| Type: | protected |
| Penola Conservation Park | |
| State: | sa |
| City: | Monbulla |
| Iucn Category: | III |
| Iucn Ref: | [1] |
| Nearest Town Or City: | Penola[2] |
| Area: | 2.27 |
| Area Footnotes: | [3] |
| Established Footnotes: | [4] |
| Managing Authorities: | Department for Environment and Water |
| Url: | https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/parks/find-a-park/Browse_by_region/Limestone_Coast/penola-conservation-park |
Penola Conservation Park (formerly the Penola National Park) is a protected area located in the Australian state of South Australia in the locality of Monbulla about south-east of the state capital of Adelaide and about west of the town of Penola.[2] The conservation park occupies land in sections 255 and 256 of the cadastral unit of the Hundred of Monbulla. It is bounded by roads on three sides - Clay Wells Road (also known as the Robe - Penola road) to the south, Searle Road to the east and Rifle Range Road to the west. A wetland called Green Swamp located in its south-west was described in 1990 as “a semi-permanent wetland of approximately ” while in its south-east corner, there is a “small disused quarry.” [2]
It originally acquired protected area status as one of two parcels of land proclaimed as a fauna sanctuary on 19 February 1970 under the Fauna Conservation Act 1964-1965 with the other parcel being located in the Hundred of Penola.[3] [4] On 10 September 1970, Sections 255 and 256 in the Hundred of Monbulla were proclaimed under the National Parks Act 1966 as the Penola National Park.[5] On 27 April 1972, it was renamed as the Penola Conservation Park upon the proclamation of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 which repealed both of the above-mentioned acts along with other statutes concerned with conservation.[4] [6] The land was reported in 1990 as being previously used for grazing on the basis of the condition of the vegetation and the presence of a well at the edge of the Green Swamp. As of 2016, it covered an area of .[3]
In 1980, the conservation park's listing on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate argued it to be significant for the following reasons:
A fine reserve preserving a range of habitat types representative of the stranded dune and swale terrain of the lower south-east of South Australia. The Park incorporates both dune and swale with associated seasonal swamp. Macropus rufogriseus, Trichosurus vulpecula, Tachylglossus aculeatus and Rattus leutreolus. The diverse avifauna is augmented by a winter influx of waterbirds.
In 1990, the conservation park was described as follows:
…underlain by consolidated calcarenite dunes, overlain with red, weakly structured sandy soils and unconsolidated stranded dunes of bleached sands with a yellow-grey B horizon. Two large wetland areas have a marl base and black organic soils. River red gum flats have sandy, mottled-yellow duplex soil.
In 1990, the following vegetation associations were present:
As of 1990, visitation consisted of use “mainly by local residents and schools groups” and “occasional” use for “bush camping.”
The conservation park is classified as an IUCN Category III protected area.[1]