The Minister for the Environment has announced a new name for Camooweal Caves National Park approved on Thursday by the Governor in Council.
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Minister Meaghan Scanlon.said that as part of an agreement through the native title process and after negotiation with the traditional owners, it would one of two Queensland national parks to have their names updated to reflect their unique and beautiful cultural and historical significance.
"Camooweal Caves National Park will now be known as Wiliyan-ngurru National Park," Ms Scanlan said.
"The name reflects First Nations language for the rough-tailed goanna, whose ancestral Dreaming is associated with Great Nowranie Cave and the many other dolomite sinkhole and cave structures within Camooweal Caves National Park and surrounding areas."
Camooweal Caves National Park is 13,800 ha of semi-arid Barkly Tablelands carved out of Rocklands Station in 1998 though the caves were carved quite a lot earlier.
Half a billion years ago during Cambrian times shallow seas deposited the flat beds of dolomite (calcium-magnesium carbonate) that make up the tableland.
Water percolated through layers of soluble dolomite creating caverns linked by vertical shafts 75m deep.
Over time, water in the fractures and bedding planes in the dolomite dissolved the rock and created the caves. Portions of the caves' roofs collapsed, forming over 80 sinkholes on the surface.
These sinkholes are only surface signs of the elaborate cave systems underneath.
The other national park getting a new name is Moreton Island National Park which will become Gheebulum Coonungai (Moreton Island) National Park.
"The Quandamooka people requested we keep Moreton Island in brackets for a period of time until the public are used to it," Minister Scanlan said.
"The new names will be introduced gradually as the parks' signage is updated."
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
