Nilpena Ediacara National Park

Nilpena Ediacara National Park, which includes the former Ediacara Conservation Park, is a protected area located in the northern Flinders Ranges, in the state of South Australia. It is located about around 551 km north of the city of Adelaide, around 30 km south-west of the town of Leigh Creek in the state's Far North.

The national park, which includes the Ediacara Hills and covers 60,617 ha, was proclaimed in June 2021, and opened in April 2023. It is famous for its fossil beds, and of major significance to the bid for UNESCO World Heritage Listing for the Flinders Ranges.

Fossils
Geologist Reg Sprigg discovered fossils in the Ediacara Hills in 1946. The first evidence of an animal with a head was among these fossils, and is unique to the Flinders Ranges. It was named Spriggina, after Sprigg.

There is a theory that Ediacara is derived from the Adnyamathanha language name "Ithiaka-na-danha, where Ithi means zebra finch and aka – na-danha means "to come out", which is used as the name for the area in which the conservation park was located. However, there are also other theories as to its origin.

American palaeontologist Mary L. Droser and her family have travelled frequently from their home near Los Angeles to study the fossils on property that was part of Nilpena Station, from around 2001 onwards. South Australian Museum palaeontologist Diego Garcia-Bellido and his team has also been studying the fossils, and hopes that cores extracted by them will reveal the exact age of the fossils by around 2026.

The fossils are of international significance, being the most extensive examples of Ediacaran fossils in the world, although others exist in other places, including Namibia and Russia.

While it is possible to observe these fossils on site, this can only be done through a guided "Fossil Field Exploration Tour", which runs several days a week during the cooler months of the year.

Conservation park
The Ediacara Conservation Park was proclaimed under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 on 26 April 2007 over land previously declared as a conservation reserve under the Crown Lands Act 1929 in 1993 and as a fossil reserve in 1958.

In 2016, the Government of South Australia purchased two-thirds of Nilpena Station from the Fargher family. It is on this land that some valuable fossils were found.

National park
On 28 March 2019, the government purchased 60000 ha of adjacent land, to enlarge the conservation park by ten times. The land, formerly owned by the Nilpena Pastoral Company, extends as far as Lake Torrens National Park.

The entire area was reclassified and proclaimed as Nilpena Ediacara National Park on 17 June 2021. A visitor hub and Ediacara Fossil experience were planned and development started in 2021.

The national park was opened on 27 April 2023.

Description
The national park lies around 551 km north of the city of Adelaide, to the east of Lake Torrens National Park, about 30 km and south-west of the town of Leigh Creek.

The conservation park was originally created to protect and conserve an "assemblage of fossilised Ediacaran soft-bodied marine organisms of international importance," "places of significance" to the Adnyamathanha people, "remnants of mining history associated with the Ediacara mineral field," and an "important chenopod habitat." It was classified as an IUCN Category VI protected area. The fossil reserve is also listed on the South Australian Heritage Register.

Since its opening as a national park in April 2023, Ross and Jane Fargher, who have been working with Jason Irving, head of the national parks program, for seven years, are acting as caretakers of the fossil beds until a ranger is appointed.

The park is major significance to the bid for World Heritage Listing for the Flinders Ranges, which were placed on the tentative list in April 2021. Research by Droser and Garcia-Bellido will be included in the dossier that will be submitted as part of the UNESCO World Heritage nomination, which will be voted on in 2026.