Everything about The Flinders Ranges totally explained
The
Flinders Ranges is
South Australia's largest
mountain range which starts approximately 200 km north west of
Adelaide. The discontinuous ranges stretch for over 430 km from
Port Pirie to
Lake Callabonna. Its most characteristic landmark is
Wilpena Pound, a large,
sickle-shaped, natural
amphitheatre covering nearly 80 square kilometres, containing the range's highest peak,
St Mary Peak (1170m), and adjoining the
Flinders Ranges National Park. The northern ranges host the
Arkaroola wilderness sanctuary and the
Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park. The southern part of the ranges are notable for the
Pichi Richi scenic railway and
Mount Remarkable National Park.
Several small areas in the Flinders Ranges are protected as National Parks. These include the
Flinders Ranges National Park near Wilpena Pound and the
Mount Remarkable National Park in the southern part of the ranges near Melrose. The
Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary is a scenic protected area at the northern end of the ranges. In addition, the
Dutchman's Stern Conservation Park, west of Quorn, and the
Mount Brown Conservation Park, south of Quorn, are protected areas of the ranges. The
Heysen Trail and
Mawson Trail run for several hundred kilometres along the ranges providing scenic long distance routes for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders.
Geology
The Flinders Ranges are largely composed of folded and faulted sediments of the
Adelaide Geosyncline. 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 geosynclinal sequence was folded and faulted into a large mountain range. Since this time the area has undergone erosion resulting in the relatively low ranges today.
Most of the high ground and ridgetops in the Flinders are sequences of
quartzites that outcrop along
strike. The high walls of
Wilpena Pound are formed by the outcropping beds of the eponymous Pound Quartzite in a synclinal structure. The same formation forms many of the other high parts of the Flinders, including the high plateau of the
Gammon Ranges and the Heysen Range.
Cuesta forms are also very common in the Flinders.
The Ranges are particularly renowned for the
Ediacara Hills, north-west of
Leigh Creek. This was the site of discovery in 1946 of some of the oldest fossil evidence of animal life. Since then similar fossils have been found in many other parts of the ranges, though their locations are a closely-kept secret due to the risk of sites being desecrated. In 2004 a new geological period, the
Ediacaran Period was formed to mark the appearance of Ediacara biota.
Flora and fauna
The
flora of the Flinders Ranges is comprised largely of species adapted to a semi-arid environment such as
cypress-pine,
mallee, and
black oak. Moister areas near Wilpena Pound support
grevilleas,
Guinea flowers,
lilies and
ferns.
Reeds 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 numbers of
red kangaroos,
western grey kangaroos and
euros in the Flinders Ranges have increased. 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,
planigales and
echidnas. Insectivorous
bats make up significant proportion of mammals in the area. There are a large number of bird species including
parrots,
galahs,
emus, the
wedge-tailed eagle and small numbers of water birds. Reptiles include
goannas,
snakes,
dragon lizards,
skinks and
geckos. The
streambank froglet is an endemic
amphibian.
Human history
The first humans to inhabit the Flinders Ranges were the
Adnyamathanha people (meaning ‘hill people’ or ‘rock people’) whose descendants still reside in the area. Cave paintings, rock engravings and other artifacts indicate that the Adnyamathana people have lived in the Flinders Ranges for tens of thousands of years.
The first European explorers to the region were an exploration party from
Matthew Flinders seagoing visit to upper,
Spencer Gulf aboard
The Investigator. They climbed
Mount Brown in March 1802 . In the winter of
1839 Edward John Eyre, together with a group of five men, two drays and ten horses,
further explored the region. They set out from Adelaide on
1 May 1839. The party set up a depot near Mt. Arden, and from there explored the surrounding region and upper Spencer Gulf, before heading eastward to the
Murray River and returning to Adelaide.
There are records of squatters in the
Quorn district as early as 1845, and the first pastoral leases were granted in 1851. William Pinkerton is credited as being the first European to find a route through the Flinders Ranges via
Pichi Richi Pass. In 1853 he drove 7,000 sheep along the eastern plains of the range to where Quorn would be built 25 years later (Pinkerton Creek runs through the Quorn township).
In
1851 Wilpena, Arkaba and Aroona were established as sheep stations, and within a few years other runs were marked out through the hills and along the adjoining eastern and western slopes.
In
1852 Kanyaka Station was established by Hugh Proby.
During the late 1870's the push to open agriculture land for wheat growing north of the
Goyder's Line had met with unusual success, with good rainfall and crops in the Flinders Ranges. This, along with the copper mining lobby (copper was mined in the Hawker-Flinders Ranges area in the late 1850's and transported overland by bullock dray), induced the government to build a narrow gauge railway line north of Port Augusta through Pichi Richi Pass, Quorn,
Hawker and along the west of the ranges, eventually to
Marree. (It was intended to service the agricultural and pastoral industries in the region).
The rainfall returned to a normal pattern for the region, causing many of the agricultural farms to collapse. Remnants of abdandoned homes can still be seen dotted around the arid landscape. Wilpena station, due to its unusual geography, is now the only location north of Goyder's Line to be able to sustain any crops - although it has now been left to the wild and is only a tourist location.
Mining exploration continued in the region, but coal-mining at
Leigh Creek and barytes at Oraparinna were the only long-term successes. Pastoral industries flourished, and the rail line became of major importance in opening up and servicing sheep and cattle stations along the route to
Alice Springs.
Hawker townsite was surveyed at a bend in the railway line where the train line left the main road to
Blinman, and named in 1880 after South Australian politician and pastoralist,
George Charles Hawker.
Quorn was surveyed by
Godfrey Walsh and proclaimed a town on
16 May 1878. The township covered an area of 1.72 km² and was laid out in squares in a manner similar to the state's capital city, Adelaide. Governor Jervois reputedly bestowed the name 'Quorn' because his private secretary at the time had come from the Parish of
Quorndon.
Image:Flinders_Ranges_South_Australia_wide.jpg|The Flinders Ranges as seen from the Stuart Highway.
Image:NASA-Flinders-Ranges.JPG|Flinders Ranges from space.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Flinders Ranges'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://flinders_ranges.totallyexplained.com">Flinders Ranges Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
