World Heritage Australia
Feature 0 CommentsThe World Heritage Convention was adopted by UNESCO in 1972 in order to protect areas of universal cultural and natural significance. Eleven sites in Australia are inscribed on the World Heritage List
and include unusual landforms, ancient forests and areas of staggering biodiversity. Four of the locations (Kakadu National Park, Willandra Lakes, the Tasmanian wilderness and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park) are also listed for their Aboriginal cultural heritage.
A brief introduction of heritage areas are listed below.
- Kakadu National Park is a landscape of wetlands and tropical
Splendor. Art sites document the interaction between Aborigines and the land
- Shark Bay is home to a vast colony of sea mammals. The bay’s stromatolites (algae-covered rocks) are the oldest form
of life known on earth
- Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park contains two major Aboriginal sites. The world’s largest monolith is an extraordinary geological phenomenon in the flat desert plains.
- The wet tropics of Queensland contain a near complete record of plant evolution on the Australian continent. Some 50 per cent of all bird species and 30 per cent of marsupial species
found in the country are sheltered here.
- The Willandra Lakes are the site of archaeological finds dating back 40,000 years. The area is also remarkable for its semi-arid landscape and ghostly lunettes.
- Lord Howe Island, a crescent-shaped island, and its nearby rocky outcrops represent a chain of volcanic structures. Home to the rare woodhen, banyan trees and kentia pines, Lord Howe’s isolation provides key information about the evolution of these species.
- The Tasmanian wilderness, Australia’s largest conservation zone, satisfies all four natural criteria for World Heritage listing. Its rocks represent every geological period, including the Ice Age, the wide range of plants are unique to the area, and it is home to some of the oldest trees and the longest caves in the world.
