Hopetoun - Fitzgerald River National Park

---

It turns out that if you are in the big bedroom at the Harbour Masters Quarters you can hear the bakers start work at 4.00am in the morning. However, that early start meant that the bread rolls were baked and ready for us to have fresh salad rolls made up at 8.00am before we set out to the national park!

Finally, the weather was kind to us on the day we visited Fitzgerald River National Park with blue sky and sunshine all the way! We drove into the park along Hammersley Drive making our first stop at Culham Beach which is adjacent to Culham Inlet the land-locked estuary into which the Steere and Phillip Rivers drain. The views towards East Barren Mountain and Sepulcralis Hill were outstanding.

After entering the park our first stop was down a turnout that took us to Four-Mile Beach and Barrens Beach where we were treated to more glorious views. Back out on the main road we gained some elevation for our next stop at Barrens Lookout. The bushland here in the park is incredible. We read one info board that told us that the biodiversity that has developed on this rugged and remote coast is akin to that found in the Galápagos Islands.

The park has an incredible richness of flora and fauna featuring about 20 percent of the state’s plant species, 22 mammal species, 41 reptile species and more than 200 bird species which is why it is a UNESCO approved Biosphere Reserve.

At Barrens Lookout we completed a very short trail through the banksias and hakeas. The most amazing one, like nothing we have ever seen before, was the Hakea Victoria, commonly known as the Royal Hakea.

At this stop we got chatting to the Community Paramedic, Gareth, who told us so much interesting stuff about Hopetoun. He covered everything from the economy that is driven by farming and mining with a little bit of tourism, to the landscape and fauna and his recommendations for walks in the park. We also touched on the danger of Great White Sharks if we chose to swim at Barrens Beach. He told us that Orcas are more of a concern along this coastline although probably unlikely to take you from close to shore!

Gareth also noted Bernie’s bare feet and legs and Tracey’s sandal-clad feet and told us we should be more worried about being bitten by a snake as there are Tigers and Dugites in the park. Ahem, we had planned to put proper hiking shoes/boots on for any serious bushwalking but perhaps we should put sensible shoes on even for the short walks from the car parks to the beaches?? And something else Tracey learnt, after many years of thinking snakes go for ankles (hence purchasing some gaiters a few years ago for one of our holidays and then never wearing them!) Gareth said they bite toes!!

He was also able to tell us more about the Royal Hakea telling us that as it grows it takes all the nutrients from its older growth basically killing its older parts off so that it can put all its energy into the new growth. That explained why all of them look half dead! It’s not dieback, it just what they do to survive.

We drove around to the East Mount Barren stop and walked to the end of the boardwalk. It was a bit too warm to attempt the three-kilometre hike to the summit given that it is rated moderately difficult (Class 4) once you leave the boardwalk section. With no seating, shelter or facilities at East Mount Barren car park we continued to Cave Point where we enjoyed our morning tea with an incredible view. There were supposed to be facilities here BUT they had the workmen in re-doing the interior walls!

We leap-frogged over the West Beach turn out to make our way to the end of the road at Hammersley Inlet. From the car park here, we decided to hike out to Hammersley Beach as Gareth had recommended it highly. The signpost in the car park described this as a Class 3, 3.6-kilometre (return) bush walk which could take between one and three hours to complete.

The hike started out up a set of man-made steps that took us to the height of the dunes. Once we were at that height the rest of the walk was a little bit undulating but not very difficult. The elevation that we gained gave us a superb view out over the inlet towards the more westerly peaks in the park. We have no idea which ones were which, but we were probably seeing Two Bump Hill, Thumb Peak, Woolbernup Hill and Mid Mount Barren towards the coast and, possibly, Mt Drummond further inland?

We made it out to the beach in a little over half an hour despite plenty of photo stops along the way. The eucalypts have the most beautiful bark varying from red/orange, through cream and even lime green and at every turn yet another vista worthy of a photo. So many photos! The beach itself featured rocks like dragon’s teeth that provided an interesting foreground for yet more photos of the hills/peaks/mountains.

So, we’re doing the hike in serious gear. Tracey long pants and hiking shoes, Bernie still in shorts of course, but now with hiking boots and socks on. We’re sweating like pigs and a couple catch up to us, so we move to the side of the path to let them go ahead of us. We chat for a bit, they’re relatively local, living about 100 Ks away, but this is the first time they’ve been to Fitzgerald River NP … and they are wearing shorts and thongs!!! Goodness knows what they thought of us in all our gear? Still, Gareth would have been happy that we had heeded his advice.

About 100 metres before we returned to the car park, we sat on a fantastic bench overlooking the inlet and ate our salad rolls. Then we tried to return to the car park, like - it’s only 100 metres away. We rounded the corner and Bernie took us left over a low log barrier. Tracey could’t quite recall stepping over these logs on the way but deferred to Bernie’s usually unerring ability to retrace his steps to where he started from. Down a hill that looked like a wash out from yesterday’s rain and then a bit further Before Bernie acknowledged that there were no footsteps on this non-existent track. We re-traced our steps to the low log barrier and from that angle the top step of the steps down to the car park was OBVIOUS!! No idea how we missed it at all, ha, ha.

With the cloud increasing we started making our way back to the park entrance. On the way we stopped at a viewpoint that we had skipped on the way in. That was disappointing because there really wasn’t much of a view! Even though the temperature had dropped a bit we were determined to take a quick dip at Barrens Beach which we had decided was the pick of the beaches that we had seen today. We pulled into the car park, changed into our togs and made our way onto the beach about the same time that the peak of East Mount Barren was disappearing into the cloud.

We took our quick dip then returned to the car to head back into town. As we were leaving the car park Bernie spied a blue-tongued lizard heading across the car park. He jumped out to take a photo and to herd it back into the scrub where it would be safe. The lizard was a bit grumpy, flashing its blue tongue about, but did eventually march back into the bush. Hopefully it stayed there.

Back in town we went looking for ice-creams. We tried Barren’s Café because we thought we spied an ice-cream fridge inside. As we walked in, they were very quick to tell us that they were, in fact, closed, but we could come back on Thursday when they will be open again. Hmmn, maybe they could close the door then? Tracey asked if we could just grab ice-creams from the freezer and we were told that there were no ice-creams in the freezer?? Oh well, off next door to the IGA which was still open AND had an ice-cream freezer. Crisis averted with two vanilla Drumsticks!

Back at the house we showered and changed then lounged around until dinner time. Off to the pub at 6.00pm. We headed into the Port Café at the Port Hotel a fine old establishment serving Hopetoun since 1901. Two ribs and one Mexican Parmi with chips and salad for the boys and Cathy. Tracey ordered the lamb shank special with veg and mash. Yay, ate some vegetables at last and don’t have to feel guilty about recording (yet another) fried meal.

After dinner we were going to pop along to the sports oval for the fireworks at 7.30pm but it had started to drizzle. The fireworks were set to conclude the festivities for annual fishing competition that has been conducted this long weekend. We decided to stay warm and dry and go back to the house to play cards instead.

As scheduled the fireworks commenced at 7.33pm … and we discovered that we could see the whole show from the verandah of the Harbour Masters Quarters. Bonus.



Steps: 16,189 (10.49kms)

---