Located on the old camel/coach route between Israelite Bay and Balladonia, Cape Arid National Park is 125 km east of Esperance, and covers 280,000 hectares. It offers remote sandy beaches, excellent costal scenery, the Thomas River and its estuary, granite outcrops and marshy clay flats, along with several rocky mounts which offer fine perspectives of the surrounding terrain.

Park activities include bushwalking, camping, birdwatching, whalewatching, picnicking, photography, four-wheel-driving and fishing. Rock climbing is permitted with the ranger's permission, tel: (08) 9075 0055. The park is best visited in spring and autumn.

The flora consists chiefly of coastal heath systems, banksia woodland (which surrounds the Thomas River campground) and swamp yate woodland, with dense stands of mallee inland, as well as patches of paperbark and other semi-arid eucalypt woodland types. There are shrublands around rockier inland areas.

The fauna is correspondingly diverse and includes brush-tailed wallabies and honey possums, although the park is chiefly noted for its 160 or so bird species, including 16 honeyeater species (some are common at the Thomas River campground when the banksias are in flower), stints, sanderlings, pardalotes (in the yate woodlands), kites, currawongs, the scarlet robin, the ground parrot, the western spinebill, the pied butcherbird, the mulga parrot, the red-eared firetail (unique to Western Australia), lorikeets amid the mallee eucalypts in autumn, the silver gull, the crested tern, the pied oystercatcher (the latter three can be seen around the Thomas River estuary), and, in the heathlands, falcons, emu-wrens and bustards.

Cape Arid is also home to the endangered western ground parrot and it is visited by rare species such as the Australasian bittern, Carnaby's black cockatoo and the hooded plover (at Yokinup Bay which extends eastwards from the estuary). The West Australian Cape Barren goose (estimated to number oly 650) breeds only in the Recherche Archipelago.

The park has a number of walking tracks: the Len Otte Nature Trail (1 hour) is self-guided, while the Tagon Coastal Trail, the Boolenup Trail and the Mt Ragged Trail are pegged. The Boolenup Trail entails an enjoyable meander through heath, banksia woodland, yate woodland and paperbark swamp, concluding at Boolenup Lake, populated by black swans, little black cormorants and musk ducks.

This is a large remote park and, although access to the main campground (Thomas River) is quite unproblematic, most other tracks in the park (including those which lead to the other campgrounds) are crude 4WD tracks and access along these roads is dependent on the weather. Most 4WD tracks are unsignposted. There is no power, visitors must bring their own drinking water into the park and remember that the nearest petrol supply is 55 km away at Condingup. There are no boat ramps and steep rocky slopes are slippery when wet. The campgrounds have pit toilets, picnic tables and gas barbecues.

The cape was named 'Cap Arride' in 1792 by Admiral D'Entrecasteaux of the vessel L'Esperance and it was anglicised in 1802 when Matthew Flinders inspected the area.

Access to Thomas River campground is via 18 km of good quality, all-weather gravel roads, suitable to two-wheel drive vehicles. These access roads run off Fisheries Road which is sealed. For more information about the park ring (08) 9071 3733.

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Tagon Point

Tagon Bay is located 1 km to the west of the main National Park campsite. There is 4WD access in the centre of Tagon beach, however beware as the beach is sloping with relatively soft sand. The beach is popular for beach and rock fishing, but relatively hazardous for swimming. Six beaches, each separated by granite outcrops, occupy the next 14 km of south-facing coast between the prominent Tagon Point and the lower Alexander Point. The latter backed by 104 m high granite dome of Alexander Hill. Taylor and Inshore islands lie close inshore, and several islands, islets and many rock reefs lie up to 10 km offshore, including the 7 km long Twin Peak islands. The western boundary of the national park lies 2 km west of Tagon Point. There is however, no formal vehicle access to this section of coast.

Little Tagon Beach

Little Tagon Beach lies in the next cove 500 m to the south of Tagon Beach. It is the least hazardous beach in this section of the park. However be careful, as while waves are usually low, the water is deep right off the beach. It is backed by dense coastal heath and bordered by partly vegetated granite slopes. It shares the car park with Dolphin Cove, with a 2-minute walk down the slopes to the beach.

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