Walpole is a town in the
south-western 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 ...
, located approximately south southeast of
Perth
Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...
, and west of
Denmark
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.
Location and description
Walpole lies very close to the northern point of the
Walpole Inlet
Walpole may refer to:
People
* Walpole (surname)
* Baron Walpole, a title in the Peerage of Great Britain
* Walpole G. Colerick (1845–1911), American politician
* Walpole Vidal (1853–1914), 19th century British footballer
Places Austral ...
, from which it takes its name.
The inlet in turn is named for the
Walpole River, discovered in 1831 by Captain
Thomas Bannister, and named by
Governor Stirling for Captain W. Walpole, with whom he had served aboard
HMS Warspite
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Seven ships of the Royal Navy have been named ''Warspite''. The origins of the name are unclear, although it is probably from the Elizabethan-era spelling of the word 'spite' – 'spight' – in part embodying contempt for the Navy's en ...
in 1808.
The first European
settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area.
A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer.
Settl ...
s to arrive in the area were Pierre Bellanger and his family in 1909. They travelled aboard the ''Grace Darling'' from
Albany to take up of land.
Land in the Walpole area was reserved for a national park in 1910, and the area subsequently became a popular holiday destination. Major development began to occur in the 1930s as part of the land settlement scheme. The railway reached
Nornalup in 1929, and the Walpole town site was gazetted in 1933.
The local electricity grid is remote and fragile, and a 1.5 MW / 30 MWh (15 hours)
pumped-storage hydroelectricity
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of gravitational potent ...
facility is being built to stabilize power for Walpole.
Name
Walpole was always the preferred name, but it was believed this was already in use in
Tasmania
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. So the newly gazetted township was officially named Nornalup, but this caused confusion with the railway terminus east. Eventually the Post Office advised that there was no Walpole in Tasmania, and in 1934 the town reverted to its original name of Walpole.
Walpole is one of the few towns through which 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 ...
passes.
The area is famous for the giant
tingle and
karri
''Eucalyptus diversicolor'', commonly known as karri, is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tall tree with smooth light grey to cream-coloured, often mottled bar ...
trees of
old growth forest
An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological feature ...
. Another attraction is the Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk in the
Walpole-Nornalup National Park.
See also
*
List of towns in Western Australia
This is a list of Towns of Western Australia.
In Australia, including in the state of Western Australia, towns are commonly understood to be centres of population not formally declared to be cities or not within the urban area surrounding a cit ...
References
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South West (Western Australia)
Coastal towns in Western Australia