The Border Ranges National Park is a

protected Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although th ...

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...

that is located in the

Northern Rivers Northern Rivers is the most north-easterly region of the Australian state of New South Wales, located between north of the state capital, Sydney, and encompasses the catchments and fertile valleys of the Clarence, Richmond, and Tweed rive ...

region of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. A small portion of the national park is also located in

South East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a bio-geographical, metropolitan, political and administrative region of the state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million people out of the state's population of 5.1 million. T ...

. The park is situated approximately south of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, north of . The park is part of the Shield Volcano Group

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

Gondwana Rainforests of Australia The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, formerly known as the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves, are the most extensive area of subtropical rainforest in the world. Collectively, the rainforests are a World Heritage Site with fifty separate re ...

inscribed in 1986 and added to the

Australian National Heritage List The Australian National Heritage List or National Heritage List (NHL) is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The list includes natural and ...

in 2007.

Geology

The Border Ranges region, which includes the

McPherson Range The McPherson Range is an extensive mountain range, a spur of the Great Dividing Range, heading in an easterly direction from near Wallangarra, Queensland, Wallangarra to the Pacific Ocean coastline. It forms part of the Scenic Rim on the border ...

Tweed Range The Tweed Range is a mountain range which is the western extension of the Tweed Volcano caldera rim, part of the Scenic Rim of the Great Dividing Range, located in northern New South Wales, near the southeastern border of Queensland, in Austra ...

, Lamington Plateau and Levers Plateau, were formed from the erosion of the

Tweed Volcano Tweed Volcano is a partially eroded Early Miocene shield volcano located in northeastern New South Wales, which formed when this region of Australia passed over the East Australia hotspot around 23 million years ago. Mount Warning, Lamingt ...

over many years. A number of

volcanic plug A volcanic plug, also called a volcanic neck or lava neck, is a volcanic object created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano. When present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure if rising volatile-charged m ...

s remain in the Border Ranges National Park. Notable for extensive stands of ''

Nothofagus moorei ''Nothofagus moorei'', commonly known as Antarctic beech, is an important Gondwana relict of the rainforests of the southern hemisphere. It occurs in wet, fire-free areas at high altitude in eastern Australia. The Antarctic beech group (Nothof ...

'' (Antarctic beech), the park offers a gravel road circuit through sub tropical, cool and warm

temperate rainforest Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain. Temperate rain forests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate rain forests of North American P ...

types. The area was extensively logged during the 20th century, providing timber to a number of nearby sawmills. The

Lions Road The Lions Road is a section of the road running between the Summerland Way in New South Wales and the Mount Lindesay Highway near Rathdowney, Queensland at Running Creek. It joins two pre-existing sections of rural road, namely Gradys Creek Ro ...

and the Sydney–Brisbane rail corridor pass through the park at its narrow middle section.

Flora and fauna

Border Ranges and

Lamington National Park The Lamington National Park is a national park, lying on the Lamington Plateau of the McPherson Range on the Queensland/New South Wales border in Australia. From Southport on the Gold Coast the park is to the southwest and Brisbane is north. ...

are recognised as a

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity' ...

hotspot, containing a mixture of northern and southern flora species (the McPherson-Macleay overlap) with a number of

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

, rare and endangered species. Fauna is similarly diverse and species like the Hastings River mouse, have been rediscovered in the park in recent years.Big Volcano Visitor Guide, reprint of article by David Charley in ''Over The Fence'', the Newsletter of the Northern Rivers Region, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. Newsletter No.6, April 2000
Brindle Creek Border Ranges National Park

Brindle Creek Border Ranges National Park

Lower areas of the park contain eucalypt forests that provide habitat for eastern grey kangaroos,

red-necked wallabies 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 ...

and

koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the ...

Pademelon Pademelons are small, furry, hopping mammals in the genus ''Thylogale'', found in Australia and New Guinea. They are some of the smallest members of the macropod family (Macropodidae), which includes the similar-looking but larger kangaroos an ...

s and

potoroo Potoroo is a common name for species of ''Potorous'', a genus of smaller marsupials. They are allied to the Macropodiformes, the suborder of kangaroo, wallaby, and other rat-kangaroo genera. All three extant species are threatened by ecological ...

are also found in the park as well as a diverse array of birdlife including the rare

Albert's lyrebird Albert's lyrebird (''Menura alberti'') is a timid, pheasant-sized songbird which is endemic to subtropical rainforests of Australia, in a small area on the state border between New South Wales and Queensland. The rarer of the two species of lyre ...

. The park is part of the

Scenic Rim The Scenic Rim is a group of forested mountain ranges of the Great Dividing Range, located south of Brisbane agglomeration, straddling the border between south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales, Australia. In 2021, the Sce ...

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

, identified as such by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because of its importance in the conservation of several species of

threatened Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensa ...

birds.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Scenic Rim. Downloaded from on 2011-10-03. Lilly Pilly fruit floating in the creek

The Border Ranges contains one of Australia's most diverse range of spider species within its montane rainforests.

Facilities

Two camp grounds (car/camper and walk-in tent camping only) and a number of picnic areas, some with shelters, water and composting toilets, are available at various points in the rainforest adjacent to the road, and one picnic spot at Blackbutts Lookout, has extensive views to

Mount Warning Mount Warning ( Bundjalung: ''Wollumbin''), a mountain in the Tweed Range in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, was formed from a volcanic plug of the now-gone Tweed Volcano. The mountain is located west-south-west of Mu ...

, and of the Tweed Valley, an erosion

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber ...

which, while broken by the sea on its eastern flank, is considered larger in size than the

Ngorongoro Crater The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (, ) is a protected area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Ngorongoro District, west of Arusha City in Arusha Region, within the Crater Highlands geological area of northern Tanzania. The area is n ...

in Tanzania. Border Ranges National Park, Australia

References

External links

Official site

Official UNESCO CERRA Listing

{{authority control National parks of New South Wales Protected areas established in 1979 Gondwana Rainforests of Australia 1979 establishments in Australia Important Bird Areas of New South Wales Northern Rivers Kyogle Council

Geology

Flora and fauna

Facilities

See also

References

External links