Alexander Morrison National Park, Nature reserve in Shire of Coorow, Australia
Alexander Morrison National Park covers 8,500 hectares of sandplains and low lateritic breakaways over sandstones and shales of the Lower Jurassic Cockleshell Gully Formation. Sand heaths dominate, with low woodland and mallee in the western parts. Powder-barked Wandoo and Mallalie grow there, and the heaths include the rare Spiral Bush.
Land for the park was set aside by the Department of Lands and Surveys under reserves 26800, 26803 and 26804 on 23 May 1969. Over 1970 and 1971 it was classified as an "A" Class reserve, changeable only by an Act of Parliament, and vested in the National Parks Authority. The park was officially named on 8 October 1971 after Alexander Morrison, Western Australia's first Government Botanist. In 1974 the Environmental Protection Authority proposed adding a one-kilometre strip of vacant Crown land south of Green Head-Coorow Road, but this was never actioned.
The park is named after Alexander Morrison, the first Government Botanist of Western Australia, a naming decided when the reserve was officially named on 8 October 1971. Visitors driving the Green Head-Coorow Road pass through land held as an A Class reserve, a status that since 1970-1971 has meant its purpose can only be changed by an Act of Parliament.
Access is via the Green Head-Coorow Road, which runs through the park 207 km north of Perth and 180 km south of Geraldton. The ground is sandplain and low lateritic breakaway over sandstone and shale, so surfaces are sandy and uneven. The park lies in the Shire of Coorow.
The park protects rare species such as the spiral bush (Spirogardnera rubescens), and the northern variant of Banksia vestita is common in its heaths. Its eucalypts include powder-barked wandoo (Eucalyptus accedens) and mallalie (E. eudesmoides).
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