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Karlamilyi - Rudall River National
Park
 Rudall
River National Park was established following the recommendations of
the Australian Academy of Science in 1963 and in 1977 the park was gazetted.
It is the only national park in Australia which encompasses an entire
seasonal river system in the arid zone and is listed on the Register
of the National Estate. The Kintyre uranium lease
lies on its northern edge, inside an area cut from the park in 1993.
It is the largest National
Park in Western Australia and the second largest in Australia. It is
one of the best examples of an undisturbed desert ecosystem in Australia,
and quite possibly the world.
 The
park follows the course of the Rudall River which rises in rugged hills
then flows north east through sand-dune country into Lake Dora on the
edge of the Great Sandy Desert. It is a vast wilderness area and has
a number of different environments ranging from the craggy Throssel
and Broadhurst Ranges to the huge expanses of the Lake Dora and Lake
Blanche salt lakes.
The park is dissected longitudinally
by the Rudall river which contains a system of permanent water holes
along with ephemeral and semi-ephemeral water courses. The presence
of these means that the park has an usually rich and diverse range of
flora and fauna, including frogs, birds, mammals and a great array of
reptiles.
 Many
of the plant and animal species found in this environment are either
rare or restricted to this specialised habitat. Habitat regeneration
after disturbance is also tied to the irregular cyclonic precipitation
and subsequently the area is extremely vulnerable to wind erosion and
intense rain storms.
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