The Border Ranges National Park is a

protected Protection is any measure taken to guard something 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 ...

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

that is located in the

Northern Rivers Northern Rivers is the most northeasterly Regions of New South Wales, 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 Ri ...

region of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

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 ...

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

South East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a Bioregion, bio-geographical, Megalopolis, metropolitan and Statistics, statistical Regions of Queensland, region of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of ...

. The park is situated approximately south of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

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

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

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 res ...

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 site, national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The li ...

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 Australi ...

, 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, Lamin ...

over many years. A number of

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

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

Nothofagus moorei ''Nothofagus moorei'', commonly known as Antarctic beech, is a species of flowering plant in the family Nothofagaceae that is endemic to high altitude areas of eastern Australia. It is a tree, with simple leathery, glossy, egg-shaped to lance-sh ...

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

temperate rainforest Temperate rainforests are rainforests with coniferous or Broad-leaved tree, broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain. Temperate rainforests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate ...

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

Sydney–Brisbane rail corridor The Sydney–Brisbane railway corridor consists of the long standard-gauge main line between the Australia, Australian state capitals of Brisbane (Queensland) and Sydney (New South Wales), and the lines immediately connected to it. Descript ...

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 in the McPherson Range on the Queensland/New South Wales border in Australia. From Southport, Queensland, Southport on the Gold Coast, Australia, Gold Coast the park is to the southwest and Brisbane ...

are recognised as a

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

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 only 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 foun ...

, 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 kangaroo The eastern grey kangaroo (''Macropus giganteus'': gigantic large-foot; also great grey kangaroo or forester kangaroo) is a marsupial found in the eastern third of Australia, with a population of several million. Although a large ''M. giganteus ...

s, red-necked wallabies and

koala The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only Extant taxon, extant representative of the Family (biology), family ''Phascolar ...

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

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 and is the only genus in the tribe Potoroini. All three ...

are also found in the park as well as a diverse array of birdlife including the rare Albert's lyrebird. 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 i ...

because of its importance in the conservation of several species of

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

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 ...

, 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 volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

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

Ngorongoro Crater 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 northeastern Tanzania. The area is name ...

in Tanzania.

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 Kyogle Council

Geology

Flora and fauna

Facilities

See also

References

External links