| Custon Conservation Park South Australia | |
|---|---|
IUCN category III (natural monument or feature) | |
  Custon Conservation Park | |
| Nearest town or city | Wolseley |
| Coordinates | 36°26′27″S140°55′36″E / 36.4408°S 140.9268°E Coordinates: 36°26′27″S140°55′36″E / 36.4408°S 140.9268°E |
| Established | 8 March 2007 [1] |
| Area | 64 hectares (160 acres) [2] |
| Managing authorities | Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources |
| Footnotes | Coordinates [3] Nearest town [4] |
| See also | Protected areas of South Australia |
Custon 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 Custon about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) south of the town centre in Wolseley and about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of the municipal seat of Bordertown. [4] [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 28,684.
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.
The conservation park occupies land in the Section 903 and Allotment 2 in Deposited Plan 36724 of the cadastral unit of the Hundred of Tatiara. It is bounded by Bangham Road on its western side and by Pier Point Road on its northern side. [4] [1] [6]
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. 49 counties have been proclaimed across the southern and southeastern areas of the state historically considered to be arable and thus in need of a cadastre. Within that area, a total of 540 hundreds have been proclaimed, although five were annulled in 1870, and, in some cases, the names reused elsewhere.
The Hundred of Tatiara is a Hundred of the County of Buckingham centered on Bordertown, and Wolseley, South Australia.
The land originally gained protected area status in 2007, when crown land in section 903 was gazetted as the Custon Conservation Park and was enlarged in 2016 by the addition of crown land in the Allotment 2 in Deposited Plan 36724. [1] [6]
Crown land, also known as royal domain or demesne, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realms such as Canada and Australia, crown land is considered public land and is apart from the monarch's private estate.
The conservation park contains an “ecological community” consisting of “a grassy woodland” of grey box which is listed as ‘Endangered’ under the state’s National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 with buloke being a "co-dominant tree species.” As of 2014, the Government of South Australia has been using fire as “part of an integrated management strategy to maintain the Grey-box Grassy Woodland association.” [7] [5]
Eucalyptus macrocarpa, or Mottlecah, is a mallee Eucalyptus that is native to the south-west of Western Australia and noted for its large, spectacular flowers. The Noongar peoples know the tree as Mottlecar.
Allocasuarina luehmannii is a species of ironwood tree native to Australia and its wood is the hardest commercially available.
The conservation park is classified as an IUCN Category III protected area. [3]
The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, and education. IUCN's mission is to "influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable".
