Mariala 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 ...

South West Queensland South West Queensland is a remote region in the Australian state of Queensland which covers . The region lies to the south of Central West Queensland and west of the Darling Downs and includes the Maranoa district and parts of the Channel Countr ...

, Australia, 810 km west of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

. Mariala lies within the

Mulga Lands The Mulga Lands are an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion of eastern Australia consisting of dry sandy plains with low mulga (habitat), mulga woodlands and shrublands that are dominated by ''Acacia ...

bioregion and the

Shire of Quilpie The Shire of Quilpie is a Local government in Australia, local government area in South West Queensland, Australia. It covers an area of , and its administrative centre is the town of Quilpie, Queensland, Quilpie. The dominant industry is gra ...

local government area. It is located with the water catchment areas of the Bulloo, Paroo and Warrego rivers. Mariala covers . The park was part of the Ambathala pastoral holding which operated from 1875 until the early 1980s. In 1982, the area became a scientific reserve, making it the first protected area to preserve part of Queensland's extensive Mulga Lands. A decade later it was declared a national park. A total of six rare or threatened species have been identified in the national park. These include

Major Mitchell's cockatoo Major Mitchell's cockatoo (''Lophochroa leadbeateri''), also known as Leadbeater's cockatoo or the pink cockatoo, is a medium-sized cockatoo that inhabits arid and semi-arid inland areas of Australia, though it is seen regularly in other climat ...

and the rare

square-tailed kite The square-tailed kite (''Lophoictinia isura'') is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as kites, eagles and harriers. Taxonomy German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup descr ...

References

National parks of Queensland Protected areas established in 1992 1992 establishments in Australia South West Queensland {{Queensland-national-park-stub

See also

References