Perth- Kings Park

To get to Kings Park we had only to hop on a free shuttle bus. We loved this place and visited several times during our stay in Perth. It was wonderful to get outside so much with great looking skies!

It is one of the world's largest and most beautiful inner city parks! You can find over 3000 species of Western Australia(WA) unique flora within the 400 hectares (only 988 acres!) WA is home to 1/2 of all plant species in Australia and most of those are found no where else but in WA. A full 2/3 of the park is preserved bushland. Here is the entrance road and walk- Fraser Avenue. It was named for the second Surveyor-General of Perth.  Absolutely stunning. The original trees planted in 1929 were red-flowering gum trees. Most of them succumbed to a disease and were replaced in 1938 with lemon scented gum trees from the east coast of Australia. All of the trees still have plaques stating they were planted in 1929, even a sapling which couldn't be older than a few years.

While we spent some time walking other areas of the Park, we spent a lot of our time walking in the Botanic Garden within the Park. It covers only 17 hectares (42 acres) but was packed with interesting things to see.

It's been in the works for quite a while.

We wanted to share some of the really interesting plants (and animals) we were able to see. First is a Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco) which was moved here in 2014. The transfer was done between midnight and 3 am to minimize traffic disruption. The support anchors are still in place until a full root system is re-established.

This is an Australian Darter (Anhingha- Anhinga novaehollandiae) hanging out at one of the small water features in the park.

We also saw red wattlebirds. I borrowed this shot from the Internet! I couldn't get the birds to stand still for a photo shoot!

And lots of magpies (no photos).

This is called a quenda or a southern brown bandicoot- a best guess at least. The quenda is the non- human creature in the photo. It's a marsupial and found mostly in southern Australia. It is found in the Botanic gardens but is clinging to survival in Perth's growing suburban sprawl.

They had a very large garden focusing on banksia. These are really unique plants. Relics from the super-continent of Gondwana, there are 76 species, 62 of which are endemic to Western Australia. The Aboriginals collected the flowers from banksia. They sucked the nectar directly from the flowers but also soaked the flowers overnight to make a sort of meade drink. 

More plants. We got the names of some of them.

 Eucalyptus kingsmillii (Myraceae)

 Eucalyptus caesia subsp. magna (Myrtaceae) 'Silver Princess"

More blue sky shots:

Kangaroo Paws filled one garden with a variety of color.

A War Memorial was surrounded by marigolds.

Birds in the trees- this time rainbow lorikeets- and more blue sky!

The Boab (Baobab). In Australia, it is common to drop a couple of the letters. This is the common name of genus Adansonia. It is a different family from Bottle Trees but both are in a similar section of the flowering plant evolutionary tree. There are only 6 species of Adansonia: 4 found in Madagascar, 1 in mainland Africa and 21 in Australia. The Boab was a major food resource but was also relied upon for its many medicinal properties.

There is a really famous Boab (Giji Jumulu)  in the Botanic Garden. It traveled here in 2008 trekking 3200 km (nearly 2000 miles) from Telegraph Creek near Warmun in Western Australia's Kimberley region all the way to the park. It had to be moved due to construction of a new bridge. The tree was in transit over 4 days.

It is a relatively young tree-- only about 750 years old (estimated). This species is believed to live 2000 years. It is 2.5 meters wide. The Giji people of eastern Kimberley gifted the tree to the people of Western Australia.

There is an exclusion zone around the trunk of the tree and rain ports were installed at the surface to ensure the tree gets enough water even after 10 years.

Great view from the park.