Australian National Heritage List
The Australian National Heritage List is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia. The list includes natural and indigenous places, once on the National Heritage List the provisions of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 apply. The Australian National Heritage List, together with the Commonwealth Heritage List, in addition, the place must pass a significance threshold, it must have outstanding heritage value to the nation as a whole. This is determined by comparison to similar places. The Australian National Heritage List comprises the following sites, A One of 15 World Heritage places included in the National Heritage List on 21 May 2007, B Yard 4 North was added on 4 August 2009. Commonwealth Heritage List Media related to Australian National Heritage List at Wikimedia Commons Australian National Heritage List
National park
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 was put under national control, in 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the United States first national park, being the worlds first national park. In some European countries, national protection and nature reserves already existed, such as Drachenfels, Yellowstone was part of a federally governed territory
South Australia
South Australia is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country, with a total land area of 983,482 square kilometres, it is the fourth-largest of Australias states and territories. Other population centres in the state are relatively small, the state comprises less than 8 percent of the Australian population and ranks fifth in population among the six states and two territories. The majority of its people reside in Adelaide, most of the remainder are settled in fertile areas along the south-eastern coast and River Murray. The states colonial origins are unique in Australia as a settled, planned British province. Official settlement began on 28 December 1836, when the colony was proclaimed at the Old Gum Tree by Governor John Hindmarsh, as with the rest of the continent, the region had been long occupied by Aboriginal peoples, who were organised into numerous tribes and languages. The first British settlement to be established was Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, on 26 July 1836, the guiding principle behind settlement was that of systematic colonisation, a theory espoused by Edward Gibbon Wakefield that was employed by the New Zealand Company.
The goal was to establish the province as a centre of civilisation for free immigrants, promising civil liberties, although its history is marked by economic hardship, South Australia has remained politically innovative and culturally vibrant. Today, it is known for its wine and numerous cultural festivals. The states economy is dominated by the agricultural and mining industries, the state has an increasingly significant finance sector as well. Evidence of human activity in South Australia dates back as far as 20,000 years, with flint mining activity, in addition wooden spears and tools were made in an area now covered in peat bog in the South East. Kangaroo Island was inhabited long before the island was cut off by rising sea levels, thijssen named his discovery Pieter Nuyts Land, after the highest ranking individual on board. The complete coastline of South Australia was first mapped by Matthew Flinders, the land which now forms the state of South Australia was claimed for Britain in 1788 as part of the colony of New South Wales.
Although the new colony included almost two-thirds of the continent, early settlements were all on the eastern coast and it took more than forty years before any serious proposal to establish settlements in the south-western portion of New South Wales were put forward. In 1834, the British Parliament passed the South Australia Act 1834, the act stated that 802,511 square kilometres would be allotted to the colony and it would be convict-free. In contrast to the rest of Australia, terra nullius did not apply to the new province, although the patent guaranteed land rights under force of law for the indigenous inhabitants it was ignored by the South Australian Company authorities and squatters. Settlement of seven vessels and 636 people was made at Kingscote on Kangaroo Island. The first immigrants arrived at Holdfast Bay in November 1836, the Colonisation Commissioners intended to establish a police service as soon as misconduct within the increasing population warranted it
Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh)
Riversleigh, in the north-west of Queensland, is Australias most famous fossil site. The 100 km2 area has fossil remains of ancient mammals, the fossils at Riversleigh are unusual because they are found in soft freshwater limestone which has not been compressed. This means the animal remains retain their three-dimensional structure, the area is located within the catchment of the Gregory River. Fossils were first noted to exist in the area in 1901, an initial exploration survey was conducted in 1963. Since 1976 the area has been the subject of systemic exploration, the site was co-listed with the Naracoorte Caves National Park in South Australia as a World Heritage site in 1994 and by itself, it is an extension of the Boodjamulla National Park. Fossils at Riversleigh are found in limestone by lime-rich freshwater pools, and in caves, some of the fossils at Riversleigh are 25 million years old. High concentrations of calcium carbonate has meant the fossils are well preserved. The fossil collection reveals mammalian evolution across a span of more than 20 million years.
There are more than 200 individual locations where fossils have been found, the fossil record here is significant because it provides evidence on evolution and the distribution of species across Gondwana. Thirty-five fossil bat species have been identified at the site, which is the richest in the world, cave deposits have been particularly rich in bat species. The skull and nearly complete dentition of a fifteen million-year-old monotreme, Obdurodon dicksoni, fossil ancestors of the recently extinct thylacine, Thylacinus cynocephalus, have been identified among Riversleighs fauna. In 1993, Nimbadon skulls were unearthed in an unknown cave in the region. Researchers estimate that the prehistoric marsupial first appeared about 15 million years ago and died out about 12 million years ago, a well-preserved skull of the ancient Nimbacinus dicksoni marsupial found at Riversleigh has been used to determine the hunting behaviour of the species. Other fossils have provided evidence of how the koala has evolved in response to Australias change from predominant rainforest vegetation to drier eucalypt forests, some fossil insects and plants have been discovered.
Mike Archer is a paleontologist who has been working at Riversleigh since 1983 and he and his co-workers discovered that diluted acetic acid was the most effective method of extracting fossils. List of fossil sites Archer, M. et al, the Story of Australias Inland Rainforests
Coorong National Park
Its name is thought to be a corruption of the local Aboriginal peoples word kurangh, meaning long neck, a reference to the shape of the lagoon system. The name is thought to be from the Aboriginal word Coorang, sand dune. The western end of the Coorong lagoon is at the Murray Mouth near Hindmarsh Island and the Sir Richard Peninsula, the park area includes the Coorong itself, and Younghusband Peninsula which separates the Coorong from Encounter Bay in the Southern Ocean. The Coorong has been cut off from Lake Alexandrina by the construction of the Goolwa Barrages from Goolwa to Pelican Point during the late 1930s, the park was formed in 1966 as a sanctuary for many species of birds and fish. It provides refuge for animals during some of Australias regular droughts. The 467 square kilometres supports coastal dune systems, one of the unique aspects of the Coorong is the interaction of water along its length, with sea water and Murray River water meeting rainfall and groundwater. The freshwater supports the fauna of the area while the sea water is the habitat for much of the birdlife, the waters of the Coorong are a popular venue for recreational and commercial fishers.
The popular Coorong Mullet and school mulloway are the main species, the region was the setting of the popular 1977 film Storm Boy. The Coorong National Park has been recognised by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area and it has supported the chestnut teal, Australian shelduck, sharp-tailed sandpiper, red-necked stint, banded stilt, red-necked avocet, pied oystercatcher and red-capped plover. It has supported significant numbers of orange-bellied parrots, fairy terns and hooded plovers, in 1840, the brigantine Maria was shipwrecked near Cape Jaffa after leaving Port Adelaide. All 25 people aboard were massacred by Aborigines along the Coorong, in February 2013, a lifeboat from MS Oliva, that foundered in the south Atlantic, washed up on a beach in the Coorong. Images of Oliva with the lifeboat rails empty can be seen at the Tristan da Cunha website of the grounding and recovery
Australian megafauna
Many of these species became extinct during the Pleistocene. There are similarities between prehistoric Australian megafauna and some creatures from the Aboriginal dreamtime. The cause of the extinction is an active and factionalised field of research where politics and it is hypothesised that with the arrival of early Australian Aboriginals and the use of fire to manage their environment may have contributed to the extinction of the megafauna. Increased aridity during peak glaciation may have contributed and it has been suggested that the vegetational changes that occurred on the mainland were a consequence, rather than a cause, of the elimination of the megafauna. One of the most important advocates of human role, Tim Flannery, females grow up to 1.1 m tall and weigh up to 35 kg. Tails on both males and females can be up to 1 m long, although a male typically weighs around 66 kg and stand almost 2 m tall, the scientific name Macropus giganteus is misleading, as the red kangaroo living in the semi-arid inland is larger.
Can weigh as much as 47 kg and grow over 1 m long, common wombats can reach 40 kg. They thrive in Eastern Australia and Tasmania, preferring temperate forests, the emu The Northern cassowary Goanna, being predatory lizards, are often quite large or bulky, with sharp teeth and claws. The largest goanna is the perentie, which can grow over 2 m in length, not all goannas are gargantuan though, pygmy goannas may be smaller than a mans arm. A healthy adult male crocodile is typically 4. 8–7 m long and weighs around 770 kg ). The female is smaller, with typical body lengths of 2. 5–3 m. An 8.5 m saltwater crocodile was shot on the Norman River of Queensland in 1957. However, due to the lack of evidence and the length of time since the crocodile was caught. Freshwater crocodile The freshwater crocodile is a small crocodilian. Males can grow to 2. 3–3 m long, while females reach a size of 2.1 m. Males commonly weigh around 40 kg, with large specimens up to 53 kg or more. In areas such as Lake Argyle and Katherine Gorge there exist a handful of confirmed 4 m individuals, the following is an incomplete list of extinct Australian megafauna in the format, Latin name, and a brief description.
Monotremes are arranged by size with the largest at the top, zaglossus hacketti was a sheep-sized echidna uncovered in Mammoth Cave in Western Australia, and is the largest monotreme so far uncovered. Obdurodon dicksoni was a platypus up to 60 cm in total length, megalibgwilia ramsayi was a large, long-beaked echidna with powerful forelimbs for digging
Australia
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 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, 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
International Union for Conservation of Nature
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, field projects, lobbying. IUCNs mission is to influence 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 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 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
Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park
The Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park is situated approximately 400 km north of Adelaide in the northern central part of South Australias largest mountain range, the Flinders Ranges. The park covers an area of 912 km², northeast of the town of Hawker. The Heysen Trail and Mawson Trails pass through the park, the parks most characteristic landmark is Wilpena Pound, a large, sickle-shaped, natural amphitheatre covering nearly 80 km², containing the ranges highest peak, St Mary Peak. On 12 February 2016 the park was renamed to include the Adnyamathanha word, meeting place, the park centre at Wilpena Pound is accessible by sealed road from Hawker. Other areas in the park can be reached by un-sealed roads, there are many lookouts, scenic vistas, small canyons and unusual rock formations located in the park. These include Wilpena Pound, Wilkawillina Gorge, Hucks Lookout, Brachina Gorge, Bunyeroo Gorge, the park has some stone ruins from early European settlement and Aboriginal rock art sites. A rock formation called the Great Wall of China is located just outside the park, camping is permitted at many locations in the park.
The Flinders Ranges are largely composed of folded and faulted sediments of the Adelaide Geosyncline and this very thick sequence of sediments were deposited in a large basin during the Neoproterozoic on the passive margin of the ancient continent of Rodinia. During the Cambrian, approximately 540 million years ago, the area underwent the Delamerian orogeny where the sequence was folded and faulted into a large mountain range. Since this time the area has undergone erosion resulting in the low ranges today. Most of the ground and ridgetops in the Flinders are sequences of quartzites that outcrop along strike. The high walls of Wilpena Pound are formed by the beds of the eponymous Pound Quartzite in a synclinal structure. The same formation forms many of the high parts of the Flinders, including the high plateau of the Gammon Ranges. Cuesta forms are very common in the Flinders. The flora of the Flinders Ranges is composed largely of species adapted to an environment such as cypress-pine, mallee.
Moister areas near Wilpena Pound support grevilleas, Guinea flowers, lilies and sedges grow near permanent water sources such as springs and waterholes. Since the eradication of dingos and the establishment of permanent waterholes for stock, the yellow-footed rock-wallaby, which neared extinction after the arrival of Europeans due to hunting and predation by foxes, has now stabilized. Other endemic marsupials include dunnarts, echidnas are the sole monotreme species in the park
