Gawler Ranges Conservation Park
Gawler Ranges Conservation Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia on the Eyre Peninsula located about north-west of the town centre in Poochera.
The conservation park is located to the south-west of the Gawler Ranges with the majority of its area being located within the gazetted locality of Bockelberg and with a smaller portion being located in the locality of Minnipa to the south.
The conservation park's name was originally approved by the Geographical Names Board as the Bockelberg Conservation Park but "due to legal processes", it was not constituted under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 and was subsequently declared under the state's Crown Lands Act 1929 as the Gawler Ranges Conservation Reserve on 11 November 1993. Its name is derived from its “proximity” to the Gawler Ranges. As of 2006, it was intended that the conservation reserve would be incorporated in the Gawler Ranges National Park. It was eventually ‘redesignated’ as the Gawler Ranges Conservation Park on 6 September 2012.
Flora found within the conservation park was described in 2001 as consisting of “Tree mallee dominated by Eucalyptus oleosa Red Mallee and Eucalyptus brachycalyx Gilja with scattered patches of Eucalyptus gracilis Yorrell.”
The conservation park is classified as an IUCN Category VI protected area.
