South Australia’s newest national park is located 500km north of Adelaide, near Parachilna, and provides a unique insight into life on Earth 550 million years ago.
Why you’ll want to visit
1. It is home to the world’s most comprehensive record of Ediacara fossils and the first multi-cellular creatures that ate, moved and sexually reproduced.
2. The new park includes an audio-visual experience that recreates the ancient ocean floor. Bringing the fossils to life with the latest 3D animation technology and located within the former blacksmiths shop.
3. The park takes in the Ediacara Hills (north west of Parachilna) and 60,000 hectares of the former Nilpena Pastoral lease. It holds an important place within the state’s pastoral heritage. Also, the stone shearing shed, shearers’ quarters and blacksmiths have been restored in the new visitor precinct.
4. The area is culturally significance to the Adnyamathanha people with traditional ceremonial sites, meeting places and middens located along its creek beds.
5. So momentus was this discovery a whole time before dinosaurs was added – Ediacaran geological period of time and named after the location.
6. Nilpena has gained significant international attention from researchers, palaeontologists and conservationists. Including from NASA and Sir David Attenborough, and featured in a recent ABC TV and online profile – Set in Stone.
The park is a vital component of the current bid in the pursuit of World Heritage listing for areas of the Flinders Ranges.
How to access
No overnight facilities or areas are available on site for camping.
To preserve the integrity of the fossils, access to the site is via pre-booked guided tours.
The two hour, $80 tour includes transport between car park and visitor precinct, guided tour of woolshed and blacksmith’s shop and 18-minute AV experience. It is available Wednesdays and Saturdays from the Nilpena gateway. It is advisable to book at least a week ahead.
Please note: this tour doesn’t include visiting the fossil fields.
Where to camp nearby?
Check out the Flinders Ranges in your Camps+ App and travel guides for magnificent stations like Rawnsley Station, Wilpena Pound and Edeowie Station, free camps like Parachilna Gorge, or national park campgrounds further south.
Nilpena Ediacara National Park has been delivered by the South Australian Government with funding support from the Australian Government and the Flinders Ranges Ediacara Foundation.
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