Day 95

Today we drove a circular loop around the Donnelly State Forest & the Gloucester National Park , Manjimup, Pemberton, Beedelup and return. we started with morning tea in Peberton after visiting the Diamond Tree Lookout. The Diamond Tree is a giant karri tree. A wooden viewing platform built in 1939 is located 49 metres up, and was the oldest wooden platform fire look-out in use until its closure in 2019.





Big Brook Dam is nestled within the heart of the majestic Karri forest, which is known for its towering Karri trees and diverse flora and fauna.





Gloucester Tree Pemberton was once used as a fire lookout, today the 61-metre high Gloucester Tree is one of Pemberton's best-loved tourism attractions. The karri is the tallest tree species in Western Australia and the third tallest in the world. Foresters selected the Gloucester Tree to use as a fire lookout in 1947. It was one of eight lookout trees built in the south-west between 1937 and 1952. There were also 10 other lookout towers constructed from timber or built on high points in the landscape. To determine its suitability as a lookout tree, forester Jack Watson climbed it using climbing boots and a belt. It took him a gruelling six hours to reach the top and return.

The tree was named after the then Governor-General of Australia, His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester. He visited the tree and watched the pegging of the ladder and lopping of the branches to construct the lookout. Apparently the Duke showed an interest in the tools used by the axemen. He tried his hand at using the auger to bore holes for the climbing pegs and remarked that it did not seem too difficult a task. The axeman replied “Come off it - you’re not through the bloody sapwood yet!”




The Cascades are a series of picturesque waterfalls that flow from the Lefroy Brook near Pemberton. You can meander either side of the brook to see it cascading over a series of granite pools and follow the 1.2km loop walk through the surrounding forest. The brook produces rapids over winter and becomes a gently tinkling stream in summer.






Warren National Park has the Marianne North Tree and the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree along it's drive.
3000 hectares of untouched woodland with some of the State's most majestic karri trees, which only grow in the southwest of Western Australia. These impressive giants can grow up to 90m high. Some of them are more than 200 years old.

Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree with a climb of 20 m up to the deck.



Marianne North Tree, she was an intrepid traveller, Marianne North recorded flora from around the world with her paintbrush. She visited Australia in 1880 and spent much time painting the flora and scenery of the south-west of Western Australia. Her painting of this distinctive karri tree now hangs in the Marianne North Gallery at the Kew Botanic Gardens in London with more than 800 of her other paintings.





Greater Beedelup National Park is set amidst a beautiful forest a highlight of the park is the Beedelup Falls. Beedelup Falls soothing water flow adorns the enchanting world of giant stands of karri, as well as smaller pockets of jarrah and marri trees. A suspension bridge crosses over Beedelup Brook which moves greatly as you walk across it, how ever it does provide superb views of the falls.