Hale Conservation Park (formerly Hale National Park and Hale Wild-Life 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 locality of Williamstown about north-east of the state capital of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

and about south-east of the town centre in Williamstown. The conservation park consists of land in sections 119, 124, 125, 135, 138 and 315 in the cadastral unit of the

Hundred of Barossa The Hundred of Barossa is a cadastral unit of hundred in South Australia in the northern Adelaide Hills. It lies west of the Barossa Range at the south end of the Barossa Valley and is bounded on the north and south by the North Para and South ...

. Land consisting of sections 119, 124, 125, 135 and 138 first gained protected status as a wildlife reserve proclaimed on 9 January 1964 under the ''Crown Lands Act 1929''. On 4 February 1965, all of the land previously proclaimed as a wildlife reserve in 1964 and section 315 were proclaimed as the ''Hale Wild-Life Reserve'' under the ''Crown Lands Act 1929''. On 9 November 1967, all of the land was proclaimed under the ''National Parks Act 1966'' as the ''Hale National Park''. The national park was re-proclaimed under the ''

National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 Protected areas of South Australia consists of protected areas located within South Australia and its immediate onshore waters and which are managed by South Australian Government agencies. As of March 2018, South Australia contains 359 sepa ...

'' as the ''Hale Conservation Park'' on 27 April 1972. As of 2018, it covered an area of . In 1980, the conservation park was described as follows:

Hale Conservation Park is situated in rugged hilly country of the north-central
Mount Lofty Range The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and ...
s. The dominant plant community is a low open forest of ''
Eucalyptus obliqua ''Eucalyptus obliqua'', commonly known as messmate stringybark or messmate, but also known as brown top, brown top stringbark, stringybark or Tasmanian oak, is a species of tree that is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It has rough, stringy or ...
'', '' E. goniocalyx'' and '' E. fasciculosa'', above a mid-dense heath understorey. Common mammals in the park are ''
Macropus fuliginosus The western grey kangaroo (''Macropus fuliginosus''), also referred to as a western grey giant kangaroo, black-faced kangaroo, mallee kangaroo, sooty kangaroo and (when referring to the Kangaroo Island subspecies) Kangaroo Island grey kangaroo, is ...
'' (western grey kangaroo) and ''
Tachyglossus aculeatus The short-beaked echidna (''Tachyglossus aculeatus''), also called the short-nosed echidna, is one of four living species of echidna and the only member of the genus ''Tachyglossus''. It is covered in fur and spines and has a distinctive snout ...
'' (echidna), while over sixty species of birds have been recorded. A walking track traverses the length of the park... The '' Zoothera dauma'' (scaly thrush) which is a threatened bird in South Australia due to destruction of its habitat ... can be found in the park. Together with Warren Conservation Park to the South, the park contains unique geological exposures of a recently discovered unconformity between the Adelaidian sequence and a rejuvenated crystalline basement inlier.

The conservation 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 III protected area. In 1980, it was listed on the former

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

References

External links

Hale Conservation Park official webpage

Hale Conservation Park webpage on the Protected Planet websiteHale Conservation Park webpage on the BirdsSA website
{{Protected areas of South Australia, state=collapsed Conservation parks of South Australia 1964 establishments in Australia Protected areas established in 1964 South Australian places listed on the defunct Register of the National Estate

See also

References

External links