Stirling Range
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The Stirling Ranges is one of the richest areas for flora in the world. Ninety families, 384 genera, and over 1500 plant species occur in the Stirling Ranges, 87 of which are found nowhere else. This represents more than a third of the known flora of the southwest, and includes more species of wildflowers than in the entire British Isles.
The Stirling Range is protected by the Stirling Range National Park, which was gazetted in 1913, and has an area of 1159 km². Popular recreational activities in the park include bushwalking, abseiling and gliding. Camping is not permitted within the park boundaries.
Geology
It was formerly thought that the Stirling Range was a Precambrian mountain range, like all other mountain ranges in Western Australia. However, the jagged shapes of the mountains are quite unique in mainland Australia, suggesting a much younger origin. It is now known that the range was actually uplifted as a part of the formation of the rift valley which separated Australia from Antarctica during the Cretaceous.
The mountains are formed of metamorphic rocks made from Cambrian age sediments. The heat generated by the rifting of Australia from Antarctica helped turn most of the sedimentary rocks into schists and other metamorphic rocks. These metamorphic geologies mean that, despite the relative youth of the mountains, the soils remain very poor, creating the species-rich heathland flora.
As the only vertical obstacle to weather in any direction, the range also tends to alter weather patterns around itself. Its upper slopes receive significantly more rainfall than surrounding areas. The branch of the Kalgan River, which forms the southwestern border of the park, is fed in large part from precipitation falling in the western half of the range.
Climate
The annual rainfall in the plains around the park is quite low compared with the rainy Porongurups to the south, averaging only 575 millimtres (23 inches) on the southern side and as little as 400 millimetres (16 inches) in Borden on the northern side. However, it is believed that rainfall on the peaks near Bluf Knoll may be as high as 1100 millimetres (43 inches), a hypothesis supported by the existence of distinctly moist-climate pockets of vegetation in some high valleys. Because no rain gauges have ever been placed on the high peaks (climate change since the late 1960s makes short-term gauges unreliable anyway) we cannot be sure of this. Most rain falls between May and August, with summer being very frequently completely dry around Borden for over a month and having typically very light showers in the south and on the peaks.Temperatures in the lowlands are generally warm. In the summer, average maxima typically are around 30°C (86°F) in Borden and about 27 °C (80 °F) in the southern plains. Summer minima range from about 16 °C (60 °F) in the south to 18 °C (64 °F) in Borden. In the winter, maximum temperatures typically are a very pleasant 16°C (60°F) and minima are about 8 °C (46.4 °F). On Bluff Knoll, winter temperatures range from maxima of about 11 °C (52 °F) to minima of 3 °C (37 °F). These are the lowest temperatures in Western Australia and consequently the Stirling Range occasionally receives snowfalls—the only place in Western Australia to regularly do so, though usually it is very light. Snow has been reported as early as April and as late as 19 November 1992, but is mostly confined to the period from June to August.
History
The plains in the Stirling Range region were the hunting grounds for small groups of Australian Aborigines for thousands of years before European settlement. At least two tribes frequented the area: the Qaaniyan people in the west, and the Koreng people in the east. The Stirling Range played an important role in their culture, appearing in a number of Dreamtime stories.
The first recorded sighting of the Stirling Ranges by a European explorer was by Matthew Flinders on January 5 1802. While sailing along the southern coast of Australia, just east of King George Sound, he noted
- at the distance of eight leagues inland there was a chain of rugged mountains.
- mountains which run east and west about 40 miles.
Early exploitation of the Stirling Ranges included cutting of sandalwood and kangaroo hunting. The Ranges were never formally taken up for grazing, probably because of the many poison bushes in the area. However, squatters ran sheep to the south of the Range in the 1850s, and in the 1860s a selection was taken up at the base of Mount Trio.
The area that is now the Stirling Range National Park was temporarily reserved in April 1908, and formally gazetted as Western Australia's third national park in June 1913.
References
- Carolyn Thomson, Graham Hall and Gordon Friend (eds) (1993). Mountains of Mystery: A Natural History of the Stirling Range. Department of Conservation and Land Management. Perth, Western Australia. ISBN 0730954609.
- Olver, Rob and Olver, Stuart; Dawn Till Dusk In The Stirling and Porongurup Ranges, published 1998 by Benchmark Publications, Melbourne. ISBN 1876268107
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