Kennedy Range National Park

Kennedy Range National Park
Drapers Gorge, Kennedy Range National Park
Coordinates: 24 ° 34 ′ 45 ″  S , 115 ° 2 ′ 59 ″  E
Location:	Western Australia , Australia
Specialty:	Table mountains and canyons
Next city:	150 km from Carnarvon
Surface:	1,417 km²
Founding:	1993

The Kennedy Range National Park is a 1,417 km² national park in the northwest of the Australian state of Western Australia .

location

The park is approximately 1,100 km north of Perth and 150 km east of Carnarvon near Gascoyne Junction . From here, the mountain range of the Kennedy Range extends north for a length of 200 km . Access to the national park is via an unpaved road that leads from Gascoyne Junction, first 50 km north, then further west into the park.

geology

In the Permian , about 270 million years ago, the area near the coast of the Australian continent lay at the bottom of a shallow ocean. It was filled with layers of sand and clay sediment , which became more and more compact as the pressure of the overlying material increased. Over the course of millions of years, layers of sandstone and siltstone were created . The period of the deposits probably extended over 100 million years. After that, the area rose and erosion began to wear away the rocks. Today only the table mountains of the Kennedy Range are left. On their south and west sides they rise up to 100 m from the valley of the Lyons River . The mountain range forms steep cliffs at its edges and is criss-crossed by deep canyons .

Even today one can find numerous fossils of marine animals in the sandstone layers. In the 1960s and 1970s, geologists found fossilized plants, these originated in the Eocene and represent the earliest evidence of Banksias in Australia.

history

The Kennedy Range forms a natural border between the Aboriginesstämmen of Maia and Malgaru . The Maia settled an area of ​​about 12,000 km² west of the high plateau to Carnarvon, the Malgaru a similar area in an easterly direction. There are around 100 sites in the park that are of special importance to the Aborigines. Some of them are up to 20,000 years old.

In 1858, Francis Thomas Gregory was the first European to come to this area. He led an expedition to the Gascoyne River and reached the Kennedy Range on May 12th. It was named by Gregory after the then governor of Western Australia, Arthur Edward Kennedy . Later the expedition reached Mount Augustus .

20 years later, the first farmers settled along the Gascoyne River and the Lyons River. Countless sheep grazed in what is now the national park until the late 1930s, before droughts and overgrazing led to a collapse in wool production. Flora and fauna still suffer from this early type of use today.

On January 8, 1993, the area was declared a national park. The area of ​​1,417 km² today will be expanded by 1,773 km ² in the near future . The Department of Environment and Conservation has already acquired the new land. They are currently (2009) being prepared for their future use.

Web links

• Official website of the park. DEC , accessed June 26, 2009 . 
• Management plan. (pdf) DEC , accessed on June 26, 2009 (English). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Australia Easy Read - Road and 4WD Atlas . Hema Maps, Brisbane 2007, ISBN 978-1-86500-395-5 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Official website of the park. DEC , accessed June 26, 2009 . 
3. ↑ Management plan. (pdf) (No longer available online.) DEC , pp. 9-10 , archived from the original on July 31, 2008 ; accessed on June 26, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Management plan. (pdf) (No longer available online.) DEC , pp. 4-5 , archived from the original on July 31, 2008 ; accessed on June 26, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.