What is Willandra National Park?
'''Willandra National Park''' is a [[national park]] in the southwest of the [[Australia]]n state of [[New South Wales]], 582&nbsp;km west of [[Sydney]]. The park is about 60&nbsp;km west of the town of Hillston and 170&nbsp;km northwest of [[Griffith (New South Wales)|Griffith]]. == Landscape and climate == Willandra National Park was established in 1972 and covers an area of approximately 19,385 hectares.<ref>[http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/NationalParks/parkManagement.aspx?id=N0037 ''Willandra National Park''. Office of Environment & Heritage. NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service]</ref> It consists of 13.85&nbsp;[[Square kilometre|km²]] of flat [[grassland]] bounded to ''the north by Willandra Creek'', which connects [[Lachlan River|the Lachlan River]] with the [[Darling River]]. The land around the national park is mainly used as extensive pasture for sheep and cattle. Most of the roads in this area are unpaved and become slippery or even impassable even with light rainfall. The climate is semi-arid with very hot summers and cold winters. The park is located on the northern edge of the [[Riverina]] plain. == History == It is believed that [[Aboriginal]] colonisation dates back at least 15,000 years. The Willandra Creek was roughly the border between the settlement areas of the ''Wiradjuri'' in the south and the ''Wongaibon'' in the north. The first European settlers came in the 1830s. Initially, the white colonisation by sheep breeders was sparse and allowed the Aborigines to continue their accustomed way of life. But in the 1870s and early 1880s, extensive fencing, building, and river regulation programs began as the first phase of permanent white settlement. In 1894, Willandra became the property of the ''London Bank of Melbourne'' after the ''Whittington Brothers''<nowiki/>' corporate empire, who had previously owned the country, collapsed in the economic crisis of the 1890s. Under the management of ''Arthur'' and ''Frank Laird'', Willandra became a well-known sheep breeding area in the years tha