Cape Range National Park is a national park in Western Australia, 1,105 kilometres (687 mi) north of Perth.
The park occupies the western side of the North West Cape peninsula over an area of 47,655 hectares (117,760 acres). The nearest town is Exmouth. Directly off the coast is the Ningaloo Reef.
The area resulted from a gradual uplifting from the sea floor followed by fluctuating sea levels, wind and water erosion that have slowly eroded the range and plain leaving behind a range of rugged limestone, deep canyons and pristine beaches.
The Cape is the only elevated plateau composed of limestone on the North West Coast. The range has plateaus to an elevation of 314 metres (1,030 ft) and forms the backbone of the peninsula which extends are far as North West Cape.
Yardie Creek, a spectacular gorge where the water is trapped by a sandbar, is located within the park.
Over 700 caves are located within the park and it is probable that many others remain undiscovered. Over 630 species of wildflower are found within the park, that generally bloom toward the end of winter, including the Bird Flower and the Desert Sturt Pea.
The area was under pastoral lease beginning in 1876 when J Brockman acquired leases in the area covering North West Cape to run cattle. Brockman sold parts of the lease in 1888 to ornithologist Thomas Carter including Yardie Creek and Ningaloo Station. Carter was the first settler in the area and established a pastoral station in 1889 The area was declared a national park in 1964, the off-shore area, Ningaloo Marine Park, was declared in 1987.
An abundance of flora and fauna are found within the park. Flora species include mangroves, acacia, spinifex, grevillea, verticordia, eucalyptus and minilya lily. Fauna found within the park include rock wallabies, red kangaroos, emus, euros, 100 different species of bird and 80 species of reptile.
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An old WWII radar tower with the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse behind
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The Vlamingh Head Lighthouse at dusk
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Beach in Cape Range
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One of the countless termite hills
Famous quotes containing the words cape, range, national and/or park:
“The allurement that women hold out to men is precisely the allurement that Cape Hatteras holds out to sailors: they are enormously dangerous and hence enormously fascinating. To the average man, doomed to some banal drudgery all his life long, they offer the only grand hazard that he ever encounters. Take them away, and his existence would be as flat and secure as that of a moo-cow.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“The Canadians of those days, at least, possessed a roving spirit of adventure which carried them further, in exposure to hardship and danger, than ever the New England colonist went, and led them, though not to clear and colonize the wilderness, yet to range over it as coureurs de bois, or runners of the woods, or, as Hontan prefers to call them, coureurs de risques, runners of risks; to say nothing of their enterprising priesthood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Mr. Speaker, at a time when the nation is again confronted with necessity for calling its young men into service in the interests of National Security, I cannot see the wisdom of denying our young women the opportunity to serve their country.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“The park is filled with night and fog,
The veils are drawn about the world,”
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933)