Ambergate Reserve

Directions - Located ten minutes from the centre of Busselton, head south along Bussell Highway and then turn right onto the Busselton Bypass. Keep going until you reach the left turn for Queen Elizabeth Avenue, following this for 10km until you arrive at the car park on the left hand side. Head through the green gazebo to start to the loop trail, where you'll also find information about the reserve. 

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The Hike - Ambergate Reserve is one of many tiny postage stamp sized nature reserves dotted around WA that are there to represent what the environment used to look like before everything within sight was cleared for farming. Ambergate was originally part of the Group Settlement Scheme where British immigrants came out to WA in the 1920s to clear land for agricultural use. It was the brainchild of James Mitchell and the more I read about this guy, the more I tend to dislike what he did to the state in terms of encouraging excessive land clearing (he was nicknamed Moo Cow by local press).