John Forrest National Park, Perth, Western Australia

John Forrest National Park in 10, 9, 8.... 

With the beautiful blue sky days of late, we decided to take a hiking trip this weekend to the difficult to find John Forrest National park. The conservation park is located 24kms east of Perth in the Darling Scarp range and was the first official national park in Western Australia.                                                                        

Kanagroos in the car park

National park falls

Originally named Greenmount Park the name was changed in 1900 to commemorate Western Australia's first premier.

So, early on Saturday morning we jumped in our blistered little maroon Holden and drove East towards the park. Winding through the dry landscape and scattered trees we arrived, parked up and were greeted by a mother Kangaroo and her little baby! 

Hi ho hi ho- where does the trail go?

It also smelt wonderful, gum trees and eucalyptus dominated the area and mixed with the natural rustic earthy smell of Australia.

Captivating rocky landscapre

Our intention was to hike the railway reserve heritage trail, a short 4-5km path that leads to an old tunnel.

The old swan view tunnel built in 1980 carried rail traffic through the region and park until 1966, until the line was closed. So off we went waving goodbye to the kangas.
Initially, it was a quiet day and not many others were around so we had the trail to ourselves. Well we thought we did but as we begun walking we could hear constant scampering in the bush at our feet.

Taking a short break

Kara became obsessed that there might be snakes and excitedly couldn't stop talking about them "John? How about here?
Can we lift up this dead log?" But we didn't find any, just plenty of little lizards.
As the muddy path thickened and we walked beside an old dam, suddenly a gorgeous kookaburra flew down and sung to us.

Our first encounter at such close range, we were surprised that it's such a small bird, cause gosh they can sing loud!

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree! 

The trail then half looped around several small hills and we eventually came out by a massive rock area. The stunning National Park falls!


Except with the hot dry temperatures there was no water, no fall, no waterfall!! But no doubt with the massive rocks it could be very beautiful and impressive in winter! We climbed over them for a short time peering down into the puddles below.

Looking for the tunnel

Look (no snakes)

The day was really heating up now, we could see the railway tunnel and thought it would be a perfect place to eat our picnic lunch. Nothing fancy just a ham and cheese salad sandwich and muesli bar each. The long tunnel was cool and damp, an excellent location to take a rest, with views down over the swan valley and further across to Perth. As we sat and watched the massive brown ants nibble our crumbs several cycling groups came whizzing down the dark tunnel and a family who looked like they had struggled coming up the opposite hill!

Rusty dusty roads

Returning, we were amazed at the brilliant redness of the ground, as if the ground had bleed and wept when they cut the trail into the dry hillside.

The rusty dust bellowed up with each step covering our clean shoes and making its way into the crevices where our socks met with our ankles.

We also saw strange crispy black plants as if they had been scorched, burnt and toasted, we weren't sure what they were or how why they looked like they had been on fire and they were regular along the path.

As we returned we passed via the dam which blocks the Jane brook, built by relief workers during the 1930 Great Depression. In the small recreation area were shelters, bbq's and a small information board.

Jane Brook Dam

According to aboriginal history the area had once been inhabited by Nyoongar people and the Jane brook was an ancient travel route used to cross over the Darling Scarp. It is believed that the black rocks surrounding and in the brook are mythical droppings of a mythical dream-time serpent.

Glen brook dam

We returned back to the car but decided to walk back via the 'scenic' route in the opposite direction down to the Glen brook dam (another dam).

The path was much thicker, but still no snakes. The dam was beautiful, it didn't look too deep and the water was an amazing green blue colour- how we wished we could take a dip! But the calm water was a bit stagnant and we didn't want to take any risks so we dipped our hot swollen feet instead

Tot siens,
John and Kara