Description of the attraction
Yanchep National Park is located in an area of 28 km², 45 minutes drive north of Perth. Founded in 1957, this small but very interesting park is visited by up to 250 thousand people a year!
Tourists come here to admire the amazing landscapes - mountainous terrain, overgrown with forests and crossed by rivers, deep caves, thickets of the Australian bush. The koala colony living in the park is one of the favorite places to visit. Here you can also take part in one of the cultural educational programs to get acquainted with the life of the aboriginal people of the Nyoongar tribe.
They have lived here for thousands of years and called the park nyanyi-yanjip after a reed lake that was thought to resemble the shaggy mane of the mystical creature Waugul. The word "yanchep" comes from the distorted "yanjip" or "yandzhet" - as the aborigines called the reeds growing on the shores of local lakes.
The first European to enter the park in 1834 was farmer John Butler, who went in search of escaped cattle and discovered crystal-clear lakes, wetlands and an abundance of game here. Lieutenant George Gray, who traveled to these places in 1838, found amazing caves here. And the first permanent settler on the territory of the future park was Henry White, who arrived here in 1901 - he built a house on the shores of Lake Yonderap, whose caretaker he was appointed two years later.
Tourists should definitely go to the Crystal Cave - the real queen of local caves. And to get acquainted with the flora and fauna of the park - go on a journey along one of the many hiking trails laid on the territory of "Yanchep". During such a walk, you can meet a koala or gray kangaroo, which often come to picnic lawns or a golf course. Swans, pelicans, cormorants, herons and kingfishers are abundant in the swampy plains, while colorful parrots and the rare black cockatoo Carnaby flutter in the jungle. Another way to discover the amazing world of Yanchep is to rent a boat and raft down one of the rivers. In the park's visitor center, you can buy a souvenir and taste the local chocolate ice cream.
