| Telford Scrub Conservation Park South Australia | |
|---|---|
  Telford Scrub Conservation Park | |
| Nearest town or city | Mount Gambier [2] |
| Coordinates | 37°41′49″S140°47′11″E / 37.6969°S 140.7864°E Coordinates: 37°41′49″S140°47′11″E / 37.6969°S 140.7864°E |
| Established | 12 March 1987 [3] |
| Area | 1.7 km2 (0.7 sq mi) [4] |
| Managing authorities | Department for Environment and Water |
| Website | Telford Scrub Conservation Park |
| See also | Protected areas of South Australia |
Telford Scrub Conservation Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located in the state's Limestone Coast in the gazetted locality of Dismal Swamp about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) north of the city centre in Mount Gambier. [5]
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the enabling laws of each country or the regulations of the international organizations involved.
South Australia is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of 983,482 square kilometres (379,725 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, and fifth largest by population. It has a total of 1.7 million people, and its population is the second most highly centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital, Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are relatively small; Mount Gambier, the second largest centre, has a population of less than 30,000.
The Limestone Coast is a name used since the early twenty-first century for a South Australian government region located in the south east of South Australia which immediately adjoins the continental coastline and the Victorian border. The name is also used for a tourist region and a wine zone both located in the same part of South Australia.
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The conservation park occupies land in section 134 of the cadastral unit of the Hundred of Young to the west of the Riddoch Highway. It is bounded by Grundys Lane to the south with access for visitors provided by a 5 metres (16 ft) wide vehicle track to the inside of its boundaries. In 1992, it was bounded on three sides by land using for grazing while the land south of Grundy Lane was used as a pine plantation. A facility known as the Pine Lodge Holiday Camp is located to the immediate east of its north eastern corner. Its name is derived from the former owners, the Telford family. [5] [2]
The lands administrative divisions of South Australia are the cadastral units of counties and hundreds in South Australia. They are located only in the south-eastern part of the state, and do not cover the whole state. A total of 540 hundreds have been proclaimed, although five were annulled in 1870, and, in some cases, the names reused elsewhere.
The Riddoch Highway in south-eastern South Australia branches from the Dukes Highway at Keith and travels south through Padthaway, Naracoorte, Penola, Nangwarry, Tarpeena, and Mount Gambier to Port MacDonnell and nearby Cape Northumberland.
The conservation park was proclaimed on 12 March 1987 with access permitted for the purpose of petroleum exploration under the Petroleum Act 1940. [3] As of July 2016, the conservation park covered an area of 1.7 square kilometres (0.66 sq mi). [4]
In 1992, the conservation park was described as consisting of “a series of sand ridges overlying limestone, giving way to low lying wetlands in the southern and eastern sections.” It supports the following major vegetation associations: [2]
- an “open woodland” of brown stringybark,
- an association which covers most of the conservation park and consists of an “open woodland” of brown stringybark and rough barked manna gum with isolated stands of blackwood, silver banksia and native box over an understorey of bracken,
- an association which dominates the southern end of the conservation park and consists of an “open woodland” of swamp gum with an understorey consisting of heath tea-tree, bottlebrush tea-tree, sword-sedge and rushes.
- a “low open shrubland dominated by tea-tree …, heath tea-tree …, sedges … and rushes …”
The conservation park was also reported in 1992 as having a “rich faunal population including a population of short-nosed bandicoot.” [2]
The southern brown bandicoot is a short-nosed bandicoot, a type of marsupial, found mostly in southern Australia. It is also known as the quenda in South Western Australia.
As of 1992, visitors to the conservation park consisted of “local residents, school groups, and guests at Pine Lodge Holiday Camp.” [2]
The conservation park is classified as an IUCN Category III protected area. [1]
