Kings Park

The WA Nats Club organised a Sunday walkabout round Kings Park. We were led by Peter Coyle who had a stack of interesting stories to tell us, including snippets of aboriginal history and folklore.

Here he explains about grass trees and how the long spike can be made into a spear for catching fish. Because it’s so light, the spear and the fish float to the surface and can be used again.

We were lucky enough to see this Banksia in flower in the endangered species garden.  It is Banksia Rosserae,  a rare arid land plant which produces a flower that is a perfect sphere.




This is the famous boab tree which was trucked down from the Kimberley to save it from destruction. It is now carefully looked after, with the soil heated to keep its roots warm in winter. It had to lose some of its limbs during the move. I am surprised it’s still alive!

This is the treetop walkway seen from below.

As we were sitting down for a rest and a demo of some indigenous artefacts, two magpies appeared (male and female) thinking that Peter’s plastic boxes might contain something edible.

Peter turned his camera on us!

This elaborate piece of pavement was made from different shades of Carrara marble and represents Banksias.