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53-597: The Barrington Tops National Park is a protected national park in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales , Australia. Gazetted in 1969, the 76,512-hectare (189,070-acre) park is situated between Scone , Singleton , Dungog , Gloucester and East Gresford . The park is part of the Barrington Tops group World Heritage Site Gondwana Rainforests of Australia inscribed in 1986 and added to

106-526: A land lease from the U.S. government , while Mackinac National Park was handed down to become the first of the Michigan state parks . As with national parks, facilities at state parks are often leased to concessionaires to operate. Breaks Interstate Park is operated under an interstate compact by Virginia state parks , although it is also one of the Kentucky state parks , straddling both sides of

159-401: A calculated $ 17.8 million net loss due to reduced stock production, $ 6 million contingency loss due to the threat of exotic disease and $ 1.2 million spent by the government agencies on goat control operations. This estimate does not include the costs associated with the impact of feral goats on the environment, of soil erosion, or pastoral degradation. Commercial exploitation of feral goats is

212-417: A disease could therefore be frustrated by the difficulties and cost in controlling goats. Feral goats have a more indirect impact on the native fauna as a result of their effects on the vegetation and soil. The changes to the vegetation harm some native animals, whereas benefit a few like the ones that feed on goat dung, such as termites and decomposers . Management of feral goats has varied depending on

265-592: A feral goat management program covering most feral herds, and involves mustering goats for commercial sale to achieve the initial knockdown, followed by aerial and ground shooting to attempt to kill the remaining animals. The success of aerial shooting to control feral goats in arid and semi-arid environments has led to its widespread use in rugged and more densely vegetated terrain elsewhere in Australia. Some pastoralists have also proposed establishing managed populations of feral goats for cashmere and meat production in

318-589: A few exceptions such as Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California, and Wood-Tikchik State Park in Alaska, the largest state park in the United States . In addition to preserving natural landscapes and providing recreational opportunities, many state parks also serve as important educational resources . They often offer guided tours, interpretive programs, and exhibits that help visitors learn about

371-443: A fire at 11pm on 24 September 2006 due to an electrical fault. The fire was not regarded as suspicious. It was undergoing modernisation under new ownership at the time of the fire. There are plans to rebuild, but no significant process has been made, and only part of the old chimney remains on the site. The guest house has undergone many different owners in its history; Mattara Investments that traded as Barrington Guest House and bought

424-503: A granite top. Erosion has weathered the granite and rounded granite boulders can be seen in some areas of the park. Estimates put the age of the rock at 300 to 400 million years, well before Australia separated from Gondwana . The climate varies from temperate on the lower altitudes to subalpine at highest elevations. A record low of −17  °C (1  °F ) has been registered at 1,500 m (4,900 ft) above mean sea level . Rainfalls fluctuate between 750 millimetres (30 in) in

477-399: A greater impact on their common food supply. In high numbers, and during drought, they may therefore significantly reduce the biomass of perennial vegetation, leading to further land degradation and hampering regeneration of vegetation. Goats are also a potential reservoir for a number of exotic diseases that could enter Australia, such as foot-and-mouth disease . Any attempt at eliminating

530-474: A height of 1,586 metres (5,203 ft). A number of aircraft have crashed in and around the Barrington Tops, Aeroplane Hill being named after one of the crashes. The altitude, frequent fog & cloud, storms and cold weather (causing icing) make this area potentially hazardous to aircraft. One article refers to the "Devil's Triangle". The Barrington Guest House was built from 1925 on the upper Williams River near Barrington Tops by Norman T. McLeod, licensee of

583-653: A large part of the park has allowed some of the more sensitive animals to remain largely undisturbed. A large number of fauna have been catalogued in the park. Some of the more common animals include: barking and sooty owls , eastern grey kangaroos , frogs , pademelons , cockatoos , rosellas , kookaburras , bats and echidnas . It supports a globally important population of rufous scrub-birds , as well as flame robins , pale-yellow robins , paradise riflebirds , green catbirds , regent bowerbirds and Australian logrunners . Animals such as quolls , native rodents and platypus are reclusive, but may be seen. Not all of

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636-474: A pest on rangelands. The Agriculture and Related Resources Protection Act 1976 sets out landowners' responsibilities to deal with them and to limit their spread. The principal driving force behind attempts to manage goats in the state is peer pressure among land managers. This results in community cooperation and coordination to manage goats, and legislation is only used as a means of last resort when all attempts to gain cooperation have failed. Western Australia has

689-419: A preference for such weeds over other pasture species. Control of these weeds is usually expensive and herbicides are not appropriate in some environments. There are no documented examples of feral goats severely damaging large areas in absence of other herbivores, but they contribute their share of damage to the vegetation, soil and native fauna in areas of overgrazed pastoral land. Feral goats can deplete

742-826: A program to do so from some offshore islands in cooperation with the Queensland Department of Lands. Feral goats are managed by the Australian Capital Territory Parks and Conservation Service when they trespass on national parks and reserves. Feral goats are not declared pests in the Territory, so their management on private land is discretionary. It is illegal to release goats into the wild in South Australia. Pastoral zone Soil Conservation Boards, with support from State and Commonwealth Government agencies, have embarked on

795-819: A program to mitigate goat damage by promoting and coordinating goat control. In the Northern Territory, goats are classified as stock under the Stock Diseases Act 1994 and the Territory has no general management policy for feral goats. Feral goats are not listed as pests in the Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1988, but this classification is under review. The lack of definition has allowed people to introduce goats to areas previously free of goats, including islands. Unowned goats in Tasmania are defined as feral under provisions of

848-699: A restaurant) for lodging at some parks. These typically use "Resort" in the name, such as "_____ Resort State Park" in West Virginia state parks and "_____ State Resort Park" in neighboring Kentucky state parks , which has 17 such resort parks, the most of any state. Other states use the Resort name inconsistently (like DeGray Lake Resort State Park , the only one out of three resorts in Arkansas state parks ), or have only one such park ( South Carolina state parks ' Hickory Knob State Resort Park ), or do not use

901-684: A valuable industry. Many pastoralists in Australia now consider the capture and sale of feral goats to be an essential part of their business. Meat for export is the main product from feral goats. Some live feral goats are also exported. Goat skin is a by-product. Recently, feral goats have been crossed with the South African Boer goat to produce a heavier animal for export. According to Meat & Livestock Australia , 2,364,307 goats were slaughtered in Australia in 2023. The bulk of them were feral rangeland goats, captured and gathered through goat depots, and then sent to an abattoir. As of

954-445: Is a popular weekend destination from Sydney and Newcastle. Numerous walking trails and camping grounds are scattered throughout the park. The park also contains well marked and well-maintained gravel roads as well as specific 4WD tracks into less travelled areas. General sightseeing can be accomplished in a non-offroad vehicle. As well as camping facilities, the nearby towns of Gloucester and Dungog have many places to stay. The park

1007-524: Is maintained by the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service and rangers patrol the park daily. State park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, or recreational potential. There are state parks under

1060-739: Is no current management policy for the control of feral goats in New South Wales. A group of pastoral and state agencies presented a proposal at the National workshop on Feral Goat Management. The proposal seeks to manage feral goats as part of a total grazing management program which aims to reduce the impact of goats on pastoral production and conservation values to insignificant levels. Goats are presently opportunistically mustered for slaughter. In New South Wales in 1996, feral goats occupied an estimated total area of 11,400 square kilometres in 101 conservation reserves. Sixty-seven of these were in

1113-555: Is remote as goats will swim (or even wade) only under dire need, but perhaps not impossible because goats have been reported to swim to obtain fresh water. There were about 2.6 million feral goats in Australia in 1993 but this number has fluctuated widely. The fluctuations in number depends upon the quality of available food, availability of water, natural predation, hunting by people and deaths due to diseases, parasites and poisonous plants. Feral goats are responsible for an estimated loss of $ 25 million per year. These are derived from

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1166-546: Is unknown. Goats are also considered a serious threat to yellow-footed rock-wallaby ( Petrogale xanthopus ) populations as there is considerable overlap in both species’ diet and habitat. Rock-wallaby numbers recovered after the 1983 drought in Gap Range, New South Wales where goats had been culled but concurrently failed to recover at the nearby Coturaundee Range, where goats were present in very high densities because they were not culled. Feral goats have been implicated in

1219-684: The Aboriginal owners and also provide food for the owners while they visit the island. Feral goats have been eradicated from several islands including Faure Island , Bernier Island , Woody Island and Townshend Island. The establishment of new island populations is now less likely than in the past, especially in South Australia where the Animal and Plant Control Act 1986 prohibits the keeping and release of goats on nearly all islands in that state. The chance of natural colonisation of islands

1272-612: The Australian Capital Territory but are rare in the Northern Territory . They are most prevalent in western New South Wales , which, in 2020, had a feral goat population estimated at 4.9 million. They are also at their highest densities in the arid and semi-arid rangelands, where they are considered a significant agricultural and environmental pest. People, through supplying water and controlling predators to improve sheep production, have modified

1325-715: The Australian National Heritage List in 2007. It is also part of the Barrington Tops and Gloucester Tops Important Bird Area . Barrington Tops is part of the Mount Royal Range , a spur of the Great Dividing Range . Barrington Tops is a plateau between two of the large peaks in the range. The park is believed to be an extinct volcano and the mountain ranges are made up of a mixture of sedimentary rocks with

1378-561: The Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration . Feral goats in Australia Feral goats came to Australia with the first fleet in 1788. For instance, cashmere goats were brought into South Australia in 1837. In the 1860s, angora goats and cashmere goats were imported from Asia in an order to start a goat fibre industry. Some herds were set free when the industry collapsed in

1431-407: The 1920s. Goats were also taken around Australia with settlers, railway construction groups and miners. The recent populations of the feral goat have established from goats used to control weeds in plantation forests and woody weeds in inland New South Wales and Queensland. The current feral goat populations in Australia represent a mixture of these origins. Feral goats are found in all states and in

1484-532: The Animal Health Bill and can be controlled if they present a stock disease problem. A survey by the Parks and Wildlife Service in 1991 led to the development of a feral goat threat abatement plan and an ongoing control campaign. By June 1995, 55 of the 136 populations located had been eradicated. Some management is done by recreational hunters and DELM has a feral goat control program on Crown land using

1537-695: The Judas goat technique and shooting from helicopters. In Victoria, feral goats are declared as 'Established Pest Animals' under the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994. All landowners (including the Crown) must take all reasonable steps to control them. Feral goat populations appear to be small and isolated in Victoria. Goats are widely distributed in Western Australia, where they are regarded as

1590-602: The Royal Hotel in Dungog, using timber cut and milled from the property. It stood on land consisting of 10.5 hectares (26 acres) of forest surrounded by National and State Parks and was officially opened in 1930 by Leader of the Country Party Earle Page . During the opening there was some 200 guests that attended. The guest house was a popular venue for people to stay in the park, until it burned down in

1643-897: The administration of the government of each U.S. state , some of the Mexican states , and in Brazil . The term is also used in the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales . The equivalent term used in Canada, Argentina, South Africa, and Belgium, is provincial park . Similar systems of local government maintained parks exist in other countries, but the terminology varies. State parks are thus similar to national parks , but under state rather than federal administration. Similarly, local government entities below state level may maintain parks, e.g., regional parks or county parks . In general, state parks are smaller than national parks, with

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1696-567: The animals in the park are desirable; introduced species such as feral horses , deer , feral pigs , feral goats , foxes , and feral cats are planned to be removed. The traditional owners of the area are Aboriginal Australian peoples , including the Gringai people (southern valleys), the Wonnarua people (western country), and the Worimi and Birpai people (the eastern side). In 1969

1749-608: The area between Mount Barrington , Mount Royal and the Gloucester Tops was declared the Barrington Tops National Park. In 1986 it was listed as a World Heritage Area and subsequently a Wilderness Area . Some of the rivers flowing through the Barrington range have been classed as wild rivers meaning they are exceptionally pure and unpolluted. The highest peak is Brumlow Top which rises to

1802-596: The balance between their pest and resource status, and their legal definition in different states. Feral goats are mostly viewed as pests by most land managers. This has led to campaigns to manage or eradicate them. Some laws prescribe how feral goats are to be managed, while others merely define them as pests and leave management to the discretion of land owners or public agencies. State and territory governments provide legislative, technical and possibly financial support for feral goat control, and are also responsible for feral goat management on land held by their agencies. There

1855-417: The biodiversity of the ecosystem. Feral goats compete with domestic livestock for food and water, although dietary overlap in some habitats may be high only when food is limiting. When it comes to water, feral goats can even exclude some animals aggressively. The goats can cause water levels in rock holes to be so lowered as to exclude other animals or cause animals to fall in, drown and consequently, pollute

1908-738: The country's state parks. The NASPD further counts over 43,000 miles (69,000 km) of trail, 217,367 campsites, and 8,277 cabins and lodges across U.S. state parks. The largest state park system in the United States is Alaska State Parks , with over 100 sites encompassing 3.3 million acres. Many states include designations beyond "state park" in their state parks systems. Other designations might be state recreation areas , state beaches, and state nature reserves . Some state park systems include long-distance trails and historic sites . To encourage tourism in rural areas, several states have simple lodges, inns, hotels, or motels (usually with

1961-548: The decline of the brush-tailed rock-wallabies ( Petrogale penicillata ) in South Australia. The additional grazing pressure that the feral goats apply has two consequences in relation to effects on other animals. Firstly, this will increase the amount of time when food is limiting. Secondly, goats have a more catholic diet than sheep, cattle and kangaroos , utilising many shrubs and trees that are unpalatable to these species. A broader ecological niche may allow goats to persist longer in droughts than their competitors and have

2014-478: The designation at all (such as the lodges of Georgia state parks ). The term "lodge" may also refer to a hiking lodge , essentially a large cabin for hikers rather than a large facility with private rooms and a restaurant. Other lodging may include yurts and tipis . Not all parks owned by a state are necessarily part of its state-park system, such as Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta. Some Texas state parks are

2067-401: The early 2020s, Australia was responsible for only 0.4% of worldwide goat meat production, and its domestic market was small; only 9% of locally produced goat meat was consumed there. However, the country was also the world's largest exporter of the product: 35% of all of its exports, accounting for 44% of its global export value, or A$ 235 million . Most of Australia's goat meat exports were in

2120-638: The eastern, higher-rainfall areas of the State, where the impacts of feral goats have been little studies. In Queensland, feral goats are declared pests under the Rural Lands Protection Act 1985. The widespread drought in Queensland has focused land managers' need to reduce total grazing pressure in the mulga lands. The Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage has an unwritten policy to eradicate goats from national parks, and has

2173-544: The form of frozen whole carcasses. The country's biggest market for the product was the United States, with an average 60% volume share in the first half of the decade. Feral goats are also used as a biological method of controlling weeds such as blackberry ( Rubus fruticosus ), briar ( Rosa rubiginosa ), serrated tussock ( Nassella trichotoma ), St John's wort ( Hypericum perforatum ) and thistles (family Asteraceae ). They are particularly useful for controlling heavy weed infestations in difficult terrain. Goats have

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2226-493: The local flora , fauna , geology , and cultural history of the area. These programs are designed not only to enhance the visitor experience but also to promote conservation awareness and encourage responsible enjoyment of natural resources. There are 6,792 state park units in the United States, according to the National Association of State Park Directors (NASPD). There are some 813 million annual visits to

2279-535: The natural habitat favourably for feral goats. Feral goats also occur on many Australian offshore islands. These include islands with important conservation values, such as Lord Howe Island , and islands in the Archipelago of the Recherche . Island populations are generally considered to be pests but the feral goats on North Goulburn Island provide a source of trophy animals for a safari operation run by

2332-426: The northwest to more than 2,000 mm (79 in) in the southeast. The ecology of the national park varies from subtropical rainforests in the gullies to subalpine and alpine regions on the mountain peaks. Snow usually falls on the mountain peaks every year and occasionally snows enough to close roads. Rainfall can exceed 1,500 mm (59 in) per annum. A large variety of plants and animals reside in

2385-437: The park and the steepness of the terrain ensures that they are not disturbed by humans. Plant life includes a large variety of eucalypt trees including Snow Gums , subtropical and temperate rainforest trees like Antarctic beech , tree ferns , a large variety of mosses and ferns and a wide range of edible plants such as the native raspberry, the native cherry and the lilli pilli . The remoteness and inaccessibility of

2438-609: The premises in 1976. Due to business troubles however, it was then placed into voluntary administration in 2000, after which the business was than taken over by David and Susan Eissa in February 2002. Only one more owner has been known since (according to the now defunct website); Purchased in January 2004 by Natalie Day and Tony Horley. In April 2024, the site was purchased by a group of previous guests and owners who are making it safe to enable future visitation (2025). Barrington Tops

2491-470: The regeneration of seedlings. These goats, by browsing, can kill established plants by defoliation . They affect the regeneration processes indirectly when they reduce the ability of plants to produce seeds and directly when they eat young plants. Feral goats are particularly devastating to island ecosystems, causing direct and indirect impacts through overgrazing, which often results in ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss . It has also been found that

2544-583: The removal of feral goats leads to a decline in introduced annual grasses and an increase in native woody perennials and introduced fire-promoting perennial grasses. So, even though the initial impact of goats is often difficult to assess, elimination of goats may lead to increases in fire frequency and further invasion by introduced grasses. Feral goats affect the native terrestrial fauna of Australia by direct competition for resources such as food, water and shelter, and by contributing to changes in ecosystems. These impacts are usually undesirable because they reduce

2597-524: The soil's protective cover of vegetation and break up the soil crust with their hooves. This leads to wind erosion during droughts , water erosion during rain storms and can cause slips in steep areas. Increased erosion rates can have a significant long-term impact on biodiversity through the removal of soil and nutrients, and the alteration of soil structure leading to reduction in potential productivity. Feral goats may also affect perennial vegetation by feeding on established plants and by preventing

2650-474: The state line. Other multi-state parks are legally two separate parks with the same name and more informal cooperation between them. The title of oldest state park in the United States is claimed by Niagara Falls State Park in New York , established in 1885. Several public parks previously or currently maintained at the state level pre-date it. Indian Springs State Park has been operated continuously by

2703-454: The state of Georgia as a public park since 1825, although it did not gain the title "State Park" until 1931. In 1864 Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove were ceded by the federal government to California until Yosemite National Park was proclaimed in 1890. In 1878 Wisconsin set aside a vast swath of its northern forests as "The State Park" but, needing money, sold most of it to lumber companies within 20 years. Mackinac National Park

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2756-477: The supply. Goat dung can be deposited around waterholes and springs to a depth of several centimeters. Dung, along with the bodies of goats that fall in water and decompose, is likely to eutrophicate the water and have a major impact on the freshwater biota. Feral goats also compete with the native animals for shelter especially in rock caves . They have also found to eat some invertebrates such as gall-forming and scale insects. But whether this deliberate or incidental

2809-473: Was established in 1875 as the second U.S. national park before being converted to a state park in 1895. The first state park with the designation of "state park" was Itasca State Park in Minnesota , established in 1891. Many state park systems date to the 1930s, when around 800 state parks (and several national ones) across the country were developed with assistance from federal job-creation programs like

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