Franklin Harbor Conservation Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located on the east coast of Eyre Peninsula in the gazetted locality of Cowell about 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) south of the town centre in Cowell.[2][5]
The conservation park consists of land on a peninsula that encloses the south east side of Franklin Harbor and on four islands within Franklin Harbor including Entrance Island.[6] The conservation park occupies land in Sections 258, 259, 260 and 261 of the cadastral unit of the Hundred of Playford.[3]
The conservation park was proclaimed on 22 January 1976 under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972.[3][7] As of July 2016, the conservation park covered an area of 13.56 square kilometres (5.24 sq mi).[4] Since 2012, the conservation park has been overlapped by the protected area known as the Franklin Harbor Marine Park.[8]
As of 1982, the conservation park was considered to have "significance" for the following reasons:[5]
...(it) preserves an area of mangrove and samphire flats, an association that is markedly depleted in South Australia. The entrance islands ... contain a population of death adders. The islands also provide a safe roosting and feeding site for sea birds.
As of 1982, the flora of the conservation park was described as follows:[5]
Two of the islands and the protected side of the peninsula feature a low woodland of Avicennia marina and a samphire shrubland. The seaward side of the peninsula features a sandy beach backed by minor areas of open scrubland dominated by boxthorn, with scattered Callitris, Santalum, Leucopogon and Nitraria.
