The Fitzgerald River National Park hadn’t been on our radar when we drove down to Esperance at all, as I’m ashamed to admit. We only stayed there because it was a convenient layover on our way from Esperance to Bremer Bay, where we were due to do some whale watching. Our campsite, Four Mile Campground, is situated at the east end of the vast national park, which makes it roughly a two-hour drive from Esperance. We pre-booked the last site on the small ground which only features 15 sites in total en route because we wanted to avoid having to look for a place to stay upon arrival. In hindsight, that was a wise move because this campsite can only be booked online. However, there is another campground nearby, called Hamersley Inlet, which operates on a first-come-first-serve basis.
The Four Mile Campground is 15 AUD (GBP / EUR) per night and per person, i.e. we paid 30 AUD for our stay. The site has very nice and seemingly new facilities, toilets, showers, and a well-equipped barbecue area. We put up the tent on one of the smaller sites with off-site parking, grabbed some beers and headed to the beach for sunset.
From Four Mile Beach near the campground, where it was blowing a gale, we walked up the beach and turned a corner into the much more wind still and beautifully mystic Barrens Beach. The area is very lush because of the forested mountain range that surrounds it.
After spending some time enjoying the deserted beach, we went back to the campsite for a hearty barbecue dinner at the dedicated cooking area on the campsite. We were just enjoying our steaks and grilled vegetables, when a little kangaroo jumped out of the bushes and hopped in high speed all across the barbecue area. It seemed to have been stirred up by some children who were chasing each other and hadn’t seen the roo. We remained quiet and the kangaroo was sniffling around the table right next to us for a while, before it disappeared again into the bushes.
A little while later, we were just enjoying a few beers next to our tent, when Liam all of a sudden said “wow look at that fella”. I followed the light of his torch and saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in the wild. Slightly bigger than the palm of my hand, it looked like a smaller huntsman spider. These are quite common and famous in Australia, because even though their venom isn’t dangerous to humans, some of the species can get very big (i.e. male giant huntsman spiders can attain a leg span of 25–30 centimetres). Unfortunately, people do find them hanging around homes and cars, and I seriously hope that they’ll never seek my company.
On the next, cloudy morning, we put down the tent and went back into Hopetoun, where we came from on the way to Esperance. Due to it’s location somewhere off the grid and because I’d never heard of the place, I expected it to be somewhat run down as coastal towns can be but it’s far from it. The quaint little place looks tidy and charming, and we meandered a little bit before picking up some maps in the tourist information and heading out into the national park again.
There are two dirt roads exiting the national park onto the south coast Highway 1 – one from the east end of the park, where we stayed, and another from Point Ann in the western end of the park. In between the part where we stayed and Point Ann, there are many wonderful hikes that I’ll surely want to explore come humpback whale season in the Australian winter. The western end of the park even features whale-watching platforms, from which these giants of the sea can be admired when they’re in season (May until October along the south coast).
For now, we had to wave goodbye already to this beautiful piece of land, which is, due to its size and lack of any widespread habitat degradation one of the most important conservation areas in Western Australia and the world. According to Dr. Bernd von Droste, Head of World Heritage Bureau (UNESCO):
“The Fitzgerald River National Park is without doubt the most important Mediterranean ecosystem reserve in the world. It stands out for its scientific, conservation and educational values in the same way that the Galapagos Islands do”.
This quote is taken from one of the information boards in the park.
There are 62 plant species, which are unique to the 329,882 hectares park, and a further 48 are rarely found elsewhere.
