Kennedy-Range-Nationalpark
The Kennedy Range National Park is a 1417 km ² national park in the north-west of the Australian state of Western Australia.
Location
The park is located about 1,100 kilometers north of Perth and 150 km from east of Carnarvon near Gascoyne Junction. From here extends over a length of 200 km of the mountain range of the Kennedy Range in northern direction. Access to the National Park has an unpaved road, then further Gascoyne Junction, initially 50 km northwards to the west of the park.
Geology
In the Permian, about 270 million years ago, the area was located near the coast of the Australian continent at the bottom of a shallow ocean. It was filled with layers of sand and Lehmsediment that, more and more compressed with increasing pressure of the overlying material. In the course of millions of years as layers created from sand - and siltstone. The period of the deposits extended probably over 100 million years. Then lifted the area and erosion begins removing the rocks. Today, the mesas of the Kennedy Range are just left. On its south and west side, they rise up to 100 m from the valley of the River Lyons up. The mountain range forms at its edges and steep cliffs crossed by deep canyons.
Even today you can find many fossils of marine animals in the sandstone layers. In the 1960s and 1970s, geologists have found fossilized plants, these originated in the Eocene and represent the earliest evidence of banksias in Australia dar.
History
The Kennedy Range forms a natural border between the Aboriginesstämmen of Maia and the Malgaru. The Maia populated an area of approximately 12,000 km ² to the west of the plateau to Carnarvon, the Malgaru a similarly large area in eastern direction. In the park are around the 100 bodies that have a special meaning for the Aboriginal people. Some of them are up to 20,000 years old.
In 1858 came with Francis Thomas Gregory the first Europeans to the area. He led an expedition to the Gascoyne River and reached the Kennedy Range on May 12. It was named by Gregory after the then Governor of Western Australia, Arthur Edward Kennedy. Later, the expedition reached yet Mount Augustus.
20 years later, the first farmers along the Gascoyne River and the Lyons River settled. Until the late 1930s, countless sheep grazed in today's National Park before drought and overgrazing led to a collapse of the wool production. Still suffer flora and fauna at this early type of use.
On 8 January 1993, the area was declared a National Park. The area of 1417 km ² is today extended in the near future to 1773 km2. The Department of Environment and Conservation has already acquired new land. They are currently (2009) prepared for their future use.