Carnarvon National Park is located in the Southern Brigalow Belt bioregion in the
Maranoa Region
Maranoa Region is a local government area in South West Queensland, Australia. The town of Roma is the administrative headquarters of the region.
History
The Gunggari language region of South West Queensland includes the landscape within the ...
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. The park is 593 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 ...
. It began life as a reserve gazetted in 1932 to protect
Carnarvon Gorge for its outstanding scenic values, its
Indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
and non-Indigenous cultural heritage, and its geological significance.
Rocks and landscapes
Situated within the Central Queensland Sandstone Belt, and straddling the
Great Dividing Range, Carnarvon National Park preserves and presents significant elements of
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
's geological history including two
sedimentary basin
Sedimentary basins are region-scale depressions of the Earth's crust where subsidence has occurred and a thick sequence of sediments have accumulated to form a large three-dimensional body of sedimentary rock. They form when long-term subside ...
s, the
Bowen and the
Surat, and the Buckland Volcanic Province. The youngest rocks in the area are the igneous basalt rocks of the Buckland volcanic Province, which were laid down between 35 and 27 million years ago. Since that time, water and wind have eroded the park's landscapes into a network of sandy plains, valleys, and
gorges separated by basalt-capped
tableland
A table or tableland is a butte, flank of a mountain, or mountain, that has a flat top.
This kind of landform has numerous names, including:
* Butte
* Mesa
*
* Potrero
* Tepui
* Terrace
* Tuya
A tuya is a flat-topped, steep-sided vo ...
s and ranges.
The park is rich in
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...
, numerous
springs. The elevated areas protected within Carnarvon National Park have high value for above-ground catchments as well. Five major river systems rise within the park's boundary: the
Comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
,
Dawson,
Maranoa,
Nogoa, and
Warrego. The Warrego and Maranoa lie inland of the Great Dividing Range on the northern boundary of the
Murray-Darling Basin.
Flora
Forty regional
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
s are known to exist within the park and nine of them are listed as endangered, due to large-scale
land clearing
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...
within the region. Twenty-three species of flora listed as rare and threatened (Under
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
legislation) have been found in the park, including the iconic ''
Livistona
''Livistona'' is a genus of palms, the botanical family Arecaceae, native to southeastern and eastern Asia, Australasia, and the Horn of Africa. They are fan palms, the leaves with an armed petiole terminating in a rounded, costapalmate f ...
nitida'' (Carnarvon Fan Palm, Carnarvon Gorge section), ''
Cadellia pentastylis'' (Ooline, Moolayember section), and ''
Stemmacantha australis'' (Austral Cornflower, Mount Moffatt section).
Several plants occur in disjunct populations, or reach the limits of their distribution, within the Park such as the isolated colony of ''
Angiopteris evecta
''Angiopteris evecta'', commonly known as the king fern, giant fern, elephant fern, oriental vessel fern, Madagascar tree fern, or mule's Foot fern, is a very large rainforest fern in the family Marattiaceae native to most parts of Southeast Asi ...
'' (King Fern) found in Wards Canyon,
Carnarvon Gorge.
Artesian springs in the Salvator Rosa section of the park are considered amongst the most biodiverse in the state.
Fauna
Over 210 bird species have been recorded within Carnarvon National Park, along with about 60 species of mammals. This park is particularly rich in species of
bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...
s with at least twenty known to be there. The ''
Ornithorhyncus anatinus
The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotyp ...
'', the platypus, is at its western limit of habitation in Queensland within this National Park, along with most of the park's
gliding possum There are many different types of gliding possum, sometimes referred to as volplane possum, flying phalangers, or simply as gliders:
Australian gliders
* Feathertail glider or pygmy gliding possum, ''Acrobates pygmaeus''
* Greater glider, ''Petau ...
s. Carnarvon Gorge has commercial night tours that take visitors into the park in search of gliders and other nocturnal life.
At least 90 species of reptiles call this park home, over half of which are either
skinks or
geckoes, and 35 species have their State distributional limits here. Twenty-two species of amphibians have been found in the park, including isolated populations of ''
Litoria fallax'' (eastern Sedgefrog) and ''
Adelotus brevis'' (Tusked Frog).
Over ten species of fish inhabit the park's waterways, the largest of which is
''Anguilla reinhardtii'' (long-finned eel). The park's invertebrate fauna is thought to be extremely diverse, and at least nine species are considered to be endemic to the
Carnarvon Range
The Carnarvon Range is a mountain range in Central Queensland, Australia. It is a plateau section of the Great Dividing Range. The Carnarvon Range is 160 km in length.
Geography
North eastern parts of the range have formed a plateau kno ...
, including two species of dragonfly, two species of stonefly, a dobson fly, and four species of land snail.
Feral
A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some ...
animals are present within the National Park, the ones presenting the most serious problems being
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 ...
and pigs. In 2007, culling of both species began by riflemen in
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
s or airplanes. In 2008 the third phase of an aerial culling of Brumbies took place, by shooting 700 horses from a helicopter, in Carnarvon National Park. Such aerial culling is a contentious issue to some members of the public. However, there is little doubt that both species cause considerable alteration to the values the park is designed to protect. Through their
grazing
In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...
and their repetitious patterns of movement, feral horses alter the composition of the ground cover, and this can accelerate erosion through over-grazing and excessive hoof traffic. Feral pigs are thought to be responsible for the localised extinction of the
Australian brush-turkey
The Australian brushturkey or Australian brush-turkey or gweela (''Alectura lathami''), also frequently called the scrub turkey or bush turkey, is a common, widespread species of mound-building bird from the family Megapodiidae found in eastern ...
from some areas of this National Park.
History
Carnarvon National Park has grown significantly since its inception, and Carnarvon Gorge is now but one of its seven sections.
* Goodlife
* Salvator Rosa
* Ka Ka Mundi
* Buckland Tableland
* Mount Moffatt
* Carnarvon Gorge
* Moolayember
In expanding the National Park, the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service have sought to enhance the reserves catchment value and increase the diversity of regional ecosystems protected within its boundaries. The park's regional
conservation
Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws.
Conservation may also refer to:
Environment and natural resources
* Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...
importance is significant as its 298,000 hectares represents over half the total landmass of protected areas within the Southern Brigalow Belt bioregion.
Human history
Carnarvon National Park is significant to
Bidjara,
Karingbal, and
Kara Kara people of Central Queensland. The park contains many reminders of
Aboriginal cultural connection in
rock art sites,
burial places and occupation sites. Kenniff Cave, in the Mount Moffatt section, was the first Australian
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...
to return
carbon dates on occupational evidence that pushed human occupation of the continent into the
Late Pleistocene at 19,500 years before present. Prior to
D.J. Mulvaney's excavation of Kenniff Cave, it was thought that Australia had only been occupied during the
Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
, fewer than 10,000 years before present.
The indigenous
stencil artists of Central Queensland, such as those who created sites such as the Art Gallery and Cathedral Cave in
Carnarvon Gorge, are regarded by some researchers as the best in the world. It appears they developed complex stencilling techniques that have not been replicated elsewhere. Only one full adult body stencil is known to exist in the world; it can be seen publicly at the Tombs site in the Mount Moffatt section of the park. It is the largest known stencil, and a good example of the heights to which this form of human expression was taken in Central Queensland.
Contemporary Indigenous culture in the park is much changed from that of pre-colonial Central Queensland; however strong Indigenous links to the landscapes within Carnarvon National Park are maintained through
traditional owner
Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...
involvement in the protection and preservation of the Park's cultural sites.
The first European to traverse the future park was
Thomas Mitchell, in the 1840s. Settlers followed in the footsteps of the explorers, lured by reports of the region's permanent water. Altercations with local Indigenous groups soon broke out and escalated into a state of mutual aggression that was maintained until the 1870s.
The remoteness of the area during early settlement attracted some interesting local characters, some of whom came to the area to avoid unwanted official scrutiny. The Ward brothers hunted fur in the Carnarvons year round at a time when there were restricted open seasons. The
Kenniff brothers (Kenniff Cave's namesakes) became notorious local horse thieves, and later murderers.
[ ]
Today, tourism, recreation, and conservation are the main human activities conducted on the park. The most popular section of the park is the Carnarvon Gorge section which receives an estimated 65,000 visitors per year. Mount Moffatt is the next most visited section, followed by Salvator Rosa and Ka Ka Mundi. The remaining sections of the park receive virtually no visitation at all, and are consequently high in wilderness values.
Carnarvon National Park offers a variety of recreational activities including four-wheel driving, wildlife watching, hiking along maintained tracks, and bush walking into remote areas. A ninety-kilometre-long trail is currently underway that will allow bush walkers to circumnavigate Carnarvon Gorge in around five days.
Access
The Carnarvon Gorge section is accessible from either
Rolleston Rolleston may refer to:
Places
* Rolleston, Queensland, Australia
* Rolleston, Leicestershire, England
* Rolleston, Nottinghamshire, England
** Rolleston railway station
* Rolleston on Dove, Staffordshire, England
** Rolleston Hall
* Rolleston, ...
or
Injune along the
Carnarvon Highway. The Mount Moffatt section is accessible from either
Injune or
Mitchell
Mitchell may refer to:
People
*Mitchell (surname)
*Mitchell (given name)
Places Australia
* Mitchell, Australian Capital Territory, a light-industrial estate
* Mitchell, New South Wales, a suburb of Bathurst
* Mitchell, Northern Territo ...
. The Salvator Rosa and Ka Ka Mundi sections are accessible via the Tambo Road from either
Tambo or
Springsure
Springsure is a town and a locality in the Central Highlands Region, Queensland, Australia. It is south of Emerald on the Gregory Highway. It is the southern terminus of the Gregory Highway and the northern terminus of the Dawson Highway. It ...
.
See also
*
Protected areas of Queensland
Queensland is the second largest state in Australia. It contains around 500 separate protected areas. In 2020, it was estimated a total of 14.2 million hectares or 8.25% of Queensland's landmass was protected.
List of terrestrial protected ar ...
Footnotes
References
*Whelan, Howard. (1996). ''Touching the Spirit''. in ''
Australian Geographic
Australian Geographic is a media business that produces the ''Australian Geographic'' magazine, ''DMag'' magazine, specialist book titles, travel guides, diaries and calendars and online media. It published editions of the Australian Encyclopa ...
'' #41. pp. 34 – 57.
Australian Geographic Society
Australian Geographic is a media business that produces the ''Australian Geographic'' magazine, ''DMag'' magazine, specialist book titles, travel guides, diaries and calendars and online media. It published editions of the Australian Encyclop ...
.
*Grant, Claire. 2005. "Carnarvon Gorge - Management Plan". Environmental Protection Agency, Queensland.
*Beeston, J.W. & Grey, A.R.G. 1993. The Ancient Rocks of Carnarvon Gorge. Department of Minerals and Energy, Queensland.
*Ling, Simon. 2000–2008
www.ausnatureguides.com Australian Nature Guides.
*Walsh, G. L. 1983. ''The Roof of Queensland''. Queensland University Press.
*Walsh, G. L. 1999. ''Carnarvon and Beyond''. Takarakka Nowan Kas Publications.
*Warner, C. 1987. ''Exploring Queensland’s Central Highlands''. Charles Warner.
External links
{{Authority control
National parks of Central Queensland
National parks of Queensland
Protected areas established in 1932
1932 establishments in Australia