May 22-29, 2024
Above: Castle Rock, the most well known of the Porongrup Range
The Porongorup Range sits around 40km directly North of Albany and most of the actual range is a National Park, the first protection of the area as far back as 1925:
“Botanist James Drummond visiting Porongurup Range in 1848 described the karri trees as ‘by far the finest I have seen in any country’ and the mosses and lichens were ‘as rank and luxuriant as I have seen them in the most rich valleys in the south of Ireland. By the late 1800s the karri and jarrah forests surrounding the range were being milled for timber. In 1925 Seybert J. Hayward of the State Government Tourist Bureau: “successfully lobbied for the withdrawal of the timber lease in the area between Hayward Peak and Devils Slide. ‘Hayward Park’, an area of some 1,157 hectares was created. It took until 1971 for the Porongurup National Park to be officially gazetted, with the park subsequently enlarged to its present area of 2.511 hectares.”
The Porongorup Range Tourist Park is the only caravan park in the immediate area and is a very pleasant bush environment with birdlife galore in the many shrubs and trees and a view to the Range.
