__NOTOC__ Nilpena Ediacara National Park, comprising the former Ediacara Conservation Park and an additional , 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 ...

located in the Australian state of South Australia about south west of the town of Leigh Creek in the state's Far North, around north of the city of Adelaide. The

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

was proclaimed in June 2021.

History

Conservation park

The Ediacara Conservation Park was proclaimed under the '' National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972'' on 26 April 2007 over land previously declared as a conservation reserve under the ''Crown Lands Act 1929'' in 1993 and as a fossil reserve in 1958.

National park

On 28 March 2019, the

Government of South Australia The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...

purchased of adjacent land, to enlarge the conservation park by ten times. The land, formerly owned by the Nilpena Pastoral Company, extends as far as Lake Torrens National Park. The entire area was reclassified and proclaimed as Nilpena Ediacara National Park on 17 June 2021. A visitor hub and Ediacara Fossil experience were developed in 2021, expected to commence in 2022.

Description

The national park lies around north of Adelaide, to the east of Lake Torrens National Park, about and south-west of the town of Leigh Creek. There is a theory that ''Ediacara'' is derived from the Adnyamathanha language name "''Ithiaka-na-danha'', where ''Ithi'' means zebra finch and ''aka – na-danha'' means "to come out", which is used as the name for the area in which the conservation park was located.; but see Ediacara Hills#Word origin. The conservation park was created to protect and conserve an "assemblage of fossilised Ediacaran soft-bodied marine organisms of international importance," "places of significance" to the Adnyamathanha people, "remnants of mining history associated with the Ediacara mineral field," and an "important

chenopod Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus ''Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making it ...

habitat." It was 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 fossil reserve is also listed on the South Australian Heritage Register.

References

External links