Gull Rock National Park
Gull Rock National Park is a small national park situated 25 km southeast of Albany in Western Australia. It was established in 2006, it is around 2,593 hectares in area. The area is backed by King George Sound to the south, Oyster Harbour to the west, Taylor Inlet to the east and farmland to the north; the park takes its name from a small island off Ledge Beach, not part of the park. Boiler Bay is at the eastern edge of Ledge Beach; the Mount Martin Botanical Reserve is adjacent to the western boundary and Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve is 10 kilometres to the east of the park. The area is an unspoilt example of coastal east Kalgan vegetation system. Composed of granite headlands separated by sandy beaches with lakes and interdunal wetlands, the area contains a number of specific ecosystems. Rocky granite areas exist, including Mount Taylor and Mount Martin, both of which are part of the Gardner Landform unit; the diverse landforms and soils support an array of different habitats and a large number of floral species.
A complex patchwork of forest, wetlands, granite shrublands and coastal heath is found within the park. Endangered species such as the noisy scrub-bird, western bristlebird and the western whipbird are known to inhabit the area; the endangered Western ringtail possum is frequently sighted in the area. Many rare plant species including Corybas limpidus, Adenanthos cunninghamii, Banksia verticillata and Stylidium plantagineum are found in the National Park. Areas of banksia woodland, sheoak forest, open heath and grassed dunes can all be found within the park. Notable flora include Banksia coccinea, Hakea elliptica, Allocasuarina trichodon, Agonis marginata and Dryandra formosa; the area is home to the most significant remaining stands of scarlet banksia, Banksia coccinea, in the region, however this community is threatened by Phytophthora dieback. Melaleuca striata coastal heath grows on the lower elevations of Mount Taylor. Melaleuca striata, Banksia attenuata and Banksia coccinea are present on the heath, but their growth is stunted by the salt laden air.
Anarthria scabra is predominant in the sedgeland, with Adenanthos cuneatus, Astroloma baxteri, Hypocalymma strictum, Hypolaena exsulca, Isopogon cuneatus, Lyginia barbata, Melaleuca thymoides, Petrophile rigida present. The rare and ancient Main's assassin spider listed as threatened, was found to inhabit the park during a survey conducted in 2008
Eucla National Park
Eucla National Park is a national park in Western Australia, 1,238 kilometres east of Perth. The southern edge of the park borders a section of the Great Australian Bight. Other notable features of the park include Wilson Delisser sandhills; the area is composed of typical of the southern coast. Wildflowers such as Cockie's Tongue, with its distinctive red, pink or yellow flowers are common throughout the park. A rare plant species of senecio, native to the limestone cliff area is known to exist in the park. Access to the area is via the Eyre Highway found on the northern border of the park. No facilities are available for visitors in the park and no sealed roads exist within the park, only 4WD tracks. No camping is permitted within the park, the nearest camping facilities are at Eucla and the Border Village. Historical ruins such as the Eucla Telegraph station and the original Eucla township can be found at the western end of the park. Both are buried by encroaching sand dunes. Protected areas of Western Australia
Watsonia (plant)
Watsonia is a genus of plants in the iris family, subfamily Crocoideae. Watsonias are native to southern Africa; the genus is named after an 18th-century British botanist. There are 56 accepted species in southern Africa, with two varieties and about 112 names either unresolved or regarded as synonyms. All are perennial herbs producing erect spikes of showy flowers. Most are fynbos plants, adapted to a Mediterranean-type climate, but some occur along the eastern and inland areas of the country and adapted to a wider range of conditions continental climate with summer rainfall. Many species occur in the mountains, though some occur in sandy flats and marshy areas; the most cultivated species is the pink-flowered Watsonia borbonica and its white mutant'Arderne's White'. These were crossed with Watsonia meriana and other species in the early 20th century by breeders including John Cronin in Australia and Luther Burbank in California to produce a wide range of cultivars. Watsonia has been eclipsed in popularity by Gladiolus and other bulbs, is now neglected by the nursery industry.
Native to South Africa, Watsonia species were introduced as garden ornamentals to Australia in the mid-19th century and were grown by the 1940s. In the South-West of Western Australia, six species have become naturalised from garden escapes along rivers and seasonally wet ground. In places Watsonia spp. have displaced native understorey flora. Watsonia meriana var. bulbillifera is a weed in New Zealand, Réunion and Mauritius. Goldblatt, P; the Genus Watsonia. Ann. Kirstenbosch Bot. Gard. 19.. Hussey, BMJ. Western Weeds: A Guide to the Weeds of Western Australia. Perth: Plant Protection Society of WA. ISBN 0-646-32440-3. Http://members.ozemail.com.au/~davcooke/watsonia.htm http://www.weeds.org.au/cgi-bin/weedident.cgi?tpl=plant.tpl&ibra=all&card=E51 Dressler, S.. "Watsonia". African plants – a Photo Guide. Frankfurt/Main: Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg
Great Eastern Highway
Great Eastern Highway is a 590-kilometre-long road that links the Western Australian capital of Perth with the city of Kalgoorlie. A key route for road vehicles accessing the eastern Wheatbelt and the Goldfields, it is the western portion of the main road link between Perth and the eastern states of Australia; the highway forms the majority of National Highway 94, although the alignment through the Perth suburbs of Guildford and Midland, the eastern section between Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie are not included. Various segments form parts of other road routes, including National Route 1, Alternative National Route 94, State Route 51. There are numerous intersections in Perth with other highways and main roads, including Canning, Albany and Roe Highways, Graham Farmer Freeway. There are two rural highways that spur off Great Eastern Highway. Great Southern Highway begins near Perth's eastern metropolitan boundary, linking towns such as York, Brookton and Katanning. Near the eastern end of the highway, Coolgardie is the starting point of Coolgardie–Esperance Highway, connecting to the interstate route Eyre Highway at Norseman, as well as the coastal town of Esperance.
The highway was created in the 1930s from an existing system of roads linking Perth with the Goldfields. Though the name Great Eastern Highway was coined to describe the route from Perth to Guildford on the northern side of the Swan River, it was used for the road through Belmont, south of the river; this section was constructed in 1867 using convict labour, with the road base made from sections of tree trunks. Over the years the road has been upgraded, with the whole highway sealed by 1953, segments reconstructed and widened, dual carriageways created in Perth and Kalgoorlie, grade separated interchanges built at major intersections. Great Eastern Highway Bypass in Perth's eastern suburbs opened in 1988, allowing through traffic to avoid the Guildford and Midland townsites, in 2002 a new bypass diverted the highway around Northam. A future route to replace Great Eastern Highway's current ascent of the Darling Scarp has been identified; the planned route is a controlled-access highway along Toodyay Road to Gidgegannup, across to Wundowie via a new alignment.
Though planning began in the 1970s, as of 2012, construction of this route has not been scheduled, it is not considered a priority. Great Eastern Highway commences at The Causeway, a river crossing that connects to Perth's central business district. Travelling north-east through the city to Greenmount Hill, following a steep climb, the highway heads east through Western Australia's Wheatbelt to Kalgoorlie, in the state's Goldfields. Within Perth, the highway is a six-lane dual carriageway from The Causeway to Tonkin Highway near Perth Airport, it travels as a four lane single carriageway to Midland, with the second carriageway reappearing after Roe Highway, continuing all the way to The Lakes at Perth's eastern fringe. The remainder of the highway is a two-lane single carriageway until Kalgoorlie, where a dual carriageway exists; the speed limit is 60 kilometres per hour from The Causeway to Midland, 70 km/h near the bottom of Greenmount Hill, 80 km/h from Greenmount to Sawyers Valley. From the eastern edge of Perth it is 110 km/h, but with lower limits for sections near the towns the highway encounters en route to Kalgoorlie.
The highway runs parallel to the Mundaring to Kalgoorlie water pipeline, which supplies the Goldfields with water from Mundaring Weir in the eastern part of Perth. The Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail is a tourist drive alongside the pipeline, with large sections of the trail following Great Eastern Highway. Various road routes are allocated to sections of Great Eastern Highway, with some overlap between some of the routes, it is signed as National Highway 94, except for the section between Great Eastern Highway Bypass and Roe Highway, the final 40 kilometres from Coolgardie to Kalgoorlie. It is signed as National Route 1 between The Causeway and Morrison Road in Midland, State Route 51 between Johnson Street in Guildford and Roe Highway, Tourist Drive 203 between Terrace Road in Guildford and Morrison Road and Alternate National Route 94 east of Coolgardie. Main Roads Western Australia monitors traffic volume across the state's road network, including various locations along Great Eastern Highway.
In 2008/09, the busiest section was east of the Graham Farmer Freeway interchange, averaging 60,760 vehicles per weekday. The lowest volume was an average of 850 vehicles per day near Ryans Find Road, partway between Southern Cross and Coolgardie; as of 2012, Great Eastern Highway between Mundaring and Northam is the state's worst section of National Highway, in terms of road safety. Casualty crash rates had decreased since 2007, although the Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia still considered it a risky section of road needing close attention from road authorities. In 2013, Great Eastern Highway remained as a road of particular concern, with the Australian Automobile Association giving 67% of the highway a low one- or two-star rating, 77% of the route between The Lakes and Northam a one-star safety rating. Great Eastern Highway begins at a grade separated interchange between the south-eastern end of The Causeway, north-eastern end of Canning Highway, north-western ends of Shepperton Road and Albany Highway.
It proceeds in a north-easterly direction between local parks for 1.3 kilometres, south of the Crown Perth entertainment complex in Burswood. After passing under the Armadale/Thornlie railway line, there is a diamon
Francois Peron National Park
Francois Peron National Park is a national park on the Peron Peninsula in Western Australia, 726 km north of Perth, located within the boundary of the Shark Bay World Heritage area. The nearest towns to the park are Denham, found on the southern edge of the park and Carnarvon, found about 80 kilometres to the north. Aboriginal Australians were the initial inhabitants of the area and have been living there for over 26,000 years; the local peoples who speak the Malgana language call the area Wulyibidi. It is named after the French naturalist and explorer François Péron, the zoologist aboard Nicolas Baudin's 1801 and 1803 scientific expeditions to Western Australia, is situated within the bounds of the earlier pastoral lease of the Peron Station. Locations from the French exploration era include: Guichenault Cape Lesueur Lake MontbazinA pearling camp was established on the peninsula at Herald Bight in the 1880s and the remains of the shells can still be found along the beach. Used as a sheep station from the early 1900s onwards the station was sold to the state government in 1990.
It was gazetted on 8 January 1993 as a National Park – through the purchase of Peron Station in 1990. It is adjacent to and surrounded by the Shark Bay Marine Park to the west and east, by the Denham to Monkey Mia road to the south. Picnic, boat launching and camping areas along the west coast of the Peninsula include: Big Lagoon Cape Lesueur Cattle Well South Gregories Gregories Bottle Bay List of protected areas of Western Australia Denham, Western Australia Monkey Mia Edward Duyker François Péron: An Impetuous Life: Naturalist and Voyager, Miegunyah/MUP, Melb. 2006, pp. 349, ISBN 978-0-522-85260-8. Francois Peron National Park page at the Department of Parks and Wildlife website Francois Peron National Park page at SharkBay.org Francois Peron National Park page at the Shire of Shark Bay website
National park
A national park is a park in use for conservation purposes. It is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea: the conservation of'wild nature' for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, its World Commission on Protected Areas, has defined "National Park" as its Category II type of protected areas. While this type of national park had been proposed the United States established the first "public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people", Yellowstone National Park, in 1872. Although Yellowstone was not termed a "national park" in its establishing law, it was always termed such in practice and is held to be the first and oldest national park in the world. However, the Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve, the area surrounding Bogd Khan Uul Mountain are seen as the oldest protected areas, predating Yellowstone by nearly a century.
The first area to use "national park" in its creation legislation was the U. S.'s Mackinac, in 1875. Australia's Royal National Park, established in 1879, was the world's third official national park. In 1895 ownership of Mackinac National Park was transferred to the State of Michigan as a state park and national park status was lost; as a result, Australia's Royal National Park is by some considerations the second oldest national park now in existence. Canada established Parks Canada in 1911, becoming the world's first national service dedicated to protecting and presenting natural and historical treasures; the largest national park in the world meeting the IUCN definition is the Northeast Greenland National Park, established in 1974. According to the IUCN, 6,555 national parks worldwide met its criteria in 2006. IUCN is still discussing the parameters of defining a national park. National parks are always open to visitors. Most national parks provide outdoor recreation and camping opportunities as well as classes designed to educate the public on the importance of conservation and the natural wonders of the land in which the national park is located.
In 1969, the IUCN declared a national park to be a large area with the following defining characteristics: One or several ecosystems not materially altered by human exploitation and occupation, where plant and animal species, geomorphological sites and habitats are of special scientific and recreational interest or which contain a natural landscape of great beauty. In 1971, these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate a national park; these include: Minimum size of 1,000 hectares within zones in which protection of nature takes precedence Statutory legal protection Budget and staff sufficient to provide sufficient effective protection Prohibition of exploitation of natural resources qualified by such activities as sport, fishing, the need for management, etc. While the term national park is now defined by the IUCN, many protected areas in many countries are called national park when they correspond to other categories of the IUCN Protected Area Management Definition, for example: Swiss National Park, Switzerland: IUCN Ia - Strict Nature Reserve Everglades National Park, United States: IUCN Ib - Wilderness Area Victoria Falls National Park, Zimbabwe: IUCN III - National Monument Vitosha National Park, Bulgaria: IUCN IV - Habitat Management Area New Forest National Park, United Kingdom: IUCN V - Protected Landscape Etniko Ygrotopiko Parko Delta Evrou, Greece: IUCN VI - Managed Resource Protected AreaWhile national parks are understood to be administered by national governments, in Australia national parks are run by state governments and predate the Federation of Australia.
In Canada, there are both national parks operated by the federal government and provincial or territorial parks operated by the provincial and territorial governments, although nearly all are still national parks by the IUCN definition. In many countries, including Indonesia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, national parks do not adhere to the IUCN definition, while some areas which adhere to the IUCN definition are not designated as national parks. In 1810, the English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a sort of national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy; the painter George Catlin, in his travels through the American West, wrote during the 1830s that the Native Americans in the United States might be preserved...in a magnificent park... A nation's Park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature's beauty! The first effort by the U. S. Federal government to set aside such protected lands was on 20 April 1832, when President Andrew Jackson signed legislation that the 22nd United States Congress had enacted to set aside four sections of land around what is now Hot Springs, Arkansas, to protect the natural, thermal springs and adjoining mountainsides for the futur
Karijini National Park
Karijini National Park is a national park centred in the Hamersley Ranges of the Pilbara region in the northwestern section of the Australian state of Western Australia. The park is located just north of the Tropic of Capricorn 1,055 kilometres from the state's capital city, Perth. Known as Hamersley Range National Park, the park was renamed in 1991. At 627,422 hectares, Karijini is the second largest national park in Western Australia with Karlamilyi National Park being the largest park; the park is physically split into a northern and a southern half by a corridor containing the Hamersley & Robe River railway and the Marandoo iron ore mine. The park is served by the Solomon Airport, located 15 kilometres westwards. A party led by explorer F. T. Gregory explored the area in 1861, he named the Hamersley Range. The park is located in the Pilbara region, is tropical semi-arid climate. In summer and cyclones are common, bringing 250–350 mm of rain annually. Temperatures on summer days exceed 40 degrees Celsius, while winter nights can bring frost.
Several gorges that flow north out of the park—including Dales, Kalamina and Yampire Gorges—provide notable displays of the rock layers: Banded iron formation - Brockman iron formation Dolomite - Wittenoom dolomite Shale - Mount McRae Shale The park is most notable for its many gorges containing slot canyons and water holes with visitors sometimes swimming in the cold pools of water. Hamersley Gorge is located in the northwestern region of the park, while Range Gorge is in the north, Munjina Gorge is in the east, Hancock, Knox and Weano Gorges converge in the park's center. While the park is open to the public, visitors are warned to exercise due caution when walking in and around the vicinity of Yampire and Wittenoom Gorges near the northern boundary of the park due to the presence of blue asbestos—a known cancer-causing agent when inhaled—which occurs in a number of the rock formations; the park's wildlife includes red kangaroos, wallaroos, geckos, bats, legless lizards and a large variety of birds and snakes, including pythons.
List of protected areas of Western Australia Padgett, Allan Karijini National Park - description of some of the more remote gorges. Landscope, Vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 16–21 Media related to Karijini National Park at Wikimedia Commons Archived PDF park guide A tourist's park photos
