Category: Western Australia

Winter 2025, South West WA (#17 in series: Redgate Beach, wide view)

Published September 26, 2025 by Pelidoug

Winter 2025, South West WA (#17 in series: Redgate Beach, wide view)

If one is based in or near to Pemberton for some days, but not staying in or near to Margaret River – or vice versa – one ought take advantage of the fact that each is within easy day-tripping distance of the other.

On 21 August 2025 we drove over to enjoy lunch at a favourite Margaret River winery, and then visit a couple of favourite, still-wild coastal places.

Redgate Beach is less than 15 ks southwest of the Margaret River township, via sealed roads.

That afternoon’s waves were neither particularly large, by local standards, nor surfer-friendly.

However, the sea was very lively, as was the conspicuously-fresh air…and Redgate looked typically-splendid.

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Winter 2025, South West WA (#16 in series: forest understorey & river-mirror, under grey sky)

Published September 25, 2025 by Pelidoug

Winter 2025, South West WA (#16 in series: forest understorey & river-mirror, under grey sky)

What a difference five minutes can make!

By 4.55pm on 18 August 2025 the skies above Warren National Park had become overcast, whilst the Warren River’s surface remained “glassy”.

The gentler light improved a camera’s ability to capture the subtle beauty of the forest’s understorey – as viewed directly, and as reflected by the river.

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Winter 2025, South West WA (#15 in series: river as mirror)

Published September 23, 2025 by Pelidoug

Winter 2025, South West WA (#15 in series: river as mirror)

30 minutes on from the taking of the previous chapter’s photos, we were just a little further upstream.

The sun was low in the sky, which was still mostly-blue – or had again become so.

Briefly, no wind was blowing.

This particular stretch of the Warren River was now almost-entirely unruffled.

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Winter 2025, South West WA (#14 in series: watching the river flow)

Published September 22, 2025 by Pelidoug

Winter 2025, South West WA (#14 in series: watching the river flow)

In Warren National Park on the afternoon of 18 September 2025 the weather was highly dynamic.

Whatever was your favourite kind of winter weather – windy or calm, raining or dry, sunny or overcast – you could reasonably expect at least one fleeting dose of it within the space of a single hour.

This post shows the Warren River, the forest through which it flows and the sky above, as they appeared at 4.20 and 4.21 pm.

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Winter 2025, South West WA (#13 in series: little, living)

Published September 20, 2025 by Pelidoug

Winter 2025, South West WA (#13 in series: little, living)

Warren National Park’s Karri-dominated forest is – by Australian standards – a moist, cool environment, albeit definitely not rainforest.

Most visitors mostly look up; for many tourists, the Warren’s big trees are the tallest living things they have ever seen.

It is also a good idea to look down, to pay attention to non-huge things, and to remember that “dead” wood is never lifeless.

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Winter 2025, South West WA (#12 in series: “fairy”, just outside)

Published September 19, 2025 by Pelidoug

Winter 2025, South West WA (#12 in series: “fairy”, just outside)

At 9.11 am on 17 August 2025 the pictured individual was very close to us.

She was just on the other side of the living room window.

All of us were enjoying the morning sun, after a very rainy night in and around Pemberton.

The particular location is one where we really like to stay…and which fairywrens (and many other petite birds) also like.

(the relevant cottages are less than a five minute drive from Pemberton. They share their name with the adjacent forest, and are blessed with generous, nature-loving owners)

The hero/ine of #11 in this series – photographed the previous afternoon, less than 100 metres away – was definitely a white-browned scrubwren,

This post’s heroine is definitely a female fairywren, but her beak makes me unsure of her species.

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Winter 2025, South West WA (#11 in series: not rare, but rarely seen)

Published September 17, 2025 by Pelidoug

Winter 2025, South West WA (#11 in series: not rare, but rarely seen)

You are looking at a very shy, very small, very “busy”, mostly-insectivorous and allegedly “drab” bird.

S/he is a West Australian version of Sericornis frontalis – the white-browed scrubwren.

White-browed scrubwrens are a single species, but with many regional variations.

The alleged number of its subspecies varies hugely – from two through to ten.

Many human Australians have heard its (surprisingly loud) call, but surprisingly few have ever enjoyed a clear, full-frontal view of a white-browed scrubwren.

I have several (brief) times had a close and clear view, but until 4.13 pm on 16 August 2025 I had never enjoyed a relatively-prolonged and intimate encounter with a member of this species, in “flaunting” mode.

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Winter 2025, South West WA (#10 in series: Point D’Entrecasteaux)

Published September 16, 2025 by Pelidoug

Winter 2025, South West WA (#10 in series: Point D’Entrecasteaux)

Point D’Entrecasteaux is a dramatic, generally-windswept headland, which affords splendid vistas in every direction.

Adjacent to the hamlet of Windy Harbour, it is less than one hour away from Pemberton; the drive is scenic, and all on sealed roads.

On this blustery winter afternoon we were eagerly anticipating some very large waves, a whole lot of spray, maybe some whales, probably some ‘roos.

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Winter 2025, South West WA, (#9 in series: Karri forest – colour & monochrome)

Published September 14, 2025 by Pelidoug

Winter 2025, South West WA, (#9 in series: Karri forest – colour & monochrome)

Western Australia’s tallest tree species naturally occurs only in a small, relatively wet portion of the state’s southwest.

Karri – Eucalyptus diversicolour – is one of Australia’s tall Eucalypts; collectively, they are the world’s tallest flowering plants.

Karri is not the tallest of them, but the biggest karri trees are among “our” planet’s most massive living individuals.

Counter-intuitive, but true: Europe’s tallest (reliably measured) tree is a karri, planted circa 130 years ago in Portugal.

The Karri Knight (circa 75 metres) is a little shorter than is the tallest WA-resident karri.

Virgin karri forest is extraordinarily beautiful, and can only be experienced in a small number of Western Australian places.

Warren National Park has no peer, at least among those which are readily 2WD-accessible.

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Winter 2025, South West WA (#8 in series: “Big Sandy”…

Published September 13, 2025 by Pelidoug

Winter 2025, South West WA (#8 in series: “Big Sandy”…

..,but definitely not “wasteland”)

To reach the mouth of the Warren River on Yeagarap Beach one has to traverse the Southern Hemisphere’s largest landlocked mobile dune system.

The Yeagarap Dunes cover nearly 30 square kilometres.

As it moves progressively further inland – at a rate of circa 4 metres per year – this dune system “eats”/buries forest, and reshapes/shifts/dams some local lakes and wetlands.

And the dune system’s own “mosaic” of vegetation patterns is far from “fixed”.

It ranges from very steep, nearly-naked sand dunes to dense bush “hollows”, where the leaf-littered sandy “floor” is exquisitely punctuated by wildflowers in springtime.

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