Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park is a national park in the South West 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 ...

, south of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. It is named after the two locations at either end of the park which have lighthouses,

Cape Leeuwin Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly (but not most southerly) mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia. Description A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further in Flinders Ba ...

and

Cape Naturaliste Cape Naturaliste is a headland in the south western region of Western Australia at the western edge of the Geographe Bay. It is the northernmost point of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge which was named after the cape. Also the Leeuwin-Naturaliste ...

. It is located in the Augusta-Margaret River and

Busselton Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselton ...

council areas, and is claimed to have the highest visiting numbers of any national park in Western Australia. The park received 2.33 million visitors through 2008–2009.

Description

The park extends over 100 miles, from Cape Naturaliste in the north to Cape Leeuwin in the south. It is composed of 28 separate reserves, which together have an area of about 15,600 ha. Despite the park's large size, the reserves are fragmented, and in many places the park consists only of a narrow coastal strip.Keighery, Greg & Lyons, Michael & Gibson, N. & Keighery, B.. (2011). Vascular flora of Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park. ''Conservation Science Western Australia''. 2011, Vol. 8 Issue 1, p31-60. 30p. It has many features of interest including limestone and

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

outcrops like Sugarloaf Rock and

Canal Rocks Canal Rocks is a series of granite rocks in the Indian Ocean just off the coast situated approximately south of Yallingup in the South West region of Western Australia. The Noongar name for this place is Winjee Sam. The rock formation take ...

. The coastal area also contains many beaches with well-known surf breaks, such as Supertubes, Yallingup Beach, and Smiths Beach. Other coastal features include coastal cliffs and aeolian dunes. The park has a network of

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

s, some of which are accessible by the public. There are brackish and freshwater lakes and springs, and the park is crossed by several creeks and rivers, including the

Margaret River The Margaret River is a river in southwest Western Australia. In a small catchment, it is the eponym of the town and tourist region of Margaret River. The river arises from a catchment of just 40 square kilometres in the Whicher Range. ...

. The park either passes through or contains historic sites including the

Cape Leeuwin water wheel Cape Leeuwin water wheel, sometimes called the petrified water wheel, is a non-operating water wheel, near Cape Leeuwin, in the south-west of Western Australia. It was used to pump fresh water to the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. It is notable both for ...

Leeuwin–Naturaliste Ridge

Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge runs north and south parallel to the coast from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin. The ridge is composed of two landform elements. The Leeuwin-Naturaliste Coast is a discontinuous strip of coastal dune limestone known as the

Tamala Limestone Tamala Limestone is the geological name given to the widely occurring eolianite limestone deposits on the western coastline of Western Australia, between Shark Bay in the north and nearly to Albany in the south. The rock consists of calcarenit ...

Formation, which extends along the western shore. The Tamala Limestone is

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

ified, with numerous caverns and groundwater systems, including the Jewel Caves and

Devil's Lair Devil's Lair is a single-chamber cave with a floor area of around that formed in a Quaternary dune limestone of the Leeuwin–Naturaliste Ridge, from the modern coastline of Western Australia. The stratigraphic sequence in the cave floor de ...

, which contains the earliest archeological evidence of human habitation in Southwest Australia. The Margaret Plateau extends north–south to the east of the Leeuwin Coast. It is an undulating and dissected plateau, composed of the

basement rock In geology, basement and crystalline basement are crystalline rocks lying above the mantle and beneath all other rocks and sediments. They are sometimes exposed at the surface, but often they are buried under miles of rock and sediment. The baseme ...

on which the Tamala Limestone formed. This basement rock is known as the Leeuwin Complex, a strongly metamorphosed igneous Proterozoic rock made up mostly of granitic and anorthositic

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...

es. The Dunsborough Fault forms the eastern boundary of the Leeuwin Complex and Margaret River Plateau, where they adjoin the sedimentary

Perth Basin The Perth Basin is a thick, elongated sedimentary basin in Western Australia. It lies beneath the Swan Coastal Plain west of the Darling Scarp, representing the western limit of the much older Yilgarn Craton, and extends further west offshore. C ...

. The ridge's geology and the variations in vegetation are confined to a number of very narrow bands that follow the north–south orientation of the ridge.

Flora and fauna

The park contains a large range of geologic features and soil types. The landscape and soil diversity supports a range of plant communities. These include coastal herblands and grasslands, sedgelands, and heath near the coast. Further inland are shrublands, woodlands, and forests, including

peppermint tree ''Agonis flexuosa'' is a species of tree that grows in the south west of Western Australia. It is easily the most common of the ''Agonis'' species, and is one of the most recognisable trees of Western Australia, being commonly grown in parks an ...

(''Agonis flexuosa'') and ''

Banksia ''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and fruiting "cones" and heads. ''Banksias'' range i ...

'' shrubland and woodland, and significant stands of tall

karri ''Eucalyptus diversicolor'', commonly known as karri, is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is Endemism, endemic to the Southwest Australia, south-west of Western Australia. It is a tall tree with smooth light grey to cre ...

(''Eucalyptus diversicolor'') and

jarrah ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, djarraly in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with roug ...

(''Eucalyptus marginata'') forest. A large variety of bird species inhabit the park including many sea birds,

red-eared firetail The red-eared firetail (''Stagonopleura oculata''), also known as the boorin, is a small finch-like species of bird. It occurs in dense wetland vegetation of coastal to sub-coastal regions in Southwest Australia. Its appearance is considered appe ...

white-breasted robin The white-breasted robin (''Eopsaltria georgiana'') is a passerine bird in the Australasian robin family Petroicidae and the Yellow Robin genus Eopsaltria. Occasionally it is placed in the genus ''Quoyornis''. It is endemic to southwestern Austral ...

rock parrot The rock parrot (''Neophema petrophila'') is a species of grass parrot native to Australia. Described by John Gould in 1841, it is a small parrot long and weighing with predominantly olive-brown upperparts and more yellowish underparts. Its h ...

and

emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...

. Native

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s that can be found within the park include

southern brown bandicoot The southern brown bandicoot (''Isoodon obesulus'') is a short-nosed bandicoot, a type of marsupial, found mostly in southern Australia. It is also known as the quenda in South Western Australia (from the Noongar word ''). Taxonomy George Shaw ...

western grey kangaroo The western grey kangaroo (''Macropus fuliginosus''), also referred to as a western grey giant kangaroo, black-faced kangaroo, mallee kangaroo, sooty kangaroo and (when referring to the Kangaroo Island subspecies) Kangaroo Island grey kangaroo, is ...

western ringtail possum The western ringtail possum or ngwayir refers to a species of possum, ''Pseudocheirus occidentalis'', found in a small area of Southwest Australia. They are a cat-sized marsupial with a stocky build, dark greyish-brown fur, pale underparts and ...

s and brush wallabies.

Conservation

The national park was created from crown lands along the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge at a time after the main primary industries in the region had been dairying and forestry, and when increased

land-use conflict A land-use conflict occurs when there are conflicting views on land-use policies, such as when an increasing population creates competitive demands for the use of the land, causing a negative impact on other land uses nearby. Common types Urban ...

was arising from the spread of wineries, increased population on hobby farms and other agricultural activities. Since then many competing land uses have created a complex land management scenario for state and local government authorities trying to mediate quite conflicting issues. The national park is located on some of the most vulnerable land in the region.

2021 Bushfire

In December 2021, a

bushfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

was deliberately lit according to police. The fire destroyed almost 5,500 hectares.

Cape to Cape Track

In 2001, the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) opened the

Cape to Cape Track The Cape to Cape Walk Track is a long-distance walk trail located in the far south-west corner of Western Australia, south of Perth. It meanders along the whole length of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge, which forms the backbone of the Leeuwin ...

, a 135 kilometre walking track along the Leeuwin-Naturaliste ridge.

References

Notes

Sources

* Bastian, L. V. ''Minerals and their relationships in the Leeuwin block Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park'' Perth : Government Chemical Laboratories, 977?* ''Cape to Cape Walk Track – Hamelin Bay to Cape Leeuwin 29 km" Department of Conservation and Environment, Busselton. n.d. pamphlet * ''Shaping the Capes: Rocks and landforms of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge'' an explanation of the Leeuwin Naturaliste Ridge. * Orr, Kate. and Frewer, Paul (1988) ''Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park Management plan : summary of public submissions, November 1988'' Como, W.A : Dept. of Conservation and Land Management. * Taylor, Neil., Scott, Jane., Thomson-Dans, Carolyn and Banks, Roger.(n.d.) ''Feast for the Soul'' pp. 15–20 of ''The Best of the South West'' – Landscope special edition, Kensington, W.A.: Dept. of Conservation and Land Management * Western Australian Planning Commission. Statement of planning policy. No. 7, ''Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge Policy''. Perth, W.A. : Govt. Printer – in – Western Australian government gazette, Perth, Friday 18 September 1998, No. 189. Special. 5191–5215 p. . * Western Australian Planning Commission. '' Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge planning review : issues, opportunities and directions : discussion paper for public comment'' / Western Australian Planning Commission, Shires of Augusta–Margaret River and Busselton. erth, W.A.: The Commission, 1995. {{authority control National parks of Western Australia Protected areas established in 1957 1957 establishments in Australia South West (Western Australia) Warren bioregion