Namadgi National Park

The tradition & historical record

Namadgi National Park is a protected area in the southwest of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), bordering Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales. It lies approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) southwest of Canberra, and occupies approximately 46 percent of the ACT's land area. Created in 1984, the park is on the Australian National Heritage List. It suffered badly in the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, with around 80% of its vegetation burnt. ¹

Namadgi is a local Aboriginal name for the mountains situated to the south-west of Canberra. Aboriginal presence in the area has been dated to at least 21,000 years. With radiocarbon dates of cultural deposits dating back to 9000–6000 years. There are numerous Aboriginal sites in the national park including rock paintings at Yankee Hat, dating from at least 800 years ago. ¹

The area is one of cultural significance to the Aboriginal Australian peoples of the Australian Alps region, who inhabited the ACT region before European settlers arrived, and the national park's management plan is exercised with their consultation. In April 2001, representatives of the Ngambri communities entered into an agreement with the ACT government that recognised their traditional association with the national park lands and their role and duty to their ancestors and descendants as custodians of the area, and established a system of cooperative management. However, as of 2023, the Ngunnawal people are recognised as the traditional owners of the land. ¹

The area has a European history dating back to the 1830s, when settlers moved into the area and cleared the valleys for farming. The mountains and ridges remain forested. Namadgi National Park was created in 1984. ¹

In January 2020, the Orroral Valley bushfire during the Black Summer season burnt about 80% of the national park (82,700 hectares (204,000 acres)). An army MRH-90 Taipan helicopter, as part of Operation Bushfire Assist conducting reconnaissance for landing sites for remote area fire-fighting teams, attempted to land for a break when their landing light ignited the fire in dry grass. ¹

Namadgi National Park lies approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) southwest of Canberra, and makes up approximately 46 percent of the ACT's land area. The Visitor Centre is located 2 km (1.2 mi) south of Tharwa on the Boboyan-Naas Road. The water catchment area of the park supplies approximately 85% of water for the nation's capital city, Canberra. The national park is classified as an IUCN Category II protected area. ¹

The national park protects part of the northern end of the Australian Alps. Its habitat ranges from grassy plains over snow gum forests to alpine meadows and wetlands. The fauna is also varied: eastern grey kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, magpies, rosellas and ravens are commonly seen. The park includes fens with sedges, and sphagnum moss bogs that provide habitat for the northern corroboree frog (Pseudophryne pengilleyi), an endangered species. A single specimen of a new species of spider wasp in the Epipompilus genus was found in the park in 2018 and identified in 2020. The species has been named Epipompilus namadji. As of 2021 efforts are ongoing by teams from the Australian National Insect Collection at the CSIRO to find more of the wasps, as the bushfire has destroyed 80% of the park since the sighting. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Namadgi National Park”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Namadgi National Park is national park in the Australian Capital Territory, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 9 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²