Flinders Ranges

Template:Geobox Flinders Ranges is the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts approximately 200 km (120 mi) north west of Adelaide. The discontinuous ranges stretch for over 430 km (270 mi) from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. Its most characteristic landmark is Wilpena Pound, a large, sickle-shaped, natural amphitheatre covering nearly 80 square kilometres (31 sq mi), containing the range's highest peak, St Mary Peak (1,170 m (3,840 ft)) 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 Dutchmans 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

Flinders Ranges from space

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

Arid land in the Flinders Ranges

The flora of the Flinders Ranges is largely made up of species adapted to a semi-arid environment such as sugar gum, cypress-pine, mallee, and black oak. Moister areas near Wilpena Pound support grevilleas, Guinea flowers, Liliaceae 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 mammals 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.

The Ranges are part of the Tirari-Sturt stony desert ecoregion.

Human history

Lookout from Devil’s Peak. It shows results of the rock layers that were squeezed and folded into a long mountain chain.

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 Mount Arden, and from there explored the surrounding region and upper Spencer Gulf, before heading eastward to the Murray River and returning to Adelaide.

The Flinders Ranges as seen from the Stuart Highway

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 1870s 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 1850s 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).

Abandoned Kanyaka homestead between Quorn and Hawker.

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. Today kukri, unpopular with most Australian farmers as it yields 10-15% less grain than other varieties of wheat, is being grown for export to India.

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 (0.66 sq mi) 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.

See also

• Arkaroola
• Edeowie glass
• Ediacara (disambiguation)
• Gammon Ranges
• Marathon Resources
• Mawson Plateau
• Mount Chambers
• Protected areas of South Australia