Mount Woodroffe (dual-named as "Ngarutjaranya/Mount Woodroofe") is a mountain in the Australian state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, located in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands in the state's northwest. It is

's highest peak, at .

Cultural significance

The mountain is known to the Pitjantjatjara

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples o ...

as Ngarutjaranya. In Indigenous Australian mythology, the mountain embodies the mythological creature Ngintaka.

Geography

Mount Woodroffe is located in the far northwest of

, in the Musgrave Ranges. The mountain range rises some 700–800 metres from the surrounding plains and comprises massifs of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ...

and

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures a ...

History

William Ernest Giles was the first white man to pass through the area and camped to the south of Woodroffe on September 7, 1873.

William Christie Gosse William Christie Gosse (11 December 1842–12 August 1881), was an Australian explorer, who was born in Hoddesdon,"Gosse, William Christie (1842–1881)". ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Online Edition. Australian National University ...

had previously named it Mt Woodroffe on July 20 that same year. Woodroffe was named after George Woodroffe Goyder, Surveyor-General of South Australia and an early Australian explorer. In the 1960s Mount Woodroffe was considered as a potential site for the proposed Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). It lost out due to its remoteness compared to

Siding Spring Siding Spring may refer to: * Siding Spring Observatory, an astronomical observatory in Australia ** Siding Spring 2.3 m Telescope, the telescope at Siding Spring Observatory ** Siding Spring Survey, a near-Earth object search program * 2343 Sidin ...

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 ...

, where the AAT sits today amongst other astronomical observatories.

Access

Access is limited as a permit is required to enter the Anangu Pitjantjatjara lands.

References

External links