Whyalla Conservation Park

Open dai­ly.

Vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion, book­ings and park management:

Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice Port Lin­coln Office
Phone: (+61 8) 8688 3111
Email: EPParks@​sa.​gov.​au

Port Lin­coln Vis­i­tor Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre
3 Ade­laide Place, Port Lin­coln
Phone: 1300 788 378
Email: info@​visitportlincoln.​net.​au
Vis­it Port Lin­coln website

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: 08 8688 3223

Injured wildlife:

With­in the park
Please con­tact Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice Port Lin­coln Officeon (08) 8688 3111 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on (08) 8688 3223

Out­side of the park
Please con­tact a local wildlife res­cue group

Marine mam­mals
If you find a sick or strand­ed marine mam­mal (includ­ing whales, seals, sea lions and dol­phins), please con­tact Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice Port Lin­coln Office on (08) 8688 3111 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on (08) 8688 3223

The best time to vis­it is between March and Octo­ber, when the tem­per­a­tures are mild dur­ing the day and cool at night.

The main entrance to the Park is locat­ed on the Lin­coln High­way, 10 km north of Whyal­la, just south of the Port Bonython turn off. Access with­in the reserve is via unsealed tracks which are vari­able in con­di­tion, but traf­fi­ca­ble with high clear­ance 2WD when con­di­tions are dry. The tracks become bog­gy and slip­pery when wet, access is not rec­om­mend­ed when the tracks are wet.

• Parks man­age­ment plans
• Trails SA
• SA Marine Parks

• Impor­tant: Col­lec­tion of fire­wood with­in Nation­al Parks is pro­hib­it­ed. Dead wood plays a vital role in pro­vid­ing shel­ter for ani­mals and adding nutri­ents to the soil.

Vis­i­tors should ensure they car­ry suf­fi­cient water, fuel and food for their entire stay and should advise a respon­si­ble per­son of the intend­ed dura­tion of their trip. A toi­let is avail­able at the Wild Dog Hill pic­nic area.

Dogs are not per­mit­ted in this park.

Dis­cov­er which parks you can walk your dog in on our find a park tool or read 12 dog-friend­ly walks in Ade­laide Parks by Good Liv­ing 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.

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

Plants

The most com­mon tree that can be seen in the Park is the West­ern Myall, Aca­cia papy­ro­carpa. These majes­tic trees with their dome shaped canopy and sil­ver-grey foliage can live to be over 250 years old. Sug­ar­woods, Bul­lock Bush­es, Native Apri­cots, Quan­dongs and Black Oaks can also be found in many areas and Salt­bush and Blue­bush dom­i­nate the understorey.

Despite the appar­ent harsh con­di­tions, wild­flow­ers such as Fringe-lilies and Paper-daisies can be found through­out the Park, main­ly in spring. Del­i­cate lilac Rock Iso­tomes flower almost con­stant­ly at the top of Wild Dog Hill, whilst the tube like flow­ers of Emu Bush­es can be found through­out the Park.

The lichens on rocks, trees and cov­er­ing the ground with­in the Park are some of the best exam­ples in the world. 

Ani­mals

Red and Grey Kan­ga­roos are found in the park, and Euros can some­times be seen on the slopes of Wild Dog Hill at sun­set. Small­er, incon­spic­u­ous mam­mals are also present; the Com­mon Dun­nart is a car­niv­o­rous mouse sized mar­su­pi­al which eats grasshop­pers and small lizards.

Over 80 species of birds have been observed in the Park. Wedge-tailed Eagles and Aus­tralian Kestrels can some­times be seen soar­ing in the ther­mals over Wild Dog Hill. The beau­ti­ful song of the Grey Butcher­bird is fre­quent­ly heard.

Whyal­la Con­ser­va­tion Park is also home to some rar­er bird species includ­ing the West­ern Grass­wren, Slen­der-billed thorn­bill, Hood­ed Robin and Ele­gant Par­rots. Oth­er bird species that can be seen more reg­u­lar­ly include the Crest­ed Pigeon, White-browed Bab­bler, Spiny-cheeked Hon­eyeater and the Black-faced Woodswal­low. More than 20 species of rep­tiles have been record­ed in the Park. The West­ern Brown Snake, Beard­ed Drag­on, West­ern Blue­tongue and Sleepy Lizard are the most com­mon­ly seen species. When dis­turbed, small Striped Skinks scut­tle for cov­er in the undergrowth.

Flo­ra and fau­na species lists

To down­load flo­ra (plants) and fau­na (ani­mals) species lists for this park, use the ​‘Cre­ate Sim­ple Species List’ tab under ​‘Flo­ra Tools’ or ​‘Fau­na Tools’ in NatureMaps.

The Park is man­aged by the Depart­ment of Envi­ron­ment, Water and Nat­ur­al Resources and orig­i­nal­ly cov­ered an area of 1,011 hectares. It was ded­i­cat­ed in 1971, and con­serves a good exam­ple of the native flo­ra and fau­na of this semi-arid area.

In 2003 an extra 968 hectares of land to the south of the Park was added to the Park. This land was orig­i­nal­ly part of the BHP Inden­ture Act land and was under BHP’s care and con­trol. With the divesti­ture of it’s Whyal­la steel mak­ing oper­a­tions to a new com­pa­ny, OneS­teel, some of the land that was excess to require­ments was added to the Park and the remain­der was hand­ed back to the local community.