Franklin–Gordon Wild Rivers National Park

Franklin–Lower Gordon Wild Rivers National Park

Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, national park in western Tasmania, Australia. The park, established in 1981 and doubled in area in 1990, covers some 1,700 square miles (4,400 square km) of alpine slopes, undulating hills, and coastline. It constitutes, together with neighbouring Southwest National Park to the south and Cradle Mountain–Lake St. Clair National Park to the north, the central section of the great Tasmanian Wilderness.

The park’s features include the spectacular gorges of the Gordon River, which flows northwestward from Lake Richmond into Macquarie Harbour, and of the Franklin River, a southward-flowing tributary to the Gordon. Camping, hiking, and rafting are popular activities among visitors, who often arrive via the Lyell Highway, which traverses the park.

The Tasmanian devil and other marsupials are part of the varied wildlife of the area. Common flora include the Huon pine, myrtle beech, eucalyptus, and other species suited to the cool temperate rainforest. In Kutakina Cave, near the confluence of the Franklin and Gordon, prehistoric tools that Aborigines had crafted from the natural glass of a distant meteorite crater were excavated.