Mount Woodroffe

Mount Woodroffe (Ngarutjaranya)
Highest point
Elevation 1,435 m (4,708 ft) AHD 
Prominence South Australia's highest mountain
Coordinates 26°19′S 131°44′E / 26.317°S 131.733°E / -26.317; 131.733Coordinates: 26°19′S 131°44′E / 26.317°S 131.733°E / -26.317; 131.733
Geography
Location South Australia, Australia
Parent range Musgrave Ranges
Climbing
Easiest route Hike
Mount Woodroffe
Location in South Australia

Mount Woodroffe is South Australia's highest peak, at 1,435 metres.

Cultural Significance

The mountain is known to the Pitjantjatjara Indigenous Australians as Ngarutjaranya.[1] In Indigenous Australian mythology, the mountain embodies the mythological creature Ngintaka.

Geography

Mount Woodroffe is located in the far northwest of South Australia, in the Musgrave Ranges. The mountain range rises some 700–800 metres from the surrounding plains and comprises massifs of granite and gneiss.

History

William Ernest Giles was the first white man to pass through the area and camped to the south Woodroffe on September 7, 1873. William Christie Gosse named Mt Woodroffe from Ayers Rock/Uluru on July 20, 1873 and passed to the north of the mountain on October 27, 1873.[2] Woodroffe was named after George Woodroffe Goyder, Surveyor-General of South Australia and an early Australian explorer.[3]

In the 1960s Mount Woodroffe was considered as a potential site for the proposed Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). It lost out due to its remoteness compared to Siding Spring in New South Wales, where the AAT sits today amongst other astronomical observatories.[4]

Access

Access is limited as a permit is required to enter the Anangu Pitjantjatjara lands.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Mount Woodroffe". Gazetteer of Australia online. Geoscience Australia, Australian Government.
  2. ↑ "Plaque on the summit of Woodroffe.". state8.net/sa.htm.
  3. ↑ "Goyder, George Woodroffe (1826-1898)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. 1972. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
  4. ↑ Biographical Memoir of Arthur Robert Hogg, 1903-1966, Australian Academy of Science
  5. ↑ "Permits". PYMedia. Retrieved 2006-07-30.
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