Lake Eildon National Park

The Lake Eildon National Park is a national park in the Central Highlands region of Victoria, Australia. The 27,750-hectare (68,600-acre) national park is set in the northern foothills of the Central Highlands, approximately 111 kilometres (69 mi) northeast of Melbourne and abuts the shores of Lake Eildon.

Lake Eildon National Park
Victoria
IUCN category II (national park)
Lake Eildon, the central feature of the national park
Lake Eildon National Park
Nearest town or cityEildon
Coordinates37°07′46″S 144°52′08″E
Established4 June 1997 (1997-06-04)[1]
Area277.5 km2 (107.1 sq mi)[2]
Managing authoritiesParks Victoria
WebsiteLake Eildon National Park
See alsoProtected areas of Victoria

History

The Goulburn River Valley supported a population of hundreds of members of the Aboriginal Australian group known as the Taungurong people. Cultural sites belonging to these people would have been flooded with the creation of Lake Eildon.

The park includes a number of mine shafts related to Victoria's gold rush of the 1860s. The park also contains relics from early pastoral use.

In the 1950s, the Victorian Government purchased farming properties along the Goulburn and Delatite rivers for the construction of Lake Eildon to provide irrigation water for the Goulburn Valley. An area of 2,670 hectares (6,600 acres) that wasn't flooded was declared Fraser National Park in 1957. An area of 24,000 hectares (59,000 acres) of state forest adjacent to the lake was reserved as Eildon State Park in 1980 to protect the catchment of Lake Eildon. In 1997, the two parks were combined to create Lake Eildon National Park.

Geology

The park is mountainous, with peaks up to 900 metres (3,000 ft), and includes the edge of the Cerberean Caldera, a huge circular volcano around 27 kilometres (17 mi) across which was active around 380 million years ago. The caldera is evident in a few places as granite outcrops. It is thought that the Cerberean Caldera underwent a super eruption 374 Mya, which in turn would have contributed to the Late Devonian extinction event.[3]

Flora and fauna

The park's vegetation is generally dry, open eucalypt forest with areas of riparian forest and montane forest. Main eucalypt species are stringybarks, peppermints, Red Box and Candlebark with areas of Mountain Ash and Blue Gum.

The park's known native fauna includes 34 species of mammals, 89 birds, 17 reptiles, 10 amphibians, and three freshwater fish. Threatened fauna recorded in the park include the Brush-tailed Phascogale and Spotted Tree-Frog. Eastern Grey Kangaroos are very common in the park's camping places

Visitors

Most visitors use the park as a base for water-based activities on Lake Eildon, such as power boating and water ski-ing. Deer hunting is permitted in season in some sections of the park.

See also

References
  1. Lake Eildon National Park Management Plan (PDF). Parks Victoria (PDF). Government of Victoria. July 1997. p. 3. ISBN 0-7306-6611-5. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  2. "Lake Eildon National Park: Visitor Guide" (PDF). Parks Victoria (PDF). Government of Victoria. December 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 December 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  3. Clemens, J. D.; Birch, W. D. (2012). Assembly of a zoned volcanic magma chamber from multiple magma batches: The Cerberean Cauldron, Marysville Igneous Complex, Australia. pp. 272–288. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
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