National
Parks are special places, vital for biodiversity protection. They are also places where humans who
appreciate nature can re-connect with a world that is in some ways simpler and
certainly more natural than our everyday world.
The New
England National Park has been my favourite for many years.
I first
visited this national park nearly 40 years ago with my husband and two young
children. Since then I've been back many
times with my kids, with friends and on several occasions with my
grandchildren.
A
wonderful natural area, perched on the edge of the New England plateau, it overlooks
the Bellinger Valley. From the
escarpment at Point Lookout you look east across ridge after ridge of densely
vegetated land. In the ravines and
valleys, where the dense rainforests are, the vegetation is dark green. Along the ridges, the domain of eucalypts and
species that live in drier areas, the green is paler.
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| One of the views from the escarpment |
Sometimes
you look down onto cloud which fills the valleys and gives the impression of a
white sea with islands of vegetation rising from it.
I've explored
many walking tracks in this park – from those meandering through the tree ferns
to steep trails descending through majestic, mossy Antarctic Beech, remnants of
the ancient continent of Gondwanaland.
Some
tracks follow swiftly flowing creeks plunging for a while over huge granite
boulders. Then these creeks seem to rest,
turning into deep shadowed pools which look inviting but which are
breath-catchingly cold even in mid-summer.
Highlights
of many visits have been encounters with the Superb Lyrebird, an outstanding
mimic and an extremely shy bird. I
remember one magical time many years ago when I saw a male lyrebird, tail
unfurled and magnificent, practising what must have been his mating
ritual. He danced and carolled and
mimicked while I watched entranced.
 |
| Male Lyrebird |
Special
places like the New England National Park and other national parks like
Washpool, Gibraltar Range and Yuraygir are now under threat from the state
government’s cost-cutting and restructure of the National Parks and Wildlife
Service, the body responsible for biodiversity protection and management of the
national parks estate.
- Leonie Blain
This article was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on October 30th, 2017.
