Cape Le Grand National Park

Cape Le Grand National Park Western Australia
IUCN category II (national park)
File:Mount Le Grande.jpg Mount Le Grand from Frenchman Peak
Cape Le Grand National Park
Nearest town or city	Esperance
Coordinates
Established	1966
Area	318.01 km2 (122.8 sq mi)
Managing authorities	Department of Parks and Wildlife
Website	Cape Le Grand National Park
See also	List of protected areas of Western Australia

File:Panorama Cape Le Grande.jpg

Panorama Cape Le Grand

File:CapeLeGrandeMap.png

Cape Le Grand Map

Cape Le Grand National Park is a national park in Western Australia, 631 km (392 mi) south-east of Perth and 56 km (35 mi) east of Esperance. The park covers an area of 31,801 hectares (78,580 acres)

The area is an ancient landscape which has been above sea level for well over 200 million years and remained unglaciated. As a result, the area is home to many primitive relict species.

Established in 1966, the park is managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife.

The name Le Grand is from one of the officers on L'Espérance, one of the ships in the 1792 expedition of Bruni d'Entrecasteaux.

Geography

The largely granite shoreline and white sand beaches are picturesque features of the area. The park is a used for fishing, off-roading, tourism, and hiking.

Beaches within the Park include those at Lucky Bay, Rossiter Bay, Hellfire Bay, Le Grand Beach, and Thistle Cove.

The islands and waters to the south of the park are known as the Recherche Archipelago Nature Reserve, another protected area of the Recherche Archipelago and nearby coastal regions. The Cape Arid National Park is located to the east.

The south-west section of the Park is dominated by rock outcrops of gneiss and granite. These form a distinctive chain of peaks including Mount Le Grand (345 m), Frenchman Peak (262 m) and Mississippi Hill (180 m). Further inland, the park comprises mostly heath-covered sandplain, interspersed with swamps and pools of fresh water.

Wildlife

The sandplains support dense stands of banksias (Banksia speciosa and Banksia pulchella).

Other flora that can be found around the park include Melaleucas, Grevilleas, sheoaks, Christmas tree and grass trees.

Wildflowers bloom in spring lasting until October and species such as blue china orchid, Diuris corymbosa, Hakea laurina, Thysanotus sparteus and Thelymitra macrophylla are represented within the park.

Fauna that are commonly found within the park include bandicoots, pygmy honey possums, ring tailed possums, quenda and western grey kangaroos.

Some of the relic species with strong gondwanan associations that are found within the park include legless lizards like the common scaly-foot, Delma fraseri, Delma australis and Aprasia striolata. The ancient but non-gondwanan blind snake Ramphotyphlops australis is also found within the park.

Endemic frogs found within the area include the quacking frog, the western banjo frog and the humming frog.

Facilities

Facilities include toilets, barbecues, campsites, tables, sheltered areas, walk-trails, information bays and water tanks. Two full-time rangers are resident within the park.

Gallery

• Lucky Bay.jpg

  Overlooking Lucky Bay, one of the beaches at Cape Le Grand

• Lucky Bay beach.jpg

  Lucky Bay is a popular destination for tourists

• Frenchmans Peak.jpg

  Frenchman Peak

See also

• Protected areas of Western Australia
• Cape Le Grand National Park travel guide from Wikivoyage