Qualla: Lake Clifton

Lake Clifton: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gnangarra, CC BY 2.5 au. The rocks at the edge of Lake Clifton are not rocks at all. They are thrombolites, lumpy structures built grain by grain over millennia by colonies of microorganisms whose ancestors were among the first living things on Earth. A boardwalk extends over the shallows so visitors can peer down at these fragile formations without crushing them underfoot, and the effect is something like visiting a natural history museum where the exhibits are still alive. Lake Clifton the town sits quietly beside Lake Clifton the body of water, population 759 at last count, a place defined less by what humans have built than by what existed here long before humans arrived.

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Image: Gnangarra | CC BY 2.5 au

Lake Clifton: Three Names Before It Stuck

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Orderinchaos, CC BY-SA 3.0. The lake takes its name from Marshall Waller Clifton, who arrived in Western Australia as Chief Commissioner of the Western Australian Land Company and later served on the Legislative Council. Explorers Dr. Alexander Collie and Lieutenant William Preston first encountered Lakes P...

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Image: User:Orderinchaos | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lake Clifton: Living Fossils in the Shallows

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gnangarra, CC BY 2.5 au. Along the western shore of the lake, thrombolites rise from the shallow water like weathered stepping stones. Similar to the more famous stromatolites found elsewhere in Western Australia, these structures are built by cyanobacteria and other microorganisms that trap and bind sed...

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Image: Gnangarra | CC BY 2.5 au

Lake Clifton: Yalgorup's Fragile Corridor

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:JarrahTree, CC BY 2.5 au. The Yalgorup National Park, established in the 1970s, protects the chain of coastal lakes, swamps, and tuart woodland that runs through this stretch of the Peel region. Tuart trees, a species of eucalyptus found only on the Swan Coastal Plain, form woodlands here that once covere...

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Image: User:JarrahTree | CC BY 2.5 au

Lake Clifton: Passing Through

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Orderinchaos, CC BY-SA 4.0. Lake Clifton straddles the Old Coast Road, the original route between Mandurah and Bunbury that now forms part of Highway 1. A couple of roadhouses serve passing trucks and motorists, and rural residential estates have sprung up at nearby Tuart Grove, but the town remains fundame...

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Image: Orderinchaos | CC BY-SA 4.0