The central ranges are of a different topographical nature to the rest of the Flinders, being composed of roughly flat-lying strata, creating a high plateau into which spectacular gorges have been cut, instead of the buckled and folded strata further south which lead to the ubiquitous cuestas of Wilpena Pound. The Gammons are dominated by "The Plateau" in the southwest, which is contiguous with and of much the same height as the Blue Range further northeast, culminating in Benbonyathe Hill (1064m), the highest point in the Flinders north of Wilpena. Other summits on the largely flat range and plateau include Elephant Hill (with adjacent outliers North Tusk and South Tusk), Mount Changeweather, Four Winds Hill, and Prow Point. Of these "rounded hills" of the plateau, Warren Bonython writes that "at their edge the slope, which was gentle near the crest, progressively steepens and then changes dramatically into a precipice plunging down to a rock-strewn creek bed perhaps a thousand feet below"[2]
Bunyip Chasm
Some of the features of the ranges are the deep gorges cut in the south-eastern side of the Blue Range: Bunyip Chasm, The Terraces, and Fern Chasm are all areas often visited by bushwalkers. Although lower than the mountains which surround it on three sides, the dramatic Cleft Peak is also often visited, so-named for a spectacular cleft separating it into two summits, and providing opportunities for rockclimbing to a summit, not often necessary with peaks in the Flinders.
The high central range and plateau is surrounded by a number of smaller outlying ranges, creating the encircling "pounds" of low hills: Balcanoona Range encloses Illinawortina Pound to the east, Mainwater Pound is to the north, enclosed by the Yankaninna Range, and Arcoona Pound to the west. There are also several major mountains on the margin of the Gammons, two of which are actually higher the main range: Gammon Hill (1012m) in the north, overlooking Mainwater and Arcoona Pounds, and Mount McKinlay (1050m) dominating the south.
History
The local Aboriginal people are the Adnyamathanha. The current generation live largely on the neighbouring station of Mount Serle and Aboriginal lands at Nepabunna and Nantawarrina. The national park is managed under a co-operative system which involves Adnyamathanha people in its operation. Also included in the national park is a wide strip of territory running 40km from the edge of the ranges to the shores of Lake Frome, an area which is used by the local Aboriginal people for hunting kangaroos and emus. Curiously, regarding the mining controversies attendant with the national park (see below), this area of the national park is traversed by the Moomba Adelaide Pipeline System gas pipeline.
The first European to see the ranges was probably Edward Eyre on his 1840 expedition along the western side of the Flinders Ranges. Attempting to find a way through the salt lakes that he thought barred the path to the north, he climbed Mount Serle; in his published expedition journal, he wrote that "to the north-east, the view was obstructed by a high range immediately in front of us". This high range was the southern and western heights of the Gammons.
The next explorer to reach the area was the Surveyor General, Edward Charles Frome, on his second expedition up the eastern side of the Flinders three years later. After finding his route to the east blocked by the lake which would later bear his name, he headed for the highest point in the ranges he could see, which he thought was Eyre's Mount Serle: however, his paintings show it to be Mount McKinlay (named fifteen years later after John McKinlay, a local who became famous for leading one of several rescue expeditions for Burke and Wills in 1861).
Mount McKinlay from the south
A private surveyor, J.M. Painter, was employed in a survey of the area in 1857 (in the company of George Goyder). His party climbed Gammon Hill and Mount McKinlay (which Frome did not), but didn't penetrate to the peaks of the central range or plateau. One of several survey cairns built on a line they surveyed between Mount Rowe and Arcoona Bluff on the western edge of the ranges has been restored and can be visited today (photo below).
The area has a colourful history of pastoral settlement dating from the turn of the century: the now-restored holiday cottage Grindell's Hut in Illinawortina Pound is named after John Grindell, who ran a small cattle station in the pound in the early part of the twentieth century. Grindell had a difficult relationship with his son-in-law George Snell, who ran the neighbouring Yankaninna station, suspecting him of rustling cattle. When Snell disappeared in August 1918, and a search party found remains at a campfire in the ranges, Grindell was arrested and charged with Snell's murder. Despite the evidence being flimsy, Grindell was convicted at Port Augusta in December and sentenced to death, though it was later commuted to life imprisonment. He was released from prison in 1928, dying two years later at the age of 77. A restored building at the site of his old hut is now rented out as a holiday cottage.
Panorama showing Grindell's Hut and surrounding landscape
The bushman R. M. Williams is reputed to have learnt everything he knew about boot-making and leather from another man he met while camped in Italowie Gap at the southern end of the ranges; he later became a millionaire and a renowned clothing brand carries his name.
The ranges were explored more thoroughly in the first half of the 20th century: the Greenwood family, pastoralists in the area, had explored the edges in the twenties and thirties, discovering Fern Chasm, but it was not until expeditions by Warren Bonython and others in the late 1940s that the Plateau and main central ranges were investigated and explored. On Bonython's first journey onto the Blue Range in 1946 several kilometres south of Benbonyathe Hill, one of his two companions, Bob Crocker, slipped and broke his leg, which resulted in Bonython walking more than twenty kilometres to Balcanoona station to organise a rescue effort: in the end Bob was carried off the 3,000-foot (910m) high range by improvised stretcher in a seven-hour marathon.
By 1948 the Plateau had been traversed in all directions, although the highest parts of the ranges are still out of limits for all but experienced bushwalkers.
In the 1960s a group of American astronomers became interested in the higher peaks of the Gammons as possible sites for an observatory, and several parties camped for some time on the summits of Mount McKinlay and Benbonyathe Hill (vehicle tracks were also graded to the summits), but nothing further was done (a large observatory is located at Arkaroola, about a hundred kilometres to the northeast). Relics from these camps remain on the summits of the two hills, and there is reportedly still an overgrown vehicle track along the top of the Blue Range in places.
The area encompassed by the ranges was always pastoral land, although much of it is so inaccessible and rugged to be unattractive to anything but goats and bushwalkers. The northwestern part of the ranges was first taken into government care from the hands of the Yankaninna station in 1968, a national park being declared in 1970. Balcanoona station was purchased in 1980, and the lands officially added to the national park two years later.
The dual-usage national park (an arrangement under which some mining is permitted) has also been subject to mining claims and some controversy, not unfamiliar to the area considering the extensive uranium deposits in the adjacent Arkaroola Sanctuary. One of the most visible of the claims in the Gammons is in Weetootla Gorge, wherein a hill is composed almost entirely of magnesite; BHP had explored this area and placed a claim on it, though no plans were made to mine it. In 2000, another company made moves to acquire the claim, with view to exploiting the deposit. The government blocked the transfer of the lease, and after a legal challenge by the mining company was defeated, a commitment was made by both major political parties in South Australia to extinguish all mining claims in the area, and re-proclaim the national park with a complete ban on all mining.
The national park remains remote and relatively inaccessible. The Copley-Arkaroola dirt road (passable to 2WD vehicles) passes through Italowie Gap at the southern edge of the national park, from where it is a one-day walk north to Mount McKinlay. There is a 4WD track around Mount McTaggart into Illinawortina Pound, leading to Grindell's Hut and Loch Ness Well, from where bushwalkers may climb Mount John Roberts, an outlying bluff of the Blue Range which dominates the pound. Access to the northern side of the national park is even more difficult, with the 4WD track to the bordering pastoral station of Yankaninna providing the closest road. Visitors must climb over the Yankaninna Range or walk in from Arcoona Bluff at the extreme northwest corner of the ranges to access the interior.
Water in the ranges is sparse and difficult to rely on: there are water tanks on the outskirts at Grindells Hut, Italowie Gap, and Arcoona Bluff. There are a number of waterholes, some of which are deep in the ranges and quite reliable, but all of them have been known to dry up in years of extreme drought.
Mammals
The national park is situated south of the dingo fence, meaning it is situated in that area, where dingoes prosecuted and usually rare or absent.[4] Wild dogs and foxes are poisoned regularly in the national park. Among the animals, which are protected in the national park, is the yellow-footed rock wallaby.[5]
One problem plaguing the national park (as with all the Flinders) is feral goats, which are capable of traversing the rugged stony terrain, and which, thanks to the lack of predators, flourish. These introduced animals are pests due to the damage their hoofs do to the ground, and the vegetation they consume. The population in the national park has been reduced by means of hunters staking out waterholes and helicopters picking off animals on the ridge-tops: the help of the local sporting shooters' association has been employed in managing the problem. Undergrowth vegetation has improved markedly in recent years, presumably reflecting reduced numbers. Large-scale baiting programs carried out as part of Operation Bounceback have reduced the number of foxes in the national park. Rabbit numbers have declined by approximately 85% since the introduction of the rabbit calicivirus.
It is not known where the name "gammon" comes from. Warren Bonython has a number of suggestions: it might be "gammon" the verb meaning "hoax" in reference to the thick scrub on the ranges (he notes an area near Adelaide called 'Humbug Scrub' as precedent). He settles for the meaning of gammon as a piece of bacon, saying that Gammon Hill does, under "certain conditions", look like a piece of bacon. Hearsay claims the Blue Range is named for the fact that, its immediate surrounds being so rugged, it's usually seen as a blue haze in the distance!
The Aboriginal name for the area is Arkaroo, the name of a legendary great snake. Arkaroo is reputed to have drunk up all the water in Lake Frome, but, upset by its saltiness, he wriggled into the depths of the ranges, where his upset stomach continues to rumble to this day. The booming noises which are heard in the ranges today are thought to either be wind whistling through the narrow gorges or (more probably) large rockfalls. Arkaroo is the origin of the placename Arkaroola, used in several contexts in the area (also as the name of a station south of Wilpena).
Gallery
Italowie Gap
Cleft Peak
Prow Point (far right) and The Plateau (centre and left)
Mount McTaggart
Loch Ness Well
Mount John Roberts
Entrance to Bunyip Chasm
Illinawortina Pound
Idnina Hut (formerly Yadnina Station)
Benbonyathe Hill from Yadnina
Gammon Waterfall and Gammon Hill
Benbonyathe Hill and Mainwater Pound
Gammon Hill
J.M. Painter's surveying cairn on western margin of ranges
Protected areas of South Australia consists of protected areas located within South Australia and its immediate onshore waters and which are managed by South Australian Government agencies. As of March 2018, South Australia contains 359 separate protected areas declared under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972, the Crown Land Management Act 2009 and the Wilderness Protection Act 1992 which have a total land area of 211,387.48 km2 (81,617.16 sq mi) or 21.5% of the state's area.
The Ikara–Flinders Ranges National Park, formerly Flinders Ranges National Park, is situated approximately 400 km north of Adelaide in the northern central part of South Australia's largest mountain range, the Flinders Ranges. The park covers an area of 912 km², northeast of the small town of Hawker. The Heysen Trail and Mawson Trails pass through the park.
Mount Ossa is the highest mountain in Tasmania, with a summit elevation of 1,617 metres (5,305 ft) above sea level. It makes up part of the Pelion Range within Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park in the Central Highlands region of Tasmania, Australia.
The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts about 200 km (125 mi) north of Adelaide. The discontinuous ranges stretch for over 430 km (265 mi) from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhabited the range for tens of thousands of years.
Arkaroola is the common name for the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, a wildlife sanctuary situated on 610 square kilometres of freehold and pastoral lease land in South Australia. It is located 700 kilometres north of the Adelaide city centre in the Northern Flinders Ranges, adjacent to the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park and the Mawson Plateau. The most common way to get there is by car, but air travel can be chartered from Parafield Airport, Adelaide Airport or Aldinga Airfield. It was used as a location set for the 2002 film The Tracker.
Hawker is a town and a locality in the Flinders Ranges area of South Australia, 365 kilometres (227 mi) north of Adelaide. It is in the Flinders Ranges Council, the state Electoral district of Stuart and the federal Division of Grey. At the 2016 census, the locality had a population of 341 of which 237 lived in its town centre.
Mount Lofty is the highest point in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges. It is located about 15 km (9.3 mi) east of the Adelaide city centre, within the Cleland National Park in the Adelaide Hills area of South Australia.
The Adnyamathanha are a contemporary Aboriginal Australian people of the northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia, formed as an aggregate of several distinct peoples. Strictly speaking the ethnonym Adnyamathanha was an alternative name for the Wailpi, but the grouping also includes the Guyani, Jadliaura, Pilatapa and sometimes the Barngarla peoples. The origin of the name is in the words "adnya" ("rock") and "matha".
Wilpena Pound – also known by its Adnyamathanha name of Ikara, meaning "meeting place" – is a natural amphitheatre of mountains located 429 kilometres (267 mi) north of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia in the heart of the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park. It is accessible via a sealed road which continues on to the northern Flinders Ranges town of Blinman and to the south, Hawker.
Lake Frome / Munda is a large endorheic lake in the Australian state of South Australia located to the east of the Northern Flinders Ranges. It is a large, shallow, unvegetated salt pan, 100 kilometres (62 mi) long and 40 kilometres (25 mi) wide, lying mostly below sea level and having a total surface area of 259,615 hectares. It only rarely fills with brackish water flowing down usually dry creeks in the Northern Flinders Ranges from the west, or exceptional flows down the Strzelecki Creek from the north.
Mount Chambers Gorge is a gorge in the Australian state of South Australia in the locality of Wertaloona about 60 kilometres (37 mi) north-east of Blinman in the Flinders Ranges.
The Mawson Plateau, located at 30°6′38″S139°25′19″E is part of the northern Flinders Ranges, located on the Mount Freeling pastoral lease in South Australia, 140 kilometres (87 mi) east of Lyndhurst and adjacent to the northeastern boundary of Arkaroola.
Mount Gee is located in the northern Flinders Ranges within the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, and is part of the Mount Painter inlier. It was named after a mining warden, Lionel Gee.
In the dreamtime of Australian Aboriginal mythology, the Arkaroo is a serpent who drank all the waters of Lake Frome in South Australia, the latter remaining a large salt pan most of the time. Heavily filled and tired, the Arkaroo retracted for a nap into the mountains west, carving by his body the valleys of what is known today as the Gammon Ranges in the northern Flinders Ranges. He was attacked by other mystic beasts and let water on his rests, each position resulting in a waterhole, such as that of Arkaroola Springs and others. Today as in ancient times, rumblings of the Arkaroo can be heard in the mountains, which are scientifically explained by the seismic activity of the ranges.
Arkaba or Arkaba Station is a part-perpetual lease, part-freehold property located about 20 kilometres (12 mi) north east of Hawker and 72 kilometres (45 mi) south of Blinman in the Flinders Ranges in the state of South Australia,
Adelaide Bushwalkers is a bushwalking club based in Adelaide, South Australia.
Arkaroola Protection Area is a protected area located about 600 km (370 mi) north of the Adelaide city centre in the Australian state of South Australia. It was established in 2012 by the Arkaroola Protection Act 2012 "to provide for the proper management and care of the area; and to prohibit mining activities in the area". The protection area is reported as satisfying the definition of a "category II National Park".
Henry Strong Price, generally known as H.S. Price, or simply Harry Price, was a pioneer sheep pastoralist of South Australia, best known as founder and proprietor of Wilpena Station at Wilpena Pound, now part of the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park.
Flinders Ranges is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located in the mountain range of the same name, about 380 km (240 mi) north of the state capital of Adelaide, about 86 km (53 mi) north-east of the municipal seat of Quorn and about 131 km (81 mi) north-east of the centre of Port Augusta in the state's Far North region.
The Cazneaux Tree, also known as Cazneaux's Tree, is a Eucalyptus camaldulensis or river red gum that was made famous by the photographer Harold Cazneaux. It is in the Australian state of South Australia in the locality of Flinders Ranges near Wilpena Pound. The tree is located within the boundaries of the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park on the west side of the Flinders Ranges Way about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) north-east of the Wilpena Pound Resort.
↑ Wallach, Arian D.; Murray, Brad R.; o'Neill, Adam J. (2009). "Can threatened species survive where the top predator is absent?". Biological Conservation. 142: 43–52. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2008.09.021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
