Arkaroola | Flinders Ranges
Our next Lake Eyre & Outback Air Safari takes us to the Flinders Ranges to the stunning 610 sq km Wilderness Sanctuary, Arkaroola. We traverse across the channel country into the desert to the ancient peaks of the granite mountains, and spinifex-covered hillsides await. With the geological history spanning nearly 2 billion years, if only the rocks could talk! (Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary)
The Flinders Ranges was formed by two tectonic plates colliding, folding and pushing the layers of land into mountain ranges. The range spans 430 kilometres, surrounded by the flat lake systems such as Lake Frome and Lake Torrens. The range began to form approximately 800 million years ago, as sediments began to be deposited into the Adelaide Geosyncline, an ancient sea. Three hundred million years later, the basin sediments began to be folded into mountains. Although the mountains have since eroded, the faulted rocks remained, creating the landscape of sandstone, mudstone, limestone, and quartzite. (NASA)
These rugged landscapes may just hold the key to understanding how life jumped from simple organisms to complex life. Professor Alan Collins from the University of Adelaide’s Earth Sciences Department in the School of Physical Sciences is part of an international team that constructed the first virtual plate reconstruction of the last billion years of geological history. In a recent interview with Cosmos Magazine, Professor Collins explains,
“We have developed the first full plate reconstruction of the past billion years, which is a key step towards understanding how complex life began…That moment can be seen in the evidence found in the Flinders Ranges when life worked out how to combine cells and make complicated creatures.
We are trying to unravel why evolution kick-started then instead of any point in the billion years before.
We have a million hypotheses of why life formed during the Ediacaran Period, but absolutely none of them are scientific at the moment.” (Adelaide University)
Why the Flinders Ranges? Enorama Creek has the only geological reference point (Golden Spike: a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point) in the Southern Hemisphere, which physically marks the geological evidence of the Ediacaran Period. Named after the Ediacaran Hills of the Flinders Ranges, the Ediacaran Period spanned 635 to 541 million years ago. The virtual reconstruction shows the Flinders Ranges forms as North America broke off the side of Australia and formed the Pacific Ocean. Then in less than a minute on the screen, you can see the continents re-form as Gondwana and break up again into today’s modern continents. (Adelaide University)
Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary
We will be staying in the Akaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, a 610 sq km protected area approximately 670km north of Adelaide in the northern Flinders Ranges. Along with breathtaking views and spectacular star displays, the park is home to the yellow-footed rock wallaby and 160 species of birds. (Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary) Operated by the Sprigg family since….
We will take in the ridgetop tour 4WD across the ridges and peaks to Sillers lookout in the morning. The ride will take us across spectacular peaks as the views of Freeling Heights, Lake Frome and the desert beyond open up in front of us. We will, “Take a tea break while drinking in the magnificent ring of saw-toothed Freeling Heights fringing the Mawson Plateau. See the jaw-dropping 1000m deep Yudnamutana Gorge, the plains and Lake Frome salt lake.” Aptly named locally as “the Ark,” the changing topography from gorges and creeks to open woodlands creates a diverse home for native Flora and Fauna. (Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary)
Along the way, we may be lucky enough to spot the once-endangered Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby, kangaroos and echidnas. Find rare plants relics from when the region was once a temperate forest, such as the Spidery Wattle (acacia araneosa) and rare Slender Bell-Fruit (codonacarpus pyramidalis). The native bushland provides shelter for an array of unique birds including the “majestic Wedge-Tailed Eagle, Australian Ringneck Parrot, the comical antics of a gang of White-browed Babblers, the insomnia curing call of the Southern Boobook Owl and the beautifully coloured Red Capped Robin.” (Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary) High up on the spinifex granite high country the elusive and rare Shor-Tailed Grass Wren makes its home in the ridgetops. It wouldn’t be Australia without a few reptiles, including the rare and spectacularly coloured Red-barred Dragon or the mostly nocturnal Large-blotched, Stimpsons Python.
At night the sky is transformed into a beautiful canopy of stars, with a “world-class atmospheric transparency index and seeing quality due to its arid environment and elevation.” A step outside will be worth the cold winter air to see the southern hemisphere stars gleam out over the ridgetops.
Nepabunna
South of the Arkaroola Wildnerness Sanctuary is the town of Nepabunna, home to a community of around 66 indigenous people of the Adnyamathanha people. Having been displaced by European settlers in the 1850s, the town was established in 1931. In 1987, the community received back 58,000 hectares of ancestral land from a pastoralist. Since then, the community has worked to restore, “the site—known as Nantawarrina—by replanting native vegetation, preserving native animals such as the yellow-footed wallaby, removing feral goats from the area, and adding activities to promote tourism.” (NASA) It became Australia’s first Indigenous Protected Area, and was awarded the International Union for Nature Conservation Award. There are now 75 Indigenous protected areas across Australia covering 67 million hectares. (NASA)
Resources:
Photography by:
Mike Annese, Getty (Aerial Images) from Canva
Ozflash, Getty (Rock Wallaby) from Canva
