Nature in Gregory National Park

A Variety of Wildlife Inhabits Remote, Rugged Outback Australia

Feb 8, 2009 Susan Pedersen

It's survival of the fittest in the Australian Outback. Rocks, rivers and rainfall determine what grows where and nothing moves too far in the middle of the day.

Covering 13,000 square kilometres, Gregory National Park is typical of the Australian Outback. It's not easy to get around in the remote, rugged landscape, but the Park does get regular rain.

Rocks

Red cliffs above rocky slopes are the remnants of an ancient sea bed that has been uplifted, cracked and carved into dramatic landscapes that you can see along the Victoria Highway. It takes specialists to survive in this hard, hot and exposed sandstone country.

Gregory National Park also has limestone features, including tufa dams, calcite flows, rillen-karren and fossils of the oldest known form of life, stromatolites. These karst landscapes have lots of niches for wildlife to hide and shelter, but they are hard and sharp. You need four wheel drive to access the limestone areas and good boots to walk in them.

Rain

When it rains, it floods, usually between December and March. The rest of the year it’s dry.

The northern part of Gregory National Park is sub tropical and might get 800mm rain in a year, or it might not. The southern part of Gregory is semi-arid, with only about 500mm annual rainfall.

Rivers

Rivers and creeks rise and spill across the land during the wet season and shrink during the dry season.

By the end of the dry, the creeks are empty and only fringes of darker green vegetation give away their presence. The few permanent waterways attract more wildlife as it becomes drier.

Along the rivers you may see flying foxes, egrets, darters, cormorants, cockatoos and corellas. More elusive are water rats, kingfishers, tree snakes, monitors, dingoes and wallabies. Estuarine (Saltwater) Crocodiles lurk in the rivers but are not always easy to spot.

There are not many places considered safe for swimming in the Park.

CatchmentGregory National Park lies in the catchment of the Victoria River which begins on the sandy edge of the Tanami Desert where only shrubs and Spinifex grow. Insects, snakes and lizards are the main (but not only) animals in these hot, dry areas.

As the Victoria River and its tributaries meander northward into the savanna grasslands and sandstone ranges, there is more water and more life. Insects, snakes and lizards are joined by a variety of birds, mammals and marsupials.

SurvivalDifferent plants and animals are adapted to this tough country’s habitats.

Plants of the woodlands and stone country are water conservationists. Instead of exposing broad leaves to the sun, they dangle their narrow leaves to avoid the sun. Some plants reduce their leaves to sharp needles to conserve water. Many plants lose leaves as the dry season progresses.

Termites graze the nutrient-deficient savannah woodlands instead of large animals, apart from wallabies and wallaroos. Termites recycle the nutrients from grasses and hollow the trees, making daytime shelters for a multitude of wildlife.

Most wildlife is nocturnal, or active mostly in the cooler times around dawn and dusk. Animals like possums, phascogales and gliders find shelter in tree hollows during the day. Logs and leaf litter can hide bandicoots, native mice, snakes, skinks and dragon lizards. Rock wallabies shelter in crevices while rock rats hide in cracks and bats roost in caves. The sparse foliage of plants hides many insects and some lizards.

The copyright of the article Nature in Gregory National Park in Aus/NZ/Oceania Travel is owned by Susan Pedersen. Permission to republish Nature in Gregory National Park in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Freshwater Crocodile in Victoria River	Australian Bustard hiding behind Termite Mound	Calcite Flow, Calcite Flow Walk
Stromatolite Fossil, Calcite Flow Walk	Tufa Dam, Limestone Gorge