The Golden Shouldered Parrot Tour | Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park
Destinations: Rinyirru National Park Duration: 3 Nights, 4 Days Best Time to Visit: July - September
This area lies about halfway up the Cape York Peninsula and has a very different avifauna than that of the rainforests of the Wet Tropics to the south and Iron Range to the north. Much of the central part of the Cape is savannah like grassland with small trees more reminiscent of the Northern Territory than Tropical Queensland and the avifauna reflects this. Much of Rinyirru itself though is seasonally flooded and the park is closed to visitors.
There are no major towns nearby. The small communities of Laura and Lakefield lie to the south of the park and Coen lies well to the north. The Hann River Roadhouse and Musgrave Roadhouse are to the west and the Coral Sea to the east.
From the mid-1800s many early explorers, geologists and surveyors started showing an interest in the Cape York Peninsula. Their names are often reflected in local names eg the Hann Crossing. William Hann discovered the Palmer goldfields and during the Palmer Gold Rush, one of the main access routes crossed the southern area of what is now Rinyirru National Park.
Graziers were given land rights for cattle and horses from 1879 onwards with Laura Station being the first and others following soon after. Later these stations were bought back by the government in preparation for the park.
Rinyirru is an area important to the local aboriginal people and they have long collected food, medicines and material resources from the park area. Low Lake (Rarda-Ndolphin is a restricted area because of its importance in local aboriginal culture. When the Lakefield area was gazetted a National Park in 1979 the Rinyirru (Lakefield Aboriginal Corporation took over joint management of the area with the Queensland government. In 2005 Marina Plains was added to the Park.