Australia’s National Parks are Natural Wonders of the World

May 28, 2021 CATALYST Team

Lake Moogerah in Queensland, Australia. Lenny K Photography. CC BY 2.0.

Australia has long been an escape for those who are seeking to get in touch with nature. While the country is most famous for its semiarid and desert regions, Australia is one of the few countries in the world which can boast a majority of the Earth’s 14 ecoregions—the continent is home to eight.

While Australia is the sixth-largest country in the world, it is one of the most sparsely populated. According to the 2016 census, 23.4 million people call Australia home, with 80% living less than 60 miles from the coast, yielding a population density of 9 people per square mile. This has left the vast majority of Australia’s ecoregions untouched by human development.

Australia’s eight ecoregions range from the very wet tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests—found exclusively on the northeast coast of Queensland—to the deserts and xeric shrublands which comprise a majority of the country’s landmass.

This vast diversity in natural habitats makes Australia one of the most biodiverse places in the world. According to the 2009 Numbers of Living Species in Australia and the World report, 147,579 described species had been confirmed, with the estimate for the total number of species which call the continent home at 566,398. A majority of these species are endemic to Australia, ranging from platypi to emus to kangaroos to koalas.

The National Reserve System, Australia’s counterpart to the United States’ National Park Service, is a largely new system of protected areas with the goal of preserving Australia’s vast biodiversity and ecoregions. While the first national park in the country, the Royal National Park in New South Wales, was established in 1879, the National Reserve System did not come into existence until 1992 with the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Since then, the National Reserve System has gone on to become a vast network of over 13,000 commonwealth, state and territory protected areas, with a combined landmass of 370 million acres—about 19.75% of the country’s total landmass. Ranging from the expansive Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales, which includes high summits which regularly see snowfall, to the famous Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the Simpson Desert, Australia’s National Reserve System truly offers something for everyone.

The Devil’s Marbles, a natural rock formation in the Northern Territory. Mark Wassell. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

For travelers who are looking to explore the desert and see some unique rock formations, Western Australia’s Nambung National Park cannot be beaten. Located in the Pinnacles Desert, Nambung offers picturesque desert views, beautiful beaches at Kangaroo Point and Hangover Bay, and the aforementioned rock formations called stromatolites. The park can be enjoyed year-round, but the most popular time to visit is in September and October, when its wildflowers are in full bloom.

Located on the southwestern coast of Victoria, Port Campbell National Park is home to breathtaking cliffs which overlook the Southern Ocean and a variety of natural islets, gorges and arches. One of the most famous, the London Bridge, provides the perfect spot to view a population of little penguins come ashore, as well as whale watching in the winter months. Port Campbell can be enjoyed year-round, with different flora and fauna prevalent throughout the various seasons of the year.

For those who can’t get enough of the rainforest, Daintree National Park in Queensland is a popular park for camping and hiking. A part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland, which were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988, the park is home to a variety of unique species, including 430 birds, 23 reptiles and 13 amphibians. While the park is open year-round, the best time to visit is during the drier, cooler months from May to September.