Meelup - Place where the moon rises out of the sea.  Meelup Regional Park, on the Geographe Bay side of Cape Naturaliste, is 280kms South of Perth.  It is approxmately 572 hectares in area and extends from Dunsborough to Bunker Bay. This coastline is rare in Western Australia because it faces north east.  It is therefore sheltered from the prevailing strong salt bearing south westerly winds, and so, in many places, tall trees and dense vegetation grows down the waters edge.   Photograph courtesy of Christian Fletcher Photography

Meelup Regional Park is an A-class reserve at 572 hectares on the Western Shore of Geographe Bay.  The local Wardandi people named Meelup ‘place of the moon rising’ because the full moon appears to rise out the sea.  The park offers excellent recreation facilities among pristine coastal bushland and has a stunning visual landscape, due to its general north-facing direction and hence protected coastline, and the stark contrast between the rustic granite outcrops and turquoise ocean. The Park is a special place for locals and visitors alike, providing all with a unique connection to the ruggedness, beauty and inspiration of nature.

Meelup Regional Park lies within the Busselton-Augusta ‘Biodiversity Hotspot’, the only one in Australia that is recognised internationally. A biodiversity hotspot is an area rich in plant and animal species, particularly high in endemism and under pressure from a variety of threats. The Park’s size and relatively pristine condition of much of the vegetation means that the Park has not only local, but international conservation significance.

The aborigines living in the area were Noongars of the Wardandi people.  They lived in the coastal region from Busselton to Augusta and were frequent visitors to the Park.  The Wardandi people related strongly to the limestone coast and cave region and believed the spirits of their people lived within the caves. It is known they camped on the freshwater lagoon above Meelup Beach.

In 1801 an expedition under the command of Captain Nicholas Baudin visited Geographe Bay in the corvettes, Geographe and Naturaliste. On May 30th 1801 Depuch’s inlet or creek, after Baudin’s geologist who found stratified granite in the area.