The Lake Eildon National Park is a

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 ...

in the Central Highlands region of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The national park is set in the northern foothills of the Central Highlands, approximately northeast of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

and abuts the shores of

Lake Eildon The Eildon Dam or Eildon Weir, a rock and earth-fill embankment dam with a controlled spillway across the Goulburn River, is located between the regional towns of and within Lake Eildon National Park, in the Alpine region of Victoria, Aus ...

History

The Goulburn River Valley supported a population of hundreds of members of the

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

group known as the

Taungurung The Taungurung people, also spelt ''Daung Wurrung'', are an Aboriginal people who are one of the Kulin nations in present-day Victoria, Australia. They consist of nine clans whose traditional language is the Taungurung language. Their Country ...

people. Cultural sites belonging to these people would have been flooded with the creation of Lake Eildon. The park includes a number of mine shafts related to Victoria's gold rush of the 1860s. The park also contains relics from early pastoral use. In the 1950s, the

Victorian Government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and th ...

purchased farming properties along the

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters pate ...

and Delatite rivers for the construction of

to provide irrigation water for the Goulburn Valley. An area of that wasn't flooded was declared Fraser National Park in 1957. An area of of state forest adjacent to the lake was reserved as Eildon State Park in 1980 to protect the catchment of Lake Eildon. In 1997, the two parks were combined to create Lake Eildon National Park.

Geology

The park is mountainous, with peaks up to , and includes the edge of the Cerberean Caldera, a Supervolcano around across which was active around 380 million years ago. The caldera is evident in a few places as granite outcrops. It is thought that the Cerberean Caldera underwent a super eruption 374 Mya, which in turn would have contributed to the

Late Devonian extinction event The Late Devonian extinction consisted of several extinction events in the Late Devonian Epoch, which collectively represent one of the five largest mass extinction events in the history of life on Earth. The term primarily refers to a major ex ...

Gold Mining

Mine shaft warning sign located in Italian Gully Lake Eildon National Park 2022

The national park contains many shallow gold diggings, shafts and adits. The most notable in the Fraser block are those of Italian Gully, originally worked in the 1870's and then again in the 1930's.

Flora and Fauna

A small stream leading in Station Creek Fraser Block Lake Eildon National Park 2022

The park's vegetation is generally dry, open eucalypt forest with areas of riparian forest and montane forest. Main eucalypt species are stringybarks, peppermints, Red Box and Candlebark with areas of Mountain Ash and Blue Gum. The park's known native fauna includes 34 species of mammals, 89 birds, 17 reptiles, 10 amphibians, and three freshwater fish. Threatened fauna recorded in the park include the Brush-tailed Phascogale and Spotted Tree-Frog. Eastern Grey Kangaroos are very common in the park's camping places After being hunted to extinction for their skins, in 1967 25 Koalas were reintroduced to the park from Phillip Island and released in the Devils Cove area. Sambar Deer are also found throughout the park.

Cultural Sites

Stone's Outstation Lake Eildon National Park 2022

There are numerous cultural sites in the National Park, demonstrating the areas past use for grazing and mining. One of these is Stone's Outstation, located on Station Creek near Aird Inlet.

Location

Lake Eildon National Park is non-contiguous and consists of five 'blocks'Parks Vic merged together in June 1997 to create a single national park. They are: From the former Eildon State Park: * Enterprise - located in the centre of Lake Eildon itself. * Jamieson - located on the eastern side of the national park adjacent to the township of Jamieson. * Jerusalem - located on the southern of the national park, named for Jerusalem Creek. It contains Jerusalem Creek camping area with pit toilets as well as O’Toole Flat and Taylors Creek which are nominally designated for deer hunters. From the former Fraser National Park: * Fraser - located on the western side of the national park, named for the former park. It is the most developed and contains three camping areas; Lakeside, Candlebark and Devil Cove, all of which feature flushing toilets, hot showers, drinking water and gas BBQs. * Wappan - located on the north west side. It is the least developed with no public vehicle access.

Visitors

Most visitors use the park as a base for water-based activities on Lake Eildon, such as power boating and water ski-ing. Deer hunting is permitted in season in some sections of the park. Mountaineer Inlet Boat Camp has no vehicle access and is for use for boaters and hikers only.

References

External links

Parks Victoria official website
{{authority control National parks of Victoria (Australia) Protected areas established in 1997 1997 establishments in Australia