Nicoll Scrub is a national park in
South East Queensland
South East Queensland (SEQ) is a bio-geographical, metropolitan, political and administrative region of the state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million people out of the state's population of 5.1 million. T ...
,
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 ...
, 88 km southeast 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 ...
.
It adjoins the
Currumbin Valley Reserve
Currumbin Valley Reserve is a 4 ha nature reserve in the Gold Coast hinterland of south-east Queensland, Australia, west of Coolangatta, south of Brisbane. It is owned and managed by Bush Heritage Australia (BHA), to which it was donated in 19 ...
and protects remnant
rainforest
Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...
vegetation. The park occupies the area between Mount Coolagang and Mount Boololagung of the McPherson Range.
Topography and geology
![GreyHeadedFlyingFoxWingspan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/GreyHeadedFlyingFoxWingspan.jpg)
The park's highest point is 180 m above sea level. Soils and geology of Nicoll Scrub National Park is characterized by hills of palaeozoic metasediments and phyllites with cappings of
tertiary basalt.
Flora and fauna
![Richmond Birdwing Butterfly (Ornithoptera richmondius)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Richmond_Birdwing_Butterfly_%28Ornithoptera_richmondius%29.jpg)
The park has a rich diversity of plant life. It has five types of rainforest. It has a total of 200 plant species, of which two are endangered and six fall in the vulnerable species category. The rainforests of the Nicoll Scrub National Park are the only remaining ones in the middle and lower Currumbin Valley.
Nicoll Scrub National Park has over 78 vertebrate species, including seven species of mammal, 56 species of birds, six species of reptiles and eight species of amphibians.
Among the park's most rare and fascinating residents are the
Richmond birdwing
''Ornithoptera richmondia'', the Richmond birdwing, is a species of birdwing butterfly that is endemic to Australia. It is the second smallest of the birdwing species, the smallest being '' Ornithoptera meridionalis''.
Distribution
Historicall ...
butterfly (Ornithoptera richmondia),
Grey-headed flying fox
The grey-headed flying fox (''Pteropus poliocephalus'') is a megabat native to Australia. The species shares mainland Australia with three other members of the genus ''Pteropus'': the little red ''Pteropus scapulatus, P. scapulatus'', spectacle ...
(Pteropus poliocephalus) and
Black flying fox
The black flying fox or black fruit bat (''Pteropus alecto'') is a bat in the family Pteropodidae. It is among the largest bats in the world, but is considerably smaller than the largest species in its genus, ''Pteropus''. The black flying fox ...
(Pteropus alecto).
See also
*
Protected areas of Queensland
Queensland is the second largest state in Australia. It contains around 500 separate protected areas. In 2020, it was estimated a total of 14.2 million hectares or 8.25% of Queensland's landmass was protected.
List of terrestrial protected are ...
References
National parks of South East Queensland
Protected areas established in 1986
1986 establishments in Australia
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