Rainforests, Sand Islands and Sandstone Country

Highlights

Queensland’s protected landscapes stretch across a remarkable range of country, from humid tropical rainforest and coastal dunes to sandstone escarpments, inland wetlands and dry ranges. The state has more than 1,000 national parks and other protected areas, including five UNESCO World Heritage areas. Together they conserve examples of Queensland’s major ecosystems as well as some landscapes of international significance.

Along the tropical north-east, the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area protects extensive rainforest country between Cooktown and Townsville, with more than 87 per cent of the World Heritage area contained within national parks, conservation parks, state forests and forest reserves. In the south-east, sections of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia protect rainforest along the Great Dividing Range and eastern escarpment. Offshore, K’gari is the world’s largest sand island, shaped by immense dune systems, freshwater lakes, sandblows, coastal heath and rainforest growing on sand.

Further inland, Queensland changes character again. The central sandstone belt includes deep gorges, high cliffs and dissected plateaus, while parks farther west protect red sandplains, mesas, rocky ranges, artesian springs and vast inland wetlands. White Mountains National Park, for example, is defined by pale sandstone bluffs and gorges, while Currawinya National Park protects a striking transition from red sand country to lakes, wetlands and rocky residual ranges.

Landscape and nature

One of the strengths of Queensland’s park system is the ecological contrast between regions. Tropical rainforest, mangroves, coastal heath, eucalypt forest, dry rainforest, brigalow communities, mulga, spinifex grasslands and inland wetlands can all be found within the protected-area network. The Queensland Government describes the state as one of exceptional biological diversity, with around half of its native wildlife species unique to Queensland.

Water shapes many of these environments in very different ways. In the north it supports rainforest, wetlands and deeply incised gorge systems, while farther inland seasonal rivers, springs and temporary wetlands create pockets of habitat within much drier country. Currawinya’s Lake Wyara and Lake Numalla form part of an internationally recognised Ramsar wetland system, while spring-fed Lawn Hill Gorge cuts through the ancient sandstone of the north-west highlands.

Queensland’s protected areas are managed primarily for conservation, with national parks forming the cornerstone of the state system. The network also includes conservation parks, resource reserves and privately protected land, allowing habitats and geological landscapes to be protected across a much broader part of the state than national parks alone.

Culture and heritage

Queensland’s national park history reaches back to the early twentieth century. Witches Falls at Tamborine Mountain was protected in March 1908 as Queensland’s first national park, followed by Bunya Mountains National Park later that year and Lamington National Park in 1915. The Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service was established in 1975, building a statewide system that by then included nearly 300 national parks and forests.

Many parks also preserve evidence of Queensland’s more recent pastoral, mining and settlement history. Old homesteads, machinery, stock infrastructure and abandoned workings remain in protected landscapes across the state. Palmer Goldfield Resources Reserve is a particularly concentrated example, preserving substantial nineteenth-century mining machinery and the remains of the goldfield that developed after payable alluvial gold was discovered on the Palmer River in 1873. Elsewhere, places such as Currawinya retain buildings, equipment and other traces of pastoral use alongside their natural values.