Hartz Mountains National Park is located in the south of

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

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 ...

. It is one of 19 Tasmanian National Parks, and in 1989 it was included in the

Tasmanian Wilderness The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, abbreviated to TWWHA, is a World Heritage Site in Tasmania, Australia. It is one of the largest conservation areas in Australia, covering , or almost 25 per cent of Tasmania. It is also one of the l ...

World Heritage Area, in recognition of its natural and cultural values.Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania: ''Hartz Mountains National Park - Introduction''
, retrieved 14 December 2010 The Hartz Mountains were named after the

Harz The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' der ...

mountain range in Germany.

Geography and geology

Most of the park is over 600 metres above sea level, with altitudes ranging from 160 m at the Picton River to 1,255 m at Hartz Peak. The backbone of rock in the park is

dolerite Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grain ...

, while the southern areas at lower altitudes are constituted from

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...

s formed from sediments deposited by marine, glacial and freshwater sources between 355 and 180 million years ago. The relief has been modified over time by several ice ages, forming

cirque A (; from the Latin word ) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by Glacier#Erosion, glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from , meaning a pot or cauldron) and ; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform a ...

s, horn peaks, aretes and

glacial trough U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of Glacial period, glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with s ...

s.Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania: ''Hartz Mountains National Park - Highlights''
, retrieved 14 December 2010

Flora and fauna

The varied vegetation includes wet

eucalypt Eucalypt is any woody plant with Capsule (fruit), capsule fruiting bodies belonging to one of seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

forests, mixed forests dominated by

stringybark A stringybark can be any of the many ''Eucalyptus'' species which have thick, fibrous bark. Like all eucalypts, stringybarks belong to the family Myrtaceae. In exceptionally fertile locations some stringybark species (in particular messmate strin ...

(''Eucalyptus obliqua''),

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

s, sub-alpine and alpine forests. The rainforest communities are dominated by myrtle (''Nothofagus cunninghamii''),

sassafras ''Sassafras'' is a genus of three extant and one extinct species of deciduous trees in the family Lauraceae, native to eastern North America and eastern Asia.Wolfe, Jack A. & Wehr, Wesley C. 1987. The sassafras is an ornamental tree. "Middle Eo ...

(''Atherosperma moschatum''), leatherwood (''Eucryphia lucida'') and native laurel (''Anopterus glandulosus''). The sub-alpine forests are dominated by three eucalypt types:

snow gum ''Eucalyptus pauciflora'', commonly known as snow gum, cabbage gum or white sally, is a species of tree or Mallee (habit), mallee that is native to eastern Australia. It has smooth bark, lance-shaped to elliptical leaves, flower buds in clusters ...

(''Eucalyptus coccifera''), varnished gum (''E. vernicosa''), Australia's smallest eucalypt, and yellow gum (''E. subcrenulata''). Much of the understorey is made of heath plants, including the Tasmanian waratah (''Telopea truncata''). Most mammals in the park are nocturnal, and include Bennett's wallabies,

Tasmanian pademelon The Tasmanian pademelon (''Thylogale billardierii''), also known as the rufous-bellied pademelon or red-bellied pademelon, is the sole species of pademelon found in Tasmania, and was formerly found throughout southeastern Australia. This pademel ...

brushtail possum The brushtail possums are the members of the genus ''Trichosurus'' in the Phalangeridae, a family of marsupials. They are native to Australia (including Tasmania) and some small nearby islands. Unique among marsupials, they have shifted the hyp ...

echidna Echidnas (), sometimes known as spiny anteaters, are quill-covered monotremes (egg-laying mammals) belonging to the Family (biology), family Tachyglossidae , living in Australia and New Guinea. The four Extant taxon, extant species of echidnas ...

s and

platypus The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypi ...

. Among amphibians outstanding is the moss froglet which was discovered at Hartz Mountains in 1992. Some of the common birds in the park include the

eastern spinebill The eastern spinebill (''Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris'') is a species of honeyeater found in Southeast Australia temperate forests, south-eastern Australia in forest and woodland areas, as well as gardens in urban areas of Canberra, Sydney, Melbo ...

, green rosella,

forest raven The forest raven (''Corvus tasmanicus''), also commonly known as the Tasmanian raven, is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae native to Tasmania and parts of southern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, such as Wilsons Promontory and Portland, ...

and several

honeyeater The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New Gui ...

Human history

The area of the park was once inhabited by the Mellukerdee

aboriginal people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

. The first Europeans came to the area in the 19th century in search of

Huon pine ''Lagarostrobos franklinii'' is a species of conifer native to the wet southwestern corner of Tasmania, Australia. It is often known as the Huon pine or Macquarie pine, although it is actually a podocarp (Podocarpaceae), not a true pine (Pinacea ...

timber. In the 1840s early settlers including the Geeves family founded the township of

Geeveston Geeveston is a small town in the south of Tasmania in Australia near the Huon River, south west of Hobart, making it Australia's most southerly administrative centre. The town takes its name from William Geeves, an English settler who was giv ...

, and laid the first track to the Hartz Mountains. As a result, the area became one of Tasmania's earliest popular bushwalking destinations. The increasing popularity of the area for recreation led to it being declared a scenic reserve in 1939. In 1951 it was proclaimed to a national park,ABS: ''1384.6 - Statistics - Tasmania, 2005''
/ref> and in 1989 it was included in the

World Heritage Area.

Climate

The Hartz Mountains area experiences typical south-west weather conditions. In all seasons there can be

snow Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

, chilling rains, low temperatures, strong winds,

upslope fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus and is heavily influenced ...

and sudden weather changes. Climate data for the region are sourced from Keoghs Pimple, at an altitude of and operating since 1996. It is an extremely rainy climate with 252 such days per annum, though which tends to fall as light showers or

drizzle Drizzle is a light precipitation which consists of liquid water drops that are smaller than those of rain – generally smaller than in diameter. Drizzle is normally produced by low stratiform clouds and stratocumulus clouds. Precipitation r ...

, with frequent snowfalls that can occur at any time of the year. The mean afternoon relative humidity, is likewise extraordinary.

References

External links