Yalgorup National Park is a national park in

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 ...

, 105 km 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 ...

, and directly south of

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 ...

. The park is located on the western edge of the

Swan Coastal Plain The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...

and contains a chain of about ten

lake 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 large ...

s; the name rises from the two

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

words ''Yalgor'' meaning ''lake'' and '' -up'' meaning ''place of''. The area is part of the Peel-Yalgorup Wetland system, which is classified as a

Ramsar Wetland Site This is the list of Wetlands of International Importance as defined by the Ramsar Convention for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural, scienti ...

and was added to the

List of Ramsar wetlands of international importance This is the list of Wetlands of International Importance as defined by the Ramsar Convention for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural, scientif ...

in 1990. Some of the lakes that make up the system include Boundary Lake, Swan Pond, Lake Pollard, Lake Yalgorup and Newnham Lake.

Wildlife

The wetlands of the park have been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

as the Yalgorup Important Bird Area because of their importance for

waterbird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

s.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Yalgorup. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2011-12-05. Lake Clifton and Lake Preston are both situated within the boundaries of the park and are home to a large variety of bird-life.

Black swan The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon c ...

kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

grebe Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order Podicipediformes . Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in marine habitats during migration and winter. Some flightless species exist as well, most notably ...

coot Coots are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family, Rallidae. They constitute the genus ''Fulica'', the name being the Latin term for "coot". Coots have predominantly black plumage, and—unlike many rails—they are usually ...

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which in ...

and a variety of

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoid ...

s and a variety of

dotterel The Eurasian dotterel (''Charadrius morinellus''), also known in Europe as just dotterel, is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The dotterel is a brown and black streaked bird with a broad white eye-stripe and an orange-red chest ban ...

s can be found in and around the lake habitat. Woodlands 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 ...

forests are also found within the park, and contain fauna including

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 ...

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' ...

s, brush wallabys,

brush-tailed possum The brushtail possums are the members of the genus ''Trichosurus'' in the Phalangeridae, a family of marsupials. They are native to Australia (including Tasmania) and some small nearby islands. Unique among marsupials, they have shifted the hypa ...

echidna Echidnas (), sometimes known as spiny anteaters, are quill-covered monotremes (egg-laying mammals) belonging to the family Tachyglossidae . The four extant species of echidnas and the platypus are the only living mammals that lay eggs and the ...

and

bandicoot Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipelago t ...

s. The

quokka The quokka (''Setonix brachyurus'', ) is a small macropod about the size of a domestic cat. It is the only member of the genus ''Setonix''. Like other marsupials in the macropod family (such as kangaroos and wallabies), the quokka is herbivo ...

was also once found within the area but have been wiped out by

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

es.

References

External links

Naturebase - Yalgorup National Park
{{authority control National parks of Western Australia Protected areas established in 1966 Ramsar sites in Australia Swan Coastal Plain 1966 establishments in Australia Important Bird Areas of Western Australia Shire of Waroona

Wildlife

See also

References

External links