1.
New South Wales
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New South Wales is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south and it has a coast line with the Tasman Sea on its east side. The Australian Capital Territory is an enclave within the state, New South Wales state capital is Sydney, which is also Australias most populous city. In March 2014, the population of New South Wales was 7.5 million. Just under two-thirds of the population,4.67 million. Inhabitants of New South Wales are referred to as New South Welshmen, the Colony of New South Wales was founded as a penal colony in 1788. It originally comprised a more than half of the Australian mainland with its western boundary set at 129th meridian east in 1825, in addition, the colony also included the island territories of New Zealand, Van Diemens Land, Lord Howe Island, and Norfolk Island. During the 19th century, most of the area was detached to form separate British colonies that eventually became New Zealand. However, the Swan River Colony has never administered as part of New South Wales. Lord Howe Island remains part of New South Wales, while Norfolk Island has become a federal Territory, as have the now known as the Australian Capital Territory. The prior inhabitants of New South Wales were the Aboriginal tribes who arrived in Australia about 40,000 to 60,000 years ago, before European settlement there were an estimated 250,000 Aboriginal people in the region. The Wodi Wodi people are the custodians of the Illawarra region of South Sydney. The Bundjalung people are the custodians of parts of the northern coastal areas. The European discovery of New South Wales was made by Captain James Cook during his 1770 survey along the eastern coast of the Dutch-named continent of New Holland. In his original journal covering the survey, in triplicate to satisfy Admiralty Orders, Cook first named the land New Wales, however, in the copy held by the Admiralty, he revised the wording to New South Wales. After years of chaos and anarchy after the overthrow of Governor William Bligh, macquaries legacy is still evident today. During the 19th century, large areas were separated to form the British colonies of Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria. Responsible government was granted to the New South Wales colony in 1855, following the Treaty of Waitangi, William Hobson declared British sovereignty over New Zealand in 1840
2.
International Union for Conservation of Nature
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The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, lobbying. IUCNs mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of resources is equitable. Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to equality, poverty alleviation. Unlike other international NGOs, IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation and it tries to influence the actions of governments, business and other stakeholders by providing information and advice, and through lobbying and partnerships. The organization is best known to the public for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List. IUCN has a membership of over 1200 governmental and non-governmental organizations, some 11,000 scientists and experts participate in the work of IUCN commissions on a voluntary basis. It employs approximately 1000 full-time staff in more than 60 countries and its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. IUCN has observer and consultative status at the United Nations, and plays a role in the implementation of several conventions on nature conservation. It was involved in establishing the World Wide Fund for Nature, in the past, IUCN has been criticized for placing the interests of nature over those of indigenous peoples. In recent years, its relations with the business sector have caused controversy. It was previously called the International Union for Protection of Nature, establishment In 1947, the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature organised an international conference on the protection of nature in Brunnen. It is considered to be the first government-organized non-governmental organization, the initiative to set up the new organisation came from UNESCO and especially from its first Director General, the British biologist Julian Huxley. At the time of its founding IUPN was the international organisation focusing on the entire spectrum of nature conservation Early years. Its secretariat was located in Brussels and its first work program focused on saving species and habitats, increasing and applying knowledge, advancing education, promoting international agreements and promoting conservation. Providing a solid base for conservation action was the heart of all activities. IUPN and UNESCO were closely associated and they jointly organized the 1949 Conference on Protection of Nature. In preparation for this conference a list of endangered species was drawn up for the first time
3.
National park
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A national park is a park in use for conservation purposes. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns, although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea, the conservation of wild nature for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, although Yellowstone was not officially termed a national park in its establishing law, it was always termed such in practice and is widely held to be the first and oldest national park in the world. The first area to use national park in its legislation was the USs Mackinac Island. Australias Royal National Park, established in 1879, was the third official national park. In 1895 ownership of Mackinac Island was transferred to the State of Michigan as a state park, as a result, Australias Royal National Park is by some considerations the second oldest national park now in existence. The largest national park in the meeting the IUCN definition is the Northeast Greenland National Park. According to the IUCN,6,555 national parks worldwide met its criteria in 2006, IUCN is still discussing the parameters of defining a national park. National parks are almost always open to visitors, in 1971, these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate a national park. In 1810, the English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a sort of property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive. It was known as Hot Springs Reservation, but no authority was established. Federal control of the area was not clearly established until 1877, John Muir is today referred to as the Father of the National Parks due to his work in Yosemite. He published two articles in The Century Magazine, which formed the base for the subsequent legislation. President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on July 1,1864, ceding the Yosemite Valley, according to this bill, private ownership of the land in this area was no longer possible. The state of California was designated to manage the park for use, resort. Leases were permitted for up to ten years and the proceeds were to be used for conservation, a public discussion followed this first legislation of its kind and there was a heated debate over whether the government had the right to create parks. The perceived mismanagement of Yosemite by the Californian state was the reason why Yellowstone at its establishment six years later was put under national control, in 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the United States first national park, being also the worlds first national park. In some European countries, however, national protection and nature reserves already existed, such as Drachenfels, Yellowstone was part of a federally governed territory
4.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
5.
Sydney
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Sydney /ˈsɪdni/ is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australias east coast, the metropolis surrounds the worlds largest natural harbour, residents of Sydney are known as Sydneysiders. The Sydney area has been inhabited by indigenous Australians for at least 30,000 years, the first British settlers, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived in 1788 to found Sydney as a penal colony, the first European settlement in Australia. Since convict transportation ended in the century, the city has transformed from a colonial outpost into a major global cultural. As at June 2016 Sydneys estimated population was 5,005,358, in the 2011 census,34 percent of the population reported having been born overseas, representing many different nationalities and making Sydney one of the most multicultural cities in the world. There are more than 250 different languages spoken in Sydney and about one-third of residents speak a language other than English at home and it is classified as an Alpha+ World City by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, indicating its influence in the region and throughout the world. Ranked eleventh in the world for economic opportunity, Sydney has a market economy with strengths in finance, manufacturing. Its gross regional product was $337 billion in 2013, the largest in Australia, there is a significant concentration of foreign banks and multinational corporations in Sydney and the city is promoted as one of Asia Pacifics leading financial hubs. Its natural features include Sydney Harbour, the Royal National Park, man-made attractions such as the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Tower and the Sydney Harbour Bridge are also well known to international visitors. The first people to inhabit the now known as Sydney were indigenous Australians having migrated from northern Australia. Radiocarbon dating suggests human activity first started to occur in the Sydney area from around 30,735 years ago, the earliest British settlers called them Eora people. Eora is the term the indigenous used to explain their origins upon first contact with the British. Its literal meaning is from this place, prior to the arrival of the British there were 4,000 to 8,000 native people in Sydney from as many as 29 different clans. Sydney Cove from Port Jackson to Petersham was inhabited by the Cadigal clan, the principal language groups were Darug, Guringai, and Dharawal. The earliest Europeans to visit the area noted that the people were conducting activities such as camping and fishing, using trees for bark and food, collecting shells. Development has destroyed much of the citys history including that of the first inhabitants, there continues to be examples of rock art and engravings located in the protected Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. The first meeting between the people and the British occurred on 29 April 1770 when Lieutenant James Cook landed at Botany Bay on the Kurnell Peninsula. He noted in his journal that they were confused and somewhat hostile towards the foreign visitors, Cook was on a mission of exploration and was not commissioned to start a settlement
6.
Riverina
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The Riverina /rɪvəˈriːnə/ is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of plains, warm to hot climate. This combination has allowed the Riverina to develop one of the most productive. In the 20th century, the development of irrigation areas in the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys has led to the introduction of crops such as rice. The Riverina has strong ties to Victoria, and the region was the source of much of the impetus behind the federation of Australian colonies. Major population and service centres in the Riverina include the cities of Wagga Wagga, Albury, Albury and Wagga Wagga are home to campuses of Charles Sturt University, the only local provider of higher education for the region. Wagga Wagga is home to two major Australian Defence Force establishments, the northern boundary beyond the Riverina is determined by the Lachlan River catchment area and is referred to as the Central West. Along the Murray to the south, the Riverina borders the state of Victoria, West of the confluence of the Murray and Murrumbidgee is the beginning of the more arid Far West region. In general, the Riverina is a plain formed by deposition carried from the Great Dividing Range by streams between 30,000 and 15,000 years ago. The terrain includes rolling hills to the east but then becomes flatter to the west with most of that plain reaching less than 200 metres above sea level, the western Riverina consists largely of featureless saltbush plain. The geology of the Riverina comprises several troughs and sedimentary basins, the western Riverina is presumed to be a continuation of the Ballarat and Bendigo geological zone while eastern sections are underlain by western portions of the Lachlan Fold Belt. Riverina soils are generally sandy along the channels, with more saline grey. As the Murrumbidgee passes downstream, the water and soil become more saline, the Riverina is drained by the large Murray-Darling Basin. Rivers and streams in the Riverina generally flow east to west, as well as the Murray, Murrumbidgee and Lachlan, other streams include Billabong Creek and the Edward River, an anabranch of the Murray. Much of the water carried by these streams is diverted, in 2001–2002, 52% of the Murray and Murrumbidgee water runoff was diverted, 77% of which was used for irrigation. The Bureau of Meteorology classify the Riverina in the Hot Dry Zone climatic zone, places in this zone can be very hot in the summer months while in the winter, nights can be considerably cold with cool to mild days. Mean daily maximum temperatures in the Riverina range from 31.0 °C in January and 12.4 °C in July in Wagga Wagga to 33.2 °C in January and 14.8 °C in July in Hillston. Rainfall levels in the Riverina are generally low with the annual rainfall over most of the region between 250–500 millimetres, rising to between 500–800 mm on the eastern fringe
7.
Weddin Mountains National Park
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Weddin Mountains is a national park in New South Wales, Australia,291 km west of Sydney. Weddin mountains is a patch of remnant vegetation which escaped clearing due to its ruggedness. It has lots of passing overhead on their way from Sydney to Adelaide, is part of the Lachlan Fold system and is Wiradjuri country. Ben Hall, who plundered the Forbes-Grenfell area in the 1850s used the Weddin Mountains as a refuge and he holed up in a cave on the north-west side of the park with his gang, which included Johnnie Gilbert and Frank Gardiner. It is rumoured Ben Hall buried a treasure here that has not yet been located, there is a walk around Seatons Historic Farm, which is now part of the national park. Seatons Farm is how one man and his wife turned every bit of wire into something useful, jim Seaton hand made 3 km/1.8 miles of kangaroo proof fence by hand, with posts of local saplings, which are rot and vermin proof. The property was occupied in the late 1920s and during the Depression it was set up as a farm, times and the land were hard and the buildings represent this. The sheds have walls made from flattened corrugated iron so that it stretched further, one of the sheds is full of old wire, iron sheets, bottles, everything you can imagine. All the old machinery is still there, sitting where it was when the sold the property to the Government in the 1980s. A unique place, showing how the well off farmers did it in the early. There are 216 species of animals recorded in Weddin Mountains National Park, the species list includes three types of wallaby one of which is the endangered brush tailed rock wallaby. The species list also includes painted honeyeater, swift parrot, little lorikeet, pest species seen in the park are cats, rabbits, foxes, goats and sheep. The park is part of the South-west Slopes of NSW Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for the conservation of swift parrots, Weddin Mountains National Park is most often approached from Grenfell. Travelling west from Grenfell on the Mid Western Highway there are sign posts to Holy Camp, the Google Earth route from Grenfell will take you along Euladrie road which ends at a farm two kilometres from the park with farmland in between. It is a walk from here to Ben Halls Cave. Holy camp is 19 km south-west of Grenfell, Coordinates 33. 897857°S148. 002901°E / -33.897857,148.002901, the last 3.8 kilometres are dirt road. It is one of the entrances to the park with a pit toilet, parking area, there is a small water tank filled from the toilet roof but dont rely on it. From here you can walk to Eualdrie and Peregrine lookouts, there is lots of wildlife in and around the carpark including lace monitors and skinks by day and brushtail possums and owlet nightjars by night
8.
Barrington Tops National Park
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The Barrington Tops National Park is a protected national park located in the Hunter Valley, approximately 200 kilometres north of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. Gazetted in 1969, the 76, 512-hectare park is situated between Scone, Singleton, Dungog, Gloucester and East Gresford. The park is part of the Barrington Tops group World Heritage Site Gondwana Rainforests of Australia inscribed in 1986 and it is also part of the Barrington Tops and Gloucester Tops Important Bird Area. Barrington Tops is part of the Mount Royal Range, a spur of the Great Dividing Range, erosion has weathered the granite and rounded granite boulders can be seen in some areas of the park. Estimates put the age of the rock at 300 to 400 million years, the climate varies from temperate on the lower altitudes to subalpine at highest elevations. A record low of −17 °C has been registered at 1,500 m above sea level. Rainfalls fluctuate between 750 millimetres in the northwest to more than 2,000 mm in the southeast, the ecology of the national park varies from subtropical rainforests in the gullies to subalpine and alpine regions on the mountain peaks. Snow usually falls on the mountain every year and occasionally snows enough to close roads. Rainfall can exceed 1,500 mm per annum, a large variety of plants and animals reside in the park and the steepness of the terrain ensures that they are not disturbed by humans. The remoteness and inaccessibility of a part of the park has allowed some of the more sensitive animals to remain largely undisturbed. A large number of fauna have been catalogued in the park including some that were thought to be extinct. Some of the common animals include, barking and sooty owls, eastern grey kangaroos, frogs, pademelons, cockatoos, rosellas, kookaburras, bats. It supports an important population of rufous scrub-birds, as well as flame robins, pale-yellow robins, paradise riflebirds, green catbirds, regent bowerbirds. Animals such as quolls, native rats and platypus are reclusive, not all of the animals in the park are desirable, introduced species such as feral horses and feral cats are being removed. The traditional owners of the area are the people of Australia, known as Australian Aborigines, and include the Gringai clan, the Wonnarua people. In 1969 the area between Mount Barrington, Mount Royal and the Gloucester Tops was declared the Barrington Tops National Park, in 1982 it was listed as a World Heritage Area and subsequently a Wilderness Area. Some of the rivers flowing through the Barrington range have been classed as wild rivers meaning they are exceptionally pure, the highest peak is Brumlow Top which rises to a height of 1,586 metres. A number of aircraft have crashed in and around the Barrington Tops, the altitude, frequent fog & cloud, storms and cold weather make this area potentially hazardous to aircraft
9.
Dorrigo National Park
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Dorrigo National Park is a national park in New South Wales,580 km north of Sydney on Dome Road off the Waterfall Way,5 km east of the town of Dorrigo. The Park is part of the New England Group of the World Heritage Site Gondwana Rainforests of Australia inscribed in 1986 and this national park is recognised as an area of exceptional natural beauty with significant habitats of outstanding value to science and conservation. The Rainforest Centre is a major CERRA interpretation centre, the interactive display, The Rainforest Revealed, explains how the rainforest evolved and gives insights into the animal and plant species that live there. The park contains several tracks allowing hikers to view the parks waterfalls, a notable feature of the park is the Skywalk, an elevated walkway through and above the treetops, providing birdwatchers with an excellent view of local bird life. Protected areas of New South Wales Official website
10.
Sea Acres National Park
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The Sea Acres National Park is a protected national park that is located in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The 76-hectare park is situated near the town of Port Macquarie, the park is a popular tourist area with a 1. 3-kilometre long boardwalk through a remnant of seaside rainforest. There is also a centre and cafe. The park was declared as a nature reserve in 1987. Recorded within the reserve are over a hundred types of bird species, rare species include the wompoo fruit-dove, rose-crowned fruit-dove and osprey. Reptiles include the monitor, land mullet and the diamond python. Twenty-one species of mammals have been recorded in the park, including koala, spotted-tail quoll. Two rare types of snail are known here, Sea Acres National Park contains one of the largest and most intact segments of coastal rainforest in New South Wales. The remnant rainforest area adjacent to Shelley Beach is noteworthy as much of this sea side of forest has been cleared for agriculture, mining or housing. Common species of tree include tuckeroo, coogara, red berry, white walnut, flintwood, strangler fig, sour cherry, Francis watergum, maidens blush. Vines are common, they include lawyer vine, supplejack, walking stick palms and Bangalow palms are often seen. Epiphytes are common in the more protected areas, such as the staghorn and elkhorn ferns. The hares foot fern is a climbing plant in the rainforest. The taller areas in the gully may be considered more sub-tropical rather than littoral rainforest, the widespread sea hibiscus is found at its southernmost limit of natural distribution at Sea Acres. Another similarly widespread coastal plant is found at or very close to its southern limit. This plant is associated with Pacific Islands in the tropics. The rainforest botanist A. G. Floyd suggests that Sea Acres, there are also non-rainforest areas which include grassland, banksia woodland and eucalyptus forest with tallowwood, blackbutt, and Sydney blue gum. There are infestations of lantana, morning glory and bitou bush in the park, dumping of garden refuse makes the problem worse
11.
Warrumbungle National Park
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Warrumbungle National Park is a heritage listed national park located in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. The national park is located approximately 550 kilometres northwest of Sydney, the park attracts approximately 35,000 visitors per annum. The national park is based on the geographical Warrumbungle Mountain Range, sometimes shortened to the Warrumbungles, the comic strip Warrumbunglers may also have played some part in this usage. The park lies within the Pilliga Important Bird Area, so identified by BirdLife International because of its importance for a range of bird species. Warrumbungle National Park was added to the Australian National Heritage List in December 2006, on 4 July 2016, the park was the first within Australia to be certified as a Dark Sky Park by the International Dark Sky Association. The nearest towns to the park are Baradine, Coonabarabran, Coonamble, Gilgandra, Gulargambone, access via Coonabarabran to the east is by 27 kilometres of sealed road called the John Renshaw Parkway, built in 1966. Via Coonamble to the west, access is by a 57 kilometres long road with some gravel, the park is contained within three local government areas, Warrumbungle Shire to the east, Gilgandra Shire to the south and Coonamble Shire to the west. Some of the most well-known rock formations include Bluff Mountain, Mount Exmouth, The Breadknife, Split Rock, Fans Horizon, there are many scenic bushwalks and both rock climbing and abseiling are popular. The park preserves habitat for a population numbering in the hundreds. Located immediately adjacent to the park is the Siding Spring Observatory. The observatory, officially opened in 1965, was constructed on the boundary of the park partly because the park provided a light-free environment and this scientific facility consists of several internationally important telescopes and has considerable socio-economic importance to the local Coonabarabran community. All camping in the park is permitted after obtaining a permit. There is a centre for bookings and keys to a number of huts. The park also caters for school groups. There are free electric barbecues available however firewood is not supplied or to be collected within park grounds, a proposal to reserve the more scenic parts of the Warrumbungle Range as the Warrumbungle National Monument was first initiated by the National Parks and Primitive Areas Council in 1936. The area was first proclaimed as a reserve in 1953, in 1967 management of the park was signed over to the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The construction of a network of walking tracks done by hand was headed by the parks first ranger, in January 2013 about 80% of the national park was destroyed in a conflagration that burned much of the area surrounding the park as well, destroying dozens of homes. The visitor centre and museum was wiped out, as well as railings, the park was closed after the fire, but has now reopened, although some parts remain closed
