock. This is kept supplied by the Fortescue River catchment which also includes run-off from the Hamersley Range. It is estimated that the aquifer has an area of 2,000 square kilometres and contains about 1,700 million cubic metres of water. In conjunction with the Harding Dam, the aquifer supplies water for the towns of Wickham, Dampier and Karratha. In very dry times, pumps are used to maintain the water levels at Millstream which is important for the survival of the wetlands and its wildlife.
In this semi-desert area, the need to conserve water is paramount, consequently most plants flower after the winter rains, making the months from June to August the best time to see the Pilbara wildflowers. The red earth provides a great contrast to the orange cockroach bush, the masses of Sturt peas and the carpets of purple mulla-mullas. The trees of the park include the beautiful white-barked snappy gums and paperbarks. Plants which normally grow in the tropics, but are found here near the permanent water, include one which is unique to the Pilbara, the Millstream palm. It can be distinguished from the introduced date and cotton palms by its fanned grey-green leaves and smooth bark. Less desirable species like the Indian water fern and the water lily, both introduced, have also spread through the Millstream oasis. The water attracts many varieties of birds which are usually seen during the cool of the morning and evening, and the wetlands support 22 species of dragonfly and damselfly, along with several resident mammals including the euro, black flying fox and the northern quoll.
Millstream is part of the traditional homeland of the Yinjibarndi people and was an important campsite for intertribal meetings. Explorer F.T. Gregory named Millstream in 1861 and reported its grazing potential. The first pastoral lease was taken up in 1865, and changed hands several times before Les Gordon took over in 1925. The homestead, built in 1914, is now the Visitor Centre and includes rooms dedicated to the Yinjibarndi people, early settlers and the natural environment, as well as providing information on the park's attractions.
Things to see and do at Millstream include swimming in the waterholes, designated areas are located at Deep Reach and Crossing Pool. Row boats, canoes, rafts and wind surfers are also allowed at these locations but power boats are not permitted. There are also drive and walk trails, the latter having been graded according to the degree of difficulty and includes the Chichester Range Camel Trail, a walk of 8 km which takes 3 hours one way.
Three shady bush-style camping areas are provided within the park and you may only camp in these areas. Gas barbecues and wood are provided, water is available at the Visitor Centre but it is also advisable to carry your own when travelling in the area.
Other types of accommodation are available at Roebourne (150 km) or Karratha (190 km).
\BDescription:\b Millstream-Chichester National Park Location Map.
#
"Mount Augustus National Park",21,"b\10\np539.jpg","c","0"
Mount Augustus is the biggest rock in the world. The national park covers approximately 9,000 ha of which 4,795 ha is actually Mt. Augustus itself ... this is almost twice the size of Ayers Rock. Ayers Rock tends to look more spectacular because it is bare, whereas Mt. Augustus is covered in low scrub. The major difference between the two rocks however is that Ayers Rock is a monolith, it rises abruptly and is more symmetrical in shape, whereas Mt. Augustus is a monocline, comprised of layers of rock which dip in one direction. Mt. Augustus is 1,105 m above sea level and rises 858 m above the stony, red sandplains. The rocks of Mt. Augustus were formed 1,000 million years ago while the underlying granite is between 1,650 and 1,750 million years old.
Mount Augustus lies 430 km east of Carnarvon via Gascoyne Junction or 360 km from Meekatharra. All roads in the area are gravel but are suitable for 2WD vehicles except after heavy rain.
Mount Augustus was named by surveyor F.T. Gregory in 1858, after his brother Sir Augustus Charles Gregory. To the Aboriginal people, the Wadjeri tribe who inhabited this region, Mount Augustus was known as Burringurrah. They left behind many rock engravings and a large collection of stone tools have also been discovered.
Water draining from the rock, and then seeping underground, supports stands of white-barked river gums while mulga, myall, gidgi and other wattles are scattered across the plains. Birds of the area include honeyeaters, babblers, galahs, emus, bustards and various birds of prey. Goannas, red kangaroos and euros are also common in the park. The permanent water of Cattle Pool, on the Lyons River, is home to black cormorants, swans and ducks as well as blue-winged kookaburras and corellas.
A circuit drive of 49 km provides good views all around Mt. Augustus and gives access to all the points of interest, which include Aboriginal engravings and a variety of lookouts. Walk trails on and in the vicinity of Mount Augustus range from as short as 250 m to as long as 12 km, the latter only suitable for experienced bushwalkers. When walking in the national park it is important to carry enough drinking water for your needs.
There is no camping in the national park but accommodation, powered caravan sites and camping are available at Mount Augustus Outback Tourist Resort along with meals, fuel and water.
\BDescription:\b Mount Augustus National Park Location Map.
#
"Nambung National Park",22,"b\10\calm05.jpg","c","0"
The main entrance to the park is along the Grey (Green Islands) road approximately 20 km south-east of the coastal town of Cervantes. The most well known and popular feature of Nambung National Park, the Pinnacles Desert, is only a small part of the 18,000 ha covered by the park which is situated on the Swan Coastal Plain 245 km north of Perth. The park also includes spectacular dune systems and beautiful beaches.
There is a 4WD track which originates at Lancelin some 66 km down the coast and provides access to the park via the southern boundary (see Lancelin trek for more details). The majority of the average annual rainfall of 600 mm usually falls between May and September. The following months of spring see the weather beginning to warm up and the wildflowers come into bloom, which makes this the best time of the year to visit the area. Between December and March, the days are hot and dry and with the afternoon sea breezes, the fire danger can often be extreme.
The Pinnacles Desert is in fact a collection of thousands of limestone pillars, reaching up to 4 m in height, some bearing a strong resemblance to tombstones while others are jagged, sharp-edged and pointed. Rising out of the yellow sand, they stand in stark contrast to the surrounding low coastal bush so typical of this area.
The park supports varied flora from tuart, casuarina and banksia trees through to the low acacia and myrtle heathlands which dominate the park landscape. Animals common to the area include emus, western grey kangaroos, bobtail skinks and snakes. In excess of 90 different bird species have been identified in the Nambung National Park.
There is an interesting one-way loop track which enables the visitor to drive around the Pinnacles, however it is not suitable for caravans or trailers. The more active can take a short 500 m walk trail which starts at the Pinnacles carpark and has several lookouts along its length which provide great views from the Pinnacles desert to the coast. Two popular fishing spots within the park are at Kangaroo Point and Hangover Bay, limited facilities are available at both places including toilets and picnic tables. Bushwalking is without doubt the best way to experience the park but there is no drinking water available so you must carry your own. Anyone planning a lengthy trek should always inform the ranger first.
There are no designated campsites within the park but all facilities and accommodation are available nearby at Cervantes.
\BDescription:\b Photo by John Hunter.\I (Department of Land and Conservation Management, WA)\i.
\BPic2:\b np509.jpg
#
"Peak Charles National Park",23,"b\10\np545.jpg","c","0"
Entry to Peak Charles National Park is by gravel road which you reach by turning off the Esperance-\JCoolgardie\j Hwy at Kumarl, about 150 km north of Esperance and 75 km south of Norseman.
The most prominent features of the region are two granite outcrops, Peak Charles (651 m) and Peak Eleanora (501 m) which dominate the surrounding flat mallee landscape. The park protects an area of approximately 40,000 ha comprising dry, mallee-covered sandplain heaths, eucalypt woodlands and salt lake systems. Growing on the peaks themselves are found varieties of darwinia, orchids and bottlebrush.
The Peak Charles walk track commences at the carpark and ends about halfway up on the south-east ridge, where the reward is spectacular views of Peak Eleanora and the surrounding country. Continuing the climb to the summit is only recommended for experienced bushwalkers or rock climbers, as some scrambling up exposed, steep sections is involved.
Peak Charles does have a designated camping area but no facilities are provided. When visiting this area you must be self-sufficient and bring enough water for your requirements as there is no guaranteed supply within the national park.
The closest towns for supplies and accommodation are Norseman or Esperance.
\BDescription:\b Peak Charles National Park Location Map.
#
"Purnululu National Park",24,"b\10\np10013.jpg","c","0"
Purnululu, originally known as the Bungle Bungle National Park, encompasses approximately 209,000 ha, and was declared in 1987 to protect the spectacular Bungle Bungle Range. The park is located in the Kimberley region in the far north of Western Australia and Spring Creek Track, which is the only access into the park, is approximately 109 km north of Halls Creek or 250 km south of Kununurra. This park is definitely 4WD only and your vehicle must have good ground clearance as Spring Creek Track comprises mainly jagged rocks, bulldust, soaks and creeks which are often impassable until well into the dry season. The park is closed each year from 1st January to 31st March, the best time to visit being from May through September.
The Bungle Bungle Range is around 360 million years old, covers an area of approximately 45,000 ha and has been home to the Aboriginal people of this area for at least 20,000 years. The very remoteness of this area and extremely difficult access has meant that the Bungle Bungle Range has only recently become the focus of public attention and even today four times as many people take scenic flights over the area than make the slow drive in. Aerial tours and scenic flights by either helicopter or plane can be arranged from Halls Creek, Kununurra, Wyndham or at the Walardi camping area within the park.
The beehive domes with their striped orange and black bands are remnants of a sandstone plateau that was uplifted over time to more than 200 m above the surrounding plains. The elements have taken their toll carving deep gorges and sheer-sided chasms and in some sections the strange towers stand alone. The sandstone is protected by a thin skin of silica which gives the orange colour, and a lichen the black, contributing to the overall appearance of a tiger-striped skin. If it was not for this protective layer, the whole plateau would have been completely eroded by now. As soon as the "skin" is broken, the sandstone underneath quickly disintegrates and as a consequence all rock climbing is banned and walking access into the Bungle Bungle Range is allowed only via the creek beds. The undulating plains around the Range are of deep red and yellow sands and support shrublands of grevillea and acacia, eucalypt woodlands and the ever-present spinifex. In many of the gorges you will also see the spectacular Bungle Bungle fan palm precariously clinging to crevices in the cliff face.
To the north, around the permanent and semi-permanent water in the Osmond Valley are the most south-easterly patches of rainforest known in the Kimberley. Many plants which have been newly discovered in the park are still without names. There are over 130 bird species known to frequent this region and these include large flocks of colourful budgerigars. Other wildlife residents are the Agile wallaby and the Green Tree frog.
Walking is the main activity in this park as any exploration into the Bungle Bungle must be undertaken on foot. The sightseeing, nature observation and photography that this area has to offer is truly spectacular. The range is rich in Aboriginal art and there are also many burial sites. Please do not interfere with any art or burial sites or take any artifacts, as these are of continuing significance to the Aboriginals of this area and an important part of their heritage. There are walks of varying distance and difficulty, ranging from 1.4 km to 25 km, taking anything from 30 minutes to 2 days.
Upon arrival in the park, please check with the Ranger near Three Ways, who is based there for the duration of the dry season. There are three camping areas within the park. At Kurrajong, 7 km north of the ranger station and Walardi, 13 km south of the ranger station, toilets, water and firewood are supplied to both the individual and group sites and there are generator and non-generator areas. The Bellburn camping area is for the specific use of tour operators bringing in fly/drive visitors.
The closest town for supplies and accommodation is Halls Creek.
\BDescription:\b Purnululu National Park, Bungle Bungles. \IPhoto by Jamie Robertson. (Random House)\i
\BDescription3:\b Aerial shot of Bungle Bungle Mountain Range. \IPhoto by Brendon Read. (Random House)\i
\BPic4:\b np536.jpg
#
"Rudall River National Park",25,"b\10\np537.jpg","c","0"
This is one of the most remote and inaccessible parks in Western Australia but it is also the largest, covering an area of approximately 1.3 million hectares of the Great and Little Sandy Deserts.
The park derives its name from W.F. Rudall who was requested by the Commissioner of Lands in 1896 to search for members of the Calvert Expedition, thought to be lost in this area.
A visit to Rudall River National Park should only be attempted by experienced and well-equipped outback travellers in a well-maintained 4WD vehicle. The park is situated approximately 260 km north-east of the mining town of Newman in the Pilbara region (some 1,350 km north of Perth), and the turn off north to Rudall River can be reached along the Talawana Track, which then continues east to join up with the Canning Stock route near Well 23.
The landscape comprises dunes, sandplains, salt lakes, ranges and plateaus of sandstone and quartzite, the remains of glacial erosion of 280 million years ago. The area has a very hot, dry climate where rainfall is unreliable and most often the result of a cyclone in the region. At these times the creeks and rivers can flow strongly and many freshwater pools remain for some time. Wattles and hakeas are found around the smaller watercourses while the banks of Rudall River are lined with tall eucalypts and large paperbarks. The sandplains support desert oak and spinifex and in valleys where groundwater is evident, bloodwoods and quandongs can be found.
Surprisingly, some 72 species of birds and a number of desert animals survive in this harsh environment. The Bilby, which was once widespread but is now only known to small areas near the NT/WA border, parts of the Pilbara and areas of the Great Sandy and Gibson Deserts, is still thought to exist within the park.
The Martu Aboriginal people have lived in this region for thousands of years and their name for Rudall River is Karlamilyi. They still maintain a strong interest in the area with the appointment of an Aboriginal guardian to protect and maintain the sites within their tribal grounds. The isolation and difficulty of access meant that the aborigines of Karlamilyi were not nearly as affected by European settlement as were those in the Kimberley and elsewhere in the Pilbara, they still live by their traditions and laws. The park is known to contain 28 registered Aboriginal Sites, including 15 secret-sacred sites as well as artifacts and rock art. If you visit this area, please do not touch or interfere with any of these sites, as they are of great historic and cultural significance.
Camping is allowed throughout the park but you must carry your own water as supplies cannot be relied upon. There are no fuel supplies, so take enough to allow for diversions should you take a wrong turn. There are a number of waterholes and soaks which are accessible along the Rudall River, for example, Kalkan Kalkan Soak and Number 11 Pool. The latter named by explorer and prospector G.S. Compton who passed through the area in 1955. Another place of interest is Christmas Pool about 50 km north-west of the park and named by Rudall when he arrived there on Christmas Day, 1896. Several names are carved at the pool, one being H.W.B. Talbot, 14th July 1911, a geologist who was with Canning on the stock route survey in 1908. Two others are J. Mathews and W.J. Grace, prospectors who were at Christmas Pool on 11th July 1905. Grace was later killed by Aborigines in the McKay Range, just south of the park. The names of three of Rudall's assistants also appear here, A.C. Crofton and J. Connoughton, 15th April 1897 and H.S. Trotman, 25th December 1896.
It is advisable for anyone planning a trip to Rudall River National Park to contact The Department of Conservation and Land Management at the Pilbara regional office. Ph: (091) 868288.
\BDescription:\b Rudall River National Park Location Map.
#
"Shannon National Park",26,"b\10\np516.jpg","c","0"
The Shannon National Park protects the total catchment area of the Shannon River, from its source to where it enters the Southern Ocean. The park has an area of about 53,000 ha, protecting wetlands, heathlands and old growth karri forests. It is located 53 km south of Manjimup or 33 km east of Northcliffe and is easily accessed from the South Western Highway which runs through the park.
The timber milling town of Shannon opened in 1948 and closed in 1970, and over the years, the northern area of the Shannon basin was logged for karri which has since been regenerated by the Forests Dept. The ornamental and fruit trees found in the area surrounding the old town site were planted by the original mill workers. The old forestry settlement is now the camping ground and a good base for exploring the national park. A dam was built in 1949 on the Shannon River just north of the town site to provide water to the mill and residences, it holds about 100 million litres and today is popular for swimming, canoeing and fishing for trout and marron in season. The provision of old logging and management tracks throughout the park makes walking through the undergrowth of the karri forest relatively easy. Two signposted walk trails have been established in the park, the Shannon Dam Trail goes for 3.5 km through the Shannon River Valley and in a peat swamp along the way, wild quokkas (marsupials) can sometimes be seen. The Rocks Trail is a moderate walk of around 5.5 km, which is steep in places as you climb to the rim of the valley where several lookouts provide views over the townsite and park.
Other than the South Western Highway, the roads in the national park are either gravel or sand tracks. Conventional vehicles should keep to the formed gravel roads but there are also designated 4WD tracks which require care during the winter as the southern section of the Shannon River Basin is often flooded.
Shannon camping ground has sites for tents, caravans, camper wagons and buses, as well as hut accommodation with bunk beds and a pot belly stove. Facilities include BBQs, firewood, tables, hot showers, toilets and drinking water. Backpack camping is allowed throughout the Shannon National Park.
Closest towns for supplies are Northcliffe and Manjimup.
\BDescription:\b Shannon National Park Location Map.
#
"Stirling Range National Park",27,"b\10\calm01.jpg","c","0"
Bluff Knoll is the highest peak in the Stirling Range, rising 1,073 m above sea-level and is typical of the rugged peaks of this area with their sheer cliffs and breathtaking views. East-west they cover more than 65 km of the national park which has a total area of almost 116,000 ha and is located about 80 km north of Albany. Matthew Flinders first recorded seeing the range in 1802 but it was named by the surveyor J.S. Roe in 1835 after the first governor of Western Australia, Captain James Stirling.
The range was formed more than 1,000 million years ago, and Chester and Red Gum passes show the course of rivers that flowed southwards during these early times. Because of the height of the Stirling Range and its closeness to the south coast, the climate is unlike that of the surrounding area. In winter (June-August) it is cold and wet, and higher in the ranges even in spring the weather is unpredictable. Sudden cold changes can bring rain or hail and the Stirling Range is one of the few places in Western Australia where it snows. The best time to visit is late spring and early summer (October-December) as the days are warming up and the wildflowers are in full bloom.
Varied plant life of the range includes tiny orchids, heathlands and beautiful flowering gums. Of the 1,000 species of flowering plants that occur in the region, 60 are only found in the park. Probably the most attractive of these is the mountain bell (a Darwinia) and of the 10 types recorded, only one has been found growing outside the Stirling Range.
Colourful birds of the region include the western rosella, the red-capped parrot, the splendid wren and the golden whistler, while wedge tailed eagles can be sighted riding the thermals. Common but seldom seen are western grey kangaroos, black-glove wallabies, emus, quokkas and honey and pygmy possums. Spiders, frogs, reptiles and some poisonous snakes are also present but rarely encountered.
Stirling Range National park is famous for its walks which are generally slow and steep. For example, the Bluff Knoll walk is a 6 km round trip and takes approximately 3 hours to complete. Log books are provided for long distance and overnight walkers to register their relevant details in case assistance should be required in the event of an emergency.
The only designated campsite in the national park is at Moingup Springs which has BBQs, drinking water and toilets. To the north on Chester Pass Road, just outside the national park, Stirling Range Caravan Park provides other facilities, Ph: (098) 279229.
The nearest towns for supplies and other accommodation are Albany and Mt Barker.
\BDescription:\b Photo by John Hunter.\I (Department of Conservation and Land Management, WA)\i.
\BPic2:\b np518.jpg
#
"Stockyard Gully National Park",28,"b\10\np542.jpg","c","0"
Stockyard Gully National Park covers an area of 2,681 ha and can be reached off Cockleshell Gully Road, which you turn into off the main bitumen road into the coastal town of Jurien Bay. The park is approximately 255 km north of Perth and 240 km south of Geraldton. The track through the national park is 4WD only, as there are some deep sandy sections which are particularly soft towards the end of summer.
The park comprises rough limestone country with several caves in the area formed by a watercourse which ran both above and below ground. The Stockyard Gully area was originally used as a natural holding yard for cattle and sheep as they travelled the stock route along the Old North Road. There are three caves within easy walk of the carpark and picnic area but make sure you protect yourself with a good TICK REPELLENT before undertaking any walks in the area. Bushwalking is the only way to explore the park and its cave systems and the best time to visit the park is during spring when the wildflowers, which this area is renowned for, provide a spectacular display.
The vegetation comprises banksia woodland with a thick understorey of parrot bush, bottle brush and shrub banksia as well as zania palms which seem strangely out of place in this type of bush. Animals of the area include western grey kangaroos, honey possums and emus, along with various species of birds and reptiles.
No camping is allowed in the Stockyard Gully Park however, supplies and various types of accommodation are available nearby at Green Head or Jurien Bay.
\BDescription:\b Stockyard Gully National Park Location Map.
#
"Stokes National Park",29,"b\10\np520.jpg","c","0"
Stokes National Park is located on the south coast 80 km to the west of Esperance, and its 9,726 ha not only protects Stokes Inlet and the surrounding lakes, but also beautiful beaches, rugged headlands, sand dunes and low inland hills. The climate of the park is typical of the south coast, with warm summers from December-March and cool winters, when most of the rain falls between April-October.
The area supports a great variety of vegetation ranging from heathlands, yate, swamp yate, and bordering the wetlands, paperbarks have formed a low, dense forest which is home to numerous species of waterbirds. If you visit the park in autumn you may see the bell-fruited mallee with its spectacular yellow flowers, and although it only grows to about one metre in height, it is a magnificent sight.
Stokes Inlet itself is popular for boating and canoeing but caution is required as there are extensive shallow areas and rock outcrops. Fishing in the inlet and along the beaches of the national park can be rewarding for species such as Australian salmon, black bream, mullet and King George whiting. A "Heritage Trail" bushwalk has been established which is an easy 45 minute trip giving excellent views of the inlet and surrounding area. When walking in the wetland areas, be on the alert for tiger snakes which are common here.
Conventional vehicles can access the park on a formed gravel road off the South Coast Hwy which leads to two campsites on the shore of Stokes Inlet, the only facilities provided here are bush toilets. There are also "4WD-only" tracks, which lead to two other camping areas on the coast at Skippy Rock and Fanny Cove. Visitors must bring their own supplies of freshwater as there are none available in the park.
Esperance is the nearest town for supplies and accommodation.
\BDescription:\b Stokes National Park Location Map.
#
"Tunnel Creek",30,"b\10\np502.jpg","c","0"
Tunnel Creek can be reached 180 km from Derby or 115 km from Fitzroy Crossing.
The creek originally flowed across the top of the Napier Range and the water seeping through the limestone slowly enlarged the existing fissures until it reached the underground course which it follows today. A 750 m tunnel has been carved out of the limestone by the water and this is where Tunnel Creek derives its name. The height of the tunnel varies between 3 m and 12 m and is about 15 m wide. In the middle, the roof has fallen in, leaving an opening through to the top of the range. This was Jundumurra's hiding place which he called the Cave of Bats. Five species, including ghost bats and fruit bats, are known to live among the stalactites. Freshwater crocodiles can also be found in the permanent pools.
During the dry, it is a relatively easy walk through the tunnel to the other side of the Napier Range but it involves walking through several pools, so make sure you take a torch and good footwear.
\BDescription:\b Tunnel Creek Location Map.
#
"Walpole-Nornalup National Park",31,"b\10\d_0001.jpg","c","0"
Walpole-Nornalup National Park, 425 kilometres south of Perth and 121 kilometres west of Albany, is famous particularly for its magnificent karri trees. Along with mountain ash, these massive eucalypts are the world's tallest hardwood trees. They live for several hundred years and grow to heights of more than 100 metres.
The park also embraces extensive coastal areas of dunes blanketed in heath, as well as 40 kilometres of ocean beach inlets and bays.
This is one of the oldest parks in Western Australia, the first section being declared in 1910. The park surrounds the Walpole and Nornalup inlets and consists of forests of karri and the unique tingle trees. Through these forests flow the two large rivers of this area, the Frankland and the Deep Rivers, which then empty into the sheltered waters of the inlet. The park also offers 40 km of magnificent coastal scenery extending from Irwin Inlet in the east to Mandalay Beach in the west.
The most rugged area of the park has been isolated so as to enable visitors to enjoy the wild pristine environment. This is called Nuyts Wilderness. No vehicles, pets or fires are allowed in the wilderness area and access is only by a small footbridge across Deep River near Tinglewood Lodge. A book is located here in which you are requested to note when you enter and then leave the wilderness area, mainly for safety reasons should anyone require assistance. In Nuyts Wilderness you can expect to find spectacular coastal scenery, coastal dunes, a deep forested gorge, high rock-capped hills and consequently many varied species of plants and animals. In spring between September and November, the wildflowers are at their peak, especially the many orchids for which this area is famous. December to February are generally warm and relatively dry, but it rarely gets hot enough to spoil the pleasure of walking in this picturesque park.
Nornalup Inlet is home to large populations of waders, pelicans and Western Australia's native black swans.
An absolute must to visit while in this area is the Valley of the Giants, where a 400 m walktrail traverses this forest of giant karri and red tingle trees. There are several scenic drives which enable you to experience the grandeur of the Walpole-Nornalup National Park, incorporating waterfalls, mountains, forests, rivers and wild southern ocean beaches. Canoeing is popular on the rivers and is at its best in springtime when the weather is beginning to warm up and water levels are high to make passage easier. Fishing is always good in this area either in the inlets, rivers or from the beach. There are several boat launching facilities within the park. Some tracks suitable only for 4WD vehicles extend along the coast providing limited access to some fishing spots, one heading west from Peaceful Bay, and others south and west from Crystal Springs to Banksia Camp and Long Point.
There are camping areas throughout the park which provide basic facilities such as toilets, fireplaces and tables.
Various other types of accommodation are available within the park and at Walpole.
\BDescription:\b The head of Western Australia's native black swan \I(Webster Publishing).\i
\Bpic2:\b np515.jpg
#
"Warren National Park",32,"b\10\np525.jpg","c","0"
Warren National Park is only 11 km from Pemberton in the state's south-west, about 345 km from Perth and protects approximately 3,000 ha of virgin karri forest growing in the Warren River Valley. Entry to the park is obtained by following the main road south towards Northcliffe and onto the Old Vasse Road until you reach Heartbreak Trail.
Maiden Bush Trail and Heartbreak Trail are steep dirt tracks which are slippery in the wet and are not considered suitable for towing either caravans or trailers. These trails wind through the park and give excellent views of the Warren Valley as well as providing access to the river. Driving and walking the trails is without doubt the only way to really see the best of the Warren National Park. The Warren Lookout is worth a stop as it provides excellent views of the magnificent karri forest down to the Warren River Valley below. Also of interest is the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree, a fire lookout tree which is open to visitors. It was pegged in 1988 as part of the bicentenary celebrations and those who feel inclined can climb the tree to look out across the Warren National Park and surrounding farmlands.
Activities include bushwalking, swimming, canoeing, trout and marron fishing in season, sightseeing and photography.
Camping is allowed at designated sites along the river and all camp sites have toilets, tables and BBQs. Supplies and all types of accommodation are available nearby at Pemberton.
Some parts of the park which can be accessed by 2WD include the Donnelly River (off Boat Landing road), Yeagerup Lake (near Pemberton) and Mount Chudalup (south of Northcliffe). The latter being a granite mound rising 188 m above the plains, providing great views across the park to the coast at Salmon Beach and Windy Harbour.
Camping is allowed throughout the park and the nearest towns for supplies and accommodation are Northcliffe and Pemberton.
\BDescription:\b Warren National Park Location Map.
#
"West Cape Howe National Park",33,"c\1\np524.jpg","c","0"
This park includes the mostly southerly tip of the West Australian coastline, Torbay Head, as well as West Cape Howe itself. It covers an area of 3,517 ha and is known for its spectacular scenery with approximately 23 km of coastline comprising granite headlands, steep limestone cliffs and sandy beaches. It stretches from the low water mark up to six kilometres inland. The park can be reached 30 km west of Albany some 430 km south of Perth.
The cliffs of West Cape Howe are formed of dolerite, a black igneous rock that formed when molten was squeezed up from deep below the earth's crust. Away from the coast the land gradually rises to the north, the tallest landmark in the area being Torbay Hill at 270 m just outside the park boundary. The coastal heathlands give way to stands of jarrah and sheoak and tall karri forest at the highest point near the main entrance to the park. There are three freshwater lakes near the northern edge of the park and several small watercourses that run all year round.
This park is a popular fishing destination as such species as mulloway, Australian salmon, whiting and herring can be caught from all the beaches. Bushwalking is another common pastime of visitors to this region but this is a wild area with few facilities provided and it is recommended that someone be notified of your route and when you expect to be back. Hang-gliding is yet another attraction of this park with the main take-off area being the lookout carpark at Shelley Beach. The prevailing easterly winds of summer provide the best flying conditions. Experienced rock-climbers are also often seen scaling the heights of West Cape Howe and on the east coast of the park out from both Shelley and Dunsky beaches there are good dive-sites often frequented by scuba divers and snorkellers.
The only 2WD access is via Hortin Road in the north down to Shelley Beach. The remainder of the tracks in West Cape Howe National Park are 4WD only and often cross steep hills with stretches of deep sand. In order to prevent further degradation to the tracks, lower tyre pressures to 15-20 psi and engage 4WD before you reach the sand.
Camping is permitted in this park but no formal facilities are provided. Carry enough water for your requirements and a portable gas stove, as open fires are not allowed.
All other types of accommodation are available at Albany 30 km to the east or Denmark 35 km to the west.
\BDescription:\b West Cape Howe National Park Location Map.
#
"William Bay National Park",34,"c\1\np517.jpg","c","0"
William Bay National Park can be reached by turning off the South Coast Highway into William Bay Road about 14 km to the west of Denmark. The park covers an area of approximately 1,800 ha which includes 10 km of coastline, sandy beaches, low headlands and sand dunes while the majority of the inland vegetation is heathland.
Seepages and some permanent streams occur throughout the heathland which support scattered groves of peppermint trees, and on the sheltered side of Tower Hill can be found a spectacular stand of 60 m tall karri trees.
Along the coast between Greens Pool and Madfish Bay, a series of granite boulders and rock shelves extend about 100 m out to sea. Having a similar effect to reefs, they dramatically reduce the heavy seas and swells of the Southern Ocean and form protected pools and channels which are very popular for swimming. A viewing platform overlooks Greens Pool and is designed for easy access by the disabled.
The beaches and headlands of the park provide the opportunity for good fishing, swimming and interesting walking.
There is a 4WD track into the eastern side of the park, from Lights Road off the South Coast Highway, which gives access to Lights Beach on Madfish Bay.
No camping is allowed in the national park and Denmark is the nearest town for supplies and accommodation.
\BDescription:\b William Bay National Park Location Map.
#
"Windjana Gorge",35,"c\1\np501.jpg","c","0"
Windjana is located 145 km from Derby and 150 km from Fitzroy Crossing. The Lennard River has cut through the limestone of the Napier Range to form the gorge some 3.5 km long and in places 100 m above the river floodplain. The gorge is flooded during the wet, but in the dry the river stops flowing and forms into large pools with tall Leichhardt trees, native figs and paperbarks growing along the banks. While left clinging to the walls of the gorge, are only the hardiest spinifex and rock figs. The area is home to many species of birds who find shelter in the trees along the watercourse. Other inhabitants include freshwater crocodiles often seen in the pools or basking on the banks.
Pigeon (or Jundumurra by his Aboriginal name) was a tracker turned outlaw, who used this area as a hideout for three years while trying to evade capture by the police from 1894 to 1897. Constable Richardson, his first victim, was killed at Lillimilura Police Station, the ruins of which can still be seen some 4 km to the east of the gorge. Two stockmen also killed by Jundumurra died at the entrance to Windjana Gorge in 1894. He finally met his end at Tunnel Creek on April 1, 1897.
An interesting walk trail runs from the campsite for about 3.5 km along the water's edge and is the best way to view the gorge.
\BDescription:\b Windjana Gorge Location Map.
#
"Yanchep National Park",36,"c\1\ynchp.jpg","c","0"
Yanchep National Park, north of Perth, straddles a belt of coastal limestone and its sandy soils are covered by low scrub with wildflowers in blossom in the spring and early summer.
An extensive and colourful cave system set in limestone hills rises 83 metres above Loch McNess, a large lake dotted with small islands in the centre of the park.
A highlight of the cave system is the Crystal Cave, harbouring a superb collection of active stalactites and stalagmites. Another feature of the park is the large koala colony.
\BDescription:\b Yanchep Caves \I(Courtesy of Readers Digest)\i.
\Bpic2:\b np510.jpg
#
"WA National Parks Fact File",37,"0","g","0"
National parks information can be obtained from the Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM)
\BOperations Headquarters
PO Box 104, Como, W.A. 6152
Phone: (09) 334 0333 Fax: (09) 334 0466\b
\BFees\b: Entry and/or camping fees are charged in some national parks and are collected either by honour box or by a Ranger.
\BFirearms-pets\b: Neither are allowed in national parks.
\BLitter\b: Use bins where provided but it is preferred that you take your rubbish out with you.
\BFires\b: Carry your own portable gas stove as a back-up, however, if fires are allowed they should be lit only in the fireplaces provided. Also be aware that "Total Fire Bans" may apply over the summer months in some areas.
\BFishing\b: Fresh and salt water fishing is allowed in most parks providing you have the relevant licenses and fish to the respective size and bag limits. Licenses can be obtained through Fisheries Dept branches or at any post office.
\BWater\b: Supplies of drinking water are not often available, therefore it is recommended that you always carry enough for your own needs.
\BDieback\b: This is a fungal plant disease caused by microscopic organisms which kill plants by destroying their root systems. Dieback thrives in warm, moist soil and although more prevalent in the south west of the state, it has also reached parks as far north as Cervantes and Jurien. The disease is easily spread in soil that may stick to a walker's shoe or a vehicle's tyre. When driving, use only the designated roads and tracks and always clean your footwear BEFORE and AFTER visiting a park or taking a walk.
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18#
22,0
"Arthur-Pieman Protected Area and State Reserve",1,"c\1\np10003.jpg","c","0"
Arthur Pieman Protected Area has an area of 96,950 hectares and Pieman River State Reserve 3,314 hectares.
This tempestuous part of Tasmania nestles in the northwest of the state, with an extensive and dramatic coastline bordering the might of the Southern Ocean.
Moist rainforests and tall wet sclerophyll forests, dominated by swamp gums, are evidence of the high rainfall this region receives, along with wet heaths and scrubs, sedgelands and buttongrass plains.
Although there is little vehicle access, a hard 4WD trek traverses through this protected area, beginning at Arthur River, travelling south to Sandy Cape. The route will take you past incredible coastal scenery and there are many superb bush camping spots to choose from along the way. The run from Arthur River to Temma, 22 km south, is relatively easy, however the track gets harder as you continue south to Greenes Creek, a further 12 km. It is then possible to drive along the beach from Greenes Creek to Sandy Cape, another 12 km. This stretch can be extremely dangerous and should only be undertaken by very experienced four wheel drivers. Do not travel this section alone. There are hazards to negotiate, such as quicksand and river crossings, not to mention the beach run itself.
Alternatively, once reaching Greenes Creek, you can return to the Balfour-Greenes Creek roads junction, which is situated 5 km south of Temma, and either return to Arthur River via Temma, or explore the area a little further by taking the Balfour Track. The Balfour Track is another hard 4WD track, mainly because of the 70 metre canal-like stretch of water you have to negotiate along the way. The old settlement and mining sites of Balfour, along with its historic cemetery, are well worth a visit and can be reached 16 km east of the Balfour-Greenes Creek roads junction.
A permit is required from the P&WS to travel from Greenes Creek to Sandy Cape. Although no permit is necessary for the Balfour Track, it is advisable to get in touch with the P&WS office at Arthur River before attempting to drive along this track, to check on current track conditions.
Designated camping areas are located at the northern end of the protected area, along with drinking water, fishing and boating facilities. Dogs are allowed if kept under control.
Arthur River is located 198 km west of Devonport. For further information contact the Dept of Environment & Land Management, Parks & Wildlife Service (P&WS), ph: (004) 57 1225.
\BDescription:\b Pieman River. \IPhoto by Heather Donovan. (Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np201.jpg
#
"Pieman River State Reserve",2,"c\1\np10003.jpg","c","0"
In the south of the Arthur-Pieman Protected Area lies the serene beauty of the Pieman River, along which an 800 metre wide reserve protects the cool temperate rainforest that grows along the river's banks.
Ferns and shrubs grow under the protective canopy of dense towering beech forests, with lichens and mosses coating trunks of trees, rocks and fallen logs, creating a fairylike wonderland. Stands of Huon Pine can also be found, along with the rare and elegant Cunningham tree fern. In all, this is a beautiful region with outstanding scenery, forests and wildlife.
As there is no vehicle access within the reserve, you have to get out on the river to fully discover its charm. Visitors can explore the river by canoe, or join one of the wilderness cruises which operate from Corinna, on the banks of the Pieman River.
Corinna was once a thriving goldrush town, today little remains. It is however, a good base, with camping facilities and accommodation available. Other activities to be enjoyed in the area include swimming, fishing, boating and bushwalking.
The Reserve is located 206 km northwest of Devonport. For further information ph: (004) 71 7122
\BDescription:\b Pieman River. \IPhoto by Heather Donovan. (Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np201.jpg
#
"Asbestos Range National Park",3,"c\1\np202.jpg","c","0"
The Asbestos Range National Park covers an area of 4,349 hectares. Located along the central north coast of the state, this park, although once mined for asbestos and used for farming, still retains much of its natural and scenic landscape and vegetation. With a magnificent ocean frontage of virgin white sweeping beaches, large sand dunes and rocky granite outcrops, combined with a mixture of coastal heathlands, salt marshes and grasslands, giving way to dry eucalypt forests further inland, this park has much to offer any visitor.
With such a diversity of environments, the park is inhabited by a wide variety of fauna. Areas such as the grassy plains behind Bakers Beacher, which were once part of the historic farming property of 'Springlawn', are a favourite feeding ground for Forester kangaroos and Bennett's wallabies, along with pademelon and wombats. The elusive Tasmanian devil also inhabits the park.
Birdlife is plentiful in the heaths and woodlands, while waterbirds, such as black swans, are especially attracted to the lagoon behind Bakers Beach, and the extensive tidal and mud flats in the North-East Arm. The delightful Springlawn Nature Walk leads to the freshwater lagoon, passing the site of the farm's old rubbish tip where relics of horse-drawn implements are strewn. The walking track continues through tea-tree forests, until you reach the duckboards across the wetlands, finally arriving at the hide. This hide gives birdwatchers a great opportunity to sit back and unobtrusively study the engaging bird activity around the lagoon. There is also another bird hide along the mud flats.
Walkers exploring Badgers Beach and Bakers Beach will be entranced at the sight of literally thousands of distinct red-purple soldier crabs, marching forward in unison in their search for a tasty morsel for their army. The beaches are also frequented regularly by little penguins and migratory waters.
In warmer months, the park is especially worth visiting, with kaleidoscopic blooms of wildflowers and ornate displays from the coastal heath, such as the silver banksia.
Besides just the sheer enjoyment of camping in such a delightful area, the park is also a great spot for swimming, boating, water skiing and bushwalking. Horseriding is also allowed, however you need a permit from the Ranger beforehand.
Gravel roads give access to the park and the caravan and camping sites. Basic facilities only are provided, and you need to bring in your own water requirements.
This park is located 60 km northwest of \JLaunceston\j, and 40 km east of Devonport. For further information contact the P&WS, Asbestos Range, ph: (004) 28 6277.
\BDescription:\b Asbestos Range National Park Location Map.
\BPic2:\b 34500015.jpg
\BDescription:\b Asbestos Range National Park \I(Tasmanian Tourist Commission)\i
#
"Ben Lomond National Park",4,"c\1\tas007.jpg","c","0"
Ben Lomond was named by a Scottish migrant after his home lake. It lies 50 km south-east of \JLaunceston\j and car access is from the \JLaunceston\j-Ben Lomond Road. The park covers 16,500 ha and includes the entire Ben Lomond Range. In winter it has good snow coverage and is known for its skiing facilities. During the ski season, a kiosk is open in the alpine village. The park's highest point is Legges Tor at 1,572 m - the second highest peak in Tasmania. This can be reached via a good walking track from Carr Villa, on the slopes of Ben Lomond, by experienced bushwalkers. The park abounds in picturesque names - Misery Bluff, the Plains of Heaven, Little Hell. Although it is so well known for winter sports, the scenery at Ben Lomond is magnificent all the year round. During spring and summer, the park is ablaze with alpine wildflowers.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Department of Environment and Land Management, Hobart\i
\BPic2:\b tas008.jpg
\BDescription2:\b I (Courtesy Department of Environment and Land Management, Hobart)\i
\BPic3:\b tas005.jpg
\BDescription3:\b I (Courtesy Department of Environment and Land Management, Hobart)\i
\BPic4:\b np210.jpg
#
"Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park",5,"c\1\8_0036.jpg","c","0"
Lake St. Clair, Australia's deepest lake, forms the southern border of the Cradle Mountain/Lake St. Clair National Park which covers 161,000 ha. The vegetation in this area includes alpine moorlands, rainforests, subalpine heaths and buttongrass sedgelands.
Cradle Mountain/Lake St. Clair National Park contains several distinct mountain ranges, pine-fringed lakes, exposed moors and sheltered rainforest. Internationally it is the best-known Australian bushwalk.
The 161,000 hectare Cradle Mountain/Lake St. Clair National Park has grown from a much smaller reserve, established around Cradle Mountain in 1922. Much of the credit for the creation of the reserve must go to Austrian immigrant Gustav Weindorfer.
On January 4, 1910, he climbed Cradle Mountain with his Tasmanian born wife Kate, and a friend. On the summit, Weindorfer said: "This must be a national park for the people for all time. It is magnificent, and people must know about it and enjoy it."
He worked towards his goal, constructing a chalet for tourists at Waldheim in Cradle Valley, continuing to operate the chalet after his wife's death in 1916.
Today, the park, together with the Southwest National Park and the Franklin-Lower Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, forms Tasmania's 755,000 hectare World Heritage Area.
This wild and rugged mountainous region in the heart of Tasmania was formed in the last ice age. Located in the central west of the state, its landscape contrasts craggy mountain pinnacles, deep forested valleys with gorges and waterfalls, and alpine moorlands whose surface is patchworked with dazzling glacier-formed lakes and tarns.
The flora reflects the high rainfall and wild weather this region of Tasmania receives. Misty grottos of mosses and lichens can be found in the cool temperate rainforests, while tall eucalypt, native pine and beech forests find the valleys more to their liking. In the extreme climatic conditions of the highlands, only the hardiest species survive, such as cushion plants, heaths and stunted shrubs, with swamps and boggy plains covered in buttongrass.
Bounteous in fauna, the wildlife most commonly seen throughout the park are Bennett's wallabies, which frequent Cradle Valley and Lake St Clair, while rufous wallabies and potoroos are best seen at dusk when they come out to feed. At night, you stand a chance of seeing native and tiger cats and ringtail possums, especially around campsites, while wombats trudge through the forested areas on their short, stumpy legs. The Tasmanian devil, though common, is rarely seen.
Birdlife, though not as abundant as found in other parts of Tasmania, is still well represented, with parrots, birds of prey, and numerous smaller bush birds prevalent. One bird that is a common sight is the currawong, its song audible throughout the forests and valleys. Even though the climate might seem too inhospitable for reptiles, a variety live in the park, including tiger and copperhead snakes which prefer the habitat of the rivers, swamps and buttongrass plains
In this veritable bushwalker's paradise, there are kilometres of walking trails leading across some of the finest country one could hope to experience, including the 85 km long Overland Track, a north-south traverse of the park which takes around 5 days.
However, you don't need to be a fanatical bushwalker to enjoy and appreciate the magnificent scenery, and although vehicle access is only possible to Cradle Valley in the north of the park, and Lake St Clair in the south, there are many attractions within these limits that make the journey well worth the effort.
Lake St Clair is over 17 km long and is also the deepest lake in Australia. The main facilities are centred around Cynthia Bay, on the southwest corner of the lake. Here, visitors will find the Ranger's office, visitor information centre, toilets and general store, while the caravan and camping ground (with all amenities) is set a littler further around the bay.
The lake is ideal for canoeing and windsurfing, and swimming is popular in the warmer months. Fishing for trout in the lakes and rivers is allowed in season, provided you have a license.
A number of walking trails heads out from Cynthia Bay, including the Overland Track, which skirts the western edge of the lake, and the Shadow and Forgotten Lakes walk, a moderate 3 to 4 hour walk suitable for families, which takes you to these pristine lakes on the slopes of Mt Hugel. The Watersmeet Nature Walk is a leisurely one and a half hour walk along a well formed and level track, which meanders through a variety of vegetation. In the warmer months, the woodlands and rainforests along this track are festooned with wildflowers, including the beautiful waratah.
A private passenger launch ferries people from Cynthia Bay to the mouth of Narcissus River, at the northern end of the lake, and it's a great way to view the overall grandeur of the lake and surrounding mountain peaks.
Cradle Valley is the northernmost point of entry into the World Heritage Area, and while there is no camping in Cradle Valley itself, there is a camping ground 2 km outside the park's boundary, accessible to both caravans and campers, it has cooking shelters with electric barbecues, open fireplaces, tables, hot showers and toilets. For those who prefer a roof over their head, there are two bunkhouses available for hire, and advanced bookings are recommended. There are also a number of cabins available at the Waldheim, an old historic building, but you need to bring your own food and bedding. For further information or bookings on any of the above, phone the camping ground manager on (004) 92 1395.
The area's scenic beauty draws many people, from artists, photographers and nature lovers. Again, a variety of walks can be undertaken, from a half hour, half day or full day exploring Cradle Valley.
Cradle Valley is 95 km south of Devonport. For further information contact the P&WS, Cradle Mountain, ph: (004) 92 1133.
Lake St Clair is 73 km from Hobart. For further information contact the P&WS, ph: (002) 89 1172.
\BDescription:\b Lake St. Clair with Cradle Mountain in the background \I(DFAT).\i
\BPic2:\b 3_0034.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Cradle Mountain/Lake St. Clair National Park \I(DFAT).\i
\BPic3:\b np20008.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Scorpitria, Cradle Mountain National Park \I(Random House)\i
\BPic4:\b np20010.jpg
\BDescription4:\b Twisted Lakes, Cradle Mountain National Park \I(Random House)\i
\BPic5:\b np20026.jpg
\BDescription5:\b Dove Lake, Cradle Mountains. \I(Random House)\i
\BDescription7:\b Deciduous Beech, Cradle Mountain National Park \I(Random House)\i
\BPic8:\b np211.jpg
#
"Douglas-Apsley National Park",6,"c\1\tas010.jpg","c","0"
Douglas Apsley National Park covers an area of 16,080 hectares.
Tasmania's newest national park is situated on the east coast and covers a range of land formations and habitats which preserves an area rich in flora and fauna.
Its scenic splendour is made up of river gorges and cascading waterfalls, beautiful deep pools and rainforest patches, while the hillsides are covered in dry sclerophyll forest.
There are a variety of walks throughout the park, from 10 minutes to a few days. One of the most popular spots is the Apsley Waterhole and a campsite, with basic facilities, is nearby.
The park is located approximately 150 km northeast of \JLaunceston.\j For further information contact the P&WS, Bicheno, ph: (003) 75 1236, or Freycinet, ph: (002) 57 0107.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Department of Environment and Land Management, Hobart\i
\BPic2:\b tas012.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \ICourtesy Department of Environment and Land Management, Hobart\i
\BPic3:\b tas006.jpg
\BDescription3:\b I (Courtesy Department of Environment and Land Management, Hobart)\i
\BPic4:\b np203.jpg
#
"Franklin-Lower Gordon Wild Rivers National Park",7,"c\1\tas011.jpg","c","0"
This park forms the central portion of the World Heritage Area and was the centre of controversy in the 80s when the state government wanted to dam the Gordon River to provide hydro-electric power. The area was saved and proclaimed a national park, completing the link between Cradle Mountain/Lake St Clair and the Southwest National Parks. It covers an area of 195,200 hectares.
Encompassing the catchment areas of the Franklin and Olga Rivers and part of the Lower Gordon River, and protecting the undisturbed and untamed Franklin River, along with the striking white quartzite peak of Frenchmans Cap, this is a imposing wilderness area.
The park's flora is dominated by temperate rainforests interspersed with beech and Huon pine. The birdlife is prolific and includes the orange bellied parrot.
On the fauna side of things, night time sees the appearance of the native cats and Tasmanian Devils, but only for the very observant and quiet.
The best access to the heart of this wilderness area is via raft or canoe down the Franklin River. Cruise boats also operate from Strahan across Macquarie Harbour and up the picturesque Gordon River. Vehicle access is minimal.
There is however, a 4WD track nearby which takes you through some very impressive country. The Bird River Track is found approximately 30 km south of Queenstown, just off the sealed Mt Jukes Road, and is a former railway. The track passes through very dense rainforest which virtually forms a canopy over the track, and although reasonably flat, can be quite wet and muddy with ruts at times. After travelling for 8 km, you reach the end of the track at the decayed Bird River Bridge. From this point, a walking track leads 7 km to the ghost town of Pillinger on the shores of Macquarie Harbour. The encroaching rainforest is slowly engulfing the building remains of what was once a mining and railhead community back in the 1900s.
The McCall track, south of the Bird River turnoff, took vehicles up the mountain for incredible views of the surrounding area. Unfortunately it is currently closed to allow the area to recover. Check with the Ranger on this track's closure and possible reopening date.
The park is located 220 km northwest of Hobart. For further information contact the P&WS, Queenstown, (004) 71 2511.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Department of Environment and Land Management, Hobart\i
\BPic2:\b tas016.jpg
\BDescription2:\b \ICourtesy Department of Environment and Land Management, Hobart\i
\BPic3:\b tas015.jpg
\BDescription3:\b \ICourtesy Department of Environment and Land Management, Hobart\i
\BPic4:\b tas014.jpg
\BDescription4:\b \ICourtesy Department of Environment and Land Management, Hobart\i
\BPic5:\b np204.jpg
#
"Freycinet National Park",8,"c\1\8_0007.jpg","c","0"
Freycinet National Park covers an area of 11,000 hectares.
Jutting from the sea along the east coast, remarkable red granite cliffs plunge straight down into the ocean's depths on both sides of the peninsula, broken only where stark white beaches, such as Wineglass Bay, soften the otherwise rugged coastline. A variety of vegetation, such as grass trees, banksia, wattles, oyster bay pine and bulloak also add to the park's scenic attractions, and around Wineglass Bay the shoreline is quickly swallowed up by the marshy heathlands that abut it.
Freycinet National Park's landscape hosts pink granite monoliths and sandy beaches.
Vehicle access to the park extends for only 6 km and the only way to fully explore this park is by foot, and it is well worth the effort.
Although not within the park, nearby at Coles Bay a 4WD loop track begins at Coles Bay Road heading towards the park. The track winds its way through a variety of native vegetation and coastal heathlands, and you are sure to see some wildlife along the way.
While bushwalking is the main recreational activity, there is some excellent offshore fishing around the peninsula and water sports such as sailing, canoeing, water skiing and skin-diving are popular.
The western side of the peninsula offers very pleasant swimming during the summer months. Conversely, the eastern side is exposed to the Tasman Sea and can be quite dangerous.
The park is located 200 km north of Hobart.
For further information contact the P&WS, Freycinet, ph: (002) 57 0107.
\BDescription:\b Freycinet National Park \I(Tasmania Department of Tourism).\i
\BPic2:\b 11_0005.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Freycinet Peninsula \I(DFAT)\i
\BPic3:\b np20075.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Freycinet National Park. \I Photo by Jamie Robertson. (Random House)\i
\BPic4:\b np20076.jpg
\BDescription4:\b Lodge at foot of Hazards, Freycinet National Park. \IPhoto by Heather Donovan. (Random House).\i
\BPic5:\b np219.jpg
#
"Hartz Mountains National Park",9,"c\1\tas022.jpg","c","0"
Hartz Mountains National Park covers an area of 7,250 hectares. The wild and rugged primeval landscape of this park is made up of alpine heathlands, snow gum woodlands, glacially-carved mountain lakes and rugged dolerite ranges which run north-south between the catchments of the Arve and Picton Rivers. In contrast to the harshness of the highlands, in the lower reaches of the park, beech rainforests grow, eventually giving way to eucalypt forests.
In winter, the snow-covered highlands are popular with cross country skiers, while the bright red bloom of the waratah, along with an array of other wildflowers, softens the landscape in spring and summer, and bushwalkers venture into what can still be an exposed, cold and windswept region.
Camping is only permitted for extended walks in the park's western end, however there are BBQ and picnic facilities available at the park's entrance.
Although the park is basically only accessible to bushwalkers, drivers, especially four wheel drivers, will find taking Arve Road and then Hartz Road to the park very enjoyable, making a great day's outing from Hobart. The drive along Arve Road passes through some picturesque scenery, with plenty of opportunity to stop and admire the view, or have a picnic. The Tahune Forest Reserve is also found further along Arve Road and beside the striking forest panorama. Other attractions for the visitor include the Huon Pine walk, West Creek Lookout, picnic facilities and camping spots along the Huon River. You could even try your hand at fishing.
Along Hartz Road is the Waratah Lookout, which has a breathtaking view of the countryside.
2WD vehicles should take care when travelling along the gravel roads, especially in wet conditions.
The park is located 85 km southwest of Hobart. For further information contact the P&WS, Esperance District Office, Dover, ph: (002) 98 1577. For information on the tracks mentioned, contact the Esperance Forest and Heritage Centre, ph: (002) 97 1836.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Department of Environment and Land Management, Hobart\i.
\BPic2:\b np205.jpg
#
"Hellyer Gorge",10,"c\1\np221.jpg","c","0"
This park is in north-west Tasmania on the Murchison Highway 32 km from Somerset. It covers 570 ha and is named after the explorer-surveyor Henry Hellyer.
The road coming into the park winds down one side of the gorge, crosses the river and climbs out on the other. The gorge is heavily forested and there is a short track through the rainforest of myrtle beech. The Hellyer River is fed by a series of fast-running tributaries and, in its turn, feeds out into the Arthur River, the major waterway of north-west Tasmania.
There is a camping ground near the bridge, but other than that the nearest accommodation is at Somerset.
\BDescription:\b Hellyer Gorge Location Map.
#
"Labillardiere State Reserve",11,"c\1\34500008.jpg","c","0"
Bruny Island is 55 km long and at the southern end of the island is the Labillardiere State Reserve which covers 2,332 hectares.
Like the rest of the island, popular activities within the reserve include bushwalking, swimming (in the warmer months), boating and fishing. However, the scenic beauty of the island as a whole is well worth exploring, from its extraordinary coastline of imposing promontories, sheer cliffs and long white beaches, into the bush scenery of the state forests.
A thriving animal population has plenty of habitats to choose, from dry eucalypt forests and woodlands with grass and scrub understoreys, patches of wet eucalypt forests and rainforest, along with areas of coastal heath, wetlands, dunes and grasslands.
Vehicle tracks, mainly unsealed and which are more suited to 4WDs, meander around the island and lead to many places of interest, such as the Cape Bruny Lighthouse, built in 1838, making it the second oldest lighthouse in Australia.
While a designated camping area exists at the reserve, there are also a number of bushcamping sites, usually with basic facilities, dotted around the island. You'll need to bring in your own wood or settle for fuel stoves. The campsite at Cloudy Corner, at the southern end of Cloudy Beach, is reached via a 3 km beach drive and you'll definitely need a 4WD. There are no facilities.
The island is located 40 km south of Hobart and is reached by a vehicle ferry which operates regularly between the coastal village of Kettering and Roberts Point on Bruny Island.
For further information contact the P&WS, Bruny Is, ph: (002) 93 1008.
\BDescription:\b Labillardiere State Reserve \I(Tasmanian Tourist Commission)\i
\BPic2:\b np206.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Labillardiere State Reserve Location Map.
#
"Maria Island National Park",12,"c\1\34500005.jpg","c","0"
Maria Island is off the east coast of Tasmania near Orford and was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1971 and a national park the year after.
The park, which covers 9,672 ha, is noted for the extent and variety of its birdlife, and great grey kangaroos, Cape Barren Geese and emus are a common sight.
The park consists of two steep islands joined together by a narrow isthmus. The highest point of the island is Mount Maria which rises to 709 m and is a steep climb.
From the sea, Maria Island is immensely impressive and it contains magnificent scenery, including fossil-studded sandstone and limestone cliffs, beautiful white sandy beaches, forests and fern gullies. The sandy beaches are on the side facing Mercury Passage which is somewhat sheltered. The marine life around the island is excellent and the scuba diving is spectacular.
It is possible to stay in dormitories on the island. Otherwise the nearest accommodation is at Orford.
\BDescription:\b Maria Island National Park \I(Tasmanian Tourist Commission)\i
\BPic2:\b np212.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Maria Island National Park Location Map.
#
"Montezuma Falls",13,"c\1\np220.jpg","c","0"
Situated near Rosebery, this spectacular and scenic waterfall is over 100 metres high, spraying a fine mist over all that surrounds it. An excellent view of the falls can be gained from the constructed wooden viewing platform.
The waterfalls are reached via a 4WD/walking track which follows a disused rail line that once carried tin from an old mine near the bygone township of Williamsford. From the carpark you need to cross the Montezuma Creek, which after heavy rain can be impassable. If driving, you will need to obtain a key to unlock the gate near Williamsford. The 4WD track ends about half a kilometre from the falls and from there it is a short and easy walk.
The small township of Rosebery is 55 km north of Queenstown, which is 256 km northeast of Hobart.
For further information contact the P&WS, Queenstown, (004) 71 2511.
\BDescription:\b Montezuma Falls Location Map.
#
"Mount Barrow National Park",14,"c\1\np213.jpg","c","0"
There are magnificent views across the North Esk and St Patrick River valleys from Mount Barrow which is in the north-east of Tasmania, 20 km east of \JLaunceston\j.
Access is first by way of the Tasman Highway and then a 14 km drive to the summit with a steep zigzag road for the last few kilometres. In the winter months, the mountain, which rises to 1,413 m, is covered in snow and the road is impassable without a four wheel drive vehicle and not always then.
The nearest accommodation is at \JLaunceston\j.
\BDescription:\b Mount Barrow National Park Location Map.
#
"Mount Field National Park",15,"c\1\np20011.jpg","c","0"
Mount Field National Park covers an area of 16,265 hectares.
In the last ice age, glacial movements shaped the landforms of the plateau and the myriad lakes and tarns of this, Tasmania's oldest national park.
The striking and varied landscape of the park is bountiful in flora, from rainforest with superb tree ferns in the valleys, to towering forests of swamp gum, stringybarks and more stately conifers, while gnarled snow gums and alpine moorlands are found on the high country. Unusual plants, such as pandani, the tallest heath in the world, and eerie horizontal scrub, are also found.
The bird and animal life, too, is abundant, though most animals only venture out under cover of darkness. Even so, you may come across wombats, pademelons and Bennett's wallabies, which venture out in the early evening to feed. The birdlife is much more visible, and there is every chance of seeing a lyrebird scratching around the forest floor.
Lady Barron, Horseshoe and Russell Falls are major attractions of this park, the spectacular Russell Falls, near the park's entrance, being the most easily reached. With surrounding forests of lofty eucalypts and myrtles, and the richness of symmetrical, elegant tree ferns, it is no wonder that Russell Falls were first protected within a reserve back in 1885.
The park has long been a favourite for bushwalkers, with an excellent variety of walks, from the very easy, to some suitable only for experienced bushwalkers. Of course, particularly on the longer walks, weather is a major factor. For winter sport enthusiasts, the high country has been popular for over 70 years, although the snowfall in the area is unreliable. Trout fishing in the lakes has drawn fishermen since the first release of trout in Lake Webster in 1898.
The only camping facilities are located at the park's entrance, where there is also a very pleasant picnic area, along with toilets, a kiosk and the Ranger's base. A gravel road winds 16 km from here to Lake Dobson, where toilets and a public shelter only, are provided. This is the only authorised vehicle track in the park.
The park is 75 km west from Hobart.
For further information contact the P&WS, Mt Field, ph: (002) 88 1149, or Hobart, ph: (002) 33 6197.
\BDescription:\b Panadini, Mount Field National Park. \I(Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np20014.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Sassafras and Marion Falls, Mount Field National Park. \I(Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np20071.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Russell Falls, Mount Field National Park. \IPhoto by Jamie Robertson. (Random House)\i
\BPic4:\b np214.jpg
#
"Mount Strzelecki National Park",16,"c\1\34500006.jpg","c","0"
This park is on Flinders Island, which is 15 km south of Whitemark on the other side of Cape Barren Island from the Banks Strait. The park, which covers 4,000 ha, is at the south extremity of the island, near the village of Lady Barron, and soars upwards from the beaches to the peaks behind and up to Mount Strzelecki, which rises to 750 m and has many surrounding peaks.
The unpronounceable name comes from the Polish explorer and adventurer Paul Strzelecki, who came to the island in 1842 and climbed the mountain that bears his name. There is a walking track to the peaks in the park but by and large this is undeveloped country, with vegetation ranging from sparse heathland to thickly wooded slopes and sandy beaches.
Accommodation is available at Lady Barron.
\BDescription:\b Strzelecki National Park \I(Tasmanian Tourist Commission)\i
\BPic2:\b np215.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Mount Strzelecki National Park Location Map.
#
"Mount William National Park",17,"c\2\34500014.jpg","c","0"
Mount William National Park covers an area of 13,899 hectares. It is situated on the northeastern tip of Tasmania with a diverse landscape of sweeping sandy beaches, dunes, coastal heathlands and granite rock pools along the coast, while the inland slopes are mainly covered in dry sclerophyll forest.
The area as a whole provides refuge for a variety of mammals, including Forester kangaroos, Bennett's wallabies, pademelons, echidnas and wombats. There is also a thriving and varied bird population to captivate birdwatchers.
Mt William itself is 216 metres high, and the short walk to the top is well worth the effort as you are greeted by a 360 degree view, taking in the Bass Strait Islands. There are in fact quite a few choices of walks in the park either along the beaches or fire trails, while vehicle tracks give plenty of chances to see the abounding wildlife, especially at night with the assistance of a good torch.
An historic site to visit is the Eddystone Lighthouse which was built in the 1880s on Eddystone Point, on the extreme southeast point of the park.
Favoured recreations are swimming, surfing, diving, fishing and boating, and horseriding is permitted on special horse trails.
Designated camping areas, with basic facilities, are provided, such as the beach front sites along Stumpys Bay, however, you need to bring along your own drinking water.
A road loop provides access to Stumpys Bay for camping, fishing, boating, etc., and rejoins Musselroe Road, which in turn gives access to the Musselroe Bay Coastal Reserve, giving the traveller some excellent coastal views and access to good campsites.
The park is located 160 km east of \JLaunceston\j.
For further information contact the P&WS, Mt William, ph: (003) 57 2108.
\BDescription:\b Mt William National Park \I(Tasmanian Tourist Commission)\i
\BPic2:\b np209.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Mount William National Park Location Map.
#
"Port Arthur Historic Site",18,"c\2\34500007.jpg","c","0"
No visit would be complete to Tasmania, without a visit to this historic site, situated on the naturally beautiful Tasman Peninsula in the southeast of the Island. It is only 125 hectares.
Started as a timber station in 1828, it became a penal settlement from 1830 to 1877, with convicts forced to labour, manufacturing all sorts of items from bricks, ironwork and leather goods, to even building steam and sailing ships.
A bushfire ravaged the settlement in 1897, and a second has swept through the area since, but even this violent act of nature couldn't totally destroy the buildings and wipe out the horror of its past. Many of the buildings have survived, although badly damaged, as poignant reminders of the extremely harsh conditions under which the convicts endured.
The only two buildings which escaped the fire's destruction were the Lunatic Asylum and the Commandant's residence. In use once again, the restored Asylum is the reception centre for this historic site, housing a small museum and audio visual theatre.
Today, visitors can wander through the lush green grounds of lawn and stands of English trees, surveying the Penitentiary, Church, Model Prison, Hospital and the Guard House, and marvel at these incredible structures, their heritage and their surrounds.
The 'Isle of the Dead', situated at the entrance to the bay of Port Arthur, was the burial ground for 769 convicts and 150 free settlers, soldiers, seamen and their wives and children from 1833 to 1877. A visit to this ghostly place and a little time spent reading the inscriptions on the imposing headstones, gives a further insight to the hardships that this settlement faced.
From the man-made formations of Port Arthur, nearby, around Eaglehawk Neck, are the natural attractions of the Tasman's Arch, the Devil's Kitchen, the Blowhole and the Tessellated Pavement, all well worth a look.
For the four wheel driver, the convict outstations past Saltwater River can be explored, with the ruins of the Coal Mines settlement at Slopen Main and the timber mills at Premaydena and Koonya having their own historic significance.
The Port Arthur Historic Site is 102 km southeast of Hobart. For further information ph: (002) 50 2363.
\BDescription:\b Port Arthur \I(Tasmanian Tourist Commission)\i
\BPic2:\b np207.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Port Arthur Historic Site Location Map.
#
"Rocky Cape National Park",19,"c\2\tas027.jpg","c","0"
The jagged coastline lives up to the name of this park, which is 100 km west of Devonport and covers 3,000 ha. The park was proclaimed in 1967, mainly to protect the caves, which are known to have been used by the Aboriginal people of the area for 8,000 years. Two of these caves can be inspected by the public near the western end of Sisters Beach.
The park has many well-marked walking trails, some leading to two lookouts in the hills which give superb panoramic views of the area. On the coast, the rocky shores provide a series of tiny beaches and rock pools full of aquatic life.
The park contains more than 90 species of birds. Access is via the Bass Highway.
The nearest accommodation is at Wynyard.
\BPic2:\b np216.jpg
#
"South West National Park",20,"c\2\11_0008.jpg","c","0"
The largest park in Tasmania (608,000 ha), the area encompasses the Frankland and Arthur Ranges to the west and south coasts, forming the remote southern portion of the World Heritage Area. Its wild, rocky peaks descend into deep, thickly-forested valleys which are interspersed with extensive buttongrass plains, while the normally inaccessible, craggy coastline for the most part is devoid of any human presence.
130 kilometres west of Hobart, and covering over half a million hectares, is a vast tract of remote temperate wilderness. It features dolerite and quartzite-capped mountains, with glacial landforms and alpine vegetation. In the east, there are deep valleys with tall, dense forests of eucalypts.
Particularly prominent is the leatherwood tree found only in Tasmania. Colonies of beehives are moved into the park where these trees are in blossom, resulting in a particularly aromatic honey that is in great demand worldwide. Vast areas of buttongrass plain and scrub cover the deeper valleys.
The only way to see much of this breathtakingly beautiful part of Tasmania is to walk. In the northern end of the park the Gordon River and Scotts Peak Roads wind through forest, scrub and moorland, giving access to the northwestern and southeastern shores of Lake Pedder. Here it is possible to launch a boat and enjoy the trout fishing.
While you can camp at the Huon camp ground, there are also bush campsites located along both roads, with varying facilities. It is also possible by vehicle to reach Cockle Creek, south of Dover, in the eastern portion of the park. Here the hectic activity of the whaling, coal mining and logging days in the region have long passed, and nature once again reigns. There is a large camping area, with toilet facilities, at Cockle Creek.
The park is located 160 km west of Hobart. For further information contact the P&WS, Maydena, ph: (002) 88 1283, or Dover, ph: (002) 98 1577.
\BDescription:\b South West National Park \I(DFAT).\i
\BPic2:\b 8_0040.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Port Davey \I(DFAT)
\BPic3:\b tas004.jpg
\BDescription3:\b \ICourtesy Department of Environment and Land Management, Hobart\i
\BPic4:\b tas002.jpg
\BDescription4:\b \ICourtesy Department of Environment and Land Management, Hobart\i
\BPic5:\b np217.jpg
#
"Walls of Jerusalem National Park",21,"c\2\34500017.jpg","c","0"
The name describes the cliffs that dominate this park, which is 110 km west of \JLaunceston\j, 115 km south of Devonport and abuts the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. Set in the Great Western Tiers, this 11,500 ha park has sheer dolerite cliffs - the walls - which rise to a plateau. In the valleys there are pencil pines and small lakes and pools. On the plateau the vegetation is mainly subalpine heaths and grasslands.
In the park there are wallabies, wombats, possums and a wide variety of birdlife.
There is a walking track up to the plateau that makes its way through the Walls at Herods Gate and passes Lake Salome. The tallest cliff is West Wall at 1,490 m.
The weather here can deteriorate very quickly so full equipment is needed.
The nearest accommodation is at Devonport.
\BDescription:\b Walls of Jerusalem \I(Tasmanian Tourist Commission)\i
\BPic2:\b np218.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Walls of Jerusalem National Park Location Map.
The Waterhouse Protected Area is 6,700 hectares. This lovely part of Tasmania is found in the far northeast, protecting an area east of Bridport along Anderson Bay north, across to Ringarooma Bay.
It is a very popular camping area which has some excellent bushcamping along the coast. Pristine rock pools and sand dunes, along with tranquil beaches, make it an ideal spot for any visit.
Outdoor recreational activities which can be enjoyed are swimming, fishing, bushwalking and horseriding.
The Waterhouse Road, considered easy 4WD, provides access to the protected area via Blackmans Road and Homestead Road. Driving on the beaches is not permitted.
The protected area is located 85 km from \JLaunceston\j.
For further information contact P&WS, Mt William, ph: (003) 57 2108.
\BDescription:\b Waterhouse Protected Area Location Map.
This telegraph station is the reason for the existence of the town of \JAlice Springs\j. The station was completed in 1872 near the spring named Alice after the wife of the builder of the Overland Telegraph Line, Charles Todd. The station was also built near a regularly used ceremonial ground of the Arrente Aboriginal Clan. Once a repeater station on the Overland Telegraph Line, the buildings have been carefully reconstructed and show something of the pioneering lifestyle in Central Australia a century ago. Today the station is a popular picnic spot and historical museum.
\BDescription:\b \JAlice Springs\j Telegraph Station \I(NT Tourist Commission)\i
In 1887, gold was discovered near Arltunga and the gold rush was on. Many of the fortune seekers were already in Central Australia as they had rushed up to the 'ruby' fields at Ruby Gap. The rubies turned out to be worthless garnets. Some miners pushed their barrows 600 km from the Oodnadatta railhead to South Australia to reach Arltunga and the town was larger than the outpost of \JAlice Springs.\j There is a Visitors' Centre with a small museum and slide shows and a working two-stamp battery. Bring your torch along on any day as you will be able to explore some of the old mines in the area.
Adjacent to the historical reserve is a fossicking reserve and with the right permits you may try your luck at fossicking for an elusive nugget. Allow at least four hours to explore Arltunga. Arltunga lies 110 km east of \JAlice Springs\j along the Ross Highway. The road is sealed for 70 km.
The Attack Creek Historical Reserve embraces a memorial to the explorer \JJohn McDouall Stuart\j. The creek is the point from which Stuart turned back from his 1860 expedition designed to cross the continent after an encounter with hostile Warumungu Aboriginal people.
The reserve site itself does not have any direct physical association with Stuart or the events of June 1860. The site was chosen with regard to its convenient proximity to the Stuart Highway rather than any special significance to the events which took place. In 1960 the Northern Territory Administration erected the memorial to Stuart at the Attack Creek site and it was subsequently passed on to the Parks and Wildlife Commission to manage.
Attack Creek is 74 km north of Tennant Creek on bitumen road and contains picnic facilities.
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"Barrow Creek Telegraph Station Historical Reserve",4,"0","g","0"
Two trees near the Blacksmith's shop are registered sacred sites. The site chosen for the Barrow Creek Telegraph Station was beside a waterhole in the creek that \JJohn McDouall Stuart\j had named after J.H.Barrow, a member of the South Australian Parliament, in July 1860.
Construction of the 200 km Barrow Creek subsection of the Overland Telegraph Line commenced in May 1870 and was completed in December. As at Alice Springs, the Telegraph Station was designed as a fort, with stone walls and iron roofing, to resist Aboriginal attacks.
Barrow Creek is best known for the assault on it by local Kaytetye warriors on the evening of 22nd February 1874. By 1880 the Station was very much in its present form with a European population of eight, comprising the seven staff members and a police trooper.
One of the great difficulties of life here was the lack of water. The waterhole in Barrow Creek was not permanent as at first thought and the Station's shallow well was brackish. Drinking water had to be carted about 15 km from Taylor Creek until 1889 when a deeper well was sunk on the banks of Barrow Creek.
Barrow Creek Telegraph Station was transferred to the Parks and Wildlife Commission in April 1990 and is now being managed as an historic site.
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"Borroloola National Park",5,"c\2\np651.jpg","c","0"
A remote settlement on Narwimbi tribal land on the MacArthur River, Borroloola is now almost a ghost town. It is 970 km south-east of Darwin, 655 km south-east of Katherine and only 90 km from the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Sir Edward Pellew group of islands. Borroloola was once a large frontier town with a colourful history.
The name comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean 'ti-tree'. In 1845, the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt crossed the MacArthur River. It was surveyed as a port some 40 years later to become the centre for the Barkly Tableland and mining settlements in hinterland. In the 1880s this was a town of slygrog-dealing and horse-stealing; at the time it was suggested that the greatest attraction of the town was its distance from the Queensland police. In 1885, a police station was established. There was once a large Chinese population, but over the years, Borroloola drifted into becoming almost a ghost town, until recent mineral fins which suggest that the area may become the world's biggest supplier of lead concentrates.
There was a magnificent library which was donated by the Carnegie Trust of the United States when it was jokingly asked for reading material. The local police acted as voluntary librarians, and when there was a cyclone in the late 1930s, the library was put in the local lockup for safekeeping. Unfortunately, the library was later consumed by white ants.
\BDescription:\b Borroloola National Park Location Map.
This small but attractive nature park is situated 200 km from Darwin and 130 km from Katherine. So named after the Common Crow Butterfly which looks for coolness in the damp rock-overhangs in the gorge, this park has a dense melaleuca forest and tropical spinifex grass which covers the adjacent rocky hills. The track into this park is designated four wheel drive only as it crosses black soil plains which turn to deep bulldust patches when the country dries out after the wet season.
Large paperbarks and Leichhardt trees conceal the entrance to the small gorge. The gorge has colourful scenery, but a walk and some scrambling are necessary for the best views. The park is for day-use only and camping is not allowed. You may camp at Douglas Hot Springs which is only 17 km in distance from the gorge. Once you have reached the car park at the gorge, wade across the George River and approach the gorge pool from the eastern river bank and you will be there. There is safe swimming in the gorge, with the cliffs towering above. The adventurous might swim up to, or through, the narrow gorge to find peace and solitude in higher rock pools.
\BDescription:\b Butterfly Gorge Nature Park Location Map.
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"Casuarina Coastal Reserve",7,"0","g","0"
This reserve is named after the coastal she-oak \ICasaurina equisetifolia\i, which thrives on the foredunes throughout this important conservation area. An estimated 800,000 visitors and locals are lured to Casuarina every year by its beautiful white beaches, intriguing marine life and wide variety of landforms and natural habitats.
Casuarina Coastal Reserve is an area of great significance to Aboriginal people. Old Man Rock which is clearly visible off Casuarina Beach at low tide is a particularly important sacred site of the local Larrakia people and should not be damaged in any way.
Saltwater crocodiles are occasionally reported in the creeks behind the reserve. Traps are set and errant crocodiles are removed-usually taken as breeding stock to local crocodile farms. The reserve offers protection for habitats including the extensive beach area, dune systems, mangroves, tropical woodland, monsoon vine-forest, two small estuarine systems and a sea and reef area.
Wartime bunkers can be seen along the dune line as well as ancient rock formations. Casuarina Coastal Reserve also boasts the Northern Territory's only official "free beach" area, where nude bathing is allowed.
Marine creatures often seen on or near Casuarina's extensive beaches range in size from the tiny hermit crab and box jellyfish to large turtles and one of Australia's most fascinating mammals, the dugong. The Casaurina bush harbours several snake species of both venomous and non-venomous variety. Visitors who encounter snakes along the reserve's forest walking tracks are advised to give them a wide berth and to treat them with caution.
Access is via Trower Road and Lee Point Road, Darwin.
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"Central Mount Stuart Historical Reserve",8,"0","g","0"
Central Mount Stuart is an historical feature, named by \JJohn McDouall Stuart\j on his first journey across the continent. The hill is approximately the geographic centre of Australia.
On April 22, 1860, John McDouall Stuart believed that he had found the centre of Australia. He named the spot Central Mt Sturt in honour of his old leader, \JCharles Sturt\j. This was later changed to commemorate Stuart himself.
Central Mount Stuart is 212 km north of Alice Springs.
This reserve lies 163 km south of \JAlice Springs\j along the Old South Road and you pass by places of interest such as the Ewaninga Rock carvings and Maryvale Community. The road is sandy and corrugated in places with river and dune crossings and the drive takes you through some picturesque country along the Simpson Desert fringe. \JJohn Macdouall Stuart\j was the first European explorer in 1860 to sight this unusual sandstone pillar which juts out above the low dune landscape. Stuart named this rock formation after James Chambers, one of his expedition sponsors.
Up until the advent of the railway line, all overlanders used Chambers Pillar as a prominent landmark for their journeys from Adelaide to \JAlice Springs\j. They carved their names in the soft sandstone rock face for colonial historic remembrance. Others of less distinction have also carved their names on Chambers Pillar, which today is frowned upon and regarded as grafitti. Aboriginal people relate to the sandstone formation as Itirkawara, the Gecko ancestor from the Dreamtime. Legend has it that this ancestor grew in stature as he killed many other ancestors, then took a wife from a different skin group, which was not allowed under the law. Both he and his bride fled the desert, where he turned into the pillar, and she a low hill, about 500 metres away.
Camping is allowed with picnic tables and toilets provided.
\IWarning:\i Heavy fines apply to anyone defacing this national monument.
This conservation reserve is the only one of its kind in Australia. It basically is a conservation area set aside for Mitchell grassland communities. Perennial Mitchell grass stands dominate the reserve which is situated between the two well known Territory cattle stations of Brunette Downs and Alexandria. The reserve may be reached from an access road off the Tablelands Highway. A four wheel drive track meanders through the park to give the visitor a glimpse of the flora and fauna of the area.
A survey carried out in 1982 showed that there were 189 plant species, 53 bird species, 9 mammal species and 19 reptile species within the reserve. Several bird species, considered as endangered, are found here. They are the Flock Bronze wing pigeon, the Pictorella Mannikin finch and the Red Chested Button quail. Native animals found in the area include the red kangaroo, the long-tailed planigale and the long-haired rat.
These tropical limestone caves lie 30 km south of Katherine just off the Stuart Highway. They are to a depth of 15 metres and are open to the public seven days a week and are managed by a commercial venture.
Recently the Tindal cave was added to the cave system. The caves are home to the orange horseshoe bat and the brown tree snake. Guided cave tours (Cutta Cutta and Tindal Caves) and weathered limestone outcrops are of particular interest here.
There are picnic tables provided and limited camping with toilet facilities.
\BDescription2:\b Cutta Cutta Caves National Park Location Map.
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"Davenport Range National Park",12,"c\2\dingo.jpg","c","0"
This is one of the newest parks in the Northern Territory, and development of this area still has to commence. At present, there is only one camping area open at Old Police Station Waterhole and this is only accessible by four wheel drives. It is envisaged that this area will eventually have two wheel drive access and that three other four wheel drive tracks will be opened. These tracks will be essentially for experienced off roaders and the degree of difficulty will be from very rough to extremely rough. The intended campsites will be along the Frew River and the intention is to provide complete wilderness experience for those hardy enough to tackle the tracks.
The Davenport Range is a biological interzone of flora and fauna between the tropical north and the arid centre of the Northern Territory. It has a rich Aboriginal history and a notable recent history in mining and pastoralism. The park is bordered by four cattle stations and until proper fencing can be erected, the park will maintain its fair share of wild cattle and feral donkeys. Dingoes live throughout the park and so do feral cats, which are a dire threat to all the small animal habitats. The future will determine how well controls of all unwanted animals and plants work within the confines of this park.
These huge rounded granite boulders are an awesome sight next to the Stuart Highway 90 km south of \JTennant Creek.\j The boulders are the result of extreme weathering over millions of years. Signs along a short walk tell the story of how the boulders formed. Picnic tables, toilets, camping and unpowered caravan sites are provided.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Webster Publishing\i.
\BPic2:\b np615.jpg
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"Douglas Hot Springs Nature Park",14,"c\2\np606.jpg","c","0"
Camping and caravanning is the order of the day at Douglas Hot Springs. These artesian waters bubble up from the depths of mother earth and some say that they have therapeutic values. In certain areas the water is too hot to enter, but in others you may spend a relaxing time soaking up the heated water. Be careful not to have an alcohol intake whilst in the springs as both dehydrate the human body of its natural fluids. The springs are located 180 km from Darwin along the Oolloo road off the Old Stuart Highway. Only 8 km of this road is unsealed.
\BDescription:\b Douglas Hot Springs Nature Park Location Map.
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"Edith Falls in Nitmiluk National Park",15,"c\2\mel006.jpg","c","0"
Ever since the successful land claim under the NT Land Rights Act 1976 of Katherine Gorge by the Jawoyn Aboriginal clan, Edith Falls National Park was included. The only change to the status quo of the area has been of Aboriginal involvement with the land management processes. There have been minimal changes to the access throughout Nitmiluk National Park.
Edith Falls lies 45 km north along the Stuart Highway from Katherine, and 20 km in, along a sealed road. There are facilities for caravans, camping and day use. This small water fall tumbles over a series of ridges through a number of pools to end up in a large pool fringed by a monsoon forest. This popular spot is safe for swimming or bushwalking. Campgrounds, walks onto the escarpment and swimming in the deep pools above the falls make this part of Nitmiluk not to be missed. A walking track exists which connects up with Katherine Gorge. This is normally a five day hike and permits have to be obtained.
\BDescription:\b Edith Falls National Park \I(Webster Publishing)\i
\BPic2:\b mel008.jpg
\BPic3:\b np609.jpg
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"Ellery Creek Big Hole",16,"c\2\np20023.jpg","c","0"
This large water hole in the gap of the West Macdonnell ranges is very popular amongst locals and tourists alike. It is 90 kilometres west of \JAlice Springs\j along Namatjira Drive. The waterhole is permanent and it is shaded on its banks by red river gums. This area is known internationally for its geological properties such as geophysical folds and stromatolites.
Camping, picnic tables and toilets are provided.
\BDescription:\b Ellery Gorge, Ellery Creek Big Hole Nature Park. \I(Random House)\i.
\Bpic2:\b np602.jpg
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"Elsey National Park",17,"c\2\34500054.jpg","c","0"
This area, which has only recently been proclaimed a national park, extends across 14,000 ha on the Roper River. The park entrance is 10 km east of Mataranka near the junction of the Stuart and Roper Highways. The Mataranka thermal pool, where visitors can have an enjoyable warm swim, is a feature of the park. It was established as a reserve in 1967 before being incorporated into this new national park.
The clear waters of the Roper River near the township of Mataranka on the Stuart Highway provide tranquil spots for canoeing, swimming and fishing.
There are a few good walks through the monsoon forests on the Roper River and one particular interest is Elsey Falls.
Camping and caravan facilities have been provided. Mataranka Homestead is a commercial venture within the park, where a replica of Old Elsey Homestead has been built and the warm waters attract many visitors during the winter months. Commercial camping and caravan sites available.
\BDescription:\b Elsey National Park \I(NT Tourist Commission)\i
\BPic2:\b np611.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Elsey National Park Location Map.
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"Emily and Jessie Gaps Nature Park",18,"c\2\np629.jpg","c","0"
The word gap is used here to mean short gorge. This is a 695 ha park which encloses two semi-permanent waterholes. Emily Gap, which is about 10 km east of \JAlice Springs\j, has one wall decorated with Aboriginal paintings with tall caterpillar-like figures.
Jessie Gap is another 8 km further to the east. The gaps were created by a tributary of the Todd River flowing south through a jagged ridge of the Macdonnell Ranges.
The two creek-worn gaps have Aboriginal significance and are popular weekend picnic spots with locals. It is possible to walk along the top of the range between the two gaps with good views and a chance to meet euros, rock-wallabies and wedge-tailed eagles.
There is sparse vegetation on the ridge but gums grow along the riverbed, some of them very large. The best time to visit is between June and September when there is often a blaze of wildflowers.
Facilities include wheelchair access, picnic tables and toilets.
The nearest accommodation is at \JAlice Springs\j.
\BDescription:\b Emily and Jessie Gaps Nature Park Location Map.
The low hills of Ewaninga are covered in petroglyphs. These rock carvings have been set aside to preserve cultural identity for the traditional owners. The area is open to the public and lies 25 km south of \JAlice Springs\j along the Old South Road.
A walking track from the car park with interpretive signs has been provided, so that the visitor may get an insight into the way the ancient peoples lived in this harsh environment. This reserve is for day use only. Picnic facilities and toilets are present at the Park.
\BDescription:\b Ewaninga rock carvings \I(NT Tourist Commission)\i
"Finke Gorge National Park",20,"c\2\np20024.jpg","c","0"
In 1872, the explorer \JErnest Giles\j first laid his eyes on the wonders of this park and especially the Palm Valley section. The 300 Red Cabbage Palms which grow in this valley and which are unique in the world are what is left over from a remnant rainforest in a wetter area. Palm Valley lies 138 km west of \JAlice Springs\j along Larapinta Drive past Hermannsburg Community. The last 16 km follows the Finke River and is for four wheel drive vehicles only. It is an easy drive and very picturesque culminating at the start of the large stand of palms. Two pleasant walks take the adventurer through the valley. There are other walks along the way as well as picnic areas. Large waterholes along the Finke River are important refuges for waterbirds during long droughts.
The camping area lies 4 km back from the Palm Valley car park. Picnic tables, hot showers and flush toilets are provided. Rangers give talks on a regular basis during the busy season. A family of dingoes raids the camp every night and it is advisable to pack food and clothes away.
To enter the remainder of the park you must back track to Hermannsburg and take the track opposite the turnoff to the community. This 10 km track takes you into Ellery Creek and 20 km along the river bed through the red wall gorges to Boggy Hole. This track is very sandy in places and it is not advisable to tow trailers. In years gone by, there used to be direct access from Palm Valley through the Glen of Palms along the Finke River to Boggy Hole. During the 1988 flood, a huge mound of soft sand was deposited in the gorge, making it very difficult to negotiate by vehicle. Many travellers needed assistance, and so this part of the gorge was closed off as the Rangers did not have the time to help the stranded off-roaders.
Boggy Hole is a pleasant camping spot with no facilities. There are some shady campsites and swimming and canoeing may be enjoyed. On the east bank of the river is the ruin of the old police station. From this point, an old seismic track takes you due east 62 km to the Stuart Highway. The trek is scenic but very slow and will take you up to 6 hours. You cross over the Drive south from Boggy Hole 68 km to the Ernest Giles Highway, in and out of the Finke River past Cocky's Camp, Running Waters Yard and the turn off to Illamurta Spring. At the highway, turn left to the Stuart Highway or the other way to Kings Canyon.
\BDescription:\b \ICourtesy Random House\i
\BPic2:\b np20016.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Kings Canyon \I(Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b np634.jpg
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"Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve",21,"c\2\miles.jpg","c","0"
You get to this bird sanctuary from Darwin along the Stuart Highway via Humpty Doo. It has a great variety of birdlife including blackneck storks. The reserve includes a flat area behind an old earth wall dam which was built in the 1950s as part of the unsuccessful rice-growing experiment at Humpty Doo.
From vantage points on the low dam wall, visitors can see large numbers of waterbirds including magpie geese, brolgas, ducks, heron, egrets and ibis, all attracted by the permanent water. A raised boardwalk leads through monsoon rainforest to a lookout over the wetlands.
The wetland habitat is superb as a bird-watching area and camping is possible, but unfortunately mosquitoes are prevalent near the dam. The best time to visit is during the dry season between May and October, although the spectacular water plants in the dam flower in the Wet.
The nearest accommodation is in Darwin.
\BDescription:\b View from the boardwalk at Fogg Dam\I (Courtesy Greg Miles Photographs, NT)\i.
\BPic2:\b np604.jpg
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"Gregory National Park",22,"c\2\np10007.jpg","c","0"
This park, which is named after the intrepid explorer A.C. Gregory who, in 1855, trekked through this country, has been established so as to protect the plant and animal communities of this fragile area and to provide four wheel drive travellers with bush camping and a wilderness experience. The park is still undergoing development as the management infrastructure is still being put into place. Three four wheel drive tracks have been opened so far and there are more to come in the future. The established tracks are the Bullita Stock Route, the Humbert Track and the Wickham Track. All the tracks have sections of extreme difficulty and due care must be taken when negotiating these obstacles.
The park has an interesting diversity of flora with heathlands, spinifex, melaleuca forests, nutwood, turpentine and boab trees in abundance. Flowering eucalypts dominate other sections of the park. Feral donkeys, wild pigs, wild horses, dingoes and stray cattle intrude into the ecosystem. The area is very rich in birdlife. The Humbert, East Baines and West Baines Rivers cut through the park and provide for secluded camping and good fishing.
The park also has a strong emphasis on past and present Aboriginal culture. This huge park protects Aboriginal and European heritage sites. You can take a boat tour or scenic flight, hire a boat, bushwalk, fish and camp in this spectacular park. A boat ramp on the Big Horse Creek gives access to the Victoria River. When travelling through this park it is advisable not to tow trailers over the four wheel drive tacks and make sure that you have two spare wheels and a puncture repair kit as some of the rocks on the tracks tend to cut through tyres with ease.
\BDescription:\b Nutwood Tree, Gregory National Park \I(Random House)\i.
\BPic2:\b np613.jpg
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"Glen Helen Gorge",23,"0","g","0"
Called \IIhere pirnte\i (pronounced Larapinta) by the Western Arrernte people which means salty river, the Finke was a lifeline for the Aboriginal people who lived along it. The Aboriginal name for Glen Helen Gorge is "Yapulpa" and forms part of the Carpet Snake dreaming of the larger surrounding area. The park contains one registered Aboriginal Sacred Site, where the snake still resides, centred on Glen Helen Gorge waterhole and extending west along the northern face of the Macdonnell Ranges.
Glen Helen Gorge is a significant example of superimposed drainage where the direction of an ancient watercourse has been preserved. The ancient Finke River once flowed on a land surface higher than the top of the ridge. The raising of the land surface has happened extremely slowly so that the river has been cut straight into the Pacoota Sandstone at right angles without changing its course.
The mountain ranges at Glen Helen form steep, broken ridges on either side of the Finke River. A pool in the narrow gorge reflects to perfection the broken ridges.
Access is 135 km west of Alice Springs with all sealed roads.
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"Gurig National Park and Cobourg Marine Park",24,"c\2\dw40085.jpg","c","0"
Gurig National Park and Cobourg Marine Park at the very top of the Northern Territory offer scenic coastal areas perfect for walking, photography, fishing, bird watching and boating. A cultural centre explores the fascinating history of the area and commercial tours within the parks are available. Entry to the park requires a permit obtained well in advance from the Cobourg Peninsula Sanctuary Board, PO Box 496, Palmerston, NT 0831.
This remote park lies 570 km east of Darwin. Only 15 vehicles at any one time are allowed in the park. Bookings are essential. The road is sealed up to the East Alligator River crossing and from there it deteriorates the further you drive along it. The last 70 km into Black Point on Cobourg Peninsula is sandy and corrugated. This national park is the traditional home of four clans of Aboriginal people who today live within the boundaries of the park. They do encourage tourism to their homeland. The camping area is at Smith Point near the air strip and only about 100 metres from a sandy white beach. Here you may swim (but keep an eye out for crocodiles), walk along the beach, watch turtles lay their eggs at night or grab a feed of oysters from the rocks.
The camping area has tables, showers and toilets and daily rubbish removal. There are various driving tracks throughout the park. Fishing for certain species of fish is also permitted within the Cobourg Marine Park or you may explore the ruins of Victoria Settlement at Port Essington which was abandoned in 1848.
\BDescription:\b Beware of crocodiles while swimming in this park.
These 12 small meteorite craters are located 150 km south of \JAlice Springs\j off the Ernest Giles Highway. It is thought that these craters formed part of a meteorite shower which hit Central Australia millions of years ago. An interpretive walking track takes the visitor along the perimeter of the craters.
On the fringe of the outer suburbs of Darwin, this nature park is fed by a perennial spring. Boardwalks throughout the park provide for a pleasant walk through the cool damp monsoon forest. Picnic tables and toilets are provided.
\BDescription:\b Holmes Jungle Nature Park Location Map.
Here you may hunt for certain bird species during a limited season. The reserve is only 25 km from Darwin and near to the Howard Springs Nature Park. Access is by 4WD only.
\BDescription:\b Howard Springs Hunting Reserve Location Map.
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"Howard Springs Nature Park",28,"0","g","0"
This park has a spring-fed swimming pool surrounded by monsoon rainforest. A picnic area and open woodland provide plenty to do, including swimming, bushwalking, wildlife observation and photography. An enjoyable spot for a day trip, Howard Springs Nature Park is just off the Stuart Highway 35 km south of Darwin. Sealed roads provide year round access.
Facilities include a ranger/staff, drinking water, wheelchair access, picnic grounds and toilets.
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"Illamurta Spring Conservation Reserve",29,"c\3\np634.jpg","c","0"
An important police camp was established here in 1893 to curtail the killing of cattle. It was closed in 1912. There are no facilities and from the parking area it is a short walk to the ruins. With no facilities, this reserve can only be visited by 4WD vehicles travelling the Finke River. The access track lies along the portion of track from Boggy Hole in the Finke River Gorge National Park to the Ernest Giles Highway. A short distance from Running Waters Yard where the track turns left continue on to Illamurta Spring on an 11 km return journey. Enquire at Watarrka or Finke Gorge National Parks for additional details on access.
\BDescription:\b Illamurta Spring Conservation Reserve Location Map.
#
"Jabiru National Park",30,"c\3\dw40048.jpg","c","0"
Jabiru is on the one hand a mining town in the Kakadu National Park and on the other a base for travellers to Kakadu. Nearby is the Ranger Uranium Mine on a 13 sq km lease within the Kakadu National Park which was started in 1981. The decision to allow mining was reached in 1978 when the Northern Lands Council signed an agreement giving royalties to the local Aboriginal people. The processing plant was built in 1981. A lot has been done to lessen the effect of this mine on the town and on the nearby national park and, without raising the argument about whether uranium mining should be allowed anywhere in the area, the results are successful.
In the town are an olympic swimming pool, an artificial lake and the Gagudju Hotel, which is in the shape of a crocodile and is a design approved by the Gagudju tribe whose totem is the crocodile, although jabiru is an Aboriginal word meaning 'stork'. The hotel is owned by the tribe and run by a board made up of senior members and is most successful. It is a hotel of international class.
\BPic2:\b 2_0088.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Four Seasons Crocodile Motel, Jabiru. \I(DFAT)\i
\BPic3:\b np602.jpg
#
"Kakadu National Park",31,"c\3\np10009.jpg","c","0"
This magnificent world heritage-listed national park has something for everyone. Breathtaking escarpments give way to open wetlands and rainforest pockets. Prolific birdlife, diverse plant life, ancient Aboriginal rock art, boat cruises through wetlands, bushwalking, photography and four wheel drive tracks collectively add to the attributes of this park. This large park is leased by the traditional Aboriginal owners to the Australian Nature Conservation Agency. The magnificent scenery of the Arnhem Land escarpment dominates the area. Fishing is allowed in the park and four wheel drive tracks exist to 2 Mile Hole, 4 Mile Hole and West Alligator Head as well as Red Lily Billabong and Alligator Billabong. Fishing for barramundi is popular. Crocodiles are prevalent in these waters and care must be taken.
Other four wheel drive tracks within the park take the visitor to Sandy Billabong for quiet bush camping or to Jim Jim Falls and Twin Falls for recreation and exploring. A very rough track takes the traveller into Koolpin Gorge at the eastern end of the park. Camping is permitted here but a permit is required. There are 12 free camping areas in the park. There are four camping sites with facilities and a nominal charge, five caravan park facilities and four motels.
\BDescription:\b Kakadu National Park \I(Random House)\i
\BPic2:\b np20017.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Kakadu National Park \I(Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b dw40028.jpg
\BDescription3:\b Flora in Kakadu National Park
\BPic4:\b hol30049.jpg
\BDescription4:\b Flora in Kakadu National Park
\BPic5:\b hol30062.jpg
\BDescription5:\b Flora in Kakadu National Park
\BPic6:\b hol30079.jpg
\BDescription6:\b Wildlife in Kakadu National Park
\BPic7:\b dw40014.jpg
\BDescription7:\b Wildlife in Kakadu National Park
\BPic8:\b hol30072.jpg
\BDescription8:\b Wildlife in Kakadu National Park
\BPic9:\b hol10100.jpg
\BDescription9:\b Kakadu National Park
\BPic10:\b dw40082.jpg
\BDescription10:\b Crocodile in Kakadu National Park
\BPic11:\b np10008.jpg
\BDescription11:\b Kakadu National Park \I(Random House)\i
\BPic12:\b hol30087.jpg
\BDescription12:\b Kakadu National Park
#
"Katherine Gorge in Nitmiluk National Park",32,"c\3\np10020.jpg","c","0"
This park is probably one of the most popular parks in the Territory. It is mainly for day use and a caravan and camping park is close by. The gorge is situated 32 km from Katherine Town along a sealed road. The gorge is open all year with quiet punt cruises up the Katherine River in the dry season and jet boat cruises in the wet season.
Katherine Gorge is one of the natural wonders of the north. The river has cut through the sandstone formations over millions of years to form 13 gorges. Abundant bird and fish life inhabit this area and the freshwater crocodiles are also seen in great numbers. Activities in the area include bushwalking (more than 100 km of walking tracks), canoeing, scenic flights, launch tours, swimming and photography.
The Katherine Low Level Nature Park is a delightful and easily accessible recreational retreat on the banks of the Katherine River. The park takes in four kilometres of the river and its peaceful, shady banks and includes one of Katherine's most popular swimming spots. Bushwalking enthusiasts will find plenty of space in which to explore and to observe the abundant natural attractions.
Large populations of black and little red flying foxes have colonised trees along the river bank, providing a fascinating experience for visitors. The Katherine River is also home to the protected northern snapping turtle. Many satisfied recreational fisherman can attest to healthy stocks of barramundi and black bream (sooty grunter) in waters within the Katherine Low Level Nature Park.
Camping is not permitted. Bins are provided for rubbish and nets and traps are prohibited within the park.
This is Katherine's most popular picnick and swimming spot. It is dangerous to swim during the wet season as it floods and the swimming safety sign should always be checked.
Access is off the Victoria Highway, 5 km south-west of Katherine.
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"Keep River National Park",34,"c\3\np612.jpg","c","0"
Nestled on the border of the Northern Territory and Western Australia a short distance from the Victoria Highway, this park has a wealth of rock art to offer. Red sandstone cliffs, sweeping views and giant boab trees all make up part of the sense that this is a wilderness area. Some of the rock formations resemble the Bungle Bungles in Western Australia. Camping, picnic facilities and bush walking tracks are available. A good place to get away from it all.
\BDescription:\b Keep River National Park Location Map.
#
"Litchfield National Park",35,"c\3\np20018.jpg","c","0"
This park, with its magnetic termite mounds, its rainforest pockets and its spectacular waterfalls is only two hours drive from Darwin via the town of Batchelor. The park caters for all aspects of visitors. The Lost City with its fascinating sandstone formation and Tjaynera Falls are on four wheel drive vehicle tracks. Swimming in specified areas, photography, wildlife observation and bushwalks, ranging from a 20 minute stroll to extended wilderness walks, are all popular activities at Litchfield. Camping is permitted in designated areas. Some 4WD tracks may be closed during the wet season. Motel accommodation and caravan parks are situated on the perimeter of the park while bush camping and un-powered caravan sites are provided inside the park. Two four wheel drive tracks traverse the park and track conditions vary from moderately rough to extremely rough.
Highlights of the park are Florence Falls, Tolmer Falls, Wangi Falls, the Lost City, Blyth Homestead, magnetic termite plain and the Reynolds River. The park may be accessed from Batchelor, the Cox Peninsula Road or from the Daly River Road. The four wheel drive track from the Lost City through to Blyth Homestead is extremely rough and it should only be attempted by drivers with previous experience of extreme driving conditions. Certain tracks may be closed in the wet season due to flooding.
\BDescription2:\b Zania Palm, Litchfield National Park \I(Random House)\i
\BPic3:\b hol10011.jpg
\BPic4:\b np605.jpg
#
"Mac Clark Acacia Peuce Conservation Reserve",36,"c\3\np639.jpg","c","0"
Way out, on the fringe of the Simpson Desert, this small park stretches out along the gibber plain. Covering its surface area are around 1,000 struggling Acacia Peuce trees. There are only two other places in the world where these unique trees grow. Access to the park is by way of the Old Andado Track which runs from Alice Springs past Santa Theresa Mission, Allambi Station and Train Hills to Old Andado Station.
\BDescription:\b Mac Clark Acacia Peuce Conservation Reserve Location Map.
#
"Manton Dam Conservation Reserve",37,"c\3\np647.jpg","c","0"
Manton Dam was the first dam to be constructed to supply drinking water to Darwin and outlying areas. It is still used partly for water supplies and now also as a recreational area. Picnicking, fishing, swimming, power boating and water skiing are all provided for. Manton Dam lies just off the Stuart Highway 75 km from Darwin.
\BDescription:\b Manton Dam Conservation Reserve Location Map.
At present this reserve has been set aside for hunters. Here, with the necessary licenses and permits, you may hunt for feral animals such as pigs and buffalo. There are also a number of waterholes where you may fish. The reserve lies 60 km from Darwin just off the Arnhem Highway.
"Mary River Crossing Conservation Reserve",39,"c\3\dw40075.jpg","c","0"
This reserve is well known for its potential for landing the big barramundi at places like Shady Camp and Corroboree Creek. Its permanent lagoons are dry season homes for many waterbirds and crocodiles. The area's granite outcrops shelter a variety of interesting animals including the black wallaroo and short-eared rock wallaby. The turn off to this reserve is 130 km out of Darwin along the Arnhem Highway. Shady Camp lies 43 km along a gravel road and there are access points to North Rock Hole, Couzens Lookout and Brian Creek Monsoon Forest. Shady Camp has a public camping area as well as a commercial camping area. Crocodiles are prevalent in the waters of the Mary River.
\BDescription:\b Crocodiles are prevalent in Mary River.
\BPic2:\b np642.jpg
#
"Native Gap Conservation Reserve",40,"0","g","0"
Native Gap is the place of the wild 'white snake' and the carpet snake. Both dreamings are thought to be focused on the ridge of the Hann Range across the reserve's northern half. The reserve's principal site of significance is a gum tree at the eastern end which seems to be related to an extensive king brown snake dreaming.
The Aboriginal name has been recorded as Araulta Artwarcha. It is thought to be derived from Araulta, meaning back of the shoulder (thought to refer to the shape of the hill as seen from the south), and Artwarcha, meaning gap.
The reserve serves as a scenic stop for travellers on the Stuart Highway. The entire park is a registered sacred site.
Just 8 km from Ross River Homestead and 88 km from Alice Springs, N'Dhala Gorge is of great cultural significance to the Eastern Arrente Aboriginal clan. Around 6,000 petroglyphs (rock carvings) have been recorded in the gorge and one can only wonder as to the unknown history behind these magnificent works of art. The engravings and varied plant life can be seen during a short walk. A number of native pine trees grow on the upper exposed sandstone slopes. The track from Ross River Homestead is for four wheel drive vehicles only and winds its way along the picturesque river bed and through a valley where great forces of nature have twisted the rock ledges under incredible pressure. Picnic tables, a bush toilet and limited camping are provided.
\BDescription:\b N'Dhala Gorge Nature Park Location Map.
#
"Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park",42,"c\3\miles2.jpg","c","0"
This park is on the Katherine River 35 km east of Katherine, which is on the Stuart Highway 350 km south of Darwin. More than 60,000 visitors a year come to see this most attractive and grandly proportioned river canyon.
Katherine Gorge, carved through the Arnhem Plateau by the Katherine River, is one of the Territory's top tourist attractions. This park's rugged scenery and startling variety of plants can best be appreciated on its many walking tracks. All walking tracks begin at the Visitor's Centre where you can choose walks lasting from one hour to five days.
For most of its length it is filled wall-to-wall with deep water which reflects the coloured cliffs of the gorge and the blue sky above. Tours are normally by boat and can last an hour, a day or, indeed, several days. There are, however, walking tracks that follow the cliff tops along the gorge for experienced bushwalkers.
There is much wildlife, including freshwater crocodiles and rock wallabies.
There is a camping area at the entrance to the park and accommodation is available at Katherine.
\BDescription:\b Katherine Gorge in Nitmiluk National Park \I(Courtesy Greg Miles Photographs, NT)\i.
\BPic2:\b np609.jpg
#
"Ochre Pits in West Macdonnell National Park",43,"c\3\np617.jpg","c","0"
This small day-use park with interpretive signs and picnic tables lies west of \JAlice Springs\j along Namatjira Drive. This natural ochre quarry was once mined by Aborigines. They used the ochre for traditional ceremonial body decoration and other paintings. Signs in the information shelter explain the traditional uses of the ochre and how it was mined and prepared.
\BDescription:\b Ochre Pits Location Map.
#
"Ormiston Gorge and Pound National Park",44,"c\3\34500061.jpg","c","0"
In the Macdonnell Ranges 132 km west of \JAlice Springs\j and covering 4,662 ha, this is one of Central Australia's most spectacular canyons.
The lower cliffs are deep reds and purples, in the riverbed are white bars of rock, and on the high rim are ridges of quartzite which reflect a dozen different colours.
Go down through the gorge and you come to Ormiston Pound, a basin valley 10 km across, with a small episodic stream meandering around the bed of the basin. But it was the power of this river which in ancient times breached the end of the pound and slashed through, leaving the gorge, which is the main attraction of the park.
Ormiston Gorge is one of the most spectacular features of the West Macdonnell Ranges. This popular area offers visitors the most striking scenery. There are a number of walking tracks that take you along the ridges and valleys with towering crags above you and cool waterholes to wash the heat from you. You must notify the rangers if you intend walking along the overnight tracks.
In summer its deep waterhole is a welcome relief from the heat, and in cooler times the walking track through scenic Ormiston Pound is a favourite with visitors.
Limited caravan and camping facilities. There are picnic areas, but the nearest accommodation is in \JAlice Springs\j.
\BDescription2:\b Ormiston Gorge and Pound National Park Location Map.
#
"Pine Creek National Park",45,"c\3\np643.jpg","c","0"
Pine Creek is on the Stuart Highway 92 km north-west of Katherine and 251 km south of Darwin. It is the gateway to Arnhem Land. The name, which is descriptive, was given during a survey for the Overland Telegraph. This was the Territory's first goldfield and gold was found here in 1871, possibly by D'Arcy Wentworth Uhr, or perhaps by a labourer digging a hole for a telegraph pole. During the goldrush, which lasted until 1905, there was a Chinese population of about 2,000 people, while the total population of the district at one time was estimated at 30,000. There were about 15 major mines in the area and some open-cut mining is still being carried out.
There are still a few buildings left from that time, including a tin pub and a tin lockup. The National Trust publishes a Pine Creek Heritage Trail leaflet with details of the more historic buildings. Ah Toy's General Store is a reminder of the goldrush days and Pine Creek's Chinese gold miners.
There is unusually interesting country on the road to Oenpelli, Waterfall Creek and Muirella Park in the north-east, and the Kakadu National Park is only 42 km away across the Mary River. A dirt road reaches the sealed Kakadu Highway after about 150 km, shortly before Cooinda. This road is often closed in the wet - check with the Pine Creek police.
\BDescription:\b Pine Creek National Park Location Map.
#
"Rainbow Valley Conservation Reserve",46,"c\3\34500059.jpg","c","0"
The last kilometre of road into Rainbow Valley requires four wheel drive. This sandstone bluff with its engaging colours lies 75 km south of \JAlice Springs\j and 22 km in along a sandy road. Late afternoon is the best time for a photo shoot. Picnic tables are provided and there are toilet facilities. Camping is allowed but take your own firewood with you.
The park's main attraction is seen at its best in late afternoon, when the setting sun shines directly onto a stark range of richly-coloured sandstone. Spreading desert oaks are a feature of the surrounding sand plain.
\BDescription:\b Rainbow Valley Conservation Reserve \I(NT Tourist Commission)\i
\BPic2:\b np631.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Rainbow Valley Conservation Reserve Location Map.
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"Redbank Gorge in Macdonnell National Park",47,"c\3\34500060.jpg","c","0"
The park has high red walls and covers 1,294 ha in an area 161 km west of \JAlice Springs\j. Basically the park consists of a gap in the Macdonnell Ranges where a long narrow cleft has been carved through the rock by the Redbank Creek. The result is a series of deep rock pools in a narrow chasm.
The waters of Redbank Creek have carved a narrow fissure through the sandstone formations over the eons. After rains, the gorge is accessible by swimming and climbing through and along the narrow openings. This form of exercise is ideally suited for young and fit persons of agile ability. Swimming can be dangerous, for the water is ice-cold and the handholds few. The recommended way of progressing through the gorge is on an air mattress. Ghost gums growing on the steep slopes along the creek contrast with the shrubland and spinifex around the carpark.
It is a 2.5 km walk across some large boulders to reach the entrance of the gorge.
Facilities include bush camping, picnic tables and toilets at the car park.
Ruby Gap and Glen Annie Gorge are normally accessible throughout the year except when it rains and the Hale River floods. This nature park lies 150 km east from \JAlice Springs\j via the historical gold mining reserve of Arltunga. It is one of several gorges along the Hale River which is noted for its solitude and bush camping opportunities. A sealed road for 70 km and a good gravel road for another 40 km will see you to Arltunga. The next 40 km to Ruby Gap deteriorates as you get closer to the park, and the track is only suitable for high clearance four wheel drive vehicles. Whatever you do, stay out of the sandy bed of the Hale River, as even in dry times there are sections of quicksand and it is not difficult to have a monumental bog with your vehicle.
At the entrance of the park, cross over the river and drive along the eastern bank of the gorge. The track scrambles over some rocks and eventually comes to a sign stating 'It is not advisable to drive beyond this point'. Passage further on is extremely rough but possible for experienced off-road drivers, and you are not prohibited from continuing. The next leg over some very large rocks and soft sand will bring you to the entrance of Glen Annie Gorge and an idyllic campsite. There are no facilities. Camping is also allowed anywhere along the track in from the park entrance. In 1886, the explorer David Lindsay found what he thought to be priceless rubies in the sands of the Hale River. They turned out to be high grade garnets only. He named Glen Annie Gorge after his wife. This park offers the traveller a total wilderness experience and a place to relax and contemplate.
\BDescription:\b Ruby Gap Nature Park Location Map.
#
"Ryan Well Historical Reserve",49,0,g,0
In 1872, the Overland Telegraph Line was built through the site from Adelaide to Darwin. At the time good rains had fallen and the six artificial wells built at the time were sufficient. It soon became evident, however, that more wells were needed particularly when stock were beginning to be shifted along the Overland Telegraph Line route.
Ryan's Well serves as a rest area of historical interest for travellers using the Stuart Highway north of Alice Springs. The area contains the remains of an old well, constructed in the 1890s and associated with the Overland Telegraph Line as well as the remains of Glen Maggie Homestead erected early this century.
The South Australian Government named the well after Ned Ryan, who with the aid of his nephew, Jeremiah Ryan, completed Ryan's Well in 1889. Sam Nicker and his family established 'Glen Maggie', their sheep station, in 1914. The station homestead was named after Margaret, the daughter of Sam Nicker.
Access is 129 km north of Alice Springs with bitumen road.
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"Serpentine Chalet",50,"c\3\np619.jpg","c","0"
This is a small bush camping area off Namatjira Drive and situated within the new West Macdonnell National Park. A sharp drop down in through a creek bed separates the four wheel drive access from the rest.
The bush campsites are set well apart in a low scrub area. There are no facilities. A walking track gives the visitor a taste of the range of country. The name of the camping area derives from a rough motel accommodation facility set up by one of the airlines in the 1960s.
\BDescription:\b Serpentine Chalet Location Map.
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"Serpentine Gorge",51,"c\3\np619.jpg","c","0"
This very small, 517 ha, and colourful park is 105 km west of \JAlice Springs\j in West Macdonnell National Park.
Here a narrow, winding gorge has been cut through the range and visitors can enjoy its semi-permanent waterholes and the beautiful gorge scenery for which the West MacDonnell National Park is renowned. A lookout above the cliffs gives a panoramic view of the gorge and the surrounding ranges.
A 1.3 km walk from the car park brings you to the first opening of this gorge. After rains it may be necessary to wade or swim through the waterhole. Once on the other side, it is a 25 minute walk over smaller rocks to a narrow cleft and a most beautiful stretch of water through the range. Take your inflatable mattress, as the water is quite cold at times. It is possible to paddle through the gorge and view the Alice Valley on the other side.
On the flats there are mulgas, and gums grow along the watercourse. The vegetation on the heights of the gorge is very sparse.
The nearest accommodation is at \JAlice Springs\j.
\BDescription:\b Serpentine Gorge Location Map.
#
"Simpsons Gap in West Macdonnell National Park",52,"c\3\34500058.jpg","c","0"
Steep-sided ridges, huge ghost gums, timbered creek flats and scenic rocky gaps make this an excellent introduction to the West MacDonnell National Park. The area is best seen on foot and several walking tracks give a choice of short or longer walks.
This popular park lies 25 km west of \JAlice Springs\j by sealed road. A 17 km bicycle path from \JAlice Springs\j has also been constructed to reach the gap. The gap is popular for watching black-footed rock wallabies go about their business in the late afternoon sun. Simpsons Gap is also the first camp for those intrepid walkers who may tackle the Larapinta Trail. This walk, which commences at the Telegraph Station, will run for 220 km all the way along the top of the West Macdonnell Ranges. The first camp is 22 km from the Telegraph Station. All intending walkers must register with the Conservation Commission before setting off on their trek. Large water bottles and sturdy boots are a must for this walk. Simpsons Gap is for day-use only.
\BDescription:\b Simpsons Gap \I(NT Tourism Commission)\i
\BPic2:\b np622.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Simpsons Gap Location Map.
#
"Standley Chasm in West Macdonnell National Park",53,"c\4\34500057.jpg","c","0"
This dry chasm is well known for the noon visits by thousands of tourists each year, when the sun is perpendicular to this narrow opening through the ranges. There are walks through and beyond the chasm. The midday sun makes its walls blaze red with colour.
The 1,500 m walk from kiosk to chasm follows a rocky creek, the natural beauty of which is best enjoyed on the less crowded mornings and afternoons. This site is Aboriginal land managed by the Angkerle Aboriginal Corporation. A nominal entry charge is levied.
"Tennant Creek Telegraph Station Historical Reserve",54,"0","g","0"
By July 1872 a temporary telegraph office in the form of a three-roomed wooden hut had been built at Tennant Creek. The hut was used for three years while a decision was awaited as to whether or not to build the permanent office at Attack Creek.
The formation of a Telegraph Reserve of 64 square kilometres at Tennant Creek in 1874 eventually established that location as the permanent site. Tennant Creek was the most northerly Telegraph Station to be served from Adelaide. Stores and rations were railed to the railhead in South Australia, then packed onto camel trains for the long journey overland. All the station's freight was brought up in this fashion until the late 1920s, when motor vehicles began to replace the camel.
Busy times came to Tennant Creek in 1932, when an Aboriginal stockman discovered a gold nugget in the nearby hills. A gold rush followed and three years later a township with a population of about 500 had sprung up 11 km south of the Telegraph Station. This ceased to operate as a post and telegraph office in June 1935, when these operations were moved to the new town.
The Telegraph Station was kept open as a maintenance depot and linesman accommodation until 1950, when it was sold to a local prospector. It was then used as a cattle station homestead until 1986, when the old Telegraph Reserve was transferred to the Northern Territory Government. The station is now managed by the Parks and Wildlife Commission as a site of historical, recreational and educational importance.
This remote and lonely telegraph station beside the Stuart Highway was once welcomed as a friendly island of civilised comfort by those who travelled the long dusty track beside the Overland Telegraph Line. Today information signs guide visitors around the site.
Access is 10 km north of Tennant Creek.
#
"Territory Wild Life Park",55,"c\4\34500062.jpg","c","0"
Set in natural bushland at Berry Springs, the Territory Wild Life Park lies 57 km from Darwin on the Cox Peninsula Road. A series of enclosures have been constructed to be as natural as possible to the inhabitants. An enclosed tunnel underneath a wet land billabong, and the nocturnal house, are highlights of this park.
\BDescription:\b Territory Wild Life Park \I(NT Tourist Commission)\i
Tnorala, also known as Gosse Bluff, was formed when a comet crashed to earth about 130 million years ago. The crater, which lies about 200 km by road along Namatjira Drive from \JAlice Springs\j, can best be seen from the top of Tylers Pass a short distance away. The area is for day-use only, and permits are required from the Tourist Information Centre in \JAlice Springs\j. Picnic tables and toilets are provided, as the road has access to inside the crater. Walking tracks have been made to vantage points where a good view of the impact centre may be observed.
The Reserve is jointly managed by the Parks and Wildlife Commission and the Aboriginal traditional owners. The Aboriginal custodians have their own stories about the formation of the crater.
This national park is 80 km east of \JAlice Springs\j and covers 1,771 ha. The gorge was made by seasonal tributaries of the Todd River and has dark red cliffs which in places are up to 100 m high.
The vegetation is very sparse on the heights, but in the base of the gorge along the river bed are many large eucalypts. An attractive spot is John Hayes Rock Hole, formed by a different creek in the west of the park. It is narrow and shady, which means that water is retained in this deep pool well after the summer rains have passed. Sadly, the pool is very attractive to feral cattle and the water is often polluted.
There are five marked walking tracks, taking from 45 minutes to six and a half hours to complete.
Access to this gorge is possible by conventional vehicle, but to get to John Hayes Rock hole a high clearance vehicle is required. Like many other gorges in the Eastern Macdonnell Ranges, this gorge offers excellent bushwalking tracks and a chance to view the surrounding ranges and some of the more elusive rock wallabies which inhabit this area. On the drive into the gorge, turn off and drive 300 metres to the biggest ghost gum in Central Australia.
The nearest accommodation is at \JAlice Springs\j and car access is off the Ross Highway.
\BDescription:\b Trephina Gorge Nature Park Location Map.
#
"Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park",58,"c\4\4_0076.jpg","c","0"
This park must be the best known and most visited park in the Northern Territory, with the main attractions being \JAyers Rock\j and Mount Olga. The park is owned by the traditional owners and leased back to the Commonwealth as a park. The traditional owners call Ayers Rock, "Uluru" and The Olgas, "Kata Tjuta".
There is a great deal to enjoy in this park including photography, magnificent views, sunsets and the changing colours of \JAyers Rock.\j Climbing to the top of \JAyers Rock\j is a feat which most visitors would want to conquer. There are also walks around the base of the rock as well as walks through the Valley of the Winds at Mt Olga. Vantage points have been constructed throughout the park with interpretive signs. At \JAyers Rock\j Resort in Yulara Village, hotel and motel accommodation is available as well as caravan and camping sites. Camping is not allowed in the park itself. Rangers run activities and tours.
Ernest Giles and W.E. Gosse came in 1872 and 1873, mapping the Aboriginal landscape in the explorer tradition. Prospectors, dingo hunters and missionaries followed. Large sheep and cattle stations were established over Aboriginal land. Often the meeting of the two cultures was unfriendly.
Grazing depleted bush food resources. During severe droughts in the 1930s and 1950s, Aboriginal people were drawn into missions, cattle stations and government settlements by the prospect of a reliable food supply and by curiosity.
Despite attempts to settle and to school Aboriginal people in the ways of the outside world, Anangu, the original owners of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, continued their traditional ways.
They travelled traditional lands visiting kin, returning to bush foods, arranging and attending ceremonies and teaching young people the skills and beliefs that had always been essential to their survival. Anangu maintained their ties with traditional lands.
Geologically, Uluru and Kata Tjuta are the relics of an immense bed of sedimentary rock now almost entirely covered by debris from erosion and by wind-blown sand. The 36 individual domes of Kata Tjuta once may have been a single dome many times the size of Uluru. The features of the inselbergs and the surrounding plain are the product of millions of years of weathering and erosion.
Aboriginal people know that Uluru and Kata Tjuta were created and shaped into their unique forms during the Tjukurpa or creation period. Individual features represent the visual imprints and physical proof of the activities of ancestral beings of the Tjukurpa.
To have survived in a land that others call harsh, Aboriginal people needed to know their land well. Today, they are passing on their knowledge and their skill in 'reading' the land so that others might understand and appreciate it as they do.
So far 150 different kinds of birds, 22 mammals, many reptiles and frogs, and nearly 400 plant species have been recorded in the Park area. Visitors are likely to see only a few of these. However, those who take time to walk the tracks will be rewarded by seeing fascinating dryland plants and animals which cope with this environment.
In 1987 the Park was inscribed to the United Nations World Heritage List. It is also one of twelve Australian Biosphere Reserves.
\BDescription:\b \I(DFAT)\i
\BPic2:\b 7_0070.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park \I(Peter Jarver)\i
Located 22 km west of Pine Creek, this isolated and quiet gorge is ideal for exploring. A narrow track winds itself towards the gorge and it may be reached by swimming, wading and rock hopping.
Some Aboriginal art is visible on the rock walls of the gorge. A small camping area with toilets is found close to the entrance of the gorge. The park is usually accessible all year round, but during the wet season some creeks may flood and delay access.
\BDescription2:\b Umbrawarra Nature Park Location Map.
#
"Watarrka (Kings Canyon) National Park",60,"c\2\np20016.jpg","c","0"
The magnificent Kings Canyon is found in this park. Set in the western end of the George Gill Range, it has permanent waterholes, desert oak forests and fascinating rock formations. A variety of flora and fauna make up for an enjoyable stay and all camping and accommodation is provided by commercial operators in the park. Kings Canyon, which lies 310 km by road from \JAlice Springs,\j may be reached via the Mereenie Loop road or the Ernest Giles Highway from \JAlice Springs\j or the Luritja Highway from Yulara and Lasseters Highway. A number of walks have been constructed, and the longest one, via the top of the canyon, is 6 km in length and 3 to 4 hours duration. The four hour canyon walk offers great views and an opportunity to discover many of the unusual features of the park. The best time to walk is in the late afternoon when the sunlight and shadows bring out the best features of the canyon.
\BDescription:\b Kings Canyon \I(Random House)\i.
\Bpic2:\b np635.jpg
#
"Wauchope National Park",61,"c\4\np640.jpg","c","0"
Wauchope is on the Stuart Highway, 120 km south of \JTennant Creek\j and on the fringe of the Murchison and Davenport ranges. There is some mining in the area. Wycliffe Well, 18 km south, is an oasis of lawns and orchards with camping facilities.
\BDescription:\b Wauchope National Park Location Map.
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"Window on the Wetlands",62,"c\4\img0036.jpg","c","0"
Once you get out on to the Adelaide River floodplains along the Arnhem Highway just over 60 km out of Darwin, you will get to see some of the wildlife. Many waterbird species and some water buffalo may be seen. On approaching the Adelaide River, you will see a building on your left with an unusual roof line. This Visitors' Centre is perched on top of Beatrice Hill, which is one of the highest places of the floodplain. The upswept roof copies the wings of the dancing brolga.
The wetlands of the Top End contain some of the most productive soils in Australia. The plains are flooded for half a year and sun baked for the other half. This is a region of great contrasts. Covering a huge area, of which most areas are difficult to reach, little is understood of the eco-systems. This area is of great conservation value and a must for preservation, so that the complex relationships between the wildlife and their habitats may be studied and understood.
This new Visitors' Centre, with its interpretive information, presents the wildlife, seasonal changes and the problems that are encountered with feral animals and weeds. There is an ongoing commitment by the Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory for a program of development throughout the wetlands and for improved access facilities to places of interest.
Stunning views of the wetlands may be seen from the viewing platforms of the Windows to the Wetlands.
\BDescription:\b Wetlands - Northern Territory
\BPic2:\b img0023.jpg
\BDescription2:\b Wetlands - Northern Territory
\BPic3:\b np649.jpg
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"Yulara National Park",63,np638.jpg,c,0
The name Yulara comes from an Aboriginal word said to mean 'place of the howling dingo'. It is a purpose built multi-million dollar resort 20 km north-west of Uluru \J(Ayers Rock),\j 28 km north-east of Katatjura (the Olgas) and 446 km south-west of \JAlice Springs.\j There is accommodation at every level, from international class hotels to caravan and camping sites.
At Yulara there is a Visitors' Centre, an open-air amphitheatre, a community hall, a police station, a service station, an Aboriginal arts and crafts centre and a shopping mall with supermarket, banks, fast food shops, a travel agent and film processing shop and tennis courts. This is a completely self-contained tourist complex but without any of the normally associated tackiness.
The explorer, William Gosse, started west of \JAlice Springs\j and on 17 July 1873 he reached and named 'an immense pebble rising abruptly from the plain' \JAyers Rock.\j He named it after his uncle, Sir Henry Ayers, who was then governor of South Australia. On 14 October 1872, Ernest Giles reached the northern shore of Lake Amadeus, a salt lake running north-west to south-east for about 160 km. About 80 km to the south Katatjura rose from the plains. Seeing them as one mountain, he named them Olga, after the Grand Duchess of Russia, who married the King of Greece.
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"Ayers Rock Closed",64,"c\4\d_0098.jpg","c","0"
Sometimes Ayers Rock is closed due to inclement weather.
\BDescription:\b The view up \JAyers Rock\j on a rainy day - closed for the climbers safety. \I(Webster Publishing)\i.
