The Stirling Ranges NP and the Fitzgerald River NP illustrate well the diversity of this part of WA. The former offers rugged mountains and expansive bush landscapes. The latter offers gorgeous beaches and vast areas of coastal scrub. Both are certainly worth a visit and together they make a really good few days of exploring. For us, a shame about the weather.
We stayed at Amelup on 11 October 2018 to see the Stirling Ranges NP, and at Ravensthorpe on 12 October 2018 to see the Fitzgerald River NP
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Getting There
Albany > Amelup (98) > Ravensthorpe (207) ~ 305kms
History
Stirling Ranges NP
The plains in the Stirling Ranges region have been the hunting grounds for small groups of First Nations people for thousands of years. At least two tribes frequented the area: the Qaaniyan people in the west, and the Koreng people in the east. The Stirling Range played an important role in their culture, featuring in a number of Dreamtime stories.
The first recorded sighting of the Stirling Range by a European explorer was by Matthew Flinders in 1802, who noted a chain of rugged mountains. Alexander Collie explored to the north of the King George Sound in 1831, describing the Stirling Range and recording names for the main peaks. The following year, Robert Dale led an expedition and made the first recorded ascent of a peak in the Stirling Range, scaling Toolbrunup.
Early exploitation of the Stirling Ranges included harvesting natural sandalwood and kangaroo hunting. The Ranges were never formally taken up for grazing, probably because of the many poison bushes in the area. The area that is now the Stirling Range NP was temporarily reserved in April 1908, and formally gazetted as WA’s third national park in June 1913.
Fitzgerald River NP
This Park is an internationally recognised ‘biodiversity hotspot’, the Fitzgerald River National Park is one of the most important reserves for plant conservation in Australia. It supports a rich variety of native plants, with around 1,748 plant species found within the park’s 297,244 hectares. This includes 75 plants found nowhere else in the world and around 250 plants that are considered rare or geographically restricted.
The national park is rich in plants from the Myrtaceae family (including Eucalypts and Melaleucas); Fabaceae family (including Acacias, Gastrolobiums and Daviesias); Proteaceae family (including Banksias, Hakeas and Grevilleas); and Ericaceae family (including Leucopogons).
The first sea-faring Europeans to look upon the Fitzgerald River NP area saw little to attract them. Dutchman Pieter Nuyts, in 1627, Englishman George Vancouver in 1791 and, Frenchman Bruni d’Entrecasteaux in 1792 all noted the barrenness of the land they observed from their passing ships.
Much later, in 1840-41, Edward Eyre traversed the Great Australian Bight, from Adelaide to Albany and recorded in his journal that: “Most properly has it been called Mount Barren for a more wretched looking country never existed than that around it”.
Although the Barren Range still bears the name that reflects those early opinions, the region around the Fitzgerald River NP is now, somewhat ironically, acknowledged as being one of the world’s richest in terms of plant diversity.
Recognition of its value came gradually. In 1954 the area was declared a ‘C’ class nature reserve. It was gazetted as a national park in January 1973.
Day 1 – 11 Oct – Stirling Range
We woke to a hazy, misty sort of day with rain promised. Not cold though. We got away from Albany at 7.30 – we were planning to get Mobi parked and then spend the rest of the day driving through the NP.
It is short drive and as we got further north, closer to the NP, we could see the mountains in the distant – a misty backdrop to the landscape.
Closer to Amelup, we saw signs for photos points ahead, but these were just a minor extension of the road shoulder and not possible with a caravan behind. As well, it seemed to us that the trees would block any view.
We were at the Stirling Range Retreat by about by 9, but they were happy to let us in so early. We were allocated a site but had a good look around before deciding on an alternative that would allow us to drive in, then back up directly onto the site. No worries. We also had both Optus and Telstra coverage.
The park was soil based generally, with some slabs, so after lots of recent rain it is all a bit damp. The park facilities are OK. It is being progressively up graded by the new owners, a young couple who are trying hard. We got the basic set up on Mobi, then headed off to see the mountains.
First up was Bluff Knoll – the highest mountain for quite a distance. We drove up to the car park which provides a great viewing point. It is an impressive mountain. But the flies are also awesome. I’d forgotten about bush flies – haven’t seen many for quite a while. These ones are very persistent. Our net hats came out very quickly.
The views all around were excellent. The Walk to the summit would take 3-4hrs so that was out of the question for us. We did walk part way up to get better photos.
The wildflowers were a true delight! Great to see some new plants.
We drove the 15km or so back south to the start of the Sterling Ranges Drive, 42 kms of a good gravel road.
It started well with generally clear skies and driving through some lovely country. Don’t striking mountains provide a wonderful backdrop? However, we did not have time to do any serious walks – all requiring 2 to 4 hours. As well, we could see a large storm brewing.
Soon the rain set in and it poured. We got to Central Lookout as the rain temporarily cleared.
We stopped at a few places such as Mt Magog picnic area, but generally were confined to The Cruiser because of the rain. We got to the Western Lookout as another shower hit. But we did get a few general shorts.
We stopped at Red Gum Springs and walked a track. But we could see nothing there. The springs no longer flow.
All in all it was a frustrating day. That evening we saw more storms approaching. Have to say though, the sky looks wonderful as the big storms roll in. Such wonderful colours ahead of the dark.
Day 2 – 12 Oct – Drive to Ravensthorpe
We had rain and thunderstorms over night, and woke to a gloomy grey day. We got underway at about 8.15, driving through flat farming land. After about 15km we saw a windmill on our left – we think that is a cafe. The couple in the van next to us at Amelup had come here to have a Devonshire Tea, but they said the place was closed.
We saw an intriguing old barn and a couple of large silos on the way – grain is obviously the agricultural mainstay.
Arriving at Ravensthorpe we were delighted to see that the 3 silos on the way into town had been painted. We checked that out later.
At the van park, the office was closed. Kerry knocked, which got a dog going, and a lady came out from a garage. “Choose anywhere,” she said, “I will be around this afternoon to register you and get details.”
We walked around the park, which was deserted, and picked a site with some grass, and where we could easily bring Mobi around and back straight in. The site was next to the camp kitchen and close to ablutions. These were clean and ok – not modern but quite adequate. But the park did have a rundown feel to it. However, we had both Optus and Telstra coverage – yes!.
In the afternoon we went up to get milk and bread at the IGA and walked around town. There is a lovely old pub which is always good to see. That and the council office appear to be the only preserved buildings.
We went back to see the 3 silos and there are viewing areas for people to stop and take photos, with 3 other cars there. They are fabulous, and depict Six Stages of Banksia. The mural is a 25 metre high wildflower-inspired picture painted across the 3 CBH Group silos by acclaimed Fremantle-based artist Amok Island. The work took 31 days and 338 litres of paint, and countless trips up and down the silos in a knuckle boom. It is the second in a series of monumental street art murals on grain silos delivered by the not for profit FORM organisation in partnership with CBH Group. The first was in Northam.
We went to the tourist office and got good advice and maps for the trip to the Fitzgerald River NP the next day. We got confirmation that there was a road from Hopetoun into the NP, in fact a bitumen road. Then we spied a lovely little cottage next to the Tourist Office, maybe part of the museum, with a beautiful garden.
Back at the van park, 7 or 8 vans of all shapes and sizes came in, and later the woman came around to register us and get payment.
To see photos from the Stirling Range NP, click here
Day 3 – 13 Oct – Fitzgerald River NP
The day dawned bright, and we drove to Hopetoun. It’s quite an interesting town – a great old pub and other historical buildings. We went out to the large parking area extending out to the ocean. There is a really nice beach as well. Some pics.
From the town, we went to a lookout some 10km east of town, but can’t see the view for the bush. Eventually we found a track to the beach and walked that to see some of the wildflowers on the way. It is a lovely beach – extending in either direction and little evidence of anyone having been there for some time. And those lovely wild flowers again. It is so nice to see some lovely flowers again.
Back in Hopetoun, we filled up with diesel as the price was much better that at Ravensthorpe. We put in 88.66L at $1.679/L. Our economy rate between fills was 17.52L/100km.
We took the Hamersley Road, heading west into the NP. We were shocked to see the damage to the old road crossing over the Culham Inlet – major sections of the road were washed away in 2017 storms. The new crossing is closer to the ocean and is more a floodway than a bridge. But we did wonder how it will survive.
We worked our way around the beaches, firstly at Four Mile Beach. A very pretty beach with the mountain as a backdrop.
Next is Barrens Beach, which has a series of sculptures next to the carpark. Interesting. The beach is great – small with a rocky headland – although there was a fair bit of sea weed around.
From there it was up to the Barrens Lookout, where we saw some lovely flowers including a beautiful but tiny green/yellow orchid. There were good views back over the Inlet and to Hopetoun. Some of these orchids are absolutely exquisite and so, so delicate. It is wonderful when you find one as most are really small.
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East Mount Barren, on the other side of the Mountain, provided great views from the car park. I also walked a good bit up the track towards the top to get better views – the next photo shows the carpark. The walk is rated as 2 to 3 hours, so that was out of the question.
We also saw some lovely plants there, including a strange looking one which is difficult to describe – its the first few pictures.
All of these beaches and lookouts are very close together and it is not long before we are at East Mileys Beach. This has high sand-dunes and a rocky headland to the left, and a long white beach stretching out to the west. We enjoyed our walk there. Unfortunately I had a bit of a problem with my camera so only 1 photo.
Cave Point is great. A short walk over the headland took us to a viewing platform leading out to the ocean. Great views. It looked like there is a large cave in the cliff face directly below us.
There are also stunning views over West Beach.
From Caves Point it is a short walk along the headland to West Beach. We agree that I would do the walk and Kerry would take The Cruiser around. It is less than 1km to West Beach so it does not take long.
But the views are great. We met at the beach and enjoyed a walk – lots of lovely rock outcrops to look at. Lovely flowers as well. Sadly, poor aperture settings ruined the photos I took.
Following that we went on to Hamersley Inlet, a very popular camping and picnic spot. It is a large lake with the mountains as its back drop. We could get to the lake shore but in the time we had we could not get around to the lake mouth.
That concluded our drive along this beautiful coastline. We took the Hamersley Road out – about 35km of a pretty good gravel road. On reaching the South Coast Hwy, we had about another 35km to get back to Ravensthorpe.
To see photos from the Stirling Range NP, click here
To see photos from the Fitzgerald River NP, click here
To see a Video for this post, click here