Echidna in Mt Field - Tasmania - Australia
Channel: Trochey
Date: 2013-02-26

Mount Field National Park was founded in 1916, making it, along with Freycinet National Park, Tasmania's oldest national park. The area around Russell Falls has been protected for its natural beauty since 1885, when it was set aside as Tasmania's first nature reserve.[2] The last known wild thylacine was captured in the region in 1933. The reserve was called "National Park" before 1946, but was officially renamed to its present name in 1947.[3]
Geology

During the Pleistocene period a snowfield covered the top of the Mount Field plateau which fed glaciers in the surrounding valleys.[4] A large, 12 km long glacier formed the broad river valley and the cirque walls above Lake Seal.[4] Twisted Tarn, Twilight Tarn and the tarns on the tarn shelf were formed by glacial scouring.[4] A glacier flowed south from the Rodway Range, forming lakes Belcher and Nelton, and north to form the Hayes Valley and Lake Hayes.[4]
Lake Seal, Mount Field National Park. The remains of a cirque glacier are visible in the walls around lake seal.[4]

In alpine areas podzolic, humus and leached soil is most common. The podzols often occur on deep periglacial solifluction deposits down to 450 m.[4] Alluvial floodplains 

The park has good representation of much of native Tasmanian fauna including Wombats, Platypuses, eastern barred bandicoots, echidnas, and the Tasmanian devil.