Drovers Cave National Park is a national park in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia (Australia), 201 kilometres (125 mi) northwest of Perth. The nearest town is Jurien Bay 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) to the west.
The area is composed of limestone and numerous caves are known to exist within the park boundaries. Many of the caves are locked with screens to keep visitors out in the interest of public safety and to prevent vandalism.
Some of the other caves found within the park include Hastings, Moora, Old river and Mystery caves. Hastings cave is known to contain fossils.
Drovers Cave was well known to early explorers and stockmen; the location of the site near to the Canning Stock Route meant it was often visited by drovers, hence the name. The first known visit to the cave was a drover who signed the cave wall in 1886. Many more visits occurred between 1930 and 1940. The cave was surveyed in 1973 and gazetted as part of the National Park the same year.
Native flora within the park includes shrub banksia, One-sided Bottlebrush and Parrot Bush. Fauna includes Emus, Honey Possums, Western Pygmy Possums, Short-beaked Echidnas, Western Grey Kangaroos, Australian Bustards and many reptiles.
Famous quotes containing the words cave, national and/or park:
“Mankind which began in a cave and behind a windbreak will end in the disease-soaked ruins of a slum.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)
“Any honest examination of the national life proves how far we are from the standard of human freedom with which we began. The recovery of this standard demands of everyone who loves this country a hard look at himself, for the greatest achievments must begin somewhere, and they always begin with the person. If we are not capable of this examination, we may yet become one of the most distinguished and monumental failures in the history of nations.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“Borrow a child and get on welfare.
Borrow a child and stay in the house all day with the child,
or go to the public park with the child, and take the child
to the welfare office and cry and say your man left you and
be humble and wear your dress and your smile, and don’t talk
back ...”
—Susan Griffin (b. 1943)