The Gawler Ranges are a range of stoney hills in South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

 to the north of Eyre Peninsula

Eyre Peninsula

Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded on the east by Spencer Gulf, the west by the Great Australian Bight, and the north by the Gawler Ranges. It is named after explorer Edward John Eyre who explored some of it in 1839-1841. The coastline was first explored by...

. The Eyre Highway

Eyre Highway

The Eyre Highway is a highway linking Western Australia and South Australia via the Nullarbor Plain. Signed as National Highway 1/A1, it forms part of Highway 1 and the Australian National Highway network linking Perth and Adelaide. It was named after explorer Edward John Eyre, who was the first to...

 skirts the south of the ranges. The Gawler Ranges National Park

Gawler Ranges National Park

Gawler Ranges is a 1633 km2 national park lying 350 km north-west of Adelaide in the northern Eyre Peninsula of South Australia. It is known for its spectacular rock formations.-History:...

 and Gawler Ranges Conservation Reserve are in the ranges north of Wudinna

Wudinna, South Australia

Wudinna is a town in South Australia. The area was first settled in 1861 when Robert George Standley lodged a claim for 10 sq. miles of land surrounding Weedna Hill .. It was proclaimed a town in 1916...

. The ranges are covered by the Gawler Ranges Native Title Claim.

History

The ranges were named by Edward John Eyre

Edward John Eyre

Edward John Eyre was an English land explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, and a controversial Governor of Jamaica....

 after the Governor of South Australia, George Gawler

George Gawler

-External links: – Memorials and Monuments in Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK...

 in 1839. This was on one of Eyre's earlier expeditions

Eyre's 1839 expeditions

Edward John Eyre's two expeditions of 1839 to the interior of South Australia were his first expeditions as an explorer, if one discounts the two earlier trips he made down the Murray River to Adelaide, herding cattle and then sheep.-North:...

 before his famous crossing of the Nullarbor Plain

Nullarbor Plain

The Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world's largest single piece of limestone, and occupies an area of about...

 further west. And it was on this expedition that Edward John Eyre made the first recorded sighting of South Australia's floral emblem, the Sturt Desert Pea, in 1839 during an early exploration of the region.

Geology

The ranges were formed by volcanic activity nearly 1.5 billion years ago: the volcanic activity resulted in a larva field, rather than volcanoes. The highest point is Nukey Bluff at 465 m above sea level.
The ranges are a small part of the Gawler Craton

Gawler craton

The Gawler Craton covers approximately 440,000 square kilometres of central South Australia. Its Precambrian crystalline basement crustal block was cratonised ca. 1550-1450 Ma...

 which is a craton

Craton

A craton is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere. Having often survived cycles of merging and rifting of continents, cratons are generally found in the interiors of tectonic plates. They are characteristically composed of ancient crystalline basement rock, which may be covered by...

 rich in mineral resources, although many are only recently discovered and not yet fully exploited. Bornhardt

Bornhardt

A bornhardt is a dome-shaped, steep-sided, bald rock outcropping at least in height and several hundred meters in width. A type of inselberg, bornhardts are typically composed of granites or gneisses, though occasionally formed in other rock types such as dacite, norite, limestone, sandstone and...

s dominate the landscape.

Birds

There are some 140 species of birds in the Gawler Ranges, including the Emu

Emu

The Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae) is the largest bird native to Australia and the only extant member of the genus Dromaius. It is the second-largest extant bird in the world by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. There are three subspecies of Emus in Australia...

, Wedge-tailed Eagle

Wedge-tailed Eagle

The Wedge-tailed Eagle , sometimes known as the Eaglehawk in its native range, is the largest bird of prey in Australia, but it is also found in southern New Guinea. It has long, fairly broad wings, fully feathered legs, and an unmistakable wedge-shaped tail...

, Major Mitchell's Cockatoo

Major Mitchell's Cockatoo

The Major Mitchell's Cockatoo also known as Leadbeater's Cockatoo or Pink Cockatoo, is a medium-sized cockatoo restricted to arid and semi-arid inland areas of Australia...

 and Singing Honeyeater

Singing Honeyeater

The Singing Honeyeater, Lichenostomus virescens is a small bird found in Australia, and is part of the honeyeater family. Although it is common there, it is not very well known in other places....

.

Further reading

• Anon. (1973). The Gawler Ranges. Report on a survey by the Nature Conservation Society of South Australia. NCSSA: Adelaide.