Exploring the Bridgetown Jarrah Park, Western Australia

 Regular visitors to my blog will know that spring is my favourite time of year. I feel so privileged to live in Western Australia where there are thousands of different wildflowers. Particularly in the south west which is a recognised biodiversity hotspot. 

On Sunday we visited a patch of natural bushland which we hadn't been to before. The Bridgetown Jarrah Park is located 25 kilometres west of Bridgetown and 25 kilometres east of Nannup on the Brockman Highway. Here there are 3 walk trails of varying distances. We opted to do the Fallers Brand Trail and the additional loop, the Hollow Karri Trail. All the trails were circuit trails so you see different parts of the bush, not walking out and back on the same path. 

I didn't realise at the time, and wasn't properly prepared, that there is an additional loop, the Blackbutt trail. The loops are all connected so you can decided how much you want to do. I will have to go back another time. In fact there are a number of bushwalks in the area, so i think we should spend a few days down here. 

The trails take you through a mix of jarrah, marri, karri, blackbutt and banksia with a mixed understory of flowering plants. It really is a lovely walk and we had perfect weather, light cloud, but not cold, and no wind. 

Below you can see a huge karri I asked my husband to hug so you could get some idea of the girth. The karri trees - Eucalyptus diversicolor - are a medium to tall (10 - 60 metres) forest tree. It is Western Australia's tallest tree and one of the two tallest hardwood flowering plants in the world (the other is Eucalyptus regnans - mountain ash native to Tasmania and Victoria). 

The karris shed great strips of bark which litters the ground all around the base. 

The Fallers Brand Trail is an easy 2.2km with an additional 1km for the Hollow Karri Trail. There are some short steeper sections. Nowadays I take a hiking pole with me.  Much easier. 

We saw lots of wildflowers, some of which I will share here. 

Below is Clematis pubescens - which is a climber. You can see it clinging to the karri tree in the photo below. 

Below is Tree Hovea - Hovea elliptica - also a bush or climber. So vibrant. 

Not to be confused with this one below here - Native wisteria - Hardenbergia comptoniana. Also a climber, the main difference I can see between the hovea and the wisteria is the the leaves of the Native Wisteria are in groups of three. 

We also saw a lot of the Water bush- Bossiaea-aquifolium - You will know why it is called this if you brush against them after it has been raining. There are several colour variations - the one we see commonly up in our area is a darker yellow and more orange. 

Below is one of my favourites - a small tree called by the unusual name of Snottygobble - Persoonia longifolia. It is a papery type bark that is red underneath. Don't you just love the name1 

Below is an unusual one - Emu Berry - Podocarpus drouynianus. It is unique in that it is believed to be the only one of the podocarpus to have survived when the ferns and rainforest died out due to drying climate 2-10 million years ago. Only produces edible fruit following burning.

Below is the tassel flower - Leucopogon verticillatus

And a few others - clockwise from top left - one of the Banjines - one of the orange pea flowers - one of the wattle varieties - and Karri Hazel - Karri Hazel-Trymalium odoratissimum

And of course there has to be orchids - we were lucky to see these. The Leaping Spider Orchid - Caladenia macrostylis - happened to be right on the edge of the track when I looked down. And the snail orchids - I think these are the Slender Snail orchid - Pterostylis aff. nana - were clustered under a tree.

We were hoping to see more orchids, and we could see where leaves were emerging, but probably we were a couple of weeks too early. 

The last part of the walk takes you past the "Shield Tree".  Introduced to forest management mapping in 1924, this was part of a system of one mile grids into which the forest was divided. Within each grid reference trees were marked with a shield cut into the trunk and engraved with the grid identification. 

I hope you have enjoyed this walk with me in the Bridgetown Jarrah Park. I wondered why I hadn't been there before. Possibly because it is about 2 hours from home! But I will be back. 

A useful book I have when I am looking for a different walk is Bushwalks in the South West - published by the WA Department of Environment and Conservation 

Nannup Tourism has a downloadable app with maps etc of trails as well as lots of other tourist info. Experience Nannup

You might also like to check out HikeWest's web page - their main banner is one of my images! (smile) 

Thank you so much for stopping by. Do you have a favourite spring bushwalk - perhaps you would like to tell us about it in your comments. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!
   
MosaicMonday at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf
Sharon's Sovenirs 

Our World Tuesday
Pictorial Tuesday 
ThroughMy Lens 
Image-in-ing
My corner of the world through my camera 
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global hosted by Randomosity. 
       and Little bird - Pienilintu
Thankful Thursday 
Der-Natur-Thursday 
The Lovin' Life Team over at: Deep Fried Fruit

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