1) Walk map - Shows route and waypoint locations

2) Photo from walk  (also see Photo Galleries)

3) 3D map view

4) Google map & Satellite imagery

5) Route profile

6) Walk description

7) Waypoint listing and grid references

Typical open wandoo woodland,

upper Dale River area.  

Click on photo for larger version.

More photos.

Click here

for larger frame Google Maps image

of the walk area.

-Use zoom bar

for road details.

Step 1: Left Click here

For fly-in to waypoints and route

 on image of the walk area.

Or Right Click to

 "Save Target/Link As..."  kml file.

Step 2: Left Click here

For fly-in to 3D view

 of the walk area.

Or Right Click to

 "Save Target/Link As..."  kml file.

Hint: For enhanced 3D effect, set 'Elevation Exaggeration'

in Google Earth to "3" (via 'Tools' menu, 'Options' & 'View' tab).

         Route profile

65 kms SE of Perth,  along Brookton Hwy to Metro Road on right,  then further 14.5 kms down Metro Road.

18kms (99% off-track)

EASY   (What does this mean?)

See Google Map for start point on road map.

(Use zoom ladder for detail. Select 'Hybrid' to add satellite imagery.)

To reach parking spot at Start point (see map), follow Brookton Highway and turn right into Metro Road (first road on right after Christmas Tree well on left), then drive 14.5 km down Metro Road (dirt) to park at intersection with McCallum Road.

Reach Metro Road and then north to Brookton Hwy.

/Highlights:

This walk is mostly through picturesque, open wandoo woodlands between small granite outcrops. Although it is almost entirely off-track it includes some easy walking over reasonably gentle terrain, with only a few modest slopes onto the outcrops and across a few, usually dry stream gullies (including upper Dale River).  There are some pleasant views from the outcrops. Expect a few short sections of scratchy heath around the outcrops, though a 'controlled burn' in the area in about early 2004 temporarily removed some of the thicker patches.

Note: Trail-bike activity - Parts of this area and other wandoo woodland areas have become increasingly popular with trail-bike riders, with many informal illegal trails criss-crossing the woodlands. Riding in this particular  area is supposedly legal only if bikes are registered and remain on 'formed' trails. (Metro Road is within State Forest and outside the Jarrah Dieback Disease Risk area.) The State Trail Bike Strategy of Dec. 2007 identified the area as "having potential for development as an Off Road Vehicle area for motorcycles and quads", but the riders' uncontrolled off-road activities are causing considerable environmental damage throughout the woodlands including across granite outcrops. In August 2010 the State Government announced it will be assisting trail-bike riders to design and build an "environmentally-sustainable" pilot trail-bike trail in the Flint forest block, near this walk area. Hopefully, this will be a positive step toward rider education and regulation that may at least slow and help contain the wider damage being done across the woodlands.  Meanwhile you may prefer to walk in this area only on week days, when there is usually less trail-bike activity and your walking will be less disturbed by incessant bike noise. 

Controlled burns:  A burn is currently scheduled for Autumn 2009 in an area in the NNE bounded by Metro and McCallum Roads.  This will only impact on a short section of the walk route between waypoints '14B' & 'POOL'. See DEC's 6-season indicative burn programme.

Future impact of bauxite mining: The presence of lateritic caprock and pods of bauxite ore across the southern part of this walk area (see image below) has made it (like Bannister Hill further south) the firm target for future bauxite strip mining which is destined to prevent bushwalker access and destroy the intrinsic recreational and landscape values of this area. Ironically the conservation value of the area was recognised with its designation for some time as the proposed future Gibbs Conservation Park of around 5929 ha to be managed identically to a national park. However, subsequent political 'pragmatism' (i.e. the attraction to this State of mining royalties) prevailed and the "Regional Forest Agreement for the SW Forest Region of W.A." (Cwth. & W.A. State Governments; 1999) withdrew the "Proposed Conservation Park" status. Under the later Forest Management Plans (including the draft 2013-2023 Plan of August 2012) a smaller 2280ha area to the north is now proposed  ("reinstated") as the future Gibbs Conservation Park while most of the area has remained as State Forest to ensure it is available for the bauxite miners who in 2008 gained environmental approval for their future extensive mining expansion into the area. The potential for a future effective 'biolink' to the otherwise isolated Boyagarring Conservation Park has also been lost.

The State's environmental approval processes (through the EPA) have failed to ensure bona fide “close consultation" with the community that the mining proponents have claimed. In place of consultation there has been continuing slick public relations 'spin' by bauxite miners, conveying an impression to the public that "world's best" environmental rehabilitation programs (including "re-landscaping") can restore (even improve!) the intrinsic values of a landscape that has been essentially destroyed by mining. Hopefully, growing public awareness, scepticism and concern will lead to better outcomes for the community and especially for future generations. 

WalkGPS walk map for OziExplorer users:  A downloadable OziExplorer format MAP file (*.map) for this walk area is included on the Maps, Waypoints & Track Files page. The zipped folder also includes the associated 'base' topo map image file, plus other attached waypoints, tracks/routes, etc in OxiExplorer file formats.

WalkGPS reconnaissance history: Click here for a map of past WalkGPS test walks in the walk area, plus the final route. The final route was selected only after several visits to the area which aimed to achieve a walk that would be the most rewarding.

Other:   Jarrahdale 1:50,000 Sheet (Dept. of CALM, 1990);

or Jarrahdale & Yaganing 1:50,000 DEC Conservation Operations Graphic (COG) map series (current) Sheet 2133-3 & 2133-2.

Proposed Conservation Park: The eastern half of this walk (east of the N-S stream course that passes close to waypoint 'SMLROK') lies within a proposed small Conservation Park at the eastern margin of the current State Forest area (see CALM Operations Graphics series maps for location).

Head initially NW mainly through open woodland, cross small patchy outcrop at waypoints ‘3’ and ‘4’ (see map) then descend through wandoo and balgas (grass trees) to cross two dry creek beds (route veers N-ward). Then reach larger granite outcrop after waypoint ‘6’.  After moving uphill across the outcrop pass through short sections of scratchy scrub and a series of small rock outcrops to reach another larger outcrop at waypoint ‘VUROK’ (first rest stop). Then walk uphill through short section of scratchy dryandra to reach ridge and open wandoo woodland after waypoint ‘11’. Follow ridge downhill initially S-ward and then SE-ward passing through two thickets of young casuarina (sheoak) before crossing a stream gully to reach waypoint ‘14’.  Then veer eastward, re-cross the stream bed, and cross a gentle ridge through wandoo to regain Metro Road at waypoint ‘14B’.  Cross the road and continue approx ESE through open woodland to cross McCallum Road, pass large granite boulder on other side of road, and soon after reach a (dried out) pool on the upper Dale River. Then keep heading ESE across gentle ridge, to cross a quite broad flat valley and a small stream gully before reaching a small granite outcrop at ‘SMLROK’. Then veer approx NE through mainly open woodlands, cross a narrow dryandra-covered ridge and descend across a short section of rocky ground and through sheoak forest to reach low granite outcrops at ‘ROK 1’ and ‘16’ (second rest stop).  Veer SE again and reach another small granite outcrop at ‘TRIG’ waypoint, where there is an interesting old man-made boulder arrangement and small sharpened post (probably an old surveying point). Veer east to descend to a larger granite outcrop at waypoint ‘NURK2’. Veer SSE to follow the outcrop uphill, then cross an E-W dirt road (marked on map) and climb gently through very picturesque open woodland to reach point ‘17’. After ‘17’, walk south and soon descend to a granite outcrop at ‘18’.  Follow the outcrop southward along slope (with views to east), passing through a couple of brief scratchy sections. Then climb gently through mainly jarrah forest to a ridge at waypoint ‘19’. Veer SW-ward to ascend a granite outcrop with a good lunch spot at ’19-A’  with views of surrounding forest and distant wheatbelt farmland.  Then walk SSW through partly scratchy scrub to reach a small stand of wandoo trees (‘WANDOO’ on map) and continue SW (gently downhill) to another granite outcrop (at ‘CRNROK’ on map). Veer due west, initially through low scratchy scrub, cross stream gully and walk through open jarrah forest to reach waypoint ‘20’.  Veer NW, eventually cross a gentle valley and then climb through some scratchy scrub to reach waypoint ’20’ on a more open ridge. Then veer SW along the ridge and pass through a brief scratchy section to reach a granite outcrop at ‘VURK2’ with nice views to the west across the valley to another outcrop which is the next point on the route. Descend down the rock from ‘VURK2’ and head WSW to cross the valley,  initially through partly scratchy scrub, across an unmarked road, then a dry stream bed and then a gentle climb to reach waypoint ‘22’ on the other outcrop. Head NNW along the outcrop and after about 400m veer NW to leave it and descend through open woodland to cross the upper Dale River bed at waypoint ‘24’. Then it’s a gentle uphill climb through woodland back to the Start point