Para Wirra Recreation Park

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The park's lake and island

Para Wirra Recreation Park is a 1,409-hectare (3,482-acre) recreation park in the Mount Lofty Ranges, 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Adelaide, South Australia. The park forms part of The Greater Mount Lofty Parklands, a string of parks across the ranges encompassing 400 square kilometres (154 sq mi) of land.

Prior to European settlement, the park was part of the territory of the Paramangk Aboriginal people. In the language of the Kaurna, traditional landowners of the Adelaide Plains, Para Wirra means 'river with a scrub'. The park was initially proposed as a reservation in 1950 and subsequently declared a National Park in 1962. It was the second national park in South Australia, after Belair National Park, but renamed as a recreation park in 1972.^[1] The park includes some reminders of a 1860s rush to mine alluvial gold, including buildings related to the "Lady Alice" mine.^[2] The Lady Alice was noted in 1890 as one of the few mines in the area yielding useful amounts of gold.^[3]

[edit] Flora and fauna

Para Wirra is part of a 2,573 ha (6,358-acre) block of native Australian vegetation, together managed by government water supply, forestry and national parks departments. The park has been noted as often over-grazed by the native Western Grey Kangaroo, with estimates of from 20 to 40 kangaroos per 1 km² (250 acres) of the park. Goats were formerly a pest species, until eradicated in 1990 by the Animal and Plant Control Commission.^[4]

[edit] References

^ Para Wirra Recreation Park. Department for Environment and Heritage. Retrieved on 2008-02-12.
^ "Williamstown", Sydney Morning Herald, 2004-02-08.
^ Edward Ellis Morris, Richard Kearton, Cherry Kearton, Geoffrey Brereton, Jean Timmermans, Ralph Edward Oesper (1890). Cassell's Picturesque Australasia. Cassell, p.27.
^ Para Wirra Recreation Park, Management plant amendment. Department for Environment and Heritage (2005). Retrieved on 2008-02-12.