Gardens of Stone National Park

Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox Australian place The Gardens of Stone National Park is a protected national park that is located in the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales in eastern Australia. The Template:Convert national park is situated Template:Convert northwest of Sydney, and Template:Convert northwest of Template:NSWcity. The national park draws its name from the natural stone pagodas within its boundaries.<ref name="Plan of Management">Template:Cite web</ref>

The Gardens of Stone National Park is one of the eight protected areas that, in 2000, was inscribed to form part of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Greater Blue Mountains Area.<ref name=whl>Template:Cite web</ref> The national park forms part of the Great Dividing Range.

Features and location

The most prominent features of the park are the sandstone pagoda landscapes and cliffs and canyons.<ref name=environmentnsw>Template:Cite web</ref> Limestone outcrops, karsts and elevated swamps are other unusual features.<ref name="Plan of Management"/>

The park is bounded on the west by the Castlereagh Highway; to the north by the Glen Davis Road; to the east by the Wollemi National Park; and to the south by the Newnes State Forest, the Wolgan Valley, and the Wolgan State Forest. The rural localities of Template:NSWcity, Template:NSWcity, and Template:NSWcity are located on the edge of the national park.

History

The Newnes Plateau region was proposed for conservation in 1932 as part of a Greater Blue Mountains National Park by the National Parks and Primitive Areas Council.<ref name="Plan of Management"/> Lobbying for protecting the area increased after the establishment of Wollemi National Park in 1979.<ref name="worldheritage">Template:Cite web</ref> The National Parks Association proposed its extension westwards in 1984, which developed into a detailed proposal of an Template:Convert park in 1993, which was ultimately successful.<ref name="Plan of Management"/> The Gardens of Stone National Park was established in 1994;<ref name="worldheritage"/> however, the initial park only covered Template:Convert, omitting areas which contain coal deposits. It was later enlarged to Template:Convert.<ref name="washington">Template:Cite journal</ref> Environmentalist groups seek to protect more of the surrounding area, which includes pagodas, canyons, heathland and elevated swamps.<ref name="worldheritage"/>

Flora and fauna

A total of 423 native plant species have been recorded in the park in 30 different plant communities. Most of the park is covered in open forest or woodland dominated by eucalypts. In the west of the park, there are ironbark (Eucalyptus fibrosa and E. crebra) and yellow box (Eucalyptus melliodora) woodlands that grow on clay loam and are a habitat for the rare regent honeyeater and turquoise parrot. There is white box (Eucalyptus albens) woodland in the southwest and scribbly gum (Eucalyptus rossii and E. sparsifolia) woodland on the park's eastern borders.<ref name="Plan of Management"/>

The plant and animal communities of the pagoda formations are fragile and easily irreversibly damaged by human activity. Collection of bush rocks for gardens and landscaping removes habitat for reptiles.<ref name="Plan of Management"/>

See also

• Protected areas of New South Wales

External links

• Template:Cite web
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• Template:Cite web
• Dingo Gap photos of GOS NP