Bibbulmun Track

Bibbulmun Track southern terminus at Albany

The Bibbulmun Track is a long distance walk trail in Western Australia. It runs from Kalamunda, east of Perth to Albany and is 1,003.1 kilometres (623.3 mi) long. The name comes from the Bibbulmun, or Noongar people, Indigenous Australians from the Perth area.

History

Bibbulmun track where it crosses the upper reaches of the Canning River

The route has been changed twice, partly due to it passing through a significant section of forest that was at risk to change from either forestry, bauxite mining or dieback.

The track was suggested in 1972. The groups that had suggested and also who were involved in planning with the then Forests Department of Western Australia were -

The Track was first opened in 1979 but the third and final alignment and extension through to Albany was opened in 1998 and retains less than 10% of earlier alignments.

The Bibbulmun Track is a walker-only trail. No wheeled vehicles of any kind are permitted. It has a parallel long distance bicycle trail - generally to the west - known as the Munda Biddi Trail - opened all the way to Albany April 2013

Track components

A bright yellow wagyl symbol is used to mark the path

The track consists of 58 sections and is marked at regular intervals with triangular pointers, most of which have an image of the wagyl, a mythical creature from Aboriginal Dreamtime stories. Each section is approximately one day's walk, except for the northernmost 150 km or so, where the sections consist of half-day walks. At the end of each section is either a town or a purpose-built campsite. Each campsite consists of a three-sided shelter with wooden sleeping platforms, a water tank, a pit toilet, picnic tables and cleared tent sites. In the northern half, most campsites also have a barbecue pit and plate (open fires are banned in the southern section).

The Track is almost all through state forest, national parks and other reserves, with only a few small sections of farmland. The first half of the Track is through the Jarrah forests of the Darling Range. It then moves through flatter tall Karri forests until reaching the coastline near the town of Walpole. The remainder of the Track is through coastal forest and scrub along the south coast, in some sections routed along sandy beaches.

The towns the Track passes through are Dwellingup, Collie, Balingup, Pemberton, Northcliffe, Walpole and Denmark.

View of the south coast of Western Australia from the Bibbulmun Track, between Denmark and Peaceful bay.

Highlights of the track include:

The Bibbulmun Track is managed by the Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) and The Bibbulmun Track Foundation - an incorporated not-for-profit community-based organisation established to provide support for the DEC in the management, maintenance and marketing of the track to ensure that it remains a "long distance walk trail of international significance and quality". The foundation sells maps and guide books, offers trip planning advice, offers equipment hire and runs courses on camp cooking and navigation.

Most people choose to walk sections of the Track for one or a few days at a time. Hardy walkers who walk the Track from beginning to end typically do so in 6 to 8 weeks. The most popular time to walk the Track is during the wildflower season of spring ( September - November), going from north to south as the wildflower season starts later in the southern areas. In summer the weather can be very hot and water will be hard to find except in the water tanks at the campsites. Winter can be wet, especially in the southern areas but people walk the Track any time from March to December.

Leave No Trace

When walking on the Bibbulmun Track Walkers are encouraged to follow the 7 Leave no Trace Principles [1] which are:

Principles of Leave No Trace

Track maps

Map Last updated Reference
Map 1 - Darling Range - Kalamunda to North Bannister January 2004 ISBN 0-7309-6064-1
Map 2 - Dwellingup - North Bannister to Harvey-Quindanning Road December 2004 ISBN 0-7309-6072-2
Map 3 - Collie - Harvey-Quindanning Road to Mumballup June 2006 ISBN 0-7309-6080-3
Map 4 - Blackwood - Mumballup to Brockman Highway January 2006 ISBN 0-7309-6088-9
Map 5 - Pemberton - Brockman Highway to Middleton Road December 2003 ISBN 0-7309-6059-5
Map 6 - Northcliffe - Middleton Road to Broke Inlet Road December 2003 ISBN 0-7309-6067-6
Map 7 - Walpole - Broke Inlet Road to William Bay December 2003 ISBN 0-7309-6075-7
Map 8 - Denmark/Albany - William Bay to Albany December 2003 ISBN 0-7309-6083-8

Awards

Notes

  1. ↑

See also

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, October 06, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.