Credo Conservation Park

Credo has old gold mines, large rocky outcrops, beautiful eucalypt woodlands and several dams in which yabbies can be collected. Several ghost towns can also be explored on the property.

Credo Conservation Park is a former pastoral lease that was established in 1906–07 by the Halford family where it first carried sheep. The family sold the lease in the mid-1980s to the Funstons who in turn sold it to the Government in 2007. Credo was purchased by the Government as it is a representative conservation area and an important water catchment area for Rowles Lagoon.

Visitors can explore the 212,126 hectare proposed reserve in a day trip or camp overnight at the campground. The area offers nature-based recreation and tourism opportunities such as camping, sightseeing, historical mining towns, bushwalking, wildflower viewing, bird-watching and photography. The relatively remote environment has outstanding scenic landscapes that includes mature stands of Salmon Gum woodland, breakaways and Greenstone hills.

Credo encompasses the Clear and Muddy Nature Reserve and Rowles Lagoon Conservation Park, the largest freshwater lake in the Coolgardie bioregion. The lagoon is a significant area for local Indigenous people who worked on the station and whose ancestors camped at Rowles. Visitors are welcome to go yabbying in one of the many dams on Credo.

There are several active mining and exploration operations on the station, so care should be taken around unsecured shafts and dangerous excavations. Mining lease rights still apply to many of these sites on the reserve, so nothing should be disturbed and access permission should be obtained from the lease holders.

Credo is also host to an exciting science partnership between Parks and Wildlife and CSIRO with a new multi-purpose field study centre for educators and scientists working on environmental research programs and the Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Network (TERN) supersite.

The homestead is 75km north-west of Coolgardie along Coolgardie North Road. Most of the tracks on the former pastoral property are for four-wheel-drive vehicles only, however access to Rowles Lagoon is open to all vehicles during dry soil conditions.

This information was provided by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions: dpaw.wa.gov.au