With the giant trees at Pemberton

The South West of WA is famous for its trees, and one in particular seems to have captured the imagination like no other.  The Karri tree (eucalyptus diversicolor) is well named, as its smooth bark ranges from grey to salmon pink in colour.  Felled in huge numbers in the early 1900's, largely to provide sleepers for the Trans-Australia railway, some reserves were gazetted to ensure the survival of these magnificent trees,  Over time these reserves have been turned into National Park, and whilst the timber mill at Pemberton is still processing Karri timber, it is managed much more sustainably than ever before.

The best way to get up close to these trees is to take a climb to the top. Originally built as fire observation posts, today these trees are big tourist drawcards, so much so that in 1988 a new tree was 'pegged' allowing a birds eye view of the surrounding forest.

Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree

Be us fools or worse, we put it to the vote as to which tree we would attempt to climb.  Of course we had to go to the tallest tree - the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree - to test our mettle.

Having climbed the nearby Gloucester tree last time I was in the West, I knew what I was in for, but I think the rest of the family had a few moments of contemplation when they saw what lay ahead of us.  A 65 metre vertical climb on steel pegs, screwed into the trunk of the tree.  There is no safety harness of any sort - you just hang on and take care.  After all, it would be silly to let go.

Yes - this is one tall tree, but there is a little rest platform about 15 metres off the ground, and we all made it there for a pause and a chance to rethink the next stage.  

The Little Fisherman was keen to continue, so Mum took him aloft, whilst the Little Helper and I returned to ground level. Can't say I blamed the little fellow - but I could tell he was a little disappointed not to make it to the top.  I decided I couldn't miss out on climbing this tree either, so I went back up - passing Mum and The Little Fisherman on their descent.  It was worth it - even if my selfie was a little more challenging!

Yeagerup Dunes

We were camping on the Warren River, at Drafty's Camp in the midst of old growth Karri.  The Warren River is naturally salty - but we wanted to see its mouth.  To get there requires traversing the Yeagerup Dunes, one of the largest landlocked mobile dune systems in the Southern Hemisphere.  It was time to try out the new sand flag!

Locals looked at me bemusedly as I fixed on the flag - and I soon worked out why.  The dunes themselves are impressive - but the track to the beach through the dunes is well marked and laid out.  After only a few kilometres you are back in to the scrub - and the flag was in mortal danger of being taken lout on a low branch, so was removed.

As we neared the beach it became apparent that all was not well.  Being a Sunday morning, we had been passing a steady procession of cars with fishing gear heading home from the beach.  It seemed half of Perth had camped on the beach for the weekend (I guess they were after Salmon).   A large dune dropped down onto the beach, and at the top was ten or fifteen cars with lots of people waiting for their mates to make it up the dune.  

This was a big dune, and had been badly chopped up, making it very difficult for anyone to get a decent run at it.  There was a good 20 cars at the base of the dune - many taking several attempts to get up the dune.  It was simply mayhem, with no real order or sense to process.  We pulled over and watched for a while before deciding that we didn't really need to head all the way down to the beach - so we turned around and had lunch on the Yeagerup Dunes.

Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree - second attempt.

Suitably recharged - we returned to the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree for the Little Helper to complete some unfinished business.  This time he powered up the tree, leaving the rest of us in  his wake.  We all followed up and made it to the top - some 65 metres above the forest floor.

To say I was immensely proud is an understatement.  The Little Fisherman would give anything a go - and had climbed the tree twice now, but it was the Little Helper who had bravely conqured his fears to make the climb.  It was inspiring to watch my two boys in action - very proud Dad moment.

Marron

Coming down from a high like that is hard to beat, but we found a pretty good solution at a nearby Trout and Marron farm.  Marron is a freshwater crayfish native to these parts, a bit like a yabby but much larger.  If you are caught fishing for them out of season, you cop a huge fine ($25000 per kg) and also lose every bit of equipment you have used to get the Marron, including your car - so the best way to catch them is on a farm.

It took us a while to get our technique sorted, but soon we had all caught some Marron, with 10 in our bucket.  It was huge amounts of fun, and was a great way to keep everyone entertained (and quiet!).

Most of the Marron we had caught were only small - so we returned them to live another day.  We bought a couple of bigger ones from the tank, so we could all enjoy a Marron each for dinner.  It was delicious indeed, finished off with a bit of fresh Rainbow Trout...  ahh.

Our largest Marron was about 240 grams - and we were pretty pleased with that, until we found they have been recorded up to 5 kilograms in size.  It was a salient reminder how important it is to protect these freshwater crayfish.  We were glad we had caught our Marron in a sustainable (and licenced) way - but felt sad that they have been so heavily exploited that we thought 240 grams was big.  

Karri Explorer Tourist Drive

We took the well signposted Karri Explorer Tourist Drive to check out some more of the area.  It was great wandering through Big Brook Forest, however the forest there is only young, being clear felled in the 1920s and the burnt after a steam engine started a bush fire.  Even though the majority of these trees are over 70 years old, they were no where near as majestic as some of the old growth Karri Trees.  One day this area will be logged again.

The Pemberton area continued to delight us, with some beautiful parrots and kookaburras dropping in on us whilst we were having meals.  Whilst we didn't deliberately feed them, I fear they did well cleaning up under the boy's seats!

We visited the nearby Beedleup Falls, the southern end of the Darling Range Scarp, and did the loop walk over the suspension bridge.   Whilst not a spectacular waterfall, this is a special place that was very pleasant to wander through.

Pemberton sure stole our hearts, or was that the Kookaburras?

We thoroughly enjoyed our time near Pemberton.  Our brief time in its old growth Karri stands was humbling, and was pleasing to see that this area is protected for all of us to enjoy.

It was time to pack up and continue our journey, to find the south western tip of the mainland, and to sample the gastronomic  delights of one of the countries most popular premium wine growing regions.  Only problem was, there was so much to do it took us four days to actually get to a winery!!  Destination Margret River!