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The Flinders RangesThe Ranges form a part of a larger geological structure called the Adelaide Geosyncline, a big depression that filled with sediments from about 650 to 550 million years ago. On the world-wide scene the Ranges are perhaps most important because of the Ediacara Fauna: a group of fossilized plants and animals dating a little before the great explosion of complex life during the Cambrian Period.The Ranges of the present day are only the stumps of once much larger mountains pushed up by pressures in the Earth's crust many millions of years ago. While they are in a fairly dry part of Australia, they receive a little more rain than the surrounding areas because of their elevation. The flora is therefore distinctive. The southern Flinders are in farming land while the northern ranges are five hundred kilometres toward the dry centre of Australia. The difference in rainfall makes the southern ranges more rounded and more vegetated, while the northern ranges are starker and more barren. The geology also changes: the southern and central ranges are composed of sedimentary rocks with distinctive parallel bedding plains while much of the northern ranges are made up of irregular igneous rocks such as granite. |
The Heysen Range
The Heysen Range photographed from the climb up St Mary's Peak.
The Heysen Range, seen from this angle, is sometimes called the Dragon's Tail, for obvious reasons.
(Photo from Ken Clarke, Marden)
A ruin near Gulnare
Right at the southern end of the Flinders Ranges, perhaps more properly the Mt. Lofty Ranges.
The original slide won the Pictorial slide section of the SA Photographic Federation Exhibition of about 1967.
(Photo from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook)
On the Ulowdna Range
An evening walk along a trail on the Ulowdna Range, near Rawnsley Park.
The southwestern wall of the Wilpena Pound is in the distance.
(Photo from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook)
View north from St. Mary's
A yacka (Xanthorrhoea) close to the old trail up St. Mary's Peak. Unfortunately the newer, safer, trail bypasses this area.
St Mary's Peak on the Wilpena Pound range, at 1170m, is the highest in the Flinders Ranges and the highest in southern South Australia.
(Photo from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook)
Pine in Parachilna Gorge
This native pine (Callitrus) tree is on a prominent little peak on the side of Parachilna Gorge.
Parachilna Creek can be seen in the bottom of the gorge in the photo on the left.
(Photo from Ken Clarke, Marden)
Bedding plains
Prominent bedding plains in the rocks at the base of the Parachilna Gorge on the trail to the Blinman Pools near Angorichina Tourist Village.
(Photo from Ken Clarke, Marden)
Cactus and rock
The wheel cactus is an introduced weed in the Blinman-Parachilna section of the Flinders Ranges, but it makes quite a nice composition with the ridged rocks here.
On the trail to the Blinman Pools.
(Photo from Ken Clarke, Marden)
Sunrise on Mt Ohlssen Bagge
This view is available most mornings about half a kilometre from the camping ground at Wilpena to those who bother to see the sunrise.
(Photo from Ken Clarke, Marden)
Wilpena Pound
The Wilpena Pound range is the most picturesque in the Flinders Ranges. Here it is seen in late afternoon light from near the town of Hawker.
(Photo from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook, 17-April-2003)
Wilpena Pound from the West
This photo was taken from the Hawker to Leigh Creek road. It shows the SW wall of Wilpena Pound.
(Photo from Misho Militch, October 2004)
Ruins from Hawker to Leigh Creek road
I'm not sure exactly where this photo was taken. It appears to show either the Wilpena Pound Range or the Elder Range.
(Photo from Misho Militch, October 2004)
From the road to Bunyeroo Valley
These are favourite views from where the road begins to drop down into the Bunyeroo Valley.
(Photo from Ann and Arnold Muijser, Voorburg, The Netherlands, 2004)
Ann and Arnold were impressed by the Flinders Ranges, the fact that they
live below sea level might have had something to do with this.
From the top of St Mary's Peak
Wilpena Pound is a natural basin high in the Flinders Ranges. It is the source of Wilpena Creek, probably the most important creek of the central Flinders. The south-west wall of the pound is in the middle distance, with the Elder Range in the far distance on the right.
(Photo from Ann and Arnold Muijser, Voorburg, The Netherlands, 2004)
The Elder Range and Wilpena Pound
The Elder Range is on the left and the Wilpena Range on the right.
Looking north from the Hawker air-strip in the late afternoon.
(Photo from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook, 17-April-2003)
View south from Ulowdna Range
This was the view one late afternoon looking south from the top of the Ulowdna Range near Rawnsley Park. There is a well marked walking trail here.
Most of the trees in this photo are the native cypress pines (Calitrus) that are typical of the central ranges. In fact they almost define the central ranges.
(Photo from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook)
Sunrise silhouette
The sun is about to peak over the hill
(Photo from Ken Clarke, Marden)
View from Hucks Lookout
Getting toward late afternoon in April.
(Photo from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook)
Native Pine silhouette
Some Cypress Pines silhouetted against the setting sun, with the impressive Elder Range in the background.
(Photo from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook)
The waterfall is usually dry, but well worth a visit from obvious reasons.
At right, a windmill with the Wilpena Pound range in the background
(Both photos from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook)
An atypical area for the Flinders Ranges
The walk into Wilpena Pound is one of the favourites for visitors.
(Photo from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook)
Early sunlight on gum trees near Wilpena
These gum trees were caught with the early morning sunlight on them while much of their surroundings were still in shade.
(both photos from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook)
Aerial view of the Heysen Range
The ranges drop abruptly down to the Lake Torrens plain on the western side. (Lake Torrens is almost always a dry clay and salt pan.)
The Heysen Range, one of the many that make up the Flinders Ranges, is seen in the distance here, the western end of Wilpena Pound is in the foreground.
(Photo from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook)
Dutchman's Stern
The Dutchman's Stern is a mountain so named because of a resemblance to the stern of a nineteenth century Dutch warship. (Not so much from this angle.)
The Dutchman's Stern conservation park is north of Quorn.
(Photo from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook)
Trees in a wheat field
Just outside of Crystal Brook in the southern Flinders Ranges, on the top road to Bowman Park.
(Photo from Dave Clarke, Crystal Brook)