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Kennedy Range National Park
Western Australia
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Kennedy Range National Park is a national park in Gascoyne region of Western Australia (Australia), approximately 830 kilometres north of
Perth and about 150 km east of
Carnarvon.
Kennedy Range is found on the edge of the Gascoyne River catchment area and is a weathered plateau that extends for a distance of 150 km essentially forming a huge mesa. Spectacular
sandstone cliffs can be found on the southern and eastern sides of the range which are dissected by steep canyons which have an elevation of up to 100 metres.
The Range formed a natural border for two aboriginal peoples, the Maia and the Malgaru. Natural springs located on the edge of the ranges would have provided game to hunt and outcrops of chert would have provided stone for tools. Over 100 sites provide evidence that the traditional owners inhabited the area for over 20,000 years prior to
European settlement.
The first European to explore the area was Francis Thomas
Gregory whose expedition reached the range in 1858.
Gregory named the range after
the Governor of Western Australia at the time, Arthur Edward Kennedy. He also named the nearby
Lyons River in the same expedition before continuing to
Mount Augustus. Pastoralists arrived in the area shortly afterward with Charles Brockman setting up Boolathana Station in 1877 and the region experienced success in wool production until the 1930s.