This stretch of the Bibbulmun Track will take you through dramatic scenery, to places of Nyoongar Aboriginal significance, and past many pioneering relics of the timber industry.
spectacular reward
To the north, Boonerring Hill is a giant granite mound rising above the jarrah forest. In spring its fringes are clothed in a dazzling display of pink and gold feather flowers (Verticordia spp.). It also provides a visual panoramic reward for the short, strenuous climb to the top.
fire spotting
On the top of Mount Wells a Track shelter has been converted from the replica of an old hut that housed the fire-watchers. Here walkers can experience something of bygone times, when the fire tower keepers would spend months there, keeping a look out for bushfires.
On the southern ascent of Mount Wells, walkers may hear the sounds of gold mining which has been in operation in the vicinity since 1987.
busy history - busy town
In the early twentieth century the major industries of this district were farming, timber milling and railway-sleeper cutting. Most of the bush railways that served the old sawmills are gone, but a steam train still operates on the line from Dwellingup to Etmylin. Dwellingup was a busy town with a hotel so popular that it was common for a thirsty latecomer to be unable to get into the bar! The hotel was one of the few buildings that survived when Dwellingup was almost completely destroyed by a severe bushfire in 1961.
t
he murray water route
The name ‘Dwellingup’ is derived from the Nyoongar word for 'place of nearby water'.
Just south of the town, the Bibbulmun Track enters the Lane Poole Reserve and follows the longest permanent watercourse in the jarrah forest, the Murray River. The Nyoongar people used this fertile river valley as a natural access route to the inland wandoo woodland hunting areas. Melaleuca thickets and flooded gum (Eucalyptus rudis) woodlands fringe the river. The Track crosses the spectacular Long Gully Bridge - the final view point of the Murray River for walkers heading south.
See more photos from this section.
See information about Dwellingup.