Nature, culture and history

Wedge-tailed eagle.

Photo credit: Brian Furby Collection

Sand monitor.

Photo credit: Tristan Naylor

Natural environment

Special geology

White Blow is the large quartz outcrop (or blow) in the centre of this park. It stands 15m high and 45m wide and is the largest of several irregular masses of quartz in the area. Other large quartz outcrops are common in other parts of Queensland including around the Mount Isa area and near Georgetown. Smaller ones are found in the Charters Towers and Ravenswood areas.

Bodies of quartz like White Blow form where tension during earth movements opens fractures, allowing mineral-bearing fluid to pass through. With a lowering of pressure or temperature, the minerals (in this case silica), settle out of the solution and eventually fill the fracture. The quartz blow here may have formed at the intersection of two fracture zones, allowing a larger opening to form.

Plants and animals

White Blow Conservation Park features open woodland dominated by ironbark species with a grassy understorey. The rocky outcrops provide warm basking places for frilled lizards Chlamydosaurus kingii and sand goannas Varanus gouldii. Black-shouldered kites Elanus axillaris and wedge-tailed eagles Aquila audax circle overhead in search of mammals and reptiles.

History

The Ravenswood area was settled by Europeans following the township of Bowen’s establishment in 1861. Pastoral runs were soon created in the hinterland and mining fields developed following the discovery of gold in 1868.