Yalgorup-Nationalpark

The Yalgorup National Park (English Yalgorup National Park ) is a 1159 km ² national park located in southwestern Western Australia, Australia.

Location

The park is located about 100 km south of Perth and 20 km south west of Mandurah. It runs in an up to 10 km wide strip of land between the coast of the Indian Ocean and the Bunbury Highway inland.

History

The term Yalgorup is derived from two words from the language of the Noongar Aboriginal Yalgor, such swamp or lake, and up, a suffix for a place. The doctor Alexander Collie and Lieutenant William Preston were the first Europeans in this area, as they explored the coast from Mandurah 1829 to Bunbury. Of these, the two largest lakes in the park are named: Lake Preston and Lake Clifton.

Geology

The soils of the Yalgorup National Park are oceanic origin. They consist mainly of calcareous material of shells and other marine organisms. These soils were deposited parallel to the present coastline as a result of variations in sea level as a series of dunes. The characteristic of the park lakes are located in the valleys of this dune system.

Similar rock structures, known as Thrombolithen, located along the Lake Clifton. Like the better-known stromatolites of Hamelin Pool in Shark Bay, the Thrombolithen of tiny microorganisms are formed. They are among the earliest forms of life and populated before 3.5 billion to 650 million years ago our planet.