Nilpena Ediacara National Park

We wel­come you to vis­it Nilpe­na Edi­acara Nation­al Park as part of a guid­ed tour. There is a high lev­el of inter­est in this park and we advise book­ing your tour well in advance of travel.

Nilpe­na Edi­acara Nation­al Park is closed from 1 Decem­ber to 15 March each year.

Park man­age­ment

Port Augus­ta Nation­al Parks Wildlife Ser­vice South Aus­tralia Office 

Phone: (+61 8) 8648 5300
Email: dew.​flindersandoutback@​sa.​gov.​au

Emer­gency contacts

Med­ical, fire (includ­ing bush­fire) and police emer­gency sit­u­a­tions
Phone: Triple Zero — 000

Police Assis­tance
Phone: 131 444 for non-urgent police assistance

Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice SA – After-hours duty offi­cer
Phone: 0408 378 284

Injured wildlife

With­in the park
Please con­tact Port Augus­ta Nation­al Parks Wildlife Ser­vice South Aus­tralia office on (08) 8648 5300 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on 0408 378 284.

Out­side of the park
Please con­tact a local wildlife res­cue group.

Nilpe­na Edi­acara Nation­al Park is locat­ed in the Flinders Ranges and Out­back region of South Aus­tralia, approx­i­mate­ly 500km north of Adelaide.

The park entrance is via the Out­back High­way, 115km north of Hawk­er or 41km south of Leigh Creek.

View map to gate entrance. 

Entry to the park is only by guid­ed tour at des­ig­nat­ed times. On arrival at the park entrance gate, you will board a bus to con­tin­ue to the vis­i­tor precinct.

The paths between the Black­smiths Shop and the wool­shed are suit­able for wheel­chair use with assis­tance, how­ev­er we rec­om­mend giv­ing us a call to dis­cuss acces­si­bil­i­ty requirement.

If you are vis­it­ing the fos­sil field, most of the paths are acces­si­ble with assis­tance. There is a very short spur trail with steps, but if you can’t access this area, our guide will make sure that you don’t miss out. There are sev­er­al stone walls for seat­ing if required.

Mild tem­per­a­tures from April to Octo­ber make this peri­od the most com­fort­able for vis­it­ing the Flinders Ranges region.

Dur­ing the sum­mer months, max­i­mum tem­per­a­tures range from 30ºC to 45ºC.

Nilpe­na Edi­acara Nation­al Park is closed from 1 Decem­ber to 15 March each year.

The Edi­acara activ­i­ty book is a great resource and fun way for young school chil­dren to learn about fos­sils and the dis­cov­er­ies at Nilpena.

The Edi­acaran Fos­sils of the Flinders Ranges ebook, pro­duced by the South Aus­tralian Depart­ment for Edu­ca­tion and Child Devel­op­ment, is an excel­lent teach­ing resource for upper pri­ma­ry and high school children.

Fos­sil Rock is a free, fun-filled YouTube series that brings sci­ence to life with catchy songs and excit­ing adven­tures for kids and fam­i­lies. Filmed at our very own Nilpe­na Edi­acara Nation­al Park in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges, it’s packed with music, learn­ing, and the fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ry of the world’s old­est fos­sils. Aligned with the Aus­tralian Cur­ricu­lum across Sci­ence, HASS, Eng­lish, and Per­form­ing Arts, Fos­sil Rock is also a ready-made class­room resource. Teach­ers can access activ­i­ty sheets and cur­ricu­lum guides to inspire curios­i­ty in their students.

Host­ed by children’s per­former Lucy Rasheed and guid­ed by palaeon­tol­o­gist Dr Mary Dros­er, Fos­sil Rock turns com­plex sci­en­tif­ic ideas into unfor­get­table songs and stories. 

Dogs are not per­mit­ted in this park.

Dis­cov­er which parks you can walk your dog by using our find a park tool, or read our blog, 17 dog-friend­ly walks in Ade­laide Parks, for inspiration.

Assis­tance dogs are per­mit­ted in most pub­lic places and are there­fore wel­come in South Australia’s parks and reserves. Assis­tance dogs must be appro­pri­ate­ly restrained on a lead and remain under your effec­tive con­trol at all times while in a park or reserve.

As per the dogs in parks and reserves pol­i­cy, if the dog is not an accred­it­ed assis­tance dog, they must be trained to assist a per­son with a dis­abil­i­ty to alle­vi­ate that dis­abil­i­ty and meet stan­dards of hygiene and behav­iour appro­pri­ate for a dog in a pub­lic place. How­ev­er, refusal may be giv­en if the per­son with the dis­abil­i­ty is unable to pro­duce evi­dence the dog is an assis­tance dog with the appro­pri­ate training.

Before tak­ing your assis­tance dog into a park that does not nor­mal­ly allow dogs, it is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed that you con­tact us so we can pro­vide you with the lat­est infor­ma­tion on any poten­tial haz­ards with­in spe­cif­ic parks that may affect your dog. Please con­tact the park via the con­tact details pro­vid­ed under the con­tact tab or con­tact the vis­i­tor ser­vice cen­tre via email or on Face­book.

There are acces­si­ble toi­lets.

Food and drinks are not avail­able for pur­chase. Please bring drink­ing water.

• Read about Nilpe­na: A land of won­der and con­nec­tion for Tra­di­tion­al Own­ers on the Good Liv­ing blog. 
• Dis­cov­er Why vis­it­ing Nilpe­na Edi­acara Nation­al Park should be on your 2023 buck­et list on the Good Liv­ing blog.
• Dis­cov­er how to Take an Edi­acara tour with a unique Aussie spin on the Good Liv­ing blog.
• Meet the who’s who of the Edi­acara world on the Good Liv­ing blog. 
• Read about Dis­cov­er­ing the dawn of ani­mal life on the Good Liv­ing blog. 

Nilpe­na Edi­acara Nation­al Park has a rich and com­plex cul­tur­al her­itage com­bin­ing Abo­rig­i­nal and pas­toral his­to­ry. The Adnya­math­anha peo­ple (mean­ing rock peo­ple) are the tra­di­tion­al cus­to­di­ans of the Nilpe­na Edi­acara Nation­al Park. Their con­nec­tion with the land stretch­es back many thou­sands of years. Ancient rock paint­ings and engrav­ings can be seen at the near­by Arka­roo Rock, Sacred Canyon and Per­awurtina Cul­tur­al Her­itage Site in Ikara-Flinders Ranges Nation­al Park.

The Ikara-Flinders Ranges Nation­al Park Co-Man­age­ment Board is cur­rent­ly pro­vid­ing an advi­so­ry role and has over­sight of the infra­struc­ture upgrades as well as devel­op­ing the man­age­ment plan for the new nation­al park. 

Words from the Adnya­math­anha people

As the tra­di­tion­al own­ers of this amaz­ing part of the coun­try, we have a cul­tur­al respon­si­bil­i­ty to ensure your phys­i­cal and spir­i­tu­al well­be­ing is well-looked-after dur­ing your stay. There are many cul­tur­al trea­sures to be found whilst you vis­it our Yarta (Coun­try). We invite you to learn about our cul­ture and social his­to­ry; how­ev­er, we ask that you exer­cise your role as a respect­ful and respon­si­ble trav­eller to assist us in pro­tect­ing them for future gen­er­a­tions. Take your time, walk in our foot­prints, and share our sto­ry. Famil­iarise your­self with the rich­ness of our Yarta and appre­ci­ate the wildlife, land­scape, cul­tur­al rich­ness and more. We will do our best to high­light areas of strong cul­tur­al impor­tance and we ask that you treat them with the respect and rev­er­ence they deserve.

Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ples have occu­pied, enjoyed and man­aged the lands and waters of this State for thou­sands of gen­er­a­tions. For Abo­rig­i­nal first nations, cre­ation ances­tors laid down the laws of the Coun­try and bestowed a range of cus­tom­ary rights and oblig­a­tions to the many Abo­rig­i­nal Nations across our state.

There are many places across the State that have great spir­i­tu­al sig­nif­i­cance to Abo­rig­i­nal first nations. At some of these places Abo­rig­i­nal cul­tur­al pro­to­cols, such as restrict­ed access, are pro­mot­ed and vis­i­tors are asked to respect the wish­es of Tra­di­tion­al Owners.

In places where pro­to­cols are not pro­mot­ed vis­i­tors are asked to show respect by not touch­ing or remov­ing any­thing, and make sure you take all your rub­bish with you when you leave.

Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ples con­tin­ue to play an active role in car­ing for their Coun­try, includ­ing in parks across South Australia.

• DEW Park management
• DEW Abo­rig­i­nal partnerships

Locat­ed on the tra­di­tion­al lands of the Adnya­math­anha peo­ple (mean­ing hills or rock peo­ple), it is where they trad­ed and con­duct­ed impor­tant cer­e­monies and camped occurred along­side the per­ma­nent springs which still exist at Nilpe­na today. 

In the 1980s, Ross Fargher lease­hold­er of Nilpe­na Pas­toral Sta­tion, found Edi­acaran fos­sils on his recent­ly-acquired prop­er­ty when a fam­i­ly friend noticed rip­ple rocks of the ancient sea floor used as the floor­ing of Nipena’s woolshed.

Nilpe­na was placed on Australia’s Nation­al Her­itage List in 2007 for its qual­i­ty of intact fos­sil specimens.

In 2016, Nilpena’s most superbly pre­served beds, now known as Alice’s Restau­rant Bed, was unearthed by lead­ing palaeon­tol­o­gist Dr Mary Dros­er and her team from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia River­side. The bed con­tains many rare species, with evi­dence depict­ing the seafloor was once a habi­tat and com­plex envi­ron­ment, where there was activ­i­ty of mobil­i­ty, feed­ing and reproduction. 

Over 40 species have record­ed at Nilpe­na with oth­ers first dis­cov­ered in the near­by Edi­acaran Hills back in the 1940’s by local geol­o­gist Reg Sprigg, which is also in the nation­al park. His dis­cov­ery was so sig­nif­i­cant that a fos­sil was named in his hon­our (Sprig­gi­na) and has become the South Aus­tralian fos­sil emblem. The Edi­acaran geo­log­i­cal peri­od of time was named after the loca­tion of discovery.

Nilpe­na also con­tains sev­er­al new­ly described taxa, includ­ing one named after Sir David Atten­bor­ough (Atten­bori­ties janeae) who vis­it­ed Nilpe­na to film part of the BBC Doc­u­men­tary ​‘First Life’ and anoth­er after Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma (Oba­mus coro­na­tus) for his com­mit­ment to sci­ence research.

In April 2021, a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone was achieved, with UNESCO accept­ing Australia’s inclu­sion of the Flinders Ranges on its World Her­itage Ten­ta­tive List. This is an excit­ing and sig­nif­i­cant first step in pur­su­ing World Her­itage List­ing, express­ing Australia’s com­mit­ment to nom­i­nate in the future.

Fos­sils and geol­o­gy of the Flinders Ranges dis­play the his­to­ry of our plan­et and the evo­lu­tion of life on Earth. Some of this crit­i­cal evi­dence spans more than 300 mil­lion years and includes the world’s finest exam­ple of the Edi­acaran explo­sion of life dis­cov­ered at the new­ly cre­at­ed Nilpe­na Edi­acara Nation­al Park. It’s here where evi­dence of the ear­li­est forms of com­plex mul­ti­cel­lu­lar ani­mal life evolved. It is these out­stand­ing geo­log­i­cal and palaeon­to­log­i­cal forms with­in the Flinders Ranges that make it an impor­tant site to pur­sue for World Her­itage Listing.

Learn more about the nom­i­na­tion cur­rent­ly being pre­pared for a bid to claim World Her­itage for the Flinders Ranges.