Lake Clifton is a small town located on the east side of the lake of the same name in the Peel region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

just off the Old Coast Road, between

Mandurah Mandurah () is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, situated approximately south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's second most populous city, with a population of 107,641 as of the 2021 Australian census, 2 ...

and Bunbury at the north end of the

Yalgorup National Park Yalgorup National Park is a national park in Western Australia, 105 km south of Perth, and directly south of Mandurah, Western Australia, Mandurah. The park is located on the western edge of the Swan Coastal Plain and contains a chain of ab ...

. At the 2016 census, Lake Clifton had a population of 683.

History

Lake Clifton is named for

Marshall Clifton Marshall Waller Clifton (1 November 1787 – 10 April 1861) was an English civil servant, coloniser and politician. Clifton was born 1 November 1787 at Alverstoke, near Gosport, Hampshire, England, to Rev. Francis Clifton and Rebekah Kather ...

, who originally arrived in Western Australia to manage the settlement scheme at

Australind Australind is a town in Western Australia, located 12 km north-east of Bunbury's central business district. Its local government area is the Shire of Harvey. At the 2016 census, Australind had a population of 14,539. History Prior to Eur ...

, and was later a member of the Legislative Council. Explorers Dr

Alexander Collie Dr Alexander Collie (2 June 1793 – 8 November 1835) was a Scottish surgeon and botanist who journeyed to Western Australia in 1829, where he was an explorer and Colonial Surgeon. Early life Collie was born in Insch in Aberdeenshire, Scotland ...

and Lieutenant William Preston RN first came across what are now Lakes Preston and Clifton while exploring the coastline between Mandurah and Bunbury in 1829. After the introduction of

convicts A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...

to the

Swan River Colony The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just Swan River, was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, and it ...

in the 1850s, the "Old Coast Road" south of Mandurah was rebuilt. For most of its length, the road went through well-timbered, sandy limestone country of little value to agriculture. The area's first European settler was John Fouracre, who built a house in this area in 1852 and had established a wayside inn and changing station at Wellington Location 205 in 1854. The townsite of Lake Clifton was developed in 1920 as a result of the W A Portland Cement Co. seeking to mine a lime deposit there. A railway to Waroona was built and the local Progress Association sought the declaration of a townsite for the company's employees. The town was initially gazetted as Leschenault in 1921, but this name was seen as too confusing because of the name's connection with Bunbury. It was then renamed Garbanup, but the Railway Department complained as this was too similar to Dardanup, so in 1923 it changed again to Lake Clifton. For a short period it was a busy company town, but the mine closed at the end of 1923 and the railway was removed and transported to

Lake Grace A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

for use in a railway to Newdegate.

Present day

Lake Clifton contains basic accommodation and shopping, and a community hall offering a range of activities. A couple of roadhouses for passing trucks and motorists are located on Old Coast Road, while rural residential estates have sprung up at Tuart Grove. The

was established in the 1970s to protect the coastal lakes, swamps and

tuart ''Eucalyptus gomphocephala'', known as tuart, is a species of tree, one of the six forest giants of Southwest Australia. Tuart forest was common on the Swan coastal plain, until the valuable trees were felled for export and displaced by the urb ...

woodland in the area. The area is also central to waterbird migration patterns. At the edge of Lake Clifton, rock-like structures called

thrombolite Thrombolites (from Ancient Greek θρόμβος ''thrómbos'' meaning " clot" and λῐ́θος ''líthos'' meaning "stone") are clotted accretionary structures formed in shallow water by the trapping, binding, and cementation of sedimentary g ...

s (similar to

stromatolites Stromatolites () or stromatoliths () are layered sedimentary formations (microbialite) that are created mainly by photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and Pseudomonadota (formerly proteobacteria). The ...

) can be seen, built by tiny micro-organisms believed to resemble the earliest forms of life on Earth. Scientists have suggested their presence here may be due to upwellings of fresh groundwater high in calcium carbonate. An observation walkway has been constructed to allow visitors to view these fragile structures. An action has been started by the French artists "Art Orienté objet" in 2011 to list Lake Clifton as a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

Transport

The main road route through the area is the Old Coast Road ( Highway 1, Mandurah to Bunbury). Perth-Bunbury buses operated by

Transwa Transwa is Western Australia's regional public transport provider, linking 240 destinations, from Kalbarri in the north to Augusta in the south west to Esperance in the south east. The Transwa system provides transport to the major regional ...

under the Public Transport Authority also stop here. It is also the terminus of the

Forrest Highway Forrest Highway is a highway in Western Australia's Peel and South West regions, extending Perth's Kwinana Freeway from east of Mandurah down to Bunbury. Old Coast Road was the original Mandurah–Bunbury route, dating back to the 1840s. ...

References

External links

Lake Clifton Progress Association
- pictures, facilities etc. {{authority control Towns in Western Australia Shire of Waroona

History

Present day

Transport

References

Further reading

External links