The Locke Nature Reserve, also known as the Locke Estate, is an area of Crown land located on the coast of

Geographe Bay Geographe Bay is in the south-west of Western Australia around 220 km southwest of Perth. The bay was named in May 1801 by French explorer Nicolas Baudin, after his ship, ''Géographe''. The bay is a wide curve of coastline extending from ...

near Caves Road approximately west of the town of

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 ...

. Comprising an area of , the estate was designated an A-Class Reserve in the 1920s for the purposes of "Recreational Campsites and Group Holiday accommodation". The estate was divided into 16 sites which have been leased to churches and community organisations at minimal rates. The presence of the church sites throughout the estate has led to the area being known locally as the "Holy Mile". The Locke Estate provides low-cost accommodation along one of the most expensive real estate locations in the

South West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

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 ...

. As an A-Class Reserve the land cannot be sold and has the highest level of protection. The estate was gazetted as a nature reserve with a size of on 11 February 1992. In 2018, a bridge was built from the reserve across the

Buayanyup River The Buayanyup River is a river in the South West region of Western Australia. The headwaters of the river rise in the Whicher Range and flow north crossing the Bussell Highway near Vasse before discharging into Geographe Bay near Abbey abou ...

to link two previously isolated populations of

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 ...

References

{{reflist Nature reserves in Western Australia Busselton