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The narrow gorge of
Palm Valley, is home to the Red Cabbage Palm (Livistona mariae),
remnants of a tropical rainforest that once covered this region some 60 million
years ago. Today, there exists some 12,000 palms, with the oldest being 300
years old, providing a unique attraction in the heart of the arid centre of
Central Australia. Located within the
Finke Gorge National Park the average
rainfall for Palm Valley is only 200 mm per year. There exists some small
pockets of semi-permanent spring-fed pools, with some spots seeming to ooze
water up through cracks in the rock.
A
recent article on the ABC report that the Hydrogeologist John Wischusenhas has
written a PhD thesis, about how the palms might have survived through the
extreme temperatures of prehistoric times because of very old ground water, and
that they continue to tap into this 300,000 year old water. This water is moving
slowly enough through the underlying Hermannsburg sandstone that could probably
sustain the palm population for hundreds of thousands of years without any
further rainfall1,2.
Normally a dry arid region, some visitors are lucky to be there during a wet period,
where a wonderful
sight present itself of expanses of water, maybe even
water flowing through the valley gorge. Such event also provide the opportunity for visitors to witness a variety of
aquatic life such as
desert
fish, shield shrimps (Triops australiensis),
tadpoles and frogs.
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