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Namadgi National Park

'The people pointed out to me Namadgi range, being 18 miles distant south-west, which is covered with snow during a great part of the year'.

These are the words of Surveyor John Lhotsky, the first European to use the Aboriginal word 'Namadgi' to describe the mountains southwest of Canberra. The park is 105 900 hectares, making up more than half of the Australian Capital Territory. Namadgi was declared in 1984 protecting all animals, plants and cultural sites. The north-west section of the park lies just to the south of Canberra's outlying suburbs. To the south-west the park joins Kosciuszko National Park and the Bimberi and Scabby Range nature reserves with Brindabella National Park on the north-eastern border.

Recreation

Namadgi provides a wide range of recreation experiences. The Namadgi Visitor Centre provides a great introduction to the park. Friendly staff will help you plan your day. There are several displays to explore and a theatre production. The gift shop sells an interesting range of gifts including books, cards and souvenirs. Ask about ranger guided walks and special events.

Recreational opportunities include camping in designated camping areas (fees apply), recreational driving, picnicking and sightseeing and walking. Cycling is permitted on the formed roads and horse riding is allowed along the designated trail (as part of the National Bicentennial Trial).

Snow play and ski touring can be enjoyed in the winter (dependant on access — please check with the visitor centre).

Several granite rock outcrops throughout the park provide opportunities for rock climbing and abseiling.

Visitors can also enjoy wilderness hiking and camping (permit required in Cotter Catchment, free of charge from Visitor Centre).

Special events may be accommodated within Namadgi where the environmental impact of such events is not significant, e.g. cross-country running, orienteering, etc.

Cultural heritage

Namadgi has a rich heritage of human history. A rockshelter at Birrigai, just north of Namadgi National Park, contains evidence that Aboriginal people were living in the region during the last ice age 21 000 years ago. At this time, the Namadgi Ranges were snow covered most of the year.

Clues to the lifestyle of the local indigenous people are found throughout the park. These include quarry sites where stone was gathered for tool making, campsites with discarded fragments of stone and animal bone, ceremonial stone arrangements on the high peaks, and rock painting sites. Other information comes from the journals of 19th century European settlers written in the brief period before the Aboriginal people were decimated by introduced diseases, and dislocation from their lands.

The first pastoralists settled in the broad valleys at the southern end of the park in the 1830's. They faced a struggle to establish themselves in a remote area subject to severe weather. Today the story of their efforts is told by the fences, yards, uts and homesteads that remain.

In the 1860's fortune seekers travelled the Kiandra gold trail from Tharwa to Yaouk. Parts of the trail are still visible in the Gudgenby area.

Space tracking stations operated from the early 1960's to the early 1980's at Honeysuckle Creek and in the Orroral Valley. They were instrumental in monitoring the Apollo program. Honeysuckle Creek was the first place on earth to receive the images of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.

Plants

Namdgi has a wide range of plants, many of which are found only in Australia's alpine and sub-alpine environment. Even along a short walk, vegetation and wildlife can change dramatically, particularly with increasing elevation or a change in aspect.

Woodlands

Low open woodland covers most of the park. Broad-leaved peppermints, as seen along the Boboyan Road, dominate the lower altitudes whereas snow gum woodland, as seen along the Mt Franklin Road, is found at higher altitudes.

Tall wet forests

Wet forests occur in the sheltered locations, especially on the western side of the park. Stands of ribbon gum follow watercourses; alpine ash grow on suitable south-facing slopes; and brown barrel eucalypts tower above tree-fern gullies.

Open grasslands and frost hollows

Large open grasslands occur on the eastern side of the park such as the Orroral and Boboyan valleys. These grasslands were extended by graziers last century and sown with introduced grasses. They remain treeless due to the cold air that drains off the hills at night; frequent frosts make it difficult for trees to re-establish.

Cold air drainage and waterlogging of the soil are responsible for smaller treeless flats found throughout the park. Black sallee eucalypts often grow around the margins of these flats.

Bogs and Fens

Until the 2003 fires, the wetlands of Namadgi were in pristine condition and amongst the finest examples of this community type on the Australian mainland.

Sub-alpine Sphagnum moss bogs have an extremely restricted distribution. The mountains of Namadgi support substantial areas of sphagnum bog. They are important for biodiversity, supporting species not found elsewhere, such as the endangered northern corroboree frog Pseudophryne pengilleyi. They are also important for water catchment. The sphagnum hummocks act like big sponges that soak up, filter and store water, then release it slowly into the catchment. This ensures a continuous supply of water even over summer and in times of drought.

The fens at Nursery Swamp and Upper Naas Creek are a type of wetland where the vegetation, for example carex sedge, is permanently inundated by shallow water. These are resource rich areas and in the past, Aboriginal people took advantage of their abundance.

Subalpine peaks and heaths

Small areas on Namadgi's highest peaks experience winter conditions so severe that trees will not grow. In spring and summer these herbfields bloom with alpine wildflowers such as silver snow daises and billy buttons. Heathlands beside sphagnum moss bogs flower prolifically in spring and early summer.

Animals

Namadgi provides habitat for a wide range of native vertebrate fauna. Over 222 species of vertebrate fauna have been recorded to date with several threatened and rare or uncommon species. For example the broad-tooth rat Mastacomys fuscus, northern corroboree frog Pseudophryne pengilleyi and river blackfish Gadopsis marmoratus.

The northern corroboree frogs live exclusively in the subalpine areas of Namadgi and adjacent parts of NSW. They are currently under threat of extinction. To help ensure their long term survival eggs have been collected from the wild and successfully reared in captivity by Environment ACT staff at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.

Geology and geomorphology

The oldest exposed rocks in the Namadgi area are sedimentary sandstone, mudstone and shale. These were deposited between 470 and 440 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They contain the remains of small marine animals called graptolites, which indicate that the sediments were deposited in fairly deep seawater not close to land. At that time most of southeastern Australia was under the sea.

Towards the end of the Silurian period, approximately 400 million years ago, the area we now know as Namadgi was intruded by a huge body of granite known as the Murrumbidgee Batholith. The many fantastic granite boulder formations that are to be found in the Park resulted from this intrusion.

There were major earth movements throughout the whole of southeastern Australia between 400 and 350 million years ago. Rocks were folded and raised into high mountains and since then the Namadgi area has not been below the sea.

A walk along the Yerrabi Track in the southern end of the park reveals two distinctive geological zones that meet near the Boboyan Trig. The eastern approach to the trig consists of sedimentary rock laid down when the area was under the sea. To the west is granite that intruded into the sedimentary rock. The sedimentary rock overlaying the granite has now worn away, exposing the weathered boulders seen today.

Care for Namadgi: leave no trace

Further information about minimal impact recreation and how to leave no trace!

In Namadgi National Park:

More information about Namadgi National Park

Namadgi Visitor Centre
Naas Road (two kilometres past Tharwa), ACT
Phone: +61 2 6207 2900

Website: www.environment.act.gov.au/bushparksandreserves/parksandreserves/namadgi.html