Willi Willi National Park

Today’s lush rainforests are direct relations of the ancient forests of Gondwana within the Antarctic Circle. Around 80 million years ago, the ancestral continent broke up and Australia started moving north, which eventually reduced most of the rainforests to a narrow strip along south-eastern Australia. As well as World Heritage-listed rainforests, the park protects a diversity of vegetation, including old growth eucalypt forests and open heath. This diverse vegetation provides food and shelter for a medley of creatures; small ground mammals and bats, the endangered Hastings River mouse, the yellow-bellied glider. Australia’s largest marsupial carnivore, the spotted-tailed quoll, also calls Willi Willi home.

The name Willi Willi National Park is derived from the local Dunghutti Aboriginal word 'willai' meaning possum. The repetition of the word indicates a plural form translating roughly as “many possums”. Dunghutti Aboriginal Nguloongooras (wise elders) would perform secret ‘increase rituals’ on sacred mountain tops such as Kemps Pinnacle, near the western boundary of the park, to extend their food supply. Placing limits on certain species during seasonal variations allowed for a natural increase in food resources. It was the wish of their great deity, Woormprahl, for them to create this balance with nature.

The geology of Willi Willi National Park is for the most part mudstone, sandstone and conglomerate, making the terrain exceptionally steep and rugged. These rocks are more resistant to erosion than the sedimentary beds, making them the cause of such rippled landscapes and the spectacular angles of the park.