Torndirrup

Torndirrup National Park is a national park in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 400 kilometres (249 mi) southeast of Perth and via Frenchman Bay Road is 10 km (6.2 mi) south of Albany.

Torndirrup National Park is a national park in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 400 kilometres (249 mi) southeast of Perth and via Frenchman Bay Road is 10 km (6.2 mi) south of Albany.

Torndirrup National Park has many impressive rock formations on the coast. These include the Gap, Natural Bridge and the Blowholes all shaped from the local granite. The park is along the coast on the west side of King George Sound and consists of a range of cliffs, gullies, blowholes, beaches and promontories.

The area is composed of three major rock types, one of these being gneiss. The oldest of these was formed 1300-1600 million years ago. This rock type can be seen along the cliff walls of the Gap. The granites were formed later as the Australian Plate collided with the Antarctic Plate 1160 million years ago as molten rock rose to the surface. These granites are visible in the tors atop Stony Hill.

The park was gazetted in 1918, one of the first in Western Australia. It was later named in 1969 taking the name of the Indigenous Australian clan that lived in the area. The first ranger was appointed in 1973.

The park is the most often visited park in Western Australia, with approximately 250,000 visitors per annum.A large bushfire burnt through 700 hectares (1,730 acres) of bushland in the area in 2010 and caused the closure of Frenchman Bay Road isolating tourists and residents of the area. In 2015 another fire burnt out 616 hectares (1,522 acres) of bushland between Stony Hill and the Blowholes including destroying important populations of the critically endangered Banksia verticillata.