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Nilpena Ediacara National Park

About

Nilpena Ediacara National Park is a place of rich cultural heritage and exceptional scientific value, where evidence of

the emergence Earth’s earliest complex animal life has been discovered.

Located on the western fringes of the Flinders Ranges, the national park is situated on 60,000 hectares of the former

Nilpena Pastoral Station. The national park was proclaimed in 2021.

In the park’s unassuming hills, an ancient seafloor containing strange early lifeforms some half a billion years old

have been exquisitely preserved in the fine sandstone grain. When the park opens in 2022, visitors will be guided to

the Nilpena fossil fields to see first-hand where the significant discovery took place and remains an active research

site to this day.

Currently underway is the creation of an immersive Ediacaran fossil experience at the former blacksmith shop,

where fossils can be viewed up-close with curated lighting and audio-visual technology. The focal point will be

specimen commonly referred as Alice's Restaurant Bed named after the Arlo Guthrie song that notes it has

everything you could ever want.

The Nilpena gateway – a striking stone wall is the entry location to the park with ample parking as it is the area

where all visitors will be welcomed and escorted by guided tour to the visitor precinct and fossil fields. There will be

no overnight facilities or areas to freely undertake recreation due to site being of huge international significance

requiring protection.

Nilpena provides unique photo opportunities with panoramic views of the northern Flinders Ranges as well as

permanent springs.

Learn more (https://www.parks.sa.gov.au/park-management/nilpena-ediacara) about Nilpena, the single most

important site on the planet for the Ediacaran rise of early animal life.

Opening hours

The park is currently closed while visitor facilities are created. Anticipated opening is within the first half of 2022.

Contact details

Park management

Port Augusta National Parks Wildlife Service South Australia Office

Phone: (+61 8) 8648 5300

Email: dew.flindersandoutback@sa.gov.au (mailto:dew.flindersandoutback@sa.gov.au)

Emergency contacts

Medical, fire (including bushfire) and police emergency situations

Phone: Triple Zero - 000

Police Assistance

Phone: 131 444 for non-urgent police assistance

National Parks and Wildlife Service SA – After-hours duty officer

Phone: 0408 378 284

Injured wildlife

Within the park

Please contact Port Augusta National Parks Wildlife Service South Australia office on (08) 8648 5300 or the after-

hours duty officer on 0408 378 284.

Outside of the park

Please contact a local wildlife rescue group.

When to visit

The park is currently closed with an anticipated opening in the first half of 2022.

Mild temperatures from April to October make this period the most comfortable in the Flinders Ranges region.

During the summer months, maximum temperatures range from 30ºC to 45ºC.

Dogs not allowed

Dogs are not permitted in this park.

Discover which parks you can walk your dog by using our find a park tool (https://www.parks.sa.gov.au/find-a-park)

, or read our blog, 17 dog-friendly walks in Adelaide Parks (https://www.parks.sa.gov.au/insider-tips/dogs-part-2),

for inspiration.

Assistance dogs

Assistance dogs are permitted in most public places and are therefore welcome in South Australia’s parks and

reserves. Assistance dogs must be appropriately restrained on a lead and remain under your effective control at all

times while in a park or reserve.

As per the dogs in parks and reserves policy, if the dog is not an accredited assistance dog, they must be trained to

assist a person with a disability to alleviate that disability and meet standards of hygiene and behaviour appropriate

for a dog in a public place. However, refusal may be given if the person with the disability is unable to produce

evidence the dog is an assistance dog with the appropriate training.

Before taking your assistance dog into a park that does not normally allow dogs, it is highly recommended that you

contact us so we can provide you with the latest information on any potential hazards within specific parks that may

affect your dog. Please contact the park via the contact details provided under the contact tab or contact the visitor

service centre via email (https://www.parks.sa.gov.au/contact-us/get-in-touch-online) or on Facebook

(https://www.facebook.com/NPWSSA).

Facilities

Construction of a visitor precinct is currently underway and will include three historic Nilpena pastoral buildings –

the former blacksmith shop, shearer’s quarters and woolshed. The first to be opened will be the repurposed

Blacksmith's Shop which will be an all-access fossil experience supported with audio visual technology. Curated

lighting will enable visitors to see fossil in the best possible conditions. All access toilets will be included in this facility.

The fossil fields include an all-access Class 2 trail that will enable visitors to see the research site and fossil beds in

the Nilpena landscape. There is no public amenities at this location and access is by guided tour only.

Useful information

Nilpena’s significance is integral to the bid for World Heritage for the Flinders Ranges and in April 2021, the

Flinders Ranges was placed on Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List.

Find out more (https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/flinders-ranges-world-heritage-nomination).

Traditional owners

Nilpena Ediacara National Park has a rich and complex cultural heritage combining Aboriginal and pastoral history.

The Adnyamathanha people (meaning rock people) are the traditional custodians of the Nilpena Ediacara National

Park. Their connection with the land stretches back many thousands of years. Ancient rock paintings and engravings

can be seen at the nearby Arkaroo Rock, Sacred Canyon and Perawurtina Cultural Heritage Site in Ikara-Flinders

Ranges National Park (https://www.parks.sa.gov.au/parks/ikara-flinders-ranges-national-park).

The Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park Co-Management Board is currently providing an advisory role and has

oversight of the infrastructure upgrades as well as developing the management plan for the new national park.

Words from the Adnyamathanha people

As the traditional owners of this amazing part of the country, we have a cultural responsibility to ensure your

physical and spiritual wellbeing is well-looked-after during your stay. There are many cultural treasures to be found

whilst you visit our Yarta (Country). We invite you to learn about our culture and social history; however, we ask

that you exercise your role as a respectful and responsible traveller to assist us in protecting them for future

generations. Take your time, walk in our footprints, and share our story. Familiarise yourself with the richness of

our Yarta and appreciate the wildlife, landscape, cultural richness and more. We will do our best to highlight areas

of strong cultural importance and we ask that you treat them with the respect and reverence they deserve.

Aboriginal peoples have occupied, enjoyed and managed the lands and waters of this State for thousands of

generations. For Aboriginal first nations, creation ancestors laid down the laws of the Country and bestowed a range

of customary rights and obligations to the many Aboriginal Nations across our state.

There are many places across the State that have great spiritual significance to Aboriginal first nations. At some of

these places Aboriginal cultural protocols, such as restricted access, are promoted and visitors are asked to respect

the wishes of Traditional Owners.

In places where protocols are not promoted visitors are asked to show respect by not touching or removing anything,

and make sure you take all your rubbish with you when you leave.

Aboriginal peoples continue to play an active role in caring for their Country, including in parks across South

Australia.

DEW Park management (https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/park-management)

DEW Aboriginal partnerships (https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/about-us/first-nations-partnerships)

History

Located on the traditional lands of the Adnyamathanha people (meaning hills or rock people), it is where they traded

ochre and conducted important ceremonies and camped occurred alongside the permanent springs which still exist

at Nilpena today.

In the 1980s, Ross Fargher leaseholder of Nilpena Pastoral Station, found Ediacaran fossils on his recently-acquired

property when a family friend noticed ripple rocks of the ancient sea floor used as the flooring of Nipena’s woolshed.

Nilpena was placed on Australia’s National Heritage List in 2007 for its quality of intact fossil specimens.

In 2016, Nilpena’s most superbly preserved beds, now known as Alice’s Restaurant Bed, was unearthed by leading

palaeontologist Dr Mary Droser and her team from the University of California Riverside. The bed contains many

rare species, with evidence depicting the seafloor was once a habitat and complex environment, where there was

activity of mobility, feeding and reproduction.

Over 40 species have recorded at Nilpena with others first discovered in the nearby Ediacaran Hills back in the

1940’s by local geologist Reg Sprigg, which is also in the national park. His discovery was so significant that a fossil

was named in his honour (Spriggina) and has become the South Australian fossil emblem. The Ediacaran geological

period of time was named after the location of discovery.

Nilpena also contains several newly described taxa, including one named after Sir David Attenborough (Attenborities

janeae) who visited Nilpena to film part of the BBC Documentary ‘First Life’ and another after President Barack

Obama (Obamus coronatus) for his commitment to science research.

World Heritage for the Flinders Ranges

In April 2021, a significant milestone was achieved, with UNESCO accepting Australia’s inclusion of the Flinders

Ranges on its World Heritage Tentative List (https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/state=au). This is an exciting

and significant first step in pursuing World Heritage Listing, expressing Australia’s commitment to nominate in the

future.

Fossils and geology of the Flinders Ranges display the history of our planet and the evolution of life on Earth. Some

of this critical evidence spans more than 300 million years and includes the world’s finest example of the Ediacaran

explosion of life discovered at the newly created Nilpena Ediacara National Park. Its here where evidence of the

earliest forms of complex multicellular animal life evolved. It is these outstanding geological and palaeontological

forms within the Flinders Ranges that make it an important site to pursue for World Heritage Listing.

Learn more (https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/flinders-ranges-world-heritage-nomination) about the

nomination currently being prepared for a bid to claim World Heritage for the Flinders Ranges.

See and do

Bush walking

An all access Class 2 walking trail exists as part of the experience within the Nilpena fossil fields.

Tours

This is a site of huge international significance and its protection will be managed by mandatory guided tours when it

opens to visitors in the first half of 2022.

The tour will also include a visit to Nilpena’s unassuming hills where a Class 2, all-accessible trail has been developed

at the fossil field site. It’s here where you’ll see where earliest life was discovered. The trail includes nodes of

excavated fossil beds, each with a unique story to be told.

At the visitor precinct itself, tours will include a visit to the repurposed Blacksmith’s Shop (of the former pastoral

station) which is being created as a state-of-the-art interpretation centre.

At the Blacksmith's Shop, a one-of-kind fossil experience will present the most significant fossil specimen known as

Alice’s Restaurant Bed. Curated lighting will provide the best possible viewing conditions to see an array of fossils on

the bed on a specially designed plinth that supports the large extent of the specimen.

This will be an all-accessible, visitor experience allowing everyone of all mobility types to view fossils up-close.

Information to book a tour will be made available closer to the time of the park opening to visitors.

Safety

Water

It is encouraged to bring drinking water as the visit includes both indoor and outdoor activity. Water will be

available from the Blacksmith's Shop interpretive centre however these is no water at the fossil field site. A water

bottle is necessary.

Know before you go

Access to Nilpena Ediacara National Park is restricted to guided tours only. The park will open to visitors in the first half of 2022. The park is remote and dry, so protective clothing is required for both warm and cool conditions and sturdy

walking shoes.

Fees

Entry fees

When open for visitors in 2022, entry will be on a guided tour only and a fee will be required directly with the tour

operator.

Park pass

This park will not be included in the park pass system as the experience will be provided by an approved tour guide.

Which parks are included in the park pass system? (https://www.parks.sa.gov.au/book-and-pay/parks-passes)

Camping and accommodation

There is no camping or accommodation available within this park. A number of overnight options exist in the nearby

Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park (https://www.parks.sa.gov.au/parks/ikara-flinders-ranges-national-park).

Other fees and permits

Besides the cost for a guided tour, there are no other fees or permits associated with entering this park.

Filming and photography for commercial reasons requires a permit which can be requested here

(https://www.parks.sa.gov.au/permits-and-licences/photography-and-filming-permits).

Maps