Namadgi is the only national park in Australian
Capital Territory. It contains some
great Aboriginal art and beautiful snow gum forests.
It covers
105,900 hectares south-west of Canberra
and joins Mount
Kosciuszko National Park west of New
South Wales' border. Namadgi was badly
destroyed in 2003 Canberra Bushfires, but things are back to normal
now.
By Dallas 75 via Flickr.com
Aboriginal Rock Art and European History Aboriginal
people are known to have lived in the
area for about 21,000 years. Evidence from their life can today be seen
throughout the park. There are ceremonial stone arrangements, quarries
where stone was gathered to make tools, campsites where animal bones
lay around, and Aboriginal rock painting, particularly Aboriginal
animal art.
Some good Aboriginal art examples can be seen on the Yankee
Trail walking track. British pastoralists arrived in the
area
in the 1830s and left behind some homesteads that can be seen today. In
the
1860s prospectors travelled the Kiandra Gold Trail,
and from the 1960s to 1980s there was a space tracking station in
Honeysuckle Creek, the first place in the world to see Neil Armstrong
walking on the Moon.
By SplaTT via Flickr.com
Australian Alpine Vegetation
As in other alpine national parks, the alpine
vegetation in Namadgi national park changes with altitude.
Lower-altitude woodlands are dominated by broadleaved peppermints while
higher up they are replaced by snow gums. Wet forests that are found in
sheltered locations include ribbon gum, alpine ash and brown barrel eucalypts.
There are also areas of open grasslands,
either natural (due to the high altitudes), or extended by graziers.
Alpine wildflowers such as snow daisies and billy buttons grow on these
grasslands.
By Percita via Flickr.com
Australian Alpine Animals
The alpine
animals and birds include parrots,
eagles,
owls,
superb lyrebirds, eastern grey kangaroos,
red-necked wallabies,
wombats,
and the black-and-yellow-striped northern
Corroboree frog that is only found here and the neighbouring Kosciuszko
National Park in New
South Wales and are under threat of extinction.
They are bred in captivity to ensure their survival. The 2003
Canberra bushfires, one of the worst ever in the ACT,
killed
many of the park’s animals. Wombats can survive bushfires hiding in
their extensive underground burrows.
By sachman75 via Flickr.com
Namadgi Geological History - Geology
The oldest rocks in Namadgi are sandstone, mudstone and
shale,
deposited 470-440 million
years ago. They contain fossils of
small marine animals,
showing that the area has been under the water. The many granite
peaks and boulders that we
have in the Namadgi National Park today are younger, they formed as a
result from a large granite intrusion about 400 million years ago.
Since the rocks were folded and uplifted in major earth movements
400-350
million years ago, the Namadgi area has been above the sea level. The
two distinct geological zones can be seen Yerrabi walk near Boboyan
Trig where the eastern rocks are sedimentary while in the west is
granite that later intruded into the sedimentary rock.
By Pierre Poliquin via Flickr.com
Things to Do - Skiing, Camping and Bushwalking
There is a lot to do in Namadgi National Park. During the winter, you
can enjoy the snow while during the summer you can spend time camping,
bushwalking, fishing, mountain biking, horse riding, or doing some
scenic driving.
There is information about all these and where to camp
in the bush at the Namadgi National Park Visitors Centre.
By Percita via Flickr.com
Southern Namadgi
South of the Visitor Centre are the Honeysuckle Campground in the end
of Apollo Road, and Orroral Campground on Orroral Road. There are two
picnic areas on that road: Orroral River picnic area and Orrorar Valley
picnic area in the end of the road. Further south is the Boboyan Road
that takes you to Glendale and Yankee Hat picnic areas and Mt Clear and
Horse Pound Campgounds, before it continues to Kosciuszko
National Park in New
South Wales.
By 1982Adam via Flickr.com
Northern Namadgi
North of the visitors centre is Tidbinbilla Road that takes you to Tidbinbilla
Nature Reserve. Corin Road goes to Corin Dam, and the Brindabella Road
furthest north goes to bushwalking tracks that take you to Bendora Dam,
Mt Ginini, and to Tumut in the Kosciuszko
National Park in New
South Wales. There are picnic areas in Bulls
Head, Bendora Dam and Corin Dam, but there are no camping areas in this
northern part of the national park. Unless you camp at the campgrounds
mentioned above (in the southern parts of the park), your best
accommodation options are in Canberra.
By woowoowoo via Flickr.com
Here's a map of Namadgi National Park,
where I have
tagged the places that I mentioned on this web page. You can click on
the tags to see what places they are, and double-click anywhere on the
map to zoom it in and see the places closer. Drag the map to move
around, and if you want to see the satellite image with Google Earth,
click on "Sat" in the top right hand corner.
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What Other Visitors Have Said
Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
child of timber cutters 1949 at Bulls Head I lived at Bulls Head when my father and grandfather Britton were cutting timber for the NSW forestry there in 1949-1950.
Magic place that I will never …
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