Qualla: Dryandra Woodland National Park

Dryandra Woodland National Park: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BTHiller, CC BY-SA 4.0. One Noongar man, born in 1910, described the ochre pit in Dryandra as "a very spirity place" - somewhere to be avoided at night. The ochre had been used for body decoration and rock art for thousands of years before European settlers arrived, stripped the bark from the mallet trees, and ran seven steam trains through the woodland to service a tannin industry. Both layers of history survive here. Dryandra Woodland National Park, 164 kilometres southeast of Perth and 22 kilometres northwest of Narrogin, is a complex of 17 distinct blocks spread over 50 kilometres of the Wheatbelt, separated by farmland but connected by a shared purpose: to preserve the last large remnant of the open eucalypt woodlands that once blanketed this part of the continent.

Image: BTHiller | CC BY-SA 4.0

Dryandra Woodland National Park: Ancient Ground

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BTHiller, CC BY-SA 4.0. Dryandra sits within the southwestern province of the Yilgarn craton, an ancient plateau composed mainly of granite with intrusions of dolerite and a laterite cap. Weathering has softened the terrain into a gently undulating countryside on the western edge of the Wheatbelt, where...

Image: BTHiller | CC BY-SA 4.0

Dryandra Woodland National Park: The Numbat's Last Stronghold

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BTHiller, CC BY-SA 4.0. More than 50 percent of the total known population of numbat lives in Dryandra's woodland blocks. The woodland also supports major populations of two other nationally endangered species: the woylie and the red-tailed phascogale. Additional marsupials include the bilby, mala, bood...

Image: BTHiller | CC BY-SA 4.0

Dryandra Woodland National Park: Bark, Tannin, and Steam

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the early 1900s, a significant industry grew up around harvesting bark from brown mallet trees (Eucalyptus astringens), which thrive on the laterite soils of the southern Wheatbelt. Bark sent to Germany for analysis was found to contain more than 40 percent high-quality, water...

Image: Calistemon | CC BY-SA 4.0

Dryandra Woodland National Park: Listening to the Bush

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit user:Moondyne, Public domain. Two self-drive tour routes thread through the woodland, and at each of five or six stops, a low-power FM transmitter - concealed and solar-powered - broadcasts a five-minute commentary through the car's radio. Some broadcasts stage conversations between characters describing dail...

Image: user:Moondyne | Public domain