Stirling Ranges

The Stirling ranges were the next hot spot on my list for wildflowers. Unfortunately the Stirling Ranges are only about 150km from the Fitzgerald river so there are a lot of the same plants in both areas, but the Stirlings have a third dimension which makes all the difference, height. The tallest peak in the park is Bluff Knoll and at 1099m high it’s the second highest mountain in W.A. and the only place that has regular snow in Western Australia.

The Stirling Ranges national park is 1160 sqkm in size, a fair bit smaller than Fitzgerald river, it’s located just over 300 km south of Perth and around 50km north of the coastal town of Albany. It’s main attractions are the many peaks throughout the park and it’s large diverse range of wildflowers.

There’s also a wide variety of animals within the park, including quite a few of these.

I think this guy may have been injured as he was laying in the middle of the road looking upset and angry yet wouldn’t move even when I pulled right up beside him and took some pictures.

The boomerang trigger plant is a tiny little thing, the flowers are only a few millimetres across  and it was another one of those roadside finds for me. Pull over and look around at the ground around the verge area beside the road and you often find a lot of small plants growing right on the side of the road. I’m amazed at the variety of plants I’ve found right on the side of the roads during my travels.

Everlastings come in all shapes and sizes, these pretty little pink flowers were carpeting many areas around the Stirling Ranges. I stayed at a small caravan park/bush camp near mount trio, it’s a farmers property that backs onto the national park and each morning over the spring flower season, you can join a guided wildflower and orchid walk.

Although it was quite late in the season there was still a nice selection of orchids to see.

This is just three if the varieties of orchids we found on the walk.

Can you spot the tawny frogmouth sitting on the nest?  They are very well camouflaged and sit extremely still for hours on end.