Queen's Commonwealth Canopy (QCC)

In November 2023 Cleland National Park was added to the Queen's Commonwealth Canopy (QCC) - a network of forest conservation projects throughout the Commonwealth of Nations’ 56 member countries.

Cleland Wildlife Park sits within the national park.

The national park is just the third QCC inclusion in Australia, alongside Bulburin National Park in Queensland and the ancient rainforests of K’gari (Fraser Island), since the program started in 2015.

The aim of the initiative is to combine knowledge on how best to preserve forests, while providing accreditation to sustainable forestry schemes within the Commonwealth.

Cleland is the final site accepted into the QCC as the program is being discontinued after the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.

About Cleland National Park

The park is 1,036 hectares and protects one of the largest areas of native vegetation along the Mount Lofty Ranges hills face.

The Mount Lofty Ranges is a biodiversity hotspot in recognition of the wide diversity of native species and the high numbers of endemic species. Heavily-forested areas of old growth stringy bark also contain important nesting sites for the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo. Within the park the varied topography supports a diversity of habitats, from creeks and tributaries that flow through steep sided gullies to Eucalypt stringybark forest and woodlands. The ecosystems conserved within the park make an important contribution to the wider Mount Lofty Ranges landscape and support natural ecological processes beyond the park’s boundaries.

Cleland National Park protects many of the last remaining intact swamps and bogs (organic based perched swamps) in the Mount Lofty Ranges. These bogs support endangered and endemic flora and fauna including the Southern Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus obesulus) and King Fern (Todea barbara).

Located less than 10 kilometres from the Adelaide CBD, it provides a unique opportunity for local, interstate and international visitors to experience nature right on their doorstep. It was first proclaimed as a Conservation Park in 1978 and was later proclaimed as a National Park in 2021. We recognise that the National Park is on the First Nations people of Kaurna land.