Bushwalk Australia

I've just seen this : http://www.dec.wa.gov.au/parks-and-recr ... -park.html

Road contractors will commence construction of 12 kilometres of sealed road leading in to the Murchison Gorge sites of The Loop and Z Bend on 4 June 2013. Works also include redevelopment of the two recreation sites - The Loop and West Loop.

"ACCESS DETAILS:

4 June to 5 July Road to the Loop, Nature's Window and Z Bend CLOSED to general public. Commercial operator access only to the Z Bend site
6 July to 21 July
(School holidays) OPEN to the public except on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays

22 July to 27 September Road to the Loop, Nature's Window and Z Bend CLOSED to general public. Commercial operator access only

28 September to 13 October
(School holidays) OPEN to the public except on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays"

Any idea what the West Loop is gonna be ? Funny they do this now, I've just come back to a trip there and thought it had the potential for being a rival of Shark Bay and Ningaloo, but was afraid it was gonna be as busy, by doing a sort of Pinnacles/Kalbarri package 3 day tour from Perth. Fingers crossed.

"There goes the neighbourhood".

Sealed roads have "sealed" the doom of many of the best places here in the west.

The corrugations on that access road were a fantastic filter.

I've sent a question to a friend at DEC about the "west" loop. Though I did see a tender for west loop rec facilities go up some time ago. Carpark, sun shelter, tables etc.

That depends. Which places do you think have been ruined by sealed roads ? To me, the corrugations aren't a filter there. It's simply that people didn't know about Kalbarri, or didn't want to do the detour required from the highway. It's still worth it if you stick to the sealed parts, especially the coastal cliffs.

During my trip to the West I haven't seen anything ruined by sealed roads. I have seen things ruined by mining though : Karijini, the Dampier Peninsula, Millstream-Chichester. And Karijini/Millstream both have unsealed access for the most part. Other parks have been ruined by something else than sealed roads : Coorong has been ruined by agriculture and the reduced flow of the Murray river, Kangaroo Island has been ruined by over-promoting. But I've never seen a park ruined because access was made too easy.

The key is to ease the access to several parks, not just one. Currently, all tourists on the West Coast are packed at Exmouth, Shark Bay, Karijini, and Broome. Ease the access to Millstream, Kennedy Range, Mt Augustus, the Blowholes coast North of Carnarvon (link it all the way to Yardie Creek for example), François Péron, and develop Collier Range, and then tourists will be diluted in all those places instead of being crammed in a couple of spots. It would be great for the tourism economy of the region to be able to fly to Karratha or Port Hedland and do a Millstream/Karijini/Collier Range/Kennedy Range/Mt Augustus/Ningaloo loop without having to start at Perth, Broome or Darwin.

Knowing WA they're laying down 2m concrete footpaths either side with a 'nature' strip of couch grass reticulated from gorge water, oh and don't forget the bike lane a nd signage!

Sing along...

"...They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum
And they charged all the people
A dollar and a half to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise,,,,"