Lesuer National Park, near Jurien, is set to offer international and other eco-tourists the opportunity to view its flora and fauna in the comfort of tourist coaches or family vehicles.
Lesuer National Park, near Jurien, is set to offer international and other eco-tourists the opportunity to view its flora and fauna in the comfort of tourist coaches or family vehicles.
The Department of Conservation and Land Management has nearly completed construction of an 18-kilometre one-way sealed road loop within the 27,000-hectare park.
CALM’s director of parks and business services, Jim Sharp, said the one-way sealed loop would have seven pull-offs with two being staging posts for walkways, which will have toilet facilities.
Mr Sharp said visitor numbers to the popular Pinnacles Desert, in the nearby Nambung National Park, were currently running at about 225,000 annually.
“Our hope is to see a large proportion of these also visiting Lesueur,” he told WA Business News.
“A crucial advantage of this will be that greater numbers of visitors are likely to remain in the region for several days.”
The CALM-constructed one-way loop and associated facilities have cost $1.5 million.
Currently, Pinnacles excursions are generally run out of Perth, which means they’re single-day visits, depriving the Jurien region of tourism spin-offs.
Lesueur has a diverse flora of more than 820 species, including many plants found nowhere else in the world.
It represents about 10 per cent of the state’s known flora with five of its species designated as endangered.
Lesueur is also one of Australia’s most significant flora conservation areas.
More than 100 bird species rely on its flora and the area is critically important for the survival of hole-nesting species.
The park was named after Charles Alexandre Lesueur, a topographical painter and natural history artist who was aboard the French scientific ship, Naturaliste, which visited Jurien Bay in 1801.
Jurien is the focal point of a major sub-division by Perth-based Ardross Estates, which plans to transform the crayfishing port into the state’s premier nature-based tourism venue.
Ardross spent a decade planning the move, which also aims to turn the state’s tourism focus northwards, away from the South West.
Ardross’s long-term goal is to develop its 2,000ha coastal bushland estate immediately south of Jurien to have 9,000 low-to-medium density residential lots.
Planning of the project is the subject of a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 1995 between Ardross, the WA Planning Commission and Dandaragan Shire.
Before embarking on the long-term project, Ardross turned to the Environmental Protection Authority to help identify all the estate’s environmental issues pertaining to the urbanisation of a coastal area of this size.
The project has been labeled The Turquoise Coast Development, since it is adjacent to the CALM-managed Jurien Bay Marine Park.
