| Brookfield Conservation Park South Australia | |
|---|---|
  Brookfield Conservation Park | |
| Nearest town or city | Blanchetown |
| Coordinates | 34°21′22″S139°29′24″E / 34.35611°S 139.49°E |
| Established | 6 July 1978 |
| Managing authorities | Department for Environment and Water |
| See also | Protected areas of South Australia |
Brookfield Conservation Park is a conservation park located in South Australia, about 130 km northeast of Adelaide.
The area that became Brookfield Conservation Park was first settled in 1836 as a pastoral lease. [1] Pioneer farming families kept sheep, which were confined in brush yards overnight and protected by shepherds living in simple slab huts. [1] The area was later named Glen Leslie Station; during this period, the station grazed up to 2000 sheep and eucalyptus mallees on the land were razed for wood and charcoal. [1] In 1971, using a $55,000 donation from the Forest Park Foundation of Peoria, the Chicago Zoological Society purchased the land as a conservation reserve for the southern-hairy nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons). [1] [2] The station was renamed Brookfield Zoo Wombat Reserve, after Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, Illinois. [1] [2] [3] Six years later, the land was gifted to the Government of South Australia. [1] [2] Brookfield Conservation Park was formally proclaimed on 6 July 1978, under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972. [1] [3] Beginning in 2008, the park is now managed in partnership with Conservation Volunteers Australia. [3]
Brookfield Conservation Park comprises three main habitat types: open mallee Eucalyptus ; arid woodland including sugarwood (Myoporum platycarpum) and dryland tea-tree (Melaleuca lanceolata); and arid shrubland including bluebush (Maireana spp). [3] The park is home to an important population of the endangered southern hairy-nosed wombats. [3] Other mammal species include fat-tailed dunnarts, common dunnarts, short-beaked echidnas, red kangaroos, and western grey kangaroos. [3] The park's birdlife includes two species of fairywren, the splendid fairywren and purple-backed fairywren. [4] Other notable birds include emus, ground cuckoo-shrikes, Australian owlet-nightjars, malleefowl, galah, Australian ringneck, crested bellbird, mulga parrot, black-eared cuckoo, Gilbert's whistler, elegant parrot, red-backed kingfisher, Hooded robin, and Bush stone curlew. Reptiles species that live in the park include the sand goanna and the eastern brown snake. [3]
