NAMBUNG NATIONAL PARK “Discovering Nambung National Park” by Carolyn Thomson, Keith Hockey and David Rose. CALM1997
Nyoongars collective name for a number of tribal groups. Nambung area was the Whadjug and Yued tribes. 1658 first known European recording of the Nambung are when North & South Hummocks appeared on Dutch maps. The Frederick Smith river named by Grey was later renamed the Nambung River by surveyor J S Brooking in 1874-75. Nambung is an aboriginal work meaning crooked or winding.
From 1889 the Old North Road Stock Route ran between Dongara and Perth passing through part of what is now the park. In the early 1900s phosphate was discovered in the caves of the Nambung River valley and it was mined by local farmers intermittently from 1906. A temporary reserve was placed over Nambung River valley to protect the caves in 1927. The first mention of the Pinnacles is in 1934 when they were first mentioned in a Geological Survey report.
During World War II the stock route was used by the army and after the war by beekeepers, hunters. Fishermen and holiday makers. In the late 1960s the Pinnacles Desert was added to the already existing national park which had been established in 1956.
The Pinnacles Desert in Nambung National Park, Western Australia is very impressive as is all the scenery in Western Australia. The Pinnacles area is something one might imagine Mars could be like.
- The Pinnacles Nambung National Park