Draft National Heritage assessment of Tjoritja / West MacDonnell National Park

National Heritage assessment of Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park

The Australian Heritage Council is assessing Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park, including the adjacent Standley Chasm, for potential inclusion on the National Heritage List. The National Heritage List recognises places that are of outstanding heritage value to the nation for their natural, Indigenous and/or historic heritage values.

What would National Heritage listing mean?

National Heritage listing is an acknowledgement of the importance of a place, it does not change land tenure or ownership. If included in the National Heritage List, the National Heritage values of the listed place will be protected under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

Summary of draft assessment

Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park,including the adjacent Stanley Chasm, is nationally significant because it is a spectacular section of an ancient arid mountain range sculptured by tectonic and climatic forces. The ranges were created by tectonic pressures transmitted over one thousand kilometres to the interior of the Australian plate. The once high ranges have been eroded to produce elongated ridges intersected by steep sided gaps and gorges. These environments provide habitat for a diverse range of flora and fauna, including many rare and relict species that find refuge in sheltered gorges and waterholes.

Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park is also nationally significant because its scenery is recognisable to many Australians from the paintings of Albert Namatjira and other Indigenous artists who lived and worked at the Hermannsburg Mission. This is because the artists – often known as the Hermannsburg School – aimed to paint exactly what they saw in the landscape. Inspired by the ranges, their paintings became widely known through exhibitions and reproductions, and continue to inspire Australians from all walks of life to paint and photograph the National Park.

Proposed values under National Heritage List criteria

There are nine National Heritage List criteria (a-i). The Australian Heritage Council has proposed thatthe Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park, including the adjacent Stanley Chasm, might have National Heritage values under criteria (d), (e), (g) and (h) as described below. The full list of criteria is available on the Department of the Environment’s website at:

(d) The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of Australia's natural environments.

Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park has outstanding heritage value to the nation because it demonstrates the principle characteristics of an Australian arid mountain environment sculptured by tectonic and climatic forces and supporting a diverse range of flora and fauna including rare, endemic and disjunct population species.

Geological processes

Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park is the highest section of the MacDonnell Ranges which were formed by a mountain building event, known as the Alice Springs Orogeny, around 340 to 310 million years ago. The orogeny was caused by tectonic pressures at the plate boundary of Australia transmitted over one thousand kilometres to the plate interior. It resulted in intense deformation of many layers of ancient rock including igneous and metamorphic basement rocks and sedimentary rocks formed in a vast inland sea. In their early existence, the MacDonnell Ranges are thought to have reached a height of 3000 to 4500 metres.

The once high mountains have been subjected to over 300 million years of weathering and erosion to produce elongated ridges that expose long sequences of ancient basement and sedimentary rocks. The ridges are intersected by steep sided gaps and gorges cut by drainage lines which have exploited structural weaknesses in the rocks. The gorges and gaps are best developed in the National Park area with particularly significant examples including Simpsons Gap, Ormiston Gorge, Ellery Creek Big Hole and Standley Chasm (located adjacent to the National Park).

Standley Chasm is an example of a volcanic remnant, known as a dolerite dyke, which intruded through the quarzite rock approximately 800 million years ago. The volcanic remnants have since been almost completely eroded to form a deep vertical sided scenic gorge.

Ellery Creek contains a nearly complete sequence of sedimentary deposits spanning approximately 850 to 310 million years. The sequence includes the Bitter Springs Formation which contains exceptionally preserved fossil bacteria from approximately 900 million years ago. The microfossils represent a diverse community of microorganisms rapidly preserved in situ, as evidenced by the anatomical detail captured within the fossils, including cells preserved during cell division, and at least 30 species of cyanobateria recorded.

Biodiversity

Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park supports 767 species of flora, several of which are confined to gorges, waterholes and springs that provide a refuge from the surrounding arid climate. The West MacDonnell Ranges incorporating the National Park have been recognised by a CSIRO study as the most significant refuge site for biological diversity in arid and semi-arid Australia.

The National Park provides habitat for 32 plant species with disjunct populations that are at the northern, southern, eastern or western edge of their continental distribution. This includes ferns such as Venus-Hair Fern (Adiantumcapillus-veneris), Binung (Christelladentata) and Bat's Wing Fern (Histopterisincisa); sedges such as Tassel Sedge (Carexfascicularis), Bunchy Sedge (Cyperuspolystachyos) and rushes such as Spring fringe rush (Fimbristylissieberiana) and Juncuscontinuus. Some species are separated from other populations located in more temperate areas of Australia by a distance of over 1000 kilometres.

The National Park provides habitat for 12 plant species endemic to the region including the MacDonnell Ranges Cycad (Macrozamia macdonnelli) and Desert Flannel-flower (Actinotusschwarzii) which grow in sheltered gorges and Prostantheraschultzii which grows on the slopes of quartzite mountain ranges. Six plant species found in the National Park are listed as nationally threatened.

The ranges and gorges of the National Park are also a refuge for a diverse range of fauna, including 23 species of land snails, of which four are endemic, and three fish species endemic to the Finke River system – the Finke River Hardyhead (Craterocephaluscentralis), Finke Goby (Chlamydogobiusjapalpa) and Finke Mogurnda (Mogurndalarapintae).

Spinifex grasslands of the National Park support a high species richness of lizards and the rocky ranges support several rare mammals, including the Black footed Rock Wallaby (Petrogalelateralis MacDonnell Ranges race), Central Rock Rat (Zyzomyspedunculatus) and Long Tailed Dunnart (Sminthopsislongicaudata).

(e) The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group.

Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park has outstanding heritage value to the nation because it exhibits particular aesthetic values valued by Australians generally, and by the Central Australian Aboriginal community, especially the Hermannsburg community of Indigenous artists. These landscapes exhibit the aesthetic characteristics found in the watercolour painting of the Hermannsburg School because these painters aimed at the verisimilitude of the visual experience of the landscape as seen through their eyes.

Albert Namatjira and others learned the craft of watercolour painting from Rex Battarbee, including methods of framing landscapes en plein air and using photography and sketching to capture initial views which could be painted at a later stage. The particular aesthetic characteristics in the place and in the Hermannsburg school paintings lie in the open landscapes exhibiting foreground, mid ground and distant layering spatially, with vivid colouring of different layers.

Albert Namatjira’s paintings were widely appreciated by Australians through reproductions of popular scenes of the ranges country, and representations in postage stamps. Jim Hayes’ words probably represent the thoughts of many ordinary Australians: ‘I don’t think there has anyone ever been ... okay, has had the ability, to represent the McDonnell Ranges as Albert Namitjira did’. Many visitors to Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park will be prepared to experience its beauty through their prior reception of the Hermannsburg watercolour images. The location of Namatjira Drive enables the ranges to be seen from the north in similar perspective to many of the paintings. The paintings of the National Park have inspired and will continue to inspire Australians from all walks of life to paint and photograph the ranges.

Outside of the present boundary of the National Park, Albert Namatjira’s innumerable paintings of the West MacDonnells include some important paintings of Standley Chasm featuring its steep walls at a narrowed perspective.

(g) The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.

Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of its association with the Ntaria (Hermannsburg) community, which has developed a strong and distinctive art tradition, the distinctive Hermannsburg School of watercolour paintings. In addition to the watercolours, the Hermannsburg Potters depict West MacDonnell Ranges landscapes on their pots, which also depict motifs from Aboriginal and popular cultures.

(h) The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Australia's natural or cultural history.

Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park has outstanding heritage value to the nation for its special association with Albert Namatjira, through his art.

How can I make a submission?

The assessment of National Heritage values under the EPBC Act requires that all practicable steps are taken to advise owners, occupiers and Indigenous people with rights and/or interests in the place and provide the opportunity for them to comment in writing on whether the place should be considered for inclusion in the National Heritage List. Submissions can be made to til 20 June 2016.

What is the next step?

Following the close of the submission period, the Australian Heritage Council will give a report on the heritage values to the Australian Government Minister for the Environment. The Minister will decide whether to include the place in the National Heritage List taking into account the Australian Heritage Council’s report and submissions collected through this consultation process. The Minister may also seek, and have regard to, information or advice from any source.

Where can I get more information on the National Heritage List?

Information about the National Heritage List, the assessment criteria and other places on the list can be found at:

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