LIVING LANDSCAPES
The Fitzgerald River National Park embraces 3300sq km of unspoiled wilderness on a stretch of rugged coastline between the towns of Bremer Bay and Hopetoun, 420km south-east of Perth.
Within its boundaries are nearly 20 per cent of the state’s plant species, many found nowhere else, and it is home to more kinds of animals than any other reserve in the south-west of Western Australia. These outstanding natural features have been recognised by UNESCO in designating it as a World Biosphere Reserve.
TEEMING WITH LIFE
The park straddles the incised valleys of four intermittent rivers — the Gairdner, Fitzgerald, Hamersley and Phillips — which flow mainly during winter and spring from northern uplands to the coast.
Each of them cuts through dramatic gorges and steep-sided valleys that end abruptly at inlets, of which Hamersley Inlet is the longest and the deepest.
Undulating sandplains blanket the central and western parts of the park, dotted with numerous swamps and shallow saline lakes. Out of these rolling plains rises a range of rugged peaks that dominate the coastal fringe overlooking the Southern Ocean. These distinctive landforms are made of sedimentary rocks laid down about 1300 million years ago, transformed by intense heat and pressure into hard, white quartzite and eroded to a jagged ridge resembling the spine of a giant sleeping dragon.
