Border Ranges National Park

Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Australian place The Border Ranges National Park is a protected national park that is located in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. A small portion of the national park is also located in South East Queensland. The Template:Convert park is situated approximately Template:Convert south of Brisbane, north of Template:NSWcity.<ref name=oeh/>

The park is part of the Shield Volcano Group World Heritage Site Gondwana Rainforests of Australia inscribed in 1986<ref name="ausgovdep">Template:Cite web</ref> and added to the Australian National Heritage List in 2007.<ref name=anhl>Template:Cite web</ref>

Geology

The Border Ranges region, which includes the McPherson Range, Tweed Range, Lamington Plateau and Levers Plateau, were formed from the erosion of the Tweed Volcano over many years. A number of volcanic plugs remain in the Border Ranges National Park.<ref name="discover"/> Notable for extensive stands of Nothofagus moorei (Antarctic beech), the park offers a Template:Convert gravel road circuit through sub tropical, cool and warm temperate rainforest types. The area was extensively logged during the 20th century, providing timber to a number of nearby sawmills.<ref name="discover"/> The Lions Road and the Sydney–Brisbane rail corridor pass through the park at its narrow middle section.

Flora and fauna

Border Ranges and Lamington National Park are recognised as a biodiversity hotspot, containing a mixture of northern and southern flora species (the McPherson-Macleay overlap) with a number of endemic, rare and endangered species. Fauna is similarly diverse and species like the Hastings River mouse, have been rediscovered in the park in recent years.<ref>Big Volcano Visitor Guide, reprint of article by David Charley in Over The Fence, the Newsletter of the Northern Rivers Region, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. Newsletter No.6, April 2000.</ref>

File:Brindle Creek Border Ranges National Park.jpg

A diverse set of subtropical rainforest flora is preserved along Brindle Creek.

Lower areas of the park contain eucalypt forests that provide habitat for eastern grey kangaroos, red-necked wallabies and koalas.<ref name="discover">Template:Cite book</ref> Pademelons and potoroo are also found in the park as well as a diverse array of birdlife including the rare Albert's lyrebird.<ref name="discover"/> The park is part of the Scenic Rim Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance in the conservation of several species of threatened birds.<ref name=bli>BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Scenic Rim. Downloaded from Template:Cite web on 2011-10-03.</ref>

File:Lilly Pilly fruit floating in the creek.jpg

fruit of Syzygium francisii in Sawpit Creek, in the Border Ranges National Park. It dropped prodigious quantities of fruit, which floated down stream and collected in beautiful pink rafts, such as this.

The Border Ranges contains one of Australia's most diverse range of spider species within its montane rainforests.<ref name="spid">Template:Cite web</ref>

Facilities

Two camp grounds (car/camper and walk-in tent camping only) and a number of picnic areas, some with shelters, water and composting toilets, are available at various points in the rainforest adjacent to the road, and one picnic spot at Blackbutts Lookout, has extensive views to Mount Warning, and of the Tweed Valley, an erosion caldera which, while broken by the sea on its eastern flank, is considered larger in size than the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania.

File:Border Ranges National Park, Australia.jpg

From a lookout in Border Ranges National Park, NSW Australia looking over the Tweed valley with The Pinnacle distinctive in the centre right.