Sturt National Park

Sturt National Park
Sturt National Park
	IUCN category II (national park)
Nearest town/city	Tibooburra
Coordinates	29°05′37″S 141°30′31″E / 29.09361°S 141.50861°E
Area	3106.34 km²
Established	February 25, 1972
Managing authorities	New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service
Official site	Sturt National Park

Sturt National Park is a national park in north west New South Wales (Australia), 1,059 kilometres (658 mi) northwest of Sydney. The park is named after the explorer, Charles Sturt, who travelled through the area in 1845. The park was created in the 1970's from six large sheep and cattle stations (farms). These stations included Mount Wood, Olive Downs, Whitta Brinna, Mount King, Binerah Downs and Fort Grey.^[1]

The park is large, covering more than 340,000 ha (840,158 acres) of arid area. The east of the Sturt National Park has flood plains, some trees and small rocky gorges and creek beds. Lake Pinnaroo, near Fort Grey, is a Ramsar listed wetland.^[2]

The central area of the park, near the old Olive Downs sheep station, has "jump-ups", flat topped mesas rising up to 150 metres (492 ft) above the plains. In the far west of the National Park, the gibber (stone) plains are replaced by the red sand dunes of the Strezlecki Desert.^[3]

The Mount Wood Station used to cover 500,000 acres (202,343 ha) and had 86,000 sheep. It employed 100 people.^[1] The homestead buildings have been renovated and an outdoor farm museum has been started. The historic homestead, built in 1884,^[4] has been turned into a place for up to 15 tourists to stay, and the old shearer's house can hold 38 people.^[5] There is also camping areas at Dead Horse Gully at Tibooburra, Olive Downs, Fort Grey and Mount Wood.^[4]