Waychinicup National Park is in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, southeast of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

and east of Albany, along the coast of the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the world ocean, generally taken to be south of 60th parallel south, 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is the seco ...

Location and description

The park is bordered by the Southern Ocean to the south,

Mount Manypeaks Nature Reserve Mount Manypeaks is a distinctive peak located approximately north-east of Albany, north-east of Two Peoples Bay and south-east of the town of Manypeaks, in Western Australia. Mount Manypeaks Nature Reserve lies to the south of the peak, e ...

to the east, and agricultural land to the north. Its coastline runs between Normans Beach and Cheynes Beach, near

Bremer Bay Bremer may refer to: People *Bremer (surname) *Bremer Ehrler (1914–2013), American politician * Bremer (born 1997), Brazilian footballer Places ;Australia *Bremer Bay, Western Australia *Bremer Marine Park * Bremer Island *Bremer River (disambig ...

. The park offers and array of landscapes, from the rugged coast to boulder-strewn hilltops. Tree-filled, deeply-incised

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

s have freshwater streams flowing through them, with

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

-covered boulders. Facilities provided include a camping area and bush toilet near the inlet of the Waychinicup River.

Bald Island Bald Island is an island that is located in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. The island is offshore from Cheynes Beach and is a protected area managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife. The island is a World Conserva ...

Nature Reserve is located offshore nearby.

Fauna

Mammals

The park is home to some of the rarest animals in Australia. Species found in the park include the

quenda The quenda (''Isoodon fusciventer''), also known as the southwestern brown bandicoot or western brown bandicoot, is a small marsupial species endemic to Southwest Australia. Though it was originally treated as a subspecies of the southern brown ...

ring tailed possum (The) Ring(s) may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV * ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...

s and one of the few mainland populations of

quokka The quokka (; ''Setonix brachyurus'') is a small macropod about the size of a domestic cat. It is the only member of the genus ''Setonix''. Like other marsupials in the macropod family (such as kangaroos and wallabies), the quokka is herbiv ...

Southern right whale The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20� ...

s inhabit the ocean off the coast. In 2010, an

insurance population Translocation is the human action of moving an organism from one area and releasing it in another. In terms of wildlife conservation, its objective is to improve the conservation status of the translocated organism or to restore the function and ...

Gilbert's potoroo Gilbert's potoroo or ngilkat (''Potorous gilbertii'') is Australia's most endangered marsupial, the rarest marsupial in the world, and one of the world's rarest critically endangered mammals, found in south-western Western Australia. It is a s ...

was established within an enclosure at the park, as a short-term measure, but it was found in 2015 that native

carpet python ''Morelia spilota'', commonly known as the carpet python, is a large snake of the family Pythonidae found in Australia, New Guinea (Indonesia and Papua New Guinea), Bismarck Archipelago, and the northern Solomon Islands. Many subspecies are rec ...

s were getting into the enclosure and preying on the marsupials. As of December 2018 there were 20 of the

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

marsupials in the park, representing a fifth of the total remaining population in the world.
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Birds

The park forms part of the

Two Peoples Bay and Mount Manypeaks Important Bird Area The Two Peoples Bay and Mount Manypeaks Important Bird Area is a 261 km2 tract of coastal and subcoastal land east of the city of Albany, Western Australia, Albany in south-west Western Australia. It is an important site for the conserva ...

, identified as such by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because of its significance in the conservation of several rare and threatened bird species.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Two Peoples Bay and Mount Manypeaks. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 18 November 2011. The critically endangered

noisy scrubbird The noisy scrubbird (''Atrichornis clamosus'') is a species of bird in the family Atrichornithidae. It is endemic to the coastal heaths of south-western Australia (east of Albany). Description The noisy scrubbird features a dark brown coloure ...

, which was once thought to be

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

, is found within the park; a small population of 14 were translocated from

Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve is a protected area managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife east of Albany, Western Australia. The area is accessible by 2WD vehicles. The bay itself, including two small secluded beaches, faces due east ...

in 1983, followed by another 16 in 1985. By 1994 it was estimated that 223 male birds had been heard singing in the area. The western bristlebird is another vulnerable species that is found within the park. Most of the birds remaining population is found in

and Waychinicup National Park.

Population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

s of the bird that have been on the decline since the late 19th century has started to stabilise.

References

{{authority control City of Albany, Western Australia National parks of Western Australia Protected areas established in 1990 1990 establishments in Australia Important Bird Areas of Western Australia Jarrah Forest

Location and description

Fauna

Mammals

Birds

See also

References