Episode: 5
Title: Fitzgerald River National Park
Broadcast:  4th March 2018
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane

There’s nothing quite like a drive and there’s nowhere quite like Australia’s Golden Outback when it comes to exploring WA on wide open road. We’ve been headed south after discovering Dumbleyung and its lake and Yabbies and we are headed to Esperance via the stunning coastal township of Hopetoun with a visit to one of my favourite natural places on the planet. If you’ve never visited the Fitzgerald national Park you really should.

• Fitzgerald River National Park was again recognised in 2017 by UNESCO recognizing it as an important biodiversity hotspot, a biosphere unique in the world despite being only 0.2% of the total states land mass.
• Home to almost 20% of all West Australian flora species, many only occur within the parks boundaries. Located in between Esperance and Albany. Hopetoun is just 10 minutes away from the park entry so the perfect place to base yourself whilst exploring the national park.
• The park is divided into two recreational areas by a central wilderness core that is closed to all traffic to ensure its protection. Unsealed roads from the north are now suitable for two-wheel-drive vehicles and provides access to a number to terrific walk trails and highlights.
• The coast line here is incredible and if you take Hammersley Drive on the south eastern corner of the park you get the opportunity to explore the different views and visit the beaches and bays along the way. The park is home to the largest recorded species of birds, mammals and frogs in the South-West of WA.
• The jagged and tilted rocks at Cave Point looking out of the southern ocean are a distinctive feature of headlands and peaks throughout the whole of the Fitzgerald Park. These and the unique spongelite calcite sands here were created over 35 million years ago in the Eocene epoch.
• They were once layers of silt and sand deposited on an ancient the sea floor that were subsequently transformed and uplifted by movements of the Earth’s crust. Siltstone was turned into the colourful schist at Cave Point and sandstone to the much harder crystalline quartzite that has created the park’s peaks.
• The flora here is extensive and unique. The best time of the year to visit is late spring around October/November to see all the wildflowers at their best but there is always colour all year round.

W: www.westernaustralia.com
P: (08) 9483 1111