Warby-Ovens National Park Victoria | |
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Nearest town or city | Wangaratta |
Coordinates | 36°19′47″S 146°11′17″E / 36.32972°S 146.18806°E |
Established | October 2010[1] |
Area | 146.55 km2 (56.6 sq mi)[1] |
Managing authorities | Parks Victoria |
Website | Warby-Ovens National Park |
See also | Protected areas of Victoria |
The Warby-Ovens National Park is a national park located on the lands of the Bangerang clan of the Yorta Yorta Nation in the Hume region of Victoria, Australia near Killawara. The 14,655-hectare (36,210-acre) national park is situated approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of Wangaratta and 240 kilometres (150 mi) northeast of Melbourne.[1][2]
The park draws its name from the Warby Ranges, which are named in honour of Ben Warby, a pastoralist who settled in the area in 1844, and the Ovens River. Initially reserved as a state park in 1978, the national park was declared in June 2010. Parts of the national park are contained within the 25,300-hectare (63,000-acre) Warby–Chiltern Box–Ironbark Important Bird Area because of its importance for the conservation of Box-Ironbark forest ecosystems and several species of threatened woodland birds dependent on them.[3]
The park is within the Northern Inland Slopes bioregion, which encompasses the granite, metamorphic and sedimentary lower foothills north of the Great Dividing Range in North East Victoria. The area surrounding the park has been cleared for agriculture, with the park making up 16% of the protected areas within the bioregion.[4] Mount Glenrowan, located within the national park, provided a good vantage point for bushranger Ned Kelly and The Kelly Gang in the late 1800s, who had an easy view of Glenrowan.[1]