Lamington National Park

The Lamington National Park is a national park in the McPherson Range on the Queensland/New South Wales border in Australia. From Southport on the Gold Coast the park is to the southwest and Brisbane is north. The Lamington National Park is known for its natural environment, rainforests, birdlife, ancient trees, waterfalls, walking tracks and mountain views. The park protects parts of the Eastern Australian temperate forests.

Protected areas to the east in Springbrook National Park and south along the Tweed Range in the Border Ranges National Park around Mount Warning in New South Wales conserve similar landscapes. The park is part of the Shield Volcano Group of the World Heritage Site Gondwana Rainforests of Australia inscribed in 1986 and added to the Australian National Heritage List in 2007. The park is part of the Scenic Rim Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance in the conservation of several species of threatened birds.

In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Lamington National Park was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "Natural attraction".

Geography

thumb|left|View north to [[Beechmont, Queensland|Beechmont from Binna Burra, 2005.]]

Most of the park is situated above sea level only from the Pacific's ocean shores. The plateaus and cliffs in Lamington and Springbrook National Parks are the northern and north western remnants of the huge 23-million-year-old Tweed Volcano, centred around Mount Warning. Elevation in the south of the park is above in some parts. The land declines to under in the north. Some of the mountains in the park include Mount Hobwee, Mount Widgee, Mount Toolona, Mount Cominan, Mount Roberts and Mount Bithongabel, containing much of Australia's few cloud forests. The Nerang River, Albert River and Coomera River all have their source in Lamington National Park. Eastern parts of the park feature high cliffs which rise above the Numinbah Valley. The Wangerriburras and Nerangballum tribes claimed home to the plateau territory. In 1863 a survey of the Queensland/New South Wales border was conducted. The task was carried out by Francis Edward Roberts and Isaiah Rowland, both surveyors, who had to define the border along the highest points in dense rainforest where there were very few clear lines of sight. Later it was another local, Romeo Lahey who recognised the value of preserving the forests. He campaigned to make it one of the first protected areas in Queensland. The O’Reilly family established a guesthouse near the park in 1926, now named O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat. Lahey wanted the O'Reillys to cease land clearing, for their land to be bought and for the O'Reilly family to leave the mountain. Lamington National Park was established in 1915. Water bombing planes were used to subdue fires in the national park.

Natural heritage

thumb|left|Antarctic beech trees only grow above , 2001.

thumb|upright|[[Fungus – Green Mountains area]]

thumb|left|upright|[[Lophostemon confertus|Brush box]]

thumb|upright|A [[regent bowerbird, an example of the diverse range of birds in the park, renowned to birdwatchers, 2006.]]

Rugged mountain scenery, waterfalls, caves, rainforest, wildflower heaths, tall open forests, creeks, varied wildlife and excellent bushwalking in Queensland are protected in Lamington National Park. Lamington is the core of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area along the adjoining Border Ranges National Park in New South Wales. The park is home to more than 200 rare and threatened plant and animal species.

David Attenborough visited and filmed the park while making the 1979 television series Life on Earth in which beech trees and bowerbirds were featured.

Flora

The national park protects one of the most diverse areas of vegetation in the country.

Below the white booyong and black booyong are commonly found. The vulnerable large-eared pied bat is found in the park. Other rare species include the rainforest cool-skink, elf skink and numerous frog species including the Fleay's barred frog, giant barred frog and the cascade treefrog.

Geology

thumb|left|Green Mountain Valley

thumb|right|The view from a lookout on the long Ships Stern Circuit.

The Lamington National Park is located on the northern side of the Tweed volcano. This large shield volcano is over 100 kilometres in diameter, and extends from Tamborine Mountain in the north to Lismore in the south. The volcanic plug of Mount Warning marks the centre of the volcano. This volcano was active around 23 million years ago when this part of Australia was above a hotspot in the mantle. Both basaltic and rhyolitic lavas were erupted, and erosion of these lavas from rain and running water has formed the many spectacular landforms including cliffs, now observed in the park. Under these layers is a layer of tuff made from volcanic ash and fine rock which is up to thick in some places. Near Binna Burra the maximum thickness of the basalt layer is estimated to be . including popular tourist falls Elabana Falls and Box Log (Tullerigumai) Falls located in the Green Mountains Section. Yarrabilgong Falls and Coomera Falls both flow into Coomera Gorge. Morans Falls is another cascade that is passed on the long Morans Falls Track. Nugurun Falls, Box Log Falls, Upper Ballanjui Falls, Lower Ballanjui Falls, Stairway Falls and Nagarigoon Falls are also located in the national park.

The claim of 500 waterfalls was confirmed by local explorer Dale Mullane in April 2022 when he reached his 500th documented waterfall in the park.

Bushwalking

The park is covered by more than of clearly marked walks that were constructed during the Great Depression and designed by Romeo Lahey. Lahey studied dairy cow movements on the surrounding hills, noticing that their paths never had a gradient of greater than 1:10. He laid out the parks tracks in a similar manner so that walkers would not be out of breath.

References

External links

Official site
"Back-paths of the dark earth" – experiences studying ecology in Lamington National Park