| Flinders Ranges | |
|---|---|
.jpg) The Flinders Ranges | |
| Highest point | |
| Peak | St Mary Peak |
| Elevation | 1,171 m (3,842 ft)[1] |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 430 km (265 mi)[2] north/south |
| Geography | |
  Flinders Ranges | |
| Country | Australia |
| State | South Australia |
| Range coordinates | 30°55′S138°37′E / 30.917°S 138.617°E /-30.917; 138.617 |
TheFlinders Ranges are the largest mountain ranges inSouth Australia, which starts about 200 km (125 mi) north ofAdelaide. The ranges stretch for over 430 km (265 mi) fromPort Pirie toLake Callabonna.
TheAdnyamathanha people are theAboriginal group who have inhabited the range for tens of thousands of years.
Its most well-known landmark isWilpena Pound / Ikara, a formation that creates a naturalamphitheatre covering 80 km2 (31 sq mi) and containing the range's highest peak,St Mary Peak (1,171 m (3,842 ft)). The ranges include severalnational parks, the largest being theIkara-Flinders Ranges National Park, as well as otherprotected areas.
It is an area of great geological and palaeontological significance, and includes the oldest fossil evidence of animal life was discovered. TheEdiacaran Period andEdiacaran biota take their name from theEdiacara Hills within the ranges. In April 2021, a nomination for seven sites in the Flinders Ranges to be named aWorld Heritage Site was lodged. as of August 2025[update] it remains on the tentative list, due to be voted on in 2026.
The first humans to inhabit the Flinders Ranges were theAdnyamathanha people (meaning "hill people" or "rock people") whose descendants still reside in the area,[3] and theNgadjuri (Ndajurri) people,[4][5] They inhabited the range for tens of thousands of years[3][5] before being dispersed byEuropean settlement after colonisation.[6][7]Cave paintings,rock engravings and othercultural artefacts indicate that the Adnyamathana and Ndajurri lived in the Flinders Ranges for tens of thousands of years. Occupation of theWarratyi rock shelter dates back approximately 49,000 years.[8][9]
The first European explorers were an exploration party fromMatthew Flinders' seagoing visit to upperSpencer Gulf aboardHMSInvestigator. They climbed Mount Brown in March 1802. In the winter of 1839Edward John Eyre, with five men, two drays and ten horses,further explored the region, setting out fromAdelaide on 1 May. The party set up a depot near Mount Arden, and then explored the surrounding region and upper Spencer Gulf, before heading east to theMurray River and returning toAdelaide.[10]
There are records ofsquatters in theQuorn district as early as 1845;[citation needed] however, the first threepastoral leases in the central Flinders Ranges were only marked out in 1851. These wereWilpena,Arkaba, andAroona, which were developed assheep stations. The leases were initially granted for 14 years by the government of theColony of South Australia, over land dubbed "unoccupied waste lands".[11]
The nameAroona is derived from anAdnyamathanha word meaning "running water", or "place of frogs". Aroona Valley is a long open valley that lies around 25 km (16 mi) north of Wilpena Pound, between the Heysen Range and ABC Ranges. The lease was taken up first by the Brownes, and then by Johnson Frederick Hayward in the 1850s. Hayward had arrived in 1847 fromSomerset, and was initially overseer ofPekina Station. Hayward Bluff, False Mount Hayward, South Mount Hayward, and Mount Hayward, in the Heysen Range, are all named after him.[12] The Aroona head station was built next to a waterhole used by local Adnyamathanha people for its permanent supply of fresh water, but the Aboriginal people were not welcome on the station during Hayward's time there.[13] He was implicated in amassacre of Aboriginal people nearBrachina Gorge. At least 15 men, women, and children were killed in a dawn attack on 17 March 1852, in retaliation for the murder of stockman Robert Richardson on 14 March.[14][15] Hayward said that he was obliged to defend his men, due to the absence of police, and that he was attempting to "capture the murderers", firing at them in "self-defence". Sergeant Major Rose, who was in the district at the time with theProtector of Aborigines,Matthew Moorhouse, arrested two Aboriginal men called Bill and Jemmy, but they were released after being held for some time owing to lack of evidence and problems finding an interpreter.[13] In the early 1860s Hayward returned to England, and purchased an estate nearBath, which he called Aroona.[12]
In 1852Kanyaka Station was established by Hugh Proby.[citation needed]
William Pinkerton is credited as being the first European to find a route through the Flinders Ranges via Pichi Richi Pass. In 1853 he drove 7,000 sheep along the eastern plains of the range, to whereQuorn would be built 25 years later (Pinkerton Creek runs through the Quorn township).[citation needed]
During the late 1870s the push to open agricultural land for wheat north of theGoyder's Line had met with unusual success, with good rainfall and crops in the Flinders Ranges. This, along with the copper mining lobby (copper was mined in the Hawker-Flinders Ranges area in the late 1850s and transported overland by bullock dray), induced the government to build a narrow gauge railway line north ofPort Augusta through Pichi Richi Pass,Quorn,Hawker and along the west of the ranges toMarree, to service the agricultural and pastoral industries.
However, rainfall returned to a normal pattern for the region, causing many agricultural farms to collapse. Remnants of abandoned homes can still be seen dotted around the arid landscape. Wilpena station, due to its unusual geography, along with areas around Quorn and Carrieton, are now the only places north ofGoyder's Line to sustain any crops.[citation needed] Wilpena has now been left to the wild and is only a tourist location. As of 2009, kukri, unpopular with most Australian farmers as it yields 10–15% less grain than other varieties of wheat, is being grown for export to India.[16]
Mining exploration continued in the region, but coal mining atLeigh Creek and barytes at Oraparinna were the only long-term successes. Pastoral industries flourished, and the rail line became of major importance in opening up and servicing sheep and cattle stations along the route toAlice Springs.[citation needed]
Hawker townsite was surveyed at a bend in the railway line where the train line left the main road toBlinman, and named in 1880 after South Australian politician and pastoralistGeorge Charles Hawker.[citation needed]
Quorn was surveyed by Godfrey Walsh and proclaimed a town on 16 May 1878. The township covered an area of 1.72 km2 (0.66 sq mi) and was laid out in squares in a manner similar to the state's capital city, Adelaide. GovernorJervois reputedly bestowed the name 'Quorn' because his private secretary at the time had come from the parish ofQuorn, Leicestershire in England.[citation needed]
In the 1920s Aroona became anoutstation ofOraparinna Station, andspring water was used to irrigate large gardens there.[12]
The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia. It starts about 200 km (125 mi) north ofAdelaide city centre.[2] The discontinuous ranges stretch for over 430 km (265 mi) fromPort Pirie toLake Callabonna.[2][17]
Its most characteristic landmark isWilpena Pound / Ikara, a large,sickle-shaped, naturalamphitheatre that covers 80 km2 (31 sq mi),[2] and contains the range's highest peak,St Mary Peak (1,171 m (3,842 ft),[1]) which adjoins theIkara-Flinders Ranges National Park.[3]
The southern ranges are notable for thePichi Richi heritage steam and diesel railway andMount Remarkable National Park.[3]
TheHeysen Trail (named for artistHans Heysen) andMawson Trail (named for geologist and Antarctic explorer SirDouglas Mawson) runs for several hundred kilometres along the ranges, providing scenic long distance routes for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders.[18]
Several small areas in the ranges have theprotected area status. These include the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park near Wilpena Pound/Ikara, the Mount Remarkable National Park in the south nearMelrose, theArkaroola Protection Area in the north,The Dutchmans Stern Conservation Park west ofQuorn, and theMount Brown Conservation Park south of Quorn.
The Flinders Ranges are composed largely of folded and faulted sediments of theAdelaide Geosyncline. This very thick sequence was deposited in a large basin during theNeoproterozoic on the passive margin of the ancient continent ofRodinia. During theCambrian (about 540 million years ago) the area underwent theDelamerian orogeny, when this sequence of rocks was folded and faulted into a large mountain range. The area has undergone subsequent erosion resulting in the relatively low ranges today.[19]
Most of the high ground and ridgetops are sequences ofquartzites that outcrop alongstrike. The high walls ofWilpena Pound are formed by the outcropping beds of the eponymous Pound Quartzite in a synclinal structure. Synclines form other high parts of the Flinders, including the plateau of theGammon Ranges and the Heysen Range.Cuesta forms are also very common.[17]
The Ranges are renowned for theEdiacara Hills, south-west ofLeigh Creek, where in 1946 some of the oldest fossil evidence of animal life was discovered. Similar fossils have subsequently been found in the ranges, including atNilpena, with an application being made for World Heritage listing to help protect the sites.[20] In 2004 a new geological period, theEdiacaran Period, was created to mark the appearance ofEdiacaran biota.[21]
The region has asemi-arid climate with hot dry summers and cool winters. Summer temperatures usually exceed 38 °C (100 °F), while winters have highs around 13–16 °C (55–61 °F), depending on the elevation. Althoughrainfall is erratic, most of the precipitation falls in winter.[22] There are also somemonsoonal showers and storms that move in from the north during the summer. The area gets around 250 mm (9.8 in) of rain annually, with the highest atWilpena Pound, at 350 mm (14 in).Frost is common on winter mornings and temperatures have dropped as low as −8 °C (18 °F).Snow has even been recorded in theWilpena Pound and atBlinman.[23] As of 2013, the last significant snowfall was in 1995.[24]
Theflora of the Ranges are largely species adapted to a semi-arid environment, includingsugar gum,cypress-pine,mallee andblack oak. Moister areas near Wilpena Pound supportgrevilleas,Guinea flowers,Liliaceae andferns.Reeds andsedges grow near permanent water sources such assprings andwaterholes.
Since the eradication ofdingos and the establishment of permanent waterholes for stock, the number ofred kangaroos,western grey kangaroos andwallaroos in the Flinders Ranges has increased. Theyellow-footed rock-wallaby, which neared extinction after the arrival of Europeans due to hunting and predation byfoxes andferal cats, has now stabilised. Other endemic marsupials includedunnarts andplanigales. Insectivorousbats make up a significant proportion of the mammals. There are a large number of bird species includingparrots,galahs,emus, thewedge-tailed eagle and small numbers of water birds. Reptiles includegoannas,snakes,dragon lizards,skinks andgeckos. Thestreambank froglet is an endemicamphibian.
The Ranges are part of theTirari–Sturt stony desertecoregion.[25]
A team acting on behalf of theGovernment of South Australia and thetraditional owners, theAdnyamathanha people, which includes internationally-renowned American palaeontologistMary L. Droser, lodged a nomination for a tentative listing as aWorld Heritage Site,[26] which was accepted byUNESCO in April 2021.[27][26]
The application was made on the basis of its unique geological and palaeontological values. It is a lengthy process, and the site needs to fulfil very specific criteria as well as showing strong evidence that its values are absolutely unique in the world.[28]
The involvement of the Adnyamathanha people, particularly theircaring for country and sharing knowledge of their cultural heritage, is an important part of the future management of a World Heritage site.[29] In November 2022, the state government announced an allocation ofA$500,000 over four years towards enabling the Adnyamathanha people to identify priorities for cultural heritage protection. One example is therock engravings that are understood to be the oldest artwork in the world, some dating back 40,000 years. ElderVince Coulthard has been involved in the application process, and says that thecreation stories also need to be included.[30]
Seven geographically separate properties in the Flinders have been identified as possessing the technical and scientific evidence necessary to support the bid:[28][31]
As of August 2025[update] the application remains on the tentative list,[31] and is due to be voted on in 2026.[33]
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