Wellington National Park


Wellington National Park is a national park in Western Australia, located west of Collie and approximately south of Perth in the Shire of Collie along the Coalfields Highway.

Description

The park has a hilly terrain and is intersected by streams; the Collie River valley is in the middle of the park, as is Wellington Dam. The park is within the Yilgarn Craton geological province composed of belts of metamorphosed sedimentary and volcanic rocks, including large areas of granite.

Facilities

Potter's Gorge has a camping area at the edge of a lake, catering for tents and caravans. There are also barbeques, picnic tables and multi-access toilets.
Honeymoon Pool also has a camping area and the river is safe for swimming and canoeing. There are picnic tables, barbeques, fire pits with wood supplied and toilets. A boardwalk and platform are built on the river bank for ease of access and there are several walk trails throughout the area.
The area around Wellington Dam has a kiosk and a camping area.

History

The park increased in size from to under the Labor state government's 2001 "Protecting our old-growth forests" policy.
The land now occupied by the park was formerly owned by the Worsley Timber Company. It was gazetted as a class A reserve and set aside for the purpose of "national park" in 2000. An additional of State forest No. 25 was included into the Park in December 2004, increasing the total area to.

Flora

The park is within the Jarrah Forest bioregion and is predominantly composed of unique Eucalyptus marginata, Corymbia calophylla and Eucalyptus patens forests.
Species found commonly as part of the understorey include Banksia grandis, Allocasuarina fraseriana, Bossiaea aquifolium, Persoonia longifolia and Xanthorrhoea preissii.

Fauna

The park provides habitat for a range of fauna; 66 species of birds are found within the park. Endangered species found in the park include the chuditch, western ringtail possum, quokka, brush-tailed phascogale, woylie, carpet python, peregrine falcon, red-tailed black cockatoo, Carnaby's black cockatoo and Baudin's cockatoo.