Mary Seymour Conservation Park Explained

Type:protected
Mary Seymour Conservation Park
State:sa
Iucn Category:III
Iucn Ref:[1]
Coordinates:-37.1696°N 140.6233°W
Relief:yes
Pushpin Label Position:left
Nearest Town Or City:Naracoorte
Area:3.4
Area Footnotes:[2]
Established Footnotes:[3]
Visitation Num:‘low’
Visitation Year:1992

Mary Seymour Conservation Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located in the south-east of the state in the gazetted locality of Bool Lagoon about south-west of the town centre of Naracoorte.[4] The conservation park occupies land in sections 199, 200 and 365 of the cadastral unit of the Hundred of Robertson. It is bounded by the Coles-Killanoola Road to the west and by the Bool Lagoon West Road to the north while the land reserved for roads on its east and south boundaries have not been developed as of 1992.[4]

A drain known as ‘Killanoola Drain”, which is part of the drainage infrastructure built in the south east of the state since European settlement, passes through the eastern quarter of the conservation park, carrying water to a drain known as ‘Drain M’ located to the north and which terminates in the sea at Beachport in the south. The presence of the drain is reported as having “modified the natural water regime of the wetland system” within the conservation park.[5] [4] As of 1992, it included a “former sand quarry and two stone quarries” in its south west corner, a system of yards “which are historically significant remnants of past land use” on its eastern side and a network of tracks to its boundaries and to its interior.

It was proclaimed under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 on 18 September 1980.[3] As of July 2016, it covered an area of .[2]

In 1992, the conservation park was described as having a landscape consisting of a limestone ridge in its “western quarter” while its remainder is a “complex wetland system, with limestone outcrops.” It supports the following “distinct vegetation types” with one type in the “western quarter” and three types within the wetland system:

  1. the “western quarter” supports a “low open forest of brown stringybark … and pink gum … associations over a sparse low shrub layer.”
  2. “a two strata mid-dense low shrub formation of mallee honey-myrtle (Melaleuca neglecta) with cutting grass … over a sparse tussock grass and dwarf shrub stratum dominated by bare twig-rush (Machaerinajuncea) and small darwinia …;”
  3. “a two strata low shrub formation of prickly tea-tree and mallee honey-myrtle over a sparse dwarf shrub layer dominated by clustered sword-sedge (Lepidospefllla congestum), bare twigrush, running marsh-flower (Villarsia reniformis), and prickly tea-tree; and”
  4. ”an isolated tree formation of South Australian blue gum …, pink gum and river red gum …, over a sparse ground stratum of clustered sword-sedge and bare twig-rush with annual grasses and forbs”.

As of 1992, visitor use as reported as being “low” with visitors consisting mainly of “members of the local and Naracoorte communities for nature study, with the former sand quarry used regularly for picnicking” and with camping being “an occasional activity” for which sites and associated facilities were absent.

The conservation park is classified as an IUCN Category III protected area.[1]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Terrestrial Protected Areas of South Australia (refer 'DETAIL' tab) . CAPAD 2016. Australian Government, Department of the Environment (DoE) . 21 February 2018 . 2016.
  2. Web site: Protected Areas Information System - reserve list (as of 11 July 2016). Department of Environment Water and Natural Resources. 11 July 2016 . 14 July 2016.
  3. NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE ACT, *972-1978: SECTION 30—HUNDRED OF ROBERTSON, COUNTY OF ROBE—CONSERVATION PARK CONSTITUTED . The South Australian Government Gazette . 18 September 1980 . 872 . 30 March 2017 . Government of South Australia.
  4. Web site: Search result(s) for Mary Seymour Conservation Park (Record No. SA0043342) with the following layers being selected - "Parcel labels", "Suburbs and Localities", "Hundreds", "Place names (gazetteer)" and "Road labels" . Government of South Australia . Property Location Browser . 30 March 2017 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20161012010923/http://maps.sa.gov.au/plb/ . 12 October 2016 .
  5. Web site: Upper South East Drainage Network Management Strategy, prepared under section 43a of the Upper South East Dryland Salinity And Flood Management Act 2002 . Government of South Australia, Department for Water . June 2011 . 30 August 2016 . 54.