D'Entrecasteaux National Park is a national park in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, south of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. The park is named after the French Admiral

Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni, chevalier d'Entrecasteaux (; 8 November 1737 – 21 July 1793) was a French Navy officer, explorer and colonial administrator who served as the Governor of Isle de France (Mauritius), governor of Isle de Fran ...

who was the first European to sight the area and name

Point D'Entrecasteaux Point D'Entrecasteaux is a Peninsula, point on the south coast of Western Australia. The first European sighting was by the Frenchman Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux in the 1700s, although there were possible sightings by Dutch navigators from s ...

in 1792. The park received 168,497 visitors through 2008–2009.

Description

The park stretches from Black Point in the west to Long Point in the east and extends inland as far as . Black Point is made of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

columns from a lava flow that occurred 135 million years ago. An interesting feature in the park is Yeagarup dune, a mobile long sand dune found to the west of Lake Jasper. The park contains a great variety of scenery, including

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

es, sand-dunes, coastal cliffs, coastal

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

and pockets of

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 ...

forest. Rivers such as the

Warren Warren most commonly refers to: * Warren (burrow), a network dug by rabbits * Warren (name), a given name and a surname, including lists of persons so named Warren may also refer to: Places Australia * Warren (biogeographic region) * War ...

, the Donnelly and the Shannon flow through the park and discharge into the waters off-shore. Important large scale

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s, known as the Blackwater, and lakes such as Lake Jasper and Lake Yeagarup are found within the park boundaries.

Broke Inlet Broke Inlet, originally named Broke's Inlet, is an inlet in the South West region of Western Australia located west of Walpole. The inlet is a large shallow estuary at the eastern end of the d'Entrecasteaux National Park, linked to the Sout ...

is contained within the park boundaries at the eastern end; it is the only inlet in the South West that has not been significantly altered within the catchment area. The

gneiss Gneiss (pronounced ) 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. This rock is formed under p ...

basement rocks project through the shallow waters to form small islands in the Inlet. Sandy Island in

Windy Harbour Windy Harbour is a rural locality of the Shire of Manjimup in the South West region of Western Australia. It is surrounded by D’Entrecasteaux National Park. It is located 27 km south of Northcliffe, on the south coast of Western Austr ...

is part of the park; it is an important nesting site for

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s, with up to 300,000 breeding pairs of

flesh-footed shearwater The flesh-footed shearwater'' (''Ardenna carneipes; formerly ''Puffinus carneipes''), is a medium-large shearwater that mainly inhabits the Indo-Pacific. Its plumage is black with pale pinkish feet, and a pale bill with a distinct black tip. Tog ...

s, a high proportion of the global population.

Facilities

The park has an entry fee that applies to all visitors. Facilities available to visitors include barbecues, toilets, 4WD tracks, camp sites, disabled access and picnic areas. Canoeing facilities also exist within the park on the Deep River. Rangers regularly patrol the area. The

Bibbulmun Track The Bibbulmun Track is a long-distance walk trail in Western Australia. It runs from Kalamunda in the east of Perth to Albany, and is long. It is managed by government agencies, and has a foundation. It traverses the Darling Range and has i ...

passes through the park area. The outdoor education organisation,

Outward Bound Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organisations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt in 1941 based on the educational principles of Kurt Hahn. Today there are organisations, called schools, i ...

, operate within the park taking school groups on hiking expeditions. Image:D'Entrecasteaux2.JPG, Vegetated Dune, D'Entrecasteaux National Park Image:Chatham Island WA.jpg,

Chatham Island Chatham Island ( ) ( Moriori: , 'Misty Sun'; ) is the largest island of the Chatham Islands group, in the south Pacific Ocean off the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is said to be "halfway between the equator and the pole, a ...

from Long Point in D'Entrecasteaux National Park

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:D'entrecasteaux National Park National parks of Western Australia Protected areas established in 1980 1980 establishments in Australia Warren bioregion

Description

Facilities

See also

References