Hopetoun
Quiet and attractive seaside village
Located 588 km south of Perth and 50 km from Ravensthorpe, Hopetoun is a small and attractive seaside village located on the shores of Mary Ann Harbour (it was originally known as Mary Ann Haven or Harbour) which is becoming increasingly popular as a low key get-away-from-it-all tourist destination.
The first Europeans to make contact with the area were Matthew Flinders who, in 1802, sailed the Investigator along the coast charting its beaches and rugged cliffs as he went.
By the 1820s the whalers and sealers from Van Diemen's Land, who hunted in the southern ocean, knew of the shelter which the Hopetoun area offered. It is thought that one sealer named Thomas settled in the area and named Mary Ann Haven after his daughter.
In 1841 Edward John Eyre passed through the area having been revitalised at Thistle Cove (near Esperance) after traversing the Nullarbor Plain. Eyre and his Aboriginal companion Wylie made the journey from Thistle Cove to Albany in late June, 1841.
Eyre must have passed very close to the present site of Hopetoun. His journals record that he spent a night at the Jerdacuttup Lakes east of Hopetoun and the following night was camped by 'the Lake', Culham Inlet.
Eyre was critical of the whole area. After nearly dying of thirst while crossing the Nullarbor he was now confronted with almost continuous rain. This probably accounted for his description of Mt Barren in the Fitzgerald River National Park as 'Most properly had it been called Mt Barren, for a more wretched arid looking country never existed than that around it.' It is hard to imagine Eyre making this observation having just crossed the Nullarbor Plain.
The area was settled in the late 1860s by the Dunn brothers. It is thought that John Dunn became interested in the area when he became temporarily marooned while sealing off the coast of Mary Anne Harbour. Dunn moved into the area in 1868 and spent 'the first three years clearing scrub, building sheep yards and preparing for permanent occupation' on a piece of land he would name 'Cocanarup'. While he was clearing the land John Dunn was visited by the explorer John Forrest. Dunn accompanied Forrest's expedition south towards Mary Ann Haven. Forrest, who was prone to leaving his name all over the countryside, carved his initials in a tree on the banks a the Phillips River. A memorial cairn to the expedition is located 6 km along Forrest Road which runs west from Hopetoun Road 10 km north of the town.
In 1871 John Dunn took three months to overland some sheep from Albany with his brother George. He was formally granted 4049 ha on 1 January 1873. John Dunn was killed by local Aborigines in 1880. His grave is located on Cocanarup Road which runs off the South Coast Highway west of Ravensthorpe.
The real development of Hopetoun occurred when gold and copper were discovered by James Dunn at Phillips River Goldfields near Ravensthorpe in 1898.
At the time, as the history of the area Ravensthorpe - Then and Now, reports 'the roads or tracks from either Albany in the west or Esperance in the east were unformed and so the way from Perth to this mining area was to Albany by train thence to Hopetoun by sea and up the thirty miles to Ravensthorpe by coach. That of course, would be Cobb and Co. with four horses in hand.'
As a result of the gold and copper discoveries the town was surveyed (1900) and its name was changed from Mary Anne Harbour to Hopetoun (in honour of Australia's first Governor General, Lord Hopetoun). It became the port for the goldfields. A jetty was built in 1901 and that year a gold battery was shipped through the port.
The importance of the port was short lived. The railway which connected Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun in 1901 was closed in 1925 (remnants of the line can still be seen beside the Hopetoun–Ravensthorpe road) and the port which had been so important was effectively closed in 1936. Prosperity which had developed the town now deserted it and it became a sleepy little backwater. The jetty, which began to deteriorate in the 1960s was finally destroyed in 1983.
In recent times tourism in the area has grown and it is likely to continue as increasing numbers of whales, seals and dolphins come to the offshore waters and the beaches and headlands in the area remain largely untouched.
It is impossible to overstate the beauty of this area. Many people consider this stretch of coastline the most beautiful in Australia. It is an area of impossibly white sand beaches and gently rounded rocky foreshores.
The Hopetoun Summer Festival is held in January.
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Beaches
Hopetoun's most obvious attraction is its beaches. To the east of town are Starvation Bay and Powell Point where visitors will find a boat ramp, camping facilities, toilets and barbecues and can enjoy surfing and swimming. There is no fresh water. Munglinup Beach offers the same range of facilities except there is no boat ramp. However, there is fresh water and a caravan park is located 2 km from the beach, next to Oldfield River. Mason Bay offers camping, barbecues and toilets but no fresh water. Twelve Mile Beach has only toilets but it is a good spot for fishing with a reef located 13 km offshore. Five Mile Beach, too, has toilets and fishing but no fresh water.
To the west of Hopetoun are West Beach, which has toilets, and Four Mile Beach which offers free gas barbecues, toilets, walks, fishing and whale watching (in season). Further west id Fitzgerald River National Park which has plenty more beaches.
Fitzgerald River National Park
Apart from the beautiful beaches and the excellent fishing, the major attraction in the area is Fitzgerald River National Park, a huge 330,000-ha strip of the coastline between Hopetoun and Bremer Bay. It is, by any measure, a superb park of rivers, dramatic gorges, spongelite cliffs along the Hamersley and Fitzgerald River valleys, wide sand plains, isolated mountains, rugged cliffs, pebbly beaches and spectacular displays of wildflowers between August and November. Activities include sightseeing, walking, photography, camping, canoeing and fishing. During the winter months, southern right whales can be seen from the cliffs at Point Ann.
CALM have put out a brochure titled Fitzgerald River and Frank Hann National Parks which provides detailed information on the roads in the park, a useful map, information about camping (there are no facilities), fishing and bushwalking.
A very detailed study of the park, A Park in Perspective, has been commissioned by the Fitzgerald River National Park Association and written by Keith Bradby. It provides information on the geology, geomorphology, climate, vegetation and history of the park.
In the Introduction Bradby sums up the appeal of the park when he writes: 'The park sits astride the incised valleys of four major river systems, which flow south-east to the coast. Dominating the southern section is a low range of rugged quartzite hills known collectively as The Barrens, while the core of the park is an extensive undulating plain...The flora of the park is exceptionally rich and diverse. Although the Park is only 0.2 per cent of Western Australia's land surface, over 20 per cent of Western Australia's plant species occur there. Many of the plant species are endemic to the region, reflecting the tight and varied plant/soil mosaics. Vegetation varies, from woodland on the richer soils through to mallee and mallee heath.
'There are more recorded species of birds, mammals and frogs than in any other reserve in south-west Australia. This is partly a reflection of the park size, but also because of the blending of wet country and dry country species which occur in the park.' In fact, there are 209 bird species and over 1800 recorded plant species, including 81 orchid types. 62 plant species are unique to the park, including the brightly-coloured royal hakea. Some of the park's flora, such as the showy banksia, is notable for unusual and striking leaf-shapes. 18 native mammals are known to inhabit the park, including the rare dibbler and the heath rat; both, at one time, thought to be extinct. Threatened species, such as the woylie, the tammar wallaby and the ground parrot, mostly inhabit the heaths and mallee in the north of the park, which preserves an example of the vegetaion once typical of the wheatbelt before clearing occurred.
There is a walkway to the top of East Mount Barren Lookout which affords fine views of the area. The trek takes two to three hours return. Beaches along the coast include Barrens Beach and East Mylies Beach (both good for walking, fishing and whale watching), West Beach (good for surfing but with no facilities), Whalebone Beach (for remote backpack camping), Quoin Head (accessible by 4WD only with free gas barbecues, toilets, bushwalking, camping and fishing), and Hamersley Inlet, which has two campsites, toilets, bushwalking and fishing opportunities.
The Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia has an excellent map of Bremer Bay-Hopetoun which, apart from providing a useful description of all the attractions in the area, has detailed information on the tracks and 4WD roads through the Fitzgerald River National Park. It can be obtained from the RAC in Albany or from the head office at 228 Adelaide Terrace, Perth.
Culham Inlet
This inlet, not far west of Hopetoun, is the landlocked estuary of the Steere and Phillips Rivers. This is a good spot for a bushwalk when the wildflowers are blooming in spring. For further information ring the Esperance Information Centre on (08) 9071 2330.
Blue Mallee Wildflowers
Located 2.5 km from town at 41 Whale Drive (via Hammersley Drive), Blue Mallee Wildflowers offers visitors a chance to examine local native wildflowers, as well as a collection of old shells, bottles and other relics.
