Geology and Physiography. 
By Charles Fenner, D.Sc. 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION 
yHE parks and reserves dealt with in these notes are those 
which lie on or near the western portion of the Mount Lofty 
Ranges, near Adelaide. They form an_ interesting series, 
including a wide variety of physiographic conditions, with 
consequent variety of soils, native vegetation, and scenery. . It 
is to be regretted that there are not similar reserves including 
the following: (a) A typical sand-dune area; (h) a mangrove 
coast and flats; and (c) an area of mallee scrub. It is not too 
late for such reserves to be made and the cost would not be great. 
The following is a brief account of the reserves themselves : 
i. The largest and most important is the National Park, which 
is controlled by a body of Commissioners appointed by the 
Government ; this beautiful reserve comprises two thousand acres 
of timbered hill and valley, and lies between the heights of 830 
feet and 1,600 feet above sea level in the headward portions of a 
small northern tributary of the Sturt River ; by judicious manage- 
ment this park has become one of the chief holiday resorts for 
city dwellers. 2. The next largest, and one that is very interest- 
ing from a geological and a scenic point of view, is the Morialta 
Falls Reserve, containing 540 acres, and varying from 400 to 
1,400 feet in elevation, in the hills portion of Fourth Creek, a 
tributary of the Torrens. 3. The Waterfall Gully Reserve is 
also in one of the steep-sided valleys that seam the western scarp 
of the ranges ; it includes ninety-six acres of the more rugged 
part of the upstream valley of First Creek. 
The lesser reserves are : 4. Mount Lofty Summit, an area of 
fifty-eight acres, interesting botanically, historically, and for its 
magnificent outlook. 5. The Knoll, a small hilltop reserve of 
about four acres, which lies between Crafers and Upper Sturt. 
6. Kingston Park, twenty acres, is historically of much interest, 
and has also the geological interest of being mainly upon the 
thick alluvial deposits that mark the meeting-place of the ranges, 
the plains, and the sea ; this is the only one of the reserves that 
abuts upon the coast. 7. The Brownhill Creek Public Pleasure 
Resort has a venerable record as a reserve, as well as a resounding 
title. It is actually, for the most part, an unfenced, ill-defined, 
bare, scarred area of 120 acres, with every evidence of having 
been ignored and neglected by its controlling authorities. 
Faye Sixteen 
