Mount Scoria Conservation Park is a park near

Thangool, Queensland Thangool is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Banana, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Thangool had a population of 685 people. Geography Thangool is north west of the state capital, Brisbane and south of the Shire ad ...

Central Queensland Central Queensland is an imprecisely-defined geographical division of Queensland ( a state in Australia) that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton. The region extends from the Cap ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, about south-east of

Biloela Biloela ( ) is a rural town and suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Banana, Central Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre of the shire. In the , the locality of Biloela had a population of 5,692. The loc ...

. It is within the traditional lands of the

Gangulu The Gangulu people, also written Kangulu, Kaangooloo, Ghungalu and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people from the Mount Morgan area in Queensland, Australia. Name At least one variant name for the Kangulu, ''Kaangooloo'', was ...

aboriginal people. It features Mount Scoria, a mountain whose peak is about above the surrounding plains. The mountain was once an active

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

, approximately 20 to 26 million years ago. It features unusual and impressive basalt columns, the same type which make up the

Giant's Causeway The Giant's Causeway () is an area of approximately 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcano, volcanic fissure eruption, part of the North Atlantic Igneous Province active in the region during the Paleogene period. ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. As the volcano's lava cooled, it formed distinct columns or pillars with five to eight sides, called columnar basalt. When hit on the tops with a hammer, the columns make musical notes of varying pitch. Activities conducted in the park include animal and birdwatching as well as bushwalking.

References

Conservation parks of Queensland {{Queensland-protected-area-stub

See also

References