At 84 kilometres from Hobart in the very south of Tasmania lies Hartz Mountains National Park, one of the island's 19 national parks, which in UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989, along with other wilderness areas. The Hartz Mountains are named in honour of the mountain range of the same name in Germany.
Most of the park lies at an altitude of 600 metres above sea level or higher. The highest point is Hartz Peak (1,255 metres). The main rock formations of the park are coarse-crystalline basalt, and only in the southern part can one see the sedimentary rocks formed by the sediments of seas, glaciers and freshwater springs from 355 to 180 million years ago. The topography of the park has changed several times as a result of the onset and retreat of ice ages, leaving valleys, mountain peaks, and rugged ridges.
The unique vegetation of the park is represented by humid eucalyptus forests, mixed and rain forests, alpine and sub-alpine flora. In the rain forests you can see myrtle, American laurel, swamp dirka and luxurious magnolias. The lower tier of the forest is amazing heathland.
Most of the park's animals are nocturnal - these include the typically Australian wallabies, possums, echidnas, platypuses and red-bellied kangaroos. Among the most common feathered inhabitants are the green rosella, the forest raven, eastern and other species of honeycreeper.
Once the territory of the park was inhabited by Aborigines from the tribe "Melukerdi", and the first Europeans arrived here in the 19th century in search of Tasmanian pine. In the 1840s, the first settlers established the town of Jiveston and laid the first road road through the Hartz Mountains. As a result, the area became one of the most popular forest walkers in Tasmania. In 1939, the first protected area was the first protected area was established here, which in 1951 became a national park.
Today, tourists from all over the world travel to the park to see its unique flora and fauna and marvellous views of mountain ranges, waterfalls and lakes of glacial origin.
