Chadinga Conservation Park, formerly the Chadinga Conservation Reserve, is a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

in the Australian state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

located in the Chadinga Dunes on the western side of

Lake MacDonnell Lake MacDonnell is a salt lake on western Eyre Peninsula near the Nullarbor Plain. The closest town is Penong, to the north. It is the site of a former salt mine, now the largest gypsum mine in Australia on the largest gypsum deposit in the s ...

, in the locality of

Penong __NOTOC__ Penong ( ) is a town and locality on the Nullarbor Plain, in the far west of the state of South Australia located about north-west of the state capital of Adelaide. With no settlements between it and Border Village on the border with ...

. The park is classified as an

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

Category VI protected area. The conservation park covers of coastal dunes, containing a lake and areas of Mallee scrub. It is commonly called "Tuckamore" by local people. The dunes extend up to 3 km inland and form a habitat for the

spinifex hopping mouse The spinifex hopping mouse (''Notomys alexis''), also known as the tarkawara or tarrkawarra, occurs throughout the central and western Australian arid zones, occupying both spinifex-covered sand flats and stabilised sand dunes, and loamy mulga ...

. The conservation park has no visitor facilities, although bush camping is permitted. The Dinosaur Ant (''

Nothomyrmecia macrops ''Nothomyrmecia'', also known as the dinosaur ant or dawn ant, is an extremely rare genus of ants consisting of a single species, ''Nothomyrmecia macrops''. These ants live in South Australia, nesting in old-growth mallee woodland and ''Eucalyp ...

''), noted as a "living fossil", is found within the conservation park. The lake is the largest of several salt lakes in the area - others include Red Lake (a small section of Lake MacDonnell cut off by the Penong to Point Sinclair/Cactus Beach road) and Blue Lake, a smaller lake to the south of Lake MacDonnell.

References

External links

Chadinga Conservation Park webpage on protected planet
Conservation parks of South Australia Protected areas established in 1993 1993 establishments in Australia {{SouthAustralia-protected-area-stub

References

Further reading

External links