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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-16 Daily Xml
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Nilpena Ediacara National Park

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (14:21): My question is to the Deputy Premier. Can the Deputy Premier inform the house about the recent opening of the Nilpena Ediacara National Park?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (14:22): I am delighted to. I thank the member very much for his question and also for his attendance at the official opening of Nilpena Ediacara National Park.

This park celebrates something literally unique about South Australia that very few South Australians know about and yet, as increasingly we discover it, we have much source for pride and celebration. What I am talking about are the fossils of the Ediacaran period, named after the Ediacaran Hills—in fact there was an Ediacaran mine in the Ediacaran Hills—that are the first examples of multicellular life on earth. They are more than—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE: Reg Sprigg 1946. They are the first examples of multicellular life and mark the moment when we went from unicellular life—basically gas exchanges—to animal life capable of movement. That is a remarkable moment in the history of life on this earth, and it is named after a place in South Australia. What that means is, because the entire period is known as that, other nations are forced to call their fossils of the same era by the same name. This has caused some dispute. The Russians apparently are still a little unhappy. They want it to be called the Vendian, but it is called the Ediacaran.

If you go to Brachina Gorge, there is a golden spike that has been driven in to mark the line between the Cryogenian and the Ediacaran eras. That is the golden spike in the world to mark that transformation, that transition between periods of life on earth. This is now being captured in a national park, one that people can go to and can visit not just to understand generally the history of these fossils but to go and see them in situ where they are being studied by scientists. Nowhere else on earth is that possible.

The Department for Environment and Water, indeed the national parks service, have worked very hard to make this visitor experience exceptional. Not only are you able to go and book a guided tour to see the fossils in situ but the blacksmith's workshop has been transformed into a place that teaches you about the history of that era.

There is a large table that has been established with a bed—Alice's Restaurant Bed—that's been located. It has the real fossils: you can touch them. Sandpit, a company that specialises in audiovisual presentations, brings to life what each of those fossils looked like when they were moving animals. It is a remarkable experience and I highly recommend it to all.

There are many, many people who ought to be thanked for the success of the establishment of this national park. I start by acknowledging the Adnyamathanha people, who have been very welcoming of the establishment of the park and have indeed introduced the beginning of that audiovisual presentation with the foundation story of the Adnyamathanha people. Ross and Jane Fargher were the lessees of the pastoral lease. They have sold that over to the government in order to enable the establishment of the park. Professor Mary Droser and Dr Jim Gehling, both remarkable scientists, have spent the last 20 years working on these fossils. There are three organisations who have been able to raise money to assist in the presentation: the Flinders Ranges Ediacara Foundation, headed up by the remarkable Mary Lou Simpson; the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife; and The Nature Conservancy.

Introducing this to the world does three things for South Australia: it celebrates the best of our research and science effort, it celebrates our natural environment and our First Nations history and it is also going to be the stimulation for further economic growth through extraordinary tourist interest in South Australia.

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