Walpole and Shannon National Park

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Good things come in small packets, and that is true of Walpole, a small town on the edge of two great national parks.

After leaving Pemberton we drove south east and camped in the Shannon National Park. The Dept of Conservation camp here is FANTASTIC. Hot showers, realy good toilets, plenty of big sites and a true nature park atmosphere.

We had plenty of visitors to our site - we caught some of the birds on camera, but missed Mrs Roo with Joey who bounded off before I could grab the camera. On driving out of the national park we had to dodge one snake and one large lizard.

The Bicentenial Tree is part of the Shannon National Park and is one of the giant Tingle Trees with steps to a fire observation platform. Marg tried this one!

Also in the forest here is the Marrianne North Tree. We wondered if this was a northern variety of the Marrianne Tree, a type we had not heard of. The history is that this tree became famous when painted in the mid 1890s by Marrianne North, daughter of a British MP, a travelor and painter. Also a bunch of Barons in her lineage. Her works are shown in the gallery in Queue Gardens, London. 120 years later the tree looks much the same as the painting including the deformation caused by infection in the tree.

We left the forest and headed for Walpole and the Valley of the giants. There is a series of photos taken from the Tree Top Walk and from the ground amongst the Tingle Trees. This is an awesome place to spend a couple of hours. The size of these trees is amazing even though they are not as tall as the Sequoias of North America. Many of these ancient trees have a hollow centre. These are generally the result of bush fires that have run through these forests over many years. DOC has upgraded paths and has put in place platforms to stand on inside the trees to prevent spread of diseae to the trees.

We headed east from Walpole and camped at Pary's Beach. Fee of $7.00 per night - Bargain. The weather was deteriorating and we were entertained by a thunder storm overnight. This was an insignificant storm compared to many we have camped in on the Queensland Coast.

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