Ikara–Flinders Ranges National Park

Flinders Ranges National Park
Flinders Ranges National Park
Coordinates	31°25′20″S 138°42′18″E
Established	1945
Area	912 km²

Flinders Ranges is South Australia's largest mountain range and a national park, 384 km north of Adelaide. It stretches over 430 km from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. Its most characteristic landmark is Wilpena Pound, a giant sickle-shaped formation which creates the effect of a remarkable natural amphitheatre covering nearly 80 square kilometres and contains the ranges highest peak, St Mary Peak, at 1170 metres.

Geology

Formation of the Flinders Ranges began 800 million years ago with development of the Adelaide Geosyncline due to stretching of the earth’s crust. The sea covered the land for next 300 million years, depositing rock debris in the depression formed. These rocks were compressed and uplifted to form a mountain chain much higher than the present formations. The softer slates and shales were gradually eroded leaving quartzite and hard sandstone peaks. Ediacara Hills in the northern Flinders Ranges was the site of discovery in 1946 of some of the oldest fossils evidence of animal life. In 2004 a new geological period, the Ediacaran Period was formed to mark the appearance of Ediacara biota.

Flora and Fauna

The flora of the Flinders Ranges is comprised largely of species adapted to a semi arid environment such as cypress pine, mallee, and black oak. Moister areas near Wilpena Pound support grevilleas, Guinea flowers, lilies and ferns. Reeds and sedges grow near permanent water sources such as springs and waterholes.

Since the removal of dingos and the establishment of permanent waterholes for stock, the numbers of red kangaroos, western grey kangaroos and euros in the Flinders Ranges have increased. The yellow-footed rock wallaby, which neared extinction after the arrival of Europeans due to hunting and predation by foxes, has now stabilized. Other marsupials include dunnarts, planigales and echidnas. Insectivorous bats make up significant proportion of mammals in the area. There are a large number of bird species including parrots, galahs, emus, the wedge-tailed eagle and small numbers of water birds. Reptiles include goannas, snakes, dragon lizards, skinks and geckos. The streambank froglet is an endemic amphibian.

Human History

File:Devil's-Peak1.jpg

Lookout from Devil’s Peak. It shows results of the rock layers were squeezed and folded into a long mountain chain.

The first humans to inhabit the Flinders Ranges were the Adnyamathana people (meaning ‘hill people’ or ‘rock people’) whose descendants still reside in the area. Cave paintings, rock engravings and other artifacts indicate that the Adnyamathana people have lived in the Flinders Ranges for tens of thousands of years.

The first European explorers to the region were an exploration party from Matthew Flinders seagoing visit to upper, Spencer Gulf aboard The Investigator. They climbed Mount Brown in March 1802. In the winter of 1839 Edward John Eyre, together with a group of five men, two drays and ten horses, further explored the region. They set out from Adelaide on 1 May 1839. The party set up a depot near Mt. Arden, and from there explored the surrounding region and upper Spencer Gulf, before heading eastward to the Murray River and returning to Adelaide.

There are records of squatters in the Quorn district as early as 1845, and the first pastoral leases were granted in 1851. William Pinkerton is credited as being the first european to find a route through the Flinders Ranges via Pichi Richi Pass. In 1853 he drove 7,000 sheep along the eastern plains of the range to where Quorn would be built 25 years later (Pinkerton Creek runs through the Ouorn township).

In 1851 Wilpena, Arkaba and Aroona were established as sheep stations, and within a few years other runs were marked out through the hills and along the adjoining eastern and western slopes.

During the late 1870's the push to open agriculture land, for wheat growing north of the Goyder's Line had met with unusual success, with good rainfall and crops in the Flinders Ranges. This, along with the copper mining lobby (copper was mined in the Hawker-Flinders Ranges area in the late 1850's and transported overland by bullock dray), induced the government to build narrow gauge railway line north of Port Augusta through Pichi Richi Pass, Quorn, Hawker and along the west of the ranges, eventually to Marree. (It was intended to service the agricultural and pastoral industries in the region).

The rainfall returned to a normal pattern for the region, causing many of the agricultural farms to collapse. You can still see adandoned homes dotted around the arid landscape. Wilpena station, thanks to the unusual geography there, is now the only location north of Goyder's Line to be able to sustain any crops - although it has now been left to the wild and is only a tourist location.

Mining exploration, continued in the region (but coal mining at Leigh Creek and barytes at Oraparinna were the only long term successes), the pastoral industry with sheep and cattle flourished, and the rail line became of major importance in opening up and servicing sheep and cattle stations along the route to Alice Springs.

Hawker townsite was surveyed at a bend in the railway line where the train line left the main road to Blinman, and named in 1880 after South Australian politician and pastoralist, George Charles Hawker.

Quorn was surveyed by Godfrey Walsh and proclaimed a town on 16 May 1878. The township covered an area of 1.72 km² and was laid out in squares in a manner similar to the state's capital city, Adelaide. Governor Jervois bestowed the name 'Quorn'. His private secretary at the time had come from the Parish of Quorndon (which had one of the most famous hunting packs in England).

Trivia

• Parachilna railway station (now disused) is one of the set location for the Australian feature film, Rabbit Proof Fence.
• Just north of Leigh Creek is the starting point of the famous Birdsville Track which crosses the harsh Australian desert into Queensland

• 
  The Flinders Ranges as seen from the Stuart Highway.
• 
  Flinders Ranges from space.

See also

• Wilpena Pound
• Protected areas of South Australia
• Ediacara
• Arkaroola
• Gammon Ranges
• Mawson Plateau