Kutini-Payamu National Park, Nature reserve in Lockhart River Aboriginal Shire, Australia.
Kutini-Payamu National Park covers the Iron Range and Tozer Range, rising to 543 m, plus long beaches and headlands on Cape York Peninsula's east coast. It protects the largest remaining areas of coastal rainforest in Australia, surrounded by drier eucalyptus woodland and myrtle heath.
In March 1940 Val Augenson of the Department of Civil Aviation inspected the area as a possible all-weather emergency landing ground for the RAAF. From June 1942 US Army engineers of the 46th Engineer General Service Regiment and RAAF 26 Operational Base Unit built two 7,000-foot runways and 21 km of sealed taxiways near the Claudie River within three months. The 90th Bombardment Group arrived with 48 B-24D Liberators in November 1942. The park is now managed by local Aboriginal people with Queensland's park service under CYPAL status.
The name combines the Aboriginal words Kutini, meaning cassowary, and Payamu, meaning rainbow snake. The park is managed by the local Aboriginal people together with Queensland's national park service under the Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land (CYPAL) status, so the land is held and run jointly rather than by the state alone.
Access is by four-wheel drive only: from the south, leave the Peninsula Developmental Road 35 km north of the Archer River Roadhouse onto the Portland Roads Road, then continue 110 km northeast. The Frenchmans Track off the Telegraph Road at Batavia Downs suits expedition vehicles with a winch and raised air intake, as it is unmaintained and crosses many creeks. Camping is allowed only with prior booking at Rainforest, Cooks Hut, Gordon Creek and Chili Beach, and there are no facilities.
The eclectus parrot subspecies Eclectus roratus macgillivrayi lives only in the Iron and McIlwraith Ranges of eastern Cape York Peninsula. The park also records over 1,800 species, including the green tree python, spotted cuscus and bare-rumped sheathtail bat.
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