Belair National Park
Belair National Park is a protected area located at Belair in South Australia, 13 kilometres south of Adelaide city centre and which covers an area of 835 hectares. It was proclaimed in 1891 and was the first national park in South Australia, second in Australia and the tenth in the world; the national park lies within the Adelaide Hills and Mitcham council area, forms part of a chain of protected areas located along the Adelaide Hills Face Zone. The national park is administered by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; the Belair National Park has excellent recreation and social facilities within an outdoor environment. There are many areas of interest within the park, including Old Government House, the Nursery, Playford Lake and the Adventure Playground, it has numerous tennis courts and ovals, has walking and horse-riding trails. The national park has an outstanding presentation of the State's native fauna, attracting visitors, showcasing the State's park system and contributing to the community awareness of the natural environment.
Some species of fauna encountered in the national park include the southern brown bandicoot, tawny frogmouth, brown tree frog ( and shingleback lizard. For most of its existence, it has been known as the'National Park'. Between the years 1972 and 1991 it was known as the'Belair Recreation Park'. In 1991, the Belair Recreation Park was abolished and the land that it occupied was constituted as a national park and given the name “Belair National Park”; the first European to settle on the land now known as Belair National Park was one Nicholas Foott, who squatted there rent-free in his "Manning cottage", to which he had added several stone out-buildings, on the understanding he would have to move if the land were sold. In July 1840 he was given notice to quit, as Governor Gawler had decided to set up a farm there to grow hay for police horses and other Government livestock, the Government formally took over 800 acres, plus a considerable portion of unsurveyed land, making a total of 2,148 acres.
Foott was awarded ₤300 for his improvements. John McLaren was appointed superintendent of the farm. Governor Grey arrived in May 1841, with a remit to cut Government expenditure and raise revenue, announced in the Gazette of 15 July of the intended sale by auction of the land. This, did not take place, in the depression of 1841–1842 a dozen or so unemployed men and their families were allowed to settle there temporarily. In June 1844, four sections at the western end totalling about 400 acres were sold. In 1848 a cottage, long since demolished, was erected alongside the creek as a residence for the farm manager, for occasional use by the Governor. In 1858 a residence, complete with swimming pool, was built as a "summer house" for the Governor, Sir Richard MacDonnell, used by his successors Sir Anthony Musgrave, Sir William Jervois, at least until the more imposing edifice at Marble Hill was completed. From 1874 to 1884 the Government Farm was managed by father of Edith Agnes Cook, his eldest daughter Katherine wrote an article on that period of the farm's history for the South Australian Archives.
His predecessor was Ebenezer Jarvis, who left to take a post as manager of Government House, Adelaide. Two great bushfires occurred during their time. Proposals in 1881 to sell off parts of small portions of the land were opposed by Walter Gooch, James Page and the Australian Natives Association, which led in 1883 to an Act of Parliament prohibiting its sale. In 1888 further agitation by Gooch, Arthur Falconer Robin and Samuel Dixon of the Royal Society of South Australia led to a parliamentary decision that the Government Farm be established as a public park, after some delays the National Park Act received the Governor's assent in January 1892. Another person given partial credit was William Henry Selway of the Field Naturalists' Section of the Royal Society. In 1985, the Belair National Park was declared as a state heritage area under the South Australian Heritage Act 1978-1980. In 1987, the nearby National Park railway station was closed; the first European people traversed the Belair area in 1837.
In 1840, Governor Gawler raised a government farm on which sick horses and bullocks from government departments could be agisted. In 1881, a proposal was put forward for small agricultural holdings and the national park was dedicated, making it the first National Park in South Australia. Many exotic and non-indigenous plants are now found in the park as weeds. Numerous native plants, such as Cootamundra wattle, have become environmental weeds after being introduced into areas outside their natural range; the Belair National Park has suffered major disturbance to its natural ecosystems and natural vegetation communities through the accidental invasion of non-indigenous plants as well as the deliberate introduction of exotic and non-indigenous plants to certain zones within the park. Wood Duck DawdleA short circuit around Playford Lake. Lorikeet Loop WalkA 3 km circuit walk from the main car park to the Adventure Playground. Valley Loop WalkA 3 km circuit walk to Long Gully. Microcarpa WalkA 4 km circuit departing from near Playford Lake.
Waterfall HikeThe national park's best walk. A 6.5 km circuit that visits the park's waterfalls and travels to the higher areas away from the recreation areas
Flinders Chase National Park
Flinders Chase National Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located at the west end of Kangaroo Island about 177 kilometres west-south west of the state capital of Adelaide and 110 kilometres west of the municipal seat of Kingscote. It is a sanctuary for endangered species and home to a few geological phenomena, it was the second national park to be declared in South Australia. Flinders Chase National Park consists of three sections - an area of coastal landscapes around Cape du Couedic in the south west corner of the island, the Gosse Lands in the centre of the west end of the island and the former Cape Borda Lightstation reserve in the north west corner of the island. Flinders Chase National Park is located at the north-western end of Kangaroo Island in South Australia 110 kilometres west of Kingscote, it is located within the gazetted localities of Flinders Chase and Karatta. As of 1993, the national park consists of three separate parcels of land:'Cape du Couedic', refers to the main parcel of land within the national park and, bounded at the north by the West Bay Road and the West Melrose Track, to the east by the West End Highway and an unsealed called the Sand Dune Track.
This portion of the national park includes the following islands - Paisley Islet at West Bay and the Casuarina Islets south of Cape du Couedic. The Gosse Lands - a parcel of land, bounded by the Playford Highway to the north and the West End Highway to the west; the former lighthouse reserve at Cape Borda. The national park is classified as an IUCN category II protected area. Parts of the national park first acquired protected area status as a ‘flora and fauna reserve’ declared on 16 October 1919 under the Fauna and Flora Reserve Act 1919, an act whose specific purpose was:…to establish a Reserve on Kangaroo Island for the Protection and Propagation of Australasian Fauna and Flora, to provide for the Control of such Reserve, for other purposes, it was constituted as a national park upon the proclamation of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 on 27 April 1972 which repealed five items of existing legislation including the Fauna and Flora Reserve Act 1919. At proclamation in 1972, it consisted of the following land in the following cadastral units as well as the entirety of the Casuarina Islets - section 11 in the Hundred of Borda, section 64 in the Hundred of Gosse, section 17 in the Hundred of McDonald and section 66 in “South out of Hundreds”.
On 15 October 1993, land in section 11 of the Hundred of Borda, section 64 of Hundred of Gosse and Allotments 50 and 52 in DP 38340 and with an area of 416.63 square kilometres was removed from the national park and consitututed under the Wilderness Protection Act 1992 as the Ravine des Casoars Wilderness Protection Area. Since creation in November 1919, it has become a sanctuary for endangered species, some of them introduced from the mainland in the 1920s and 1930s. During the 1940s, 23 additional species were introduced, including Platypus. Most of these species can still be observed today. Kangaroos and Echidnas are seen in the national park. Little penguins have been recorded in Flinders Chase in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, it is believed that these colonies have since gone extinct due to the increase of long-nosed fur seal populations since the end of commercial sealing. In 1886, little penguins were seen at Admiral's Arch; the national park contains two geological features that have been listed as geological monuments by the Geological Society of Australia - Cape du Couedic and Remarkable Rocks.
Remarkable Rocks are sculptured formations precariously balanced atop a granite outcrop. They remind visitors of the sculptures of Henry Moore. Lightning strikes on Thursday 6 December 2007 caused 63,433 hectares of Flinders Chase National Park to be burnt, before being contained on 16 December. Protected areas of South Australia Loch Vennachar Ravine des Casoars Wilderness Protection Area Kangaroo Island bushfires Rocky River Field Naturalists Society of South Australia Flinders Chase National Park official webpage Flinders Chase National Park webpage on protected planet
Great Australian Bight Marine National Park
Great Australian Bight Marine National Park is a marine protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located 918 km west of the state capital of Adelaide. The national park was proclaimed under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 by the South Australian Government on 26 September 1996 principally to protect the calving waters of the Southern right whale and the Australian sea lion populations, it consists of two sections occupying the ocean adjoining the coastline up to a distance of 3 nautical miles and extending from the Western Australia border in the west to a locality known as the Tchalingaby Sandhills in the east. The gap between the two sections is a protected area known as the Great Australian Bight Marine Park Whale Sanctuary, proclaimed on 22 June 1995 under the Fisheries Act 1982; the national park is part of the group of marine protected areas which are located together in waters within Australian and South Australian jurisdictions within the Great Australian Bight and, collectively known as the Great Australian Bight Marine Park.
Since late 2012, the national park and the whale sanctuary have been within the boundaries of the Far West Coast Marine Park. The national park is classified as an IUCN category II protected area. Great Australian Bight Marine Park Great Australian Bight Marine Park Entry for Great Australian Bight Marine National Park on protected planet
Gawler Ranges National Park
Gawler Ranges National Park is a 1,633 km2 protected area lying 350 km north-west of Adelaide in the northern Eyre Peninsula of South Australia. It is known for its spectacular rock formations; the national park originated as the 1,200 km2 Paney Station pastoral lease, acquired in 2000 by the South Australian Government with assistance from the Australian Government. In 2001 some 420 km2 of the adjacent Scrubby Peak Station was acquired and added to the national park; the national park is 40 km north of Wudinna, 40 km north-east of Minnipa and is accessible using high ground clearance two wheel drive vehicles via the gravel roads from Kimba, Wudinna or Minnipa. Camping is permissible and encouraged at several campgrounds. Although some have toilets, there are minimal other facilities and visitors are encouraged to take adequate food, water and firewood with them. Historic sites in the national park include the Old Paney Homestead, the Policemans Point precinct, Stone Dam, Pondanna Outstation, where agriculture was attempted in the early 20th century.
Notable landmarks are Mount Allalone, Mount Sturt, Conical Hill and Scrubby Peak. Other scenic sites are the Organ Pipes and Yandinga Gorge; some 21 rare and endangered animal and plant species including the yellow-footed rock-wallaby can be found in the national park. Another larger mammal is the southern hairy-nosed wombat; some 140 species of birds have been recorded in the national park. The area covered by the national park has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area because it supports populations of the vulnerable malleefowl, the Gawler Ranges subspecies of the short-tailed grasswren, rufous treecreeper, blue-breasted fairy-wren, purple-gaped honeyeater and western yellow robin. Protected areas of South Australia Gawler Gawler Ranges National Park official webpage Accessed 17 April 2012. Friends of the Gawler Ranges National Park Gawler Ranges National Park webpage on protected planet
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 Australia's states and territories by area, fifth largest by population, it has a total of 1.7 million people, its population is the second most centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital, Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are small. South Australia shares borders with all of the other mainland states, with the Northern Territory; 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 greater Metropolitan Adelaide. Most of the remainder are settled in fertile areas along River Murray; the state's colonial origins are unique in Australia as a settled, planned British province, rather than as a convict settlement.
Colonial government commenced on 28 December 1836, when the members of the council were sworn in near the Old Gum Tree. 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 South Australian Company established a temporary settlement at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, on 26 July 1836, five months before Adelaide was founded. The guiding principle behind settlement was that of systematic colonisation, a theory espoused by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, employed by the New Zealand Company; the goal was to establish the province as a centre of civilisation for free immigrants, promising civil liberties and religious tolerance. Although its history is marked by economic hardship, South Australia has remained politically innovative and culturally vibrant. Today, it is known for numerous cultural festivals; the state's economy is dominated by the agricultural and mining industries. Evidence of human activity in South Australia dates back as far as 20,000 years, with flint mining activity and rock art in the Koonalda Cave on the Nullarbor Plain.
In addition wooden spears and tools were made in an area now covered in peat bog in the South East. Kangaroo Island was inhabited; the first recorded European sighting of the South Australian coast was in 1627 when the Dutch ship the Gulden Zeepaert, captained by François Thijssen and mapped a section of the coastline as far east as the Nuyts Archipelago. Thijssen named the whole of the country eastward of the Leeuwin "Nuyts Land", after a distinguished passenger on board; the coastline of South Australia was first mapped by Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin in 1802, excepting the inlet named the Port Adelaide River, first discovered in 1831 by Captain Collet Barker and accurately charted in 1836–37 by Colonel William Light, leader of the South Australian Colonization Commissioners"First Expedition' and first Surveyor-General of South Australia. 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 two-thirds of the continent, early settlements were all on the eastern coast and only a few intrepid explorers ventured this far west.
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. On 15 August 1834, the British Parliament passed the South Australia Act 1834, which empowered His Majesty to erect and establish a province or provinces in southern Australia; the act stated that the land between 132° and 141° east longitude and from 26° south latitude to the southern ocean would be allotted to the colony, it would be convict-free. In contrast to the rest of Australia, terra nullius did not apply to the new province; the Letters Patent, which used the enabling provisions of the South Australia Act 1834 to fix the boundaries of the Province of South Australia, provided that "nothing in those our Letters Patent shall affect or be construed to affect the rights of any Aboriginal Natives of the said Province to the actual occupation and enjoyment in their own Persons or in the Persons of their Descendants of any Lands therein now occupied or enjoyed by such Natives."
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. Survey was required before settlement of the province, the Colonization Commissioners for South Australia appointed William Light as the leader of its'First Expedition', tasked with examining 1500 miles of the South Australian coastline and selecting the best site for the capital, with planning and surveying the site of the city into one-acre Town Sections and its surrounds into 134-acre Country Sections. Eager to commence the establishment of their whale and seal fisheries, the South Australian Company sought, obtained, the Commissioners' permission to send Company ships to South Australia, in advance of the surveys and ahead of the Commissioners' colonists; the Company's settlement of seven vessels and 636 people was temporarily made at Kingscote on Kangaroo Island, until
Coorong National Park
The Coorong National Park is a protected area located in South Australia about 156 kilometres southeast of Adelaide and that predominantly covers a lagoon ecosystem known as the Coorong and the Younghusband Peninsula on the Coorong's southern side. Its name is thought to be a corruption of the local Aboriginal people's word kurangh, meaning "long neck"; the name is thought to be from the Aboriginal word Coorang, "sand dune", a reference to the sand dunes that form the Younghusband Peninsula. The western end of the Coorong lagoon is at the Murray Mouth near Hindmarsh Island and the Sir Richard Peninsula, it extends about 130 kilometres southeast; the national park area includes the Coorong itself, 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 national park was formed in 1967 as a sanctuary for many species of birds and fish.
It attracts many migratory species. It provides refuge for these animals during some of Australia's regular droughts; the 467 square kilometres supports coastal dune systems and coastal vegetation. 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 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 was proclaimed on 9 November 1967 under the National Parks Act 1966 in respect to land in sections 17 and 60 in the cadastral unit of the Hundred of Glyde and section 6 in the Hundred of Santo. At the commencement of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 on 27 April 1972, the national park consisted of land in sections 17, 59 and 60 in the cadastral unit of the Hundred of Glyde and sections 6, 43 and 52 in the Hundred of Santo.
The Coorong Game Reserve, purchased by the Government of South Australia in 1968 was abolished on 14 January 1993 and its lands was added to the national park. The game reserve occupied part of the Coorong lagoon to the immediate west of Salt Creek and had an area of 68.4 square kilometres as of May 1982. The wetlands within the part of the national park containing the Coorong Lagoon form a complex of freshwater and hypersaline waterbodies with an unique diversity of habitats for plants and animals; the coastal lagoons are considered critically endangered due to the loss of freshwater flows, local extinction of characteristic submerged plants and subsequent loss of habitat diversity. The Coorong National Park has been recognised by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area, 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. Australasian bitterns have been recorded.
It has supported significant numbers of orange-bellied parrots, fairy terns and hooded plovers, although their usage of the site has declined from reduced freshwater inflows. 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. Protected areas of South Australia List of islands within the Murray River in South Australia Andrew Grimwade Coorong National Park official webpage Page on protected planet website Media related to Coorong National Park at Wikimedia Commons
Adelaide city centre
Adelaide city centre is the innermost locality of Greater Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is known by locals as "The City" or "Town" to distinguish it from Greater Adelaide and from the City of Adelaide; the locality is split into two key geographical distinctions: the city "square mile", bordered by North, East and West Terraces. The locality is home to the Parliament of many key state government offices. Due to the construction of many new apartments in the city, the population has grown over ten years from 10,229 to 15,115. Before the European settlement of South Australia, the Adelaide Plains, on which Adelaide was built, were home to the Kaurna group of Indigenous Australians; the colony of South Australia was established in 1836 at Glenelg, the city itself established in 1837. The location and layout of the city is accredited to Colonel William Light, in a plan known as Light's Vision; the area where the Adelaide city centre now exists was once known as "Tarndanya", which translates as "male red kangaroo rock" in Aboriginal, an area along the south bank of what is now known as the River Torrens, which flows through Adelaide.
Kaurna numbers were reduced by at least two widespread epidemics of smallpox which preceded European settlement, having been transported downstream along the Murray River. When European settlers arrived in 1836, estimates of the Kaurna population ranged from 300 to 1000 people. British Captain Matthew Flinders, along with French Captain Nicolas Baudin, charted the southeast coast of Australia, where Adelaide is located. Flinders provided little information on Adelaide itself. Charles Sturt explored the Murray and wrote a favourable reflection on what he saw. Colonel William Light is credited with settling and laying out the Adelaide region, which included a grid plan of Adelaide's streets. Adelaide was not as badly affected by the 1860s economic depression in Australia as other gold rush cities like Sydney and Melbourne, allowing it to prosper. Historian F. W. Crowley noted that the city was full of elite upper-class citizens which provided a stark contrast to the grinding poverty of the labour areas and slums outside the inner city ring.
Due to its historic puritan wealth during the 20th century, the city retains a notable portion of Victorian architecture. Adelaide is separated from its greater metropolitan area by a ring of public parklands on all sides; the so-called "square mile" within the park lands is defined by a small area of high rise office and apartment buildings in the centre north, around King William Street, which runs north-to-south through the centre. Surrounding this central business district are a large number of medium to low density apartments and detached houses which make up the residential portion of the city centre; the layout of Adelaide, known as Light's Vision, features a cardinal direction grid pattern of wide streets and terraces and five large public squares: Victoria Square in the centre of the city, Hindmarsh, Light and Whitmore Squares in the centres of each of the four quadrants of the Adelaide city centre. These squares occupy 32 of the 700 numbered "town acre" allotments on Light's plan.
All east-west roads change their names as they cross King William Street, except for North and South terraces. They alternate between being wide and narrow, 99 and 66 feet, except for the central Grote and Wakefield which are extra-wide, 132 feet, along with the surrounding four terraces. In the south half of the city, in several places the Adelaide City Council has constructed wide footpaths and road markings to restrict traffic to a lesser number of lanes than the full width of the road could support; the street pairs, design widths, town acres in Light's Vision are illustrated in this diagram: The streets and squares were named by a committee of a number of prominent settlers after themselves, after early directors of the South Australian Company, after Commissioners appointed by the British government to oversee implementation of the acts that established the colony, after various notables involved in the establishment of the colony. The Street Naming Committee comprised: All members of the committee had one or more of the streets and squares in the Adelaide city centre and North Adelaide named after themselves.
Brown Street, named for John Brown, was subsequently subsumed as a continuation of Morphett Street in 1967. In the same year, Hanson Street, named for Richard Hanson, was subsumed as a continuation of Pulteney Street; the squares were named after: Victoria - the regent the monarch Queen Victoria Hindmarsh - Rear Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh, first Governor Hurtle - Sir James Hurtle Fisher, first Resident Commissioner Light - Colonel William Light, Surveyor General Whitmore - William Wolryche-Whitmore MP, a Colonial Commissioner in LondonThe east-west streets named on 22 December 1836 were: Rundle – John Rundle MP, Director of the South Australian Company Hindley – Charles Hindley MP, Director of South Australian Company Grenfell – Pascoe St Leger Grenfell MP, presented town acre for Holy Trinity Church and other country lands Currie – Raikes Currie MP, Director of South Australian Company Pirie – Sir John Pirie and Lord Mayor of London, Director of South Australian Company Waymouth – Henry Waymouth, Director South Australian Company Flinders – Matthew Flinders, explorer Franklin – Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin, midshipman under Flinders Wakefield – Daniel Bell Wakefield, bar
