A mill town repurposed

A great place to base yourself, is Donnelly River Holiday Village. For thirty years, from 1948 to 1978, the Holiday Village was the working mill town of Wheatley, servicing Bunnings’ Donnelly River Sawmill. After Bunnings pulled out, the town was retained in its entirety and redeveloped as a tourist venture. There are 38 weatherboard cottages of various sizes grouped around the old sawmill and surrounded by majestic karri forest. Although facilities in the cottages have been upgraded to incorporate hot water service and electric cookers, the dwellings remain largely unchanged with the wood stoves still in the kitchen and a log fire in the lounge. The comfortable cottages are equipped for four, eight or twelve people but guests need to provide their own sheets, blankets, pillow-slips and towels. The original general store is open seven days a week but, unfortunately for those interested in Western Australia’s timber milling heritage, the old sawmill is now structurally unsafe. Other activities at Donnelly include a games room, a playground, tennis courts and a flying fox. A tranquil lake near the settlement provides the perfect venue for barbecues, swimming, canoeing and fishing. There’s even a paddle pool for the littlies. But, perhaps the most endearing thing about Donnelly River Holiday Village is the animals. Kangaroos feed placidly in your back yard and emus stroll around the village looking for handouts. The variety of bird life is amazing with over 70 species frequenting the region. For obvious reasons, no pets are allowed. It’s a great place to stay and you can book a cottage on 9772 1244.

The trees are big ... really big.

The scenic tour through the towering karri south of Donnelly Village out to the Vasse Highway passes close to the Four Aces, an impressive row of mighty karris. As Malcolm French points out in his book The Special Eucalypts of Perth and the South-West, the karri is the largest tree in Western Australia, and the second tallest hardwood tree in the world, reaching heights of up to 90 metres. These trees (Eucalyptus diversicolor) are ranked in the top ten largest living things on the planet, some weighing up to 150 tonnes. Across the Vasse Highway, the vegetation changes gradually to coastal heathland and the karri gives way to marri as the route takes you south-east past dwindling farmland into D’Entrecasteaux National Park

D’Entrecasteaux National Park

Set aside in 1980, this 114,000 hectare south coast park is named after the French navigator, Admiral Bruny D’Entrecasteaux. Searching for the lost voyager La Perouse, the D’Entrecasteaux expedition ships, Recherche and Esperance, charted the Western Australian shoreline from Point D’Entrecasteaux near Windy Harbour eastwards to Termination Island in December 1792.

3 Rivers

The park preserves isolated cliffs, beaches, dunes, coastal heath and swamplands. The Warren, Donnelly and Shannon rivers all pass through the park to their ocean mouths. The annual average rainfall is one of the highest in the state and jarrah, bullich, yate and peppermint trees grow profusely in places.

"Yoondaddup"

Besides the seemingly endless stretches of pristine beach protected by steep sandhills and a wild tangle of thick coastal scrub, the park encompasses the remarkable basalt columns of Black Point, ‘Bolghinup’ to the Noongar Aboriginal people, and several freshwater lakes, the largest of which is Lake Jasper. Over three kilometres in length and about two kilometres wide, the lake was known to the Noongar as ‘Yoondaddup’. Surveyor H. S. Carey referred it to as Lake Jasper during a traverse in 1874 and DOLA’s Geographic Names Section speculates that it may have been named in memory of Jasper Taylor Bussel, son of Alfred and Ellen Bussell, who died as an infant ten years earlier.

Where the forest meets the ocean

With tracks through much of the park and leasehold land south of the lake traversing some steep blind slopes and bends, take extra care and keep a sharp lookout for oncoming traffic. Several sheltered campsites can be found at Black Point and near the 3km long Jasper Beach. If you do any beach driving, watch the tides and keep out of the surf where the sand can be very soft and treacherous.

A picturesque swimming beach is situated about 1km east of the boat ramps via a plank track.

As in many remote national parks, visitors are expected to take out whatever they bring in and this is especially important in D’Entrecasteaux National Park.

A significant place

Evidence of Noongar occupation has been dated as far back as 47,000 years within the South-West of Western Australia.  Current archaeological evidence within the national park is dated at 6,000 years.  Significant finds of stone artefacts, fish traps, quarry sites and burial sites have been found after sand dune erosion. Artefacts have also been found 10m below Lake Jasper’s current water level, indicating that there was significant habitation when the area was covered in prehistoric forest.

Welcome to country

Wandjoo ngaalang kwoba/moorditj boodjar,

Nyoondool djinang ngaalang kwobidak Wardan, balyoongar, bilya, worl wer djinda kada werda ngaalang miya,

Ngaalang koort kalyakoorl nidja.

Welcome to our good/strong country,

You will see our beautiful sea, sand, rivers, sky and stars across our place,

Our heart always here.

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