Waychinicup National Park is 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 ...

, southeast 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 east of Albany, along the coast of the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

Location and description

The park is bordered by the Southern Ocean to the south, Mount Manypeaks Nature Reserve to the east, and agricultural land to the north. Its coastline runs between Normans Beach and Cheynes Beach, near

Bremer Bay Bremer may refer to: People *Bremer (surname) * Bremer Ehrler (born 1914), American politician * Bremer (born 1997), Brazilian footballer Places ;Australia *Bremer Bay, Western Australia * Bremer Marine Park *Bremer Island * Bremer River (disambig ...

. The park offers and array of landscapes, from the rugged coast to boulder-strewn hilltops. Tree-filled, deeply-incised

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

s have freshwater streams flowing through them, with

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

-covered boulders. Facilities provided include a camping area and bush toilet near the inlet of the Waychinicup River. Bald Island Nature Reserve is located offshore nearby.

Fauna

Mammals

The park is home to some of the rarest animals in Australia. Species found in the park include the

quenda 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 ...

ring tailed possum The common ringtail possum (''Pseudocheirus peregrinus'', Greek for "false hand" and Latin for "pilgrim" or "alien") is an Australian marsupial. It lives in a variety of habitats and eats a variety of leaves of both native and introduced plants, ...

s and one of the few mainland populations of

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 ...

Southern right whale The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20 ...

s inhabit the ocean off the coast. In 2010, an

insurance population Translocation in wildlife conservation is the capture, transport and release or introduction of species, habitats or other ecological material (such as soil) from one location to another. It contrasts with reintroduction, a term which is gener ...

Gilbert's potoroo Gilbert's potoroo or ngilkat (''Potorous gilbertii'') is Australia's most endangered marsupial, the rarest marsupial in the world, and one of the world's rarest critically endangered mammals, found in south-western Western Australia. It is a ...

was established within an enclosure at the park, as a short-term measure, but it was found in 2015 that native

carpet python ''Morelia spilota'', commonly referred to as the carpet python, is a large snake of the family Pythonidae found in Australia, New Guinea ( Indonesia and Papua New Guinea), Bismarck Archipelago, and the northern Solomon Islands. Many subspec ...

s were getting into the enclosure and preying on the marsupials. As of December 2018 there were 20 of the critically endangered marsupials in the park, representing a fifth of the total remaining population in the world.
PDF
/ref>

Birds

The park forms part of the

Two Peoples Bay and Mount Manypeaks Important Bird Area The Two Peoples Bay and Mount Manypeaks Important Bird Area is a 261 km2 tract of coastal and subcoastal land east of the city of Albany, Western Australia, Albany in south-west Western Australia. It is an important site for the conserva ...

, identified as such 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 ...

because of its significance in the conservation of several rare and threatened bird species.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Two Peoples Bay and Mount Manypeaks. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 18 November 2011. The critically endangered

noisy scrubbird The noisy scrubbird (''Atrichornis clamosus'') is a species of bird in the family Atrichornithidae. It is endemic to the coastal heaths of south-western Australia (east of Albany). Description The noisy scrubbird features a dark brown coloure ...

, which was once thought to be

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

, is found within the park; a small population of 14 were translocated from

Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve is a protected area managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife east of Albany, Western Australia. The area is accessible by 2WD vehicles. The bay itself, including two small secluded beaches, faces due eas ...

in 1983, followed by another 16 in 1985. By 1994 it was estimated that 223 male birds had been heard singing in the area. The

western bristlebird The western bristlebird (''Dasyornis longirostris'') is a species of bird in the family Dasyornithidae. It is endemic to the coastal heaths of western Australia (east and west of Albany).World Wildlife Fund. 2012''Southwest Australia woodlands' ...

is another vulnerable species that is found within the park. Most of the birds remaining population is found in

and Waychinicup National Park.

Population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

s of the bird that have been on the decline since the late 19th century has started to stabilise.

Location and description

Fauna

Mammals

Birds

References

See also