Kroombit Tops is a national park in

Central Queensland Central Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland ( a state in Australia) that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton. The region extends from the Capricorn Coas ...

, Australia. It is between

Monto Monto was the nickname for the one-time red light district in the northeast of Dublin, Ireland. The Monto was roughly the area bounded by Talbot Street, Amiens Street, Gardiner Street and Seán McDermott Street (formerly Gloucester Street) i ...

and

Calliope In Greek mythology, Calliope ( ; grc, Καλλιόπη, Kalliópē, beautiful-voiced) is the Muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry; so called from the ecstatic harmony of her voice. Hesiod and Ovid called her the "Chief of all Muse ...

. It is two parts. The largest part is within the localities of Tablelands,

Valentine Plains Valentine Plains is a rural locality in the Shire of Banana, Queensland, Australia. In the , Valentine Plains had a population of 394 people. History Valentine Plains Provisional School opened on 8 October 1928. In 1932, it became Valentine Pl ...

, Cania and

Boyne Valley The River Boyne ( ga, An Bhóinn or ''Abhainn na Bóinne'') is a river in Leinster, Ireland, the course of which is about long. It rises at Trinity Well, Newberry Hall, near Carbury, County Kildare, and flows towards the Northeast through C ...

, while the smaller part is in the locality of Mount Alma. It is 399 km northwest of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

Cania Gorge National Park Cania Gorge is a national park in the North Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia, in the locality of Cania. Geography The park is 373 km northwest of Brisbane. The nearest town is Monto. Three Moon Creek is the name of the waterway tha ...

is located approximately 25 km to the south. In February 1945, an American Liberator Bomber, "Beautiful Betsy", crashed into what is now Kroombit Tops National Park. The wreckage was discovered on 2 August 1994. Recreational activities conducted in the park include birdwatching, off-road driving and bushwalking. Camping is permitted.

Fauna

The park provides refuge for the

Kroombit tinker frog The Kroombit tinker frog (''Taudactylus pleione''), also sometimes referred to as Pleione's torrent frog, is a species of frog in the family Myobatrachidae. It is Endemism, endemic to Central Queensland in Australia. It lives among rocks and le ...

, which has only been found within the park. The species is so rare that estimates of their number only range in the hundreds; , it was estimated fewer than 200 remained in the wild, all in various discrete areas in the rainforest. However, in the same month, the first froglet of this species was bred in captivity at

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is a heritage-listed zoological garden at 28 Tomewin Street, Currumbin, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1947 onwards. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 18 September 2009. The sanctuary is w ...

, raising hopes that it may be saved from extinction. In 2013, a new species of

marsupial Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a ...

, the silver-headed antechinus, was described, also only found in the national park. A small population of

brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005–2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the brumby, feral horses whi ...

roams the park; they are sometimes mustered to reduce numbers. Abundant in the park is the Kroombit Tops Assassin Spider (''Austrarchaea alani'').

Crash site

On 2 August 1994, the wreckage of a United States Army Air Forces

Consolidated B-24D Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

, ''Beautiful Betsy'', was discovered in the park. The aircraft had gone missing in stormy weather on 26 February 1945 while on a "Fat Cat" run from Darwin to Brisbane - transporting men and supplies as part of a regular flight.Michael V. Nelmes ''Tocumwal to Tarakan : Australians and the Consolidated B-24 Liberator'' Belconnen. Banner Books, 1994.

References

External links

Kroombit Mud Map at boynevalley.org.auKroombit and "Beautiful Betsy"
{{National Parks of Queensland National parks of Central Queensland Protected areas established in 1974 1974 establishments in Australia

Fauna

Crash site

See also

References

External links