Noosa National Park is a national park in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia, 121 km north of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

. It is situated near

Noosa Heads Noosa Heads is a coastal town and suburb in the Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia. In the , the suburb of Noosa Heads had a population of 4,484 people. It is a popular holiday destination. Geography The suburb is bounded to the west by We ...

between the Pacific Ocean and the Sunshine Coasts's northern area of urban development and extends southwards, past

Lake Weyba Lake Weyba is a large shallow salt lake in the Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia. Lake Weyba is an important fish-breeding habitat. In the early 1900s, Lake Weyba had a large number of stingrays, which would have been easy targets for spear ...

Coolum Coolum Beach is a beachside town and coastal suburb in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the suburb of Coolum Beach had a population of 8,497 people. Geography Coolum Beach has the following mountains (from north t ...

Geography

The 4,000-hectare park is divided into four sections; Headland Section, Peregian Section, Emu Mountain Section and the East Weyba Section. Noosa National Park is the most popular national park in the country, with more than 1 million visits each year. Lake Weyba (2099873732)

Several beaches in the park provide good locations for swimming. These beaches are not patrolled. Swimmers should be aware of strong currents at Alexandria Bay. The southern end of Alexandria Bay is unofficially clothing optional. Rockclimbing, fishing, surfing and snorkeling are other recreational activities undertaken in the park, while camping is banned.

History

The land area of what is today part of Noosa National Park was formed by a series of landforms, including parabolic high dunes from the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

era, but also includes

sandplain A sandplain is an area where the soil is sand deposited from elsewhere by processes such as wind or ocean, rather than direct weathering of bedrock. Sandplains are quite flat. There may be dune systems, and given time and the right conditions the ...

s, that have continuously been forming since the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million year ...

era. Nearby is Hell's Gate, which has been a sandstone cliff when it created the

cove A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are o ...

s around 190 million years ago. The early settlers of Noosa Heads set aside a reserve to protect the area in 1879. The reserve officially became a national park in 1939. Advocates for the park's protection were active in the early 1960s when the Noosa Parks Association was formed at time when urban development was threatening the wilderness area. A management plan for the park was released in October 1999. In 2003, an extra 300 hectares at Coolum were added to park.

Flora

The Headlands Section of the park contains pockets of rainforest where hoop and

kauri pine ''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of 22 species of evergreen tree. The genus is part of the ancient conifer family Araucariaceae, a group once widespread during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, but now large ...

s dominate. There are also areas of open

eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', '' Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

forest,

wallum Wallum, or wallum country, is an Australian ecosystem of coastal south-east Queensland, extending into north-eastern New South Wales. It is characterised by flora-rich shrubland and heathland on deep, nutrient-poor, acidic, sandy soils, and re ...

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler a ...

s, pandanus palms and grasslands. The Peregian Section is known for its wildflowers which blossom in spring, particularly the rare swamp orchid and Christmas bells.

Fauna

A population of

koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the ...

s is found in the park, as are mammal species such as the

short-nosed bandicoot The short-nosed bandicoots (genus ''Isoodon'') are members of the order Peramelemorphia. These marsupials can be found across Australia, although their distribution can be patchy. Genetic evidence suggests that short-nosed bandicoots diverged fro ...

common ringtail possum The common ringtail possum (''Pseudocheirus peregrinus'', Greek for "false hand" and Latin for "pilgrim" or "alien") is an Australian marsupial. It lives in a variety of habitats and eats a variety of leaves of both native and introduced plan ...

brushtail possum The brushtail possums are the members of the genus ''Trichosurus'' in the Phalangeridae, a family of marsupials. They are native to Australia (including Tasmania) and some small nearby islands. Unique among marsupials, they have shifted the hy ...

. Birds such as the

eastern ground parrot The eastern ground parrot (''Pezoporus wallicus'') of Australia is one of only five ground-dwelling parrots in the world, the others being its closest relatives, the western ground parrot (''Pezoporus flaviventris''), the extremely rare night pa ...

glossy black cockatoo The glossy black cockatoo (''Calyptorhynchus lathami''), is the smallest member of the subfamily Calyptorhynchinae found in eastern Australia. Adult glossy black cockatoos may reach in length. They are sexually dimorphic. Males are blackish br ...

eastern yellow robin The eastern yellow robin (''Eopsaltria australis'') is an Australasian robin of coastal and sub-coastal eastern Australia. The extent of the eastern yellow robin's residence is from the extreme southeast corner of South Australia through most ...

rufous fantail The rufous fantail (''Rhipidura rufifrons'') is a small passerine bird, most commonly known also as the black-breasted rufous-fantail or rufous-fronted fantail, which can be found in Australia, Indonesia, Micronesia, New Guinea and the Solomon I ...

satin bowerbird The satin bowerbird (''Ptilonorhynchus violaceus'') is a bowerbird endemic to eastern Australia. A rare natural intergeneric hybrid between the satin bowerbird and the regent bowerbird is known as Rawnsley's bowerbird. Description Mature mal ...

and

crimson rosella The crimson rosella (''Platycercus elegans'') is a parrot native to eastern and south eastern Australia which has been introduced to New Zealand and Norfolk Island. It is commonly found in, but not restricted to, mountain forests and gardens. The ...

are all found in the park's forests. Headlands in the park are a popular place to watch migrating

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hu ...

s. Noosa National Park is also home to endangered species such as the red goshawk.

Walking tracks

Walkway in Noosa National park Australia

oceanway A greenway is usually a shared-use path along a strip of undeveloped land, in an urban or rural area, set aside for recreational use or environmental protection. Greenways are frequently created out of disused railways, canal towpaths, utility ...

runs from the

Noosa River The Noosa River is a river situated in South East Queensland. The catchment starts in the Como Escarpment near Mount Elliott in the coastal Great Sandy National Park and meanders south through a lakes district around Tewantin. Lakes situated on ...

mouth along Hastings Street town centre and then out around the Noosa National Park headlands and beaches to

Sunshine Beach Sunshine Beach is a coastal town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia. In the , Sunshine Beach had a population of 2,460 people. History The area south of Noosa Headlands was formerly known ...

. The highest point in the park is Noosa Hill. One of the

walking track A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. Th ...

s in the park leads to the top of the 147 m hill. There are a total of five walking tracks with the longest being 8 km. Another track leads to Hell's Gate, one of the park's

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, J ...

s. This track is the most traversed trail in Queensland.

References

External links

Noosa Parks Association
{{authority control National parks of Queensland National Parks on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland Protected areas established in 1939 1939 establishments in Australia