Description of the attraction
84 km from Hobart in the very south of Tasmania is the Harz Mountains National Park, one of the 19 national parks of the island, in 1989 included in the UNESCO World Heritage List along with other wilderness areas. The Harz mountains got their name in honor of the mountain range of the same name in Germany.
Most of the park's territory lies at an altitude of 600 meters above sea level and above. The highest point is Harz Peak (1255 meters). The main rocks of the park are coarse-crystalline basalt, and only in the southern part you can see sedimentary rocks formed by deposits of seas, glaciers and freshwater sources from 355 to 180 million years ago. The relief of the park changed several times as a result of the onset and retreat of ice ages, after which valleys, mountain peaks, and indented ridges remained here.
The unique vegetation of the park is represented by moist eucalyptus forests, mixed and rain forests, alpine and sub-alpine flora. In the rainforests, you can see myrtle, American laurel, swamp dirk and splendid magnolias. The lower tier of the forest is an amazing moorland.
Most of the park's animals are nocturnal - typically Australian wallabies, possums, echidnas, platypuses and red-bellied kangaroos. Among the feathered inhabitants, the most common are the green rosella, forest raven, oriental and other types of honey suckers.
Once upon a time, aborigines from the Mellukerdi tribe lived in the park, and the first Europeans appeared here in the 19th century - they were looking for the Tasmanian pine. In the 1840s, the first settlers of the area founded the town of Jeeveston and laid the first road through the Harz Mountains. As a result, this area has become one of the most popular in Tasmania among forest walks. In 1939, the first protected area was founded here, which in 1951 received the status of a national park.
Today, tourists from all over the world come to the park to get acquainted with its unique flora and fauna and admire the amazing views of mountain ranges, waterfalls and lakes of glacial origin.
