Bladensburg National Park
Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox Australian place Bladensburg is a national park in Shire of Winton, Queensland, Australia.<ref>Template:Cite QPN</ref> It includes an area once occupied by a sheep station called Bladensburg Station.
History
[edit]Bladensburg lies in the area of what was once Koa tribal territory and, on white settlement, was taken over to run a sheep station,<ref name="herqldout"/> known as Bladensburg Station. This was the site of the alleged Bladensburg massacre, in which around 200 Aboriginal people were killed in Template:Circa1872 at Skull Hole, on the head of Mistake Creek.<ref>Lumholtz: Among Cannibals: an account of four years travels in Australia, and of camp life with the aborigines of Queensland (London 1889) page 58-9: Queenslander 20 Apr 1901, page 757-758: "The Massacre of the Blacks at the Skull Hole on Mistake Creek". See also Timothy Bottoms, Conspiracy of Silence, page 172-174.</ref>
The Template:Cvt of national park were declared in 1984.Template:Cn
Geography
[edit]The park is Template:Cvt northwest of Brisbane, and just south of the town of Winton. The park features grassland plains, river flats, sandstone ranges and flat-topped mesas.<ref name="qh">Template:Cite web</ref> The main watercourse in the park is the often dry Surprise Creek.<ref name="naq"/> During floods the creek becomes a braided channel.
The landscape to the south of the park has dissected tablelands with mesas and buttes and to the far south are flat sand plains.<ref name="naq">Template:Cite book</ref>
Description
[edit]The park is now a protected area containing areas of high biodiversity. It is situated predominantly in the Goneaway Tablelands subregion of the Channel Country bioregion, but also contains some of the Mitchell Grass Downs bioregion. The original Bladensburg homestead, which was probably transported to the site some time in the 1910s, houses the park's visitor information centre today.<ref name="herqldout"/> Birds common to the area include the painted firetail, rufous-crowned emu-wren and rufous-throated honeyeater.<ref name="naq"/>
Attractions
[edit]The park contains dinosaur fossils as well as Aboriginal story places and ceremonial grounds.<ref name="herqldout">Template:Cite book</ref>
Skull Hole, the site of the 1870s massacre of Aboriginal people, is preserved.<ref name="herqldout"/>
Facilities
[edit]Access to the park is by 16 km of road from Winton.<ref name="naq"/> Camping is permitted beside Surprise Creek.<ref name="qh"/> No water is available.<ref name="naq"/>