Baga National Park, Protected area in Livingstone Shire, Australia
Baga National Park, formerly Mount Jim Crow National Park, surrounds Mount Jim Crow, a 221-metre trachyte lava dome left by a volcano extinct for about 70 million years. Erosion wore away the outer layers, exposing the cooled lava. The dome is one of the twelve Mount Hedlow volcanoes. Semi-evergreen rainforest covers the slopes, New Guinea araucarias grow on the summit, and Hedlow Creek forms the park's south-western boundary.
The trachyte plug was first quarried for stone, and during the Second World War the US Army used the mountain as a supply depot. The area later became a national park, formerly named Mount Jim Crow National Park and now known as Baga National Park.
The Darumbal people tell a Dreamtime story in which the Rainbow Serpent, seated on Mount Wheeler to the southeast, forced earth and trees upward between two lovers of the same totem, creating Baga and separating them. The mountain is also called Mount Jim Crow, and the park was renamed Baga National Park.
The park lies about halfway between Rockhampton and Yeppoon, just north of the connecting road, 29 km northeast of Rockhampton. There are no picnic areas, marked walking tracks or camping areas, so visits are self-contained. The southwest boundary is formed by Hedlow Creek, whose waterholes are best watched at dusk.
The park was gazetted as Mount Jim Crow National Park and later renamed Baga, the Darumbal name for the trachyte plug. The 221-metre dome is one of the Mount Hedlow volcanoes, a group of twelve extinct vents in the district. Its summit carries New Guinea araucarias, and the rock was quarried before the US Army used the hill as a supply depot in World War II.
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