Editing Taunton National Park (section)

==History==
The region in which Taunton National Park is located, was (and still is) subject to long-term, wide-scale agricultural development and associated disturbances.  During the 1950s and 1960s extensive clearance of brigalow scrub began to take place in order to establish pastoral grasses for grazing domestic sheep and cattle.<ref name=Diet2>{{cite journal|author=Dawson, T. J. |author2=Tierney, P. J. |author3=Ellis, B. A. |title=The diet of the Bridled nailtail wallaby (''Onychogalea fraenata'') II Overlap in dietry niche bredth and plant preferences with the black-striped wallaby (''Macropus dorsalis'') and domestic cattle|journal=Wildlife Research|year=1992|volume=19|issue=1|pages=79–87|doi=10.1071/WR9920079}}</ref><ref name=Rediscovery>{{cite journal|author1=Gordon, G. |author2=Lawrie, B. C. |title=The Rediscovery of the Bridled Nail-Tailed Wallaby, ''Onychogalea fraenata'' (Gould)(Marsupialia: Macropodidae).|journal=Wildlife Research|year=1980|volume=7|issue=3|pages=339–345|doi=10.1071/WR9800339}}</ref>  buffel grass (''[[Cenchrus ciliaris]]'') was widely sowed for fodder in the cleared areas, and rapidly became irreversibly established.<ref name=Conservation>{{cite journal|author=Kearney, F. |author2=McAllister, R. R. |author3=MacLeod, N. D. |title=Conservation and grazing in Australia's north-east: the bridled nailtail wallaby.|journal=Pastoralism|year=2012|volume=2|issue=1|pages=1–17|doi=10.1186/2041-7136-2-20|doi-access=free}}</ref>

A governmental initiative called the 'Brigalow Development Scheme' provided great incentive for increasing agricultural development in the Brigalow region and accelerated the rate and scale of vegetation clearance for conversion to buffel grass.<ref name=Rediscovery />  The success of this scheme resulted in agricultural system adjustments so that more intensive [[land use]] practices became common, with smaller properties and higher stock numbers.<ref name=Rediscovery />  The cumulative effects of this land use change resulted in a considerable reduction in remnant vegetation patch size and occurrence.<ref name=Rediscovery />  This in turn reduced the availability of habitat, food and shelter for native fauna, and altered the natural vegetation composition.<ref name=Rediscovery /><ref name=Conservation />

===Park establishment===
In 1973 a bridled nail-tail wallaby was sighted on a cattle property named 'Taunton' and reported by a fencing contractor.<ref name=Rediscovery />  There had been reports of a significant decline in the wallabies population numbers during the early 1900s with no recorded sightings since the 1930s, and subsequently the species had been presumed extinct.<ref name=Demography /><ref name=Rediscovery />  Following this sighting, Taunton was purchased in 1979 and established as a scientific reserve, solely to ensure the protection and survival of the endangered wallaby.<ref name=DERM /><ref name=wallabydiet1 />  Then in 1984, another cattle property 'Red Hill', situated adjacent to Taunton, was added to the reserve and the whole area later became officially named 'Taunton National Park'.<ref name=DERM /><ref name=wallabydiet1 />