Great Basalt Wall National Park

Great Basalt Wall National Park
Coordinates: 19 ° 52 ′ 52 ″  S , 145 ° 43 ′ 17 ″  E
Location:	Queensland , Australia
Specialty:	difficult to access park with basalt deposits
Next city:	Charters Towers , Townsville
Surface:	352 km²
Founding:	1987

The Great Basalt Wall National Park , established in 1981, is located in Queensland , Australia . The size of the park is 352 square kilometers. It is part of the Toomba Basalt River , which solidified 13,000 years ago. The nearest cities are Charters Towers, 42 kilometers away and Townsville , 180 kilometers away.

The national park is difficult to access. There are no roads leading to or through it. Due to the rugged basalt, the terrain is not accessible for vehicles; this also applies to all-wheel drive automobiles. The park is also not accessible through campsites or other supply stations.

In the eastern part of the park is the Red Falls, a waterfall. To the west is a solidified basalt river, the Toomba Basalt . Basalt walls 3 to 5 meters high were built there, giving the park its name as Great Basalt Walls . The Toomba basalt has a much smaller volume than the Nulla basalt. The Nulla basalt flowed through the park for 1 to 4.5 million years as glowing lava that covered a total of 5,000 square kilometers. Formed in the Toomba basalt, as well as in that of the Toomba lava tubes .

The drought and the stony subsoil allow few plants to grow, there are few strangler figs - and bottle trees . Park visitors can camp on the banks of the Burdekin River in Dalrymple National Park or on Fletcher Creek .

Web links

Official website of the National Park (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Australian Government - CAPAD 2010 ( MS Excel ; 170 kB), DSEWPaC , accessed on January 7, 2013 (English)
2. ↑ Australian Government - CAPAD 1997 ( MS Excel ; 93 kB), DSEWPaC , accessed on January 7, 2013 (English)