Astrebla Downs National Park, Nature reserve in Queensland, Australia
Astrebla Downs National Park is a nature reserve in Queensland with flat terrain scattered with sparse trees. The landscape consists of open grasslands and low vegetation typical of this inland region.
Astrebla Downs National Park was established in 1999 in the Shire of Diamantina, Queensland. It protects habitat for the greater bilby, of which only about 600 remained in Queensland around 1992. In March 2007 the WWF recognised the park as one of the top ten reserves of the decade for its bilby conservation work.
The name Astrebla refers to a grass genus found in Australia. The park is not open to the public, so there are no visitor traditions or on-site cultural activities; its role is conservation, recognised by a WWF award in March 2007 for protecting the bilby.
The park is not open to the public, so there is no access from the nearest town, Bedourie, and no road connects it to the outside. It lies isolated in the outback about 1,300 km west of Brisbane, within the Channel Country of the Shire of Diamantina.
The kowari, a small carnivorous marsupial, went about ten years without being photographed anywhere until June 2021, when a survey of nearly 100 km of tracks recorded 14 in the park, a record count. None has been seen in neighbouring Diamantina National Park since 2012.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,118 contributors worldwide.