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Greater Blue Mountains Area
The Greater Blue Mountains Area is a World Heritage Site located in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. The area was placed on the World Heritage List at the 24th Session of the World Heritage Committee, held in Cairns in 2000. Etymology When the atmospheric temperature of the region rises, the essential oil from the eucalyptus species evaporates and disperses in the air, causing visible spectra of sunlight to scatter. The scattering causes the shorter wavelength colours (blue) to propagate more than the longer wavelength colours (red). This causes reflections from the mountains to appear bluish to human eyes, giving the mountain region its signature name, "Blue Mountains". Description The Greater Blue Mountains Area consists of of mostly forested landscape on a sandstone plateau inland from the Sydney central business district. The area includes vast expanses of wilderness and is equivalent in area to almost one-third the size of Belgium, or twice the siz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jamison Valley
The Jamison Valley forms part of the Coxs River canyon system in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. It is situated approximately 100 kilometres west of Sydney, capital of New South Wales, and a few kilometres south of Katoomba, the main town in the Blue Mountains. History Indigenous history The traditional inhabitants of the land in what is now known as the Jamison Valley are the Aboriginal Gundungurra people who are estimated to have lived in the region for years, stretching south towards the Burragorang Valley, north of Goulburn. European history The Jamison Valley was named by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in honour of Sir John Jamison (1776-1844), a prominent landowner and physician who visited the Blue Mountains with the governor in 1815. Later, as local towns were beginning to develop, the British naturalist Charles Darwin toured the area. He stayed at the Weatherboard Inn in Wentworth Falls in 1836, and undertook a walk along Jamison Creek to the esc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nattai National Park
The Nattai National Park is a protected national park that is located in the Macarthur and Southern Highlands regions of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. It is situated approximately southwest of the Sydney central business district and primarily encompasses the valley of the Nattai River, which is surrounded by spectacular sandstone cliffs. Part of the Southern Highlands Shale Forest and Woodland, the park is covered in dry sclerophyll (hard leafed) forest – mostly eucalypt and has fairly frequent forest fires. It is largely an untouched wilderness area and receives very few visitors, as it has virtually no facilities and is fairly remote, despite its proximity to Sydney. The Nattai National Park is one of the eight protected areas that, in 2000, was inscribed to form part of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Greater Blue Mountains Area. The Nattai National Park is the most southern of the eight protected areas within the World Heritage Site. The national park fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiger Quoll
The tiger quoll (''Dasyurus maculatus''), also known as the spotted-tail quoll, the spotted quoll, the spotted-tail dasyure, native cat or the tiger cat, is a carnivorous marsupial of the quoll genus '' Dasyurus'' native to Australia. With males and females weighing around , respectively, it is the world's second-largest extant carnivorous marsupial, behind the Tasmanian devil. Two subspecies are recognised; the nominate is found in wet forests of southeastern Australia and Tasmania, and a northern subspecies, ''D. m. gracilis'', is found in a small area of northern Queensland and is endangered. Taxonomy The tiger quoll is a member of the family Dasyuridae, which includes most carnivorous marsupial mammals. This quoll was first described in 1792 by Robert Kerr, the Scottish writer and naturalist, who placed it in the genus '' Didelphis'', which includes several species of American opossum. The species name, ''maculatus'', indicates this species is spotted. Two subspecies a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White-browed Babbler
The white-browed babbler (''Pomatostomus superciliosus'') is a small, gregarious species of bird in the family Pomatostomidae. They are endemic to the open woodlands and shrubby areas of central and southern Australia. The Latin name ''superciliosus'' refers to the supercilium or ‘eyebrow’, which is a feature synonymous with the ''pomatostomine'' babblers (Hall's babbler, chestnut-crowned babbler, grey-crowned babbler and white-browed babbler). Description Ranging from 17 cm to 21 cm in length the white-browed babbler is the smallest of the Australian babblers. It is a medium-sized terrestrial bird with a long and decurved bill. The wings are short and rounded in shape adjoining to a plump, full body which is similar, but slightly smaller than the chestnut-crowned or Hall's babbler. The tail is long and graduated ending with a rounded tip. The gregarious nature of this species means that the tail is often fanned or raised or any mix of the two. There are many varia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red-necked Wallaby
The red-necked wallaby or Bennett's wallaby (''Notamacropus rufogriseus'') is a medium-sized macropod marsupial (wallaby), common in the more temperate and fertile parts of eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Red-necked wallabies have been introduced to several other countries, including New Zealand, the United Kingdom (in England and Scotland), Ireland, the Isle of Man, France and Germany. Description Red-necked wallabies are distinguished by their black nose and paws, white stripe on the upper lip, and grizzled medium grey coat with a reddish wash across the shoulders. They can weigh and attain a head-body length of , although males are generally bigger than females. Red-necked wallabies are very similar in appearance to the black-striped wallaby (''Notamacropus dorsalis''), the only difference being that red-necked wallabies are larger, lack a black stripe down the back, and have softer fur. Red-necked wallabies may live up to nine years. Distribution and habitat Red- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dingo
The dingo (''Canis familiaris'', ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient ( basal) lineage of dog found in Australia. Its taxonomic classification is debated as indicated by the variety of scientific names presently applied in different publications. It is variously considered a form of domestic dog not warranting recognition as a subspecies, a subspecies of dog or wolf, or a full species in its own right. The dingo is a medium-sized canine that possesses a lean, hardy body adapted for speed, agility, and stamina. The dingo's three main coat colourations are light ginger or tan, black and tan, or creamy white. The skull is wedge-shaped and appears large in proportion to the body. The dingo is closely related to the New Guinea singing dog: their lineage split early from the lineage that led to today's domestic dogs, and can be traced back through the Maritime Southeast Asia to Asia. The earliest known dingo fossil, found in Weste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wollemia
''Wollemia'' is a genus of coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. It was known only through fossil records until 1994, when the Australian species ''Wollemia nobilis'' was discovered in a temperate rainforest wilderness area of the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales. It was growing in a remote series of narrow, steep-sided, sandstone gorges north-west of Sydney. The genus is named after the National Park. In both botanical and popular literature, the tree has been almost universally referred to as the Wollemi pine (), although it is not a true pine (genus ''Pinus''), nor a member of the pine family (Pinaceae), but is related to ''Agathis'' and ''Araucaria'' in the family Araucariaceae. The Wollemi pine is classified as critically endangered (CR) on the IUCN's Red List, and is legally protected in Australia. After it was discovered that the trees could be successfully cloned, new trees were potted up in the Botanic Gardens of Sydney and Mount Annan. A Recovery Pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Relict (biology)
In biogeography and paleontology, a relict is a population or taxon of organisms that was more widespread or more diverse in the past. A relictual population is a population currently inhabiting a restricted area whose range was far wider during a previous geologic epoch. Similarly, a relictual taxon is a taxon (e.g. species or other lineage) which is the sole surviving representative of a formerly diverse group. Definition A relict (or relic) plant or animal is a taxon that persists as a remnant of what was once a diverse and widespread population. Relictualism occurs when a widespread habitat or range changes and a small area becomes cut off from the whole. A subset of the population is then confined to the available hospitable area, and survives there while the broader population either shrinks or evolves divergently. This phenomenon differs from endemism in that the range of the population was not always restricted to the local region. In other words, the species or grou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swamps Of The Blue Mountains
The swamp communities of the Blue Mountains are a geographically dispersed group of ecologically-endangered peat swamp communities, spanning multiple parts of the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains National Park in New South Wales, Australia. History The swamps were first listed as endangered ecological communities in 2004, under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (NSW). The swamp communities are usually found at altitudes ranging between above sea level. They comprise less than or around 3% of the total heritage area of the Blue Mountains National park. It is believed that swamps such as these formed around 15,000 years ago. The Blue Mountain swamps exist within low‐lying sites on valley floors (valley swamps) and also as hanging swamps which occur on steep hillsides and around the headwaters of creeks. Varieties The swamp communities exist with different variability, and may be considered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sclerophyll
Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct sunlight. The word comes from the Greek ''sklēros'' (hard) and ''phyllon'' (leaf). The term was coined by A.F.W. Schimper in 1898 (translated in 1903), originally as a synonym of xeromorph, but the two words were later differentiated. Sclerophyllous plants occur in many parts of the world, but are most typical of areas with low rainfall or seasonal droughts, such as Australia, Africa, and western North and South America. They are prominent throughout Australia, parts of Argentina, the Cerrado biogeographic region of Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil, and in the Mediterranean biomes that cover the Mediterranean Basin, California, Chile, and the Cape Province of South Africa. In the Mediterranean basin, holm oak, cork oak and olives a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of all volcanic rock on Earth is basalt. Rapid-cooling, fine-grained basalt is chemically equivalent to slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro. The eruption of basalt lava is observed by geologists at about 20 volcanoes per year. Basalt is also an important rock type on other planetary bodies in the Solar System. For example, the bulk of the plains of Venus, which cover ~80% of the surface, are basaltic; the lunar maria are plains of flood-basaltic lava flows; and basalt is a common rock on the surface of Mars. Molten basalt lava has a low viscosity due to its relatively low silica content (between 45% and 52%), resulting in rapidly moving lava flows that can spread over great areas before cooling and solidifying. Flood basalts are t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Height Datum
The Australian Height Datum was introduced in 1971 as the official vertical datum for Australia, and thereby serves as the benchmark to which all height measurements are referred. The Australian Height Datum is an amalgamation of decades of spirit levelling work conducted by numerous state and territory authorities across the country, and was corrected to align with the mean sea level observations of thirty tide gauges positioned around the entire coastline. While it remains the published vertical datum for all surveying and engineering operations performed throughout Australia, newer technologies have uncovered numerous deficiencies, offsets and distortions within the Australian Height Datum, leading to discussions about defining a new Australian vertical datum. Background The National Mapping Council (pre-1945) Prior to the creation of the Australian Height Datum, levelling surveys were carried out by professional surveyors for construction and mapping purposes using o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
