Kelvin Powrie Conservation Park, formerly the Kelvin Powrie National Parks Reserve, is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located in the state's south-east in the gazetted localities of Coombe and Keith about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) north-west of the town centre in Keith.[5][2]
The conservation park consists of land located between the Dukes Highway on its south-west side and the Melbourne–Adelaide railway on its north-eastern side on the boundary between the localities of Coombe and Keith.[5] The conservation park occupies land in the cadastral units of the hundreds of Archibald and Stirling.[5] It was originally proclaimed as the Kelvin Powrie National Parks Reserve under the National Parks Act 1966 on 4 March 1971.[3] It was renamed as the Kelvin Powrie Conservation Park upon the proclamation of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 on 27 April 1972.[6] Its name commemorates James Kelvin Powrie, a "research scientist who discovered the trace element deficiency of the soil in this area, (formerly the Ninety Mile Desert)."[7] As of July 2016, the conservation park covered an area of 17 hectares (42 acres).[4]
In 1992, the conservation park was described as follows:[5]
Its landscape consisted of “a uniform limestone plain with isolated gently rising sand dunes” which passes through the conservation park in “a generally east-west direction” and which has soils described as being “generally deep acid bleached sands with a yellow-grey B horizon.”
Remnant native vegetation within its boundaries consist of a “pink gum low open woodland with a heath understorey” in its south, a”substantially treeless heath associated with low sandy rises” in its north and with “a band of coastal white mallee … woodland” passing through its centre from the north-west to the south-east along “the crest of the dune system.”
As of 1992, visitor facilities consisted of a “parking area and picnic site” catering “mainly for short stops by people travelling along the Dukes Highway” and a walking track that “leads from the parking area In a north west direction to the crest of a dune which affords a view of the heath association In the north” of the conservation park.[5]
