Team Lipstick decided to drive along the coastal route via Denmark and visit the giant Tingle trees along the way.
Denmark is a coastal town located on Wilson Inlet in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 423 kilometres south-south-east of the state capital of Perth. At the 2016 census, Denmark had a population of 2,558; however, the population can be several times the base population during tourist seasons. Small farms of 40 ha (100 acres) were cleared from woodland to create pasture for cattle, dairying and orcharding, mainly apples. Conditions were often poor and some of the small farmers could hardly survive. They worked in one of the timber mills operating around the middle of the 20th century.
Tourism started when American soldiers, stationed in Albany during World War II, made outings to Denmark. After the war, Denmark became a popular holiday destination for Western Australians.
By the 1960s the population had increased to 1,500 and Denmark was becoming attractive to alternative lifestyles and early retirees. Intensive agriculturists such as wine growers had discovered the value of the rich karri loam for their vineyards.
Riesling and Chardonnay were the first grapes grown on Denmark soil, soon followed by other varieties. Within 50 years the area became a wine subregion of critical acclaim, as part of the Great Southern Wine Region.
Some 70 km after Denmark and about 7km after Walpole yet deep in the heart of outstandingly beautiful tingle and karri forest, the Giant Tingle Tree is the site of a huge fire-hollowed red tingle tree and Team Lipstick arrived at a 800m circular walk which leads down to the Giant Tingle Tree and the board walk that protects it. Tingles are the largest girthed eucalypt known in the world.
Access is via a wooden boardwalk around the base of this Queen of Trees. This is an opportunity to explore this wilderness, learning as you go. The signposts have great information about the flora and fauna of this native forest of the south coast.
It was a scenic drive through the forest area before arriving in Augusta which is a town on the south-west coast of Western Australia, where the Blackwood Riveremerges into Flinders Bay. Augusta has a population of about 2000 people.
It is the nearest town to Cape Leeuwin, on the furthest southwest corner of the Australian continent.
Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia.
The nearest settlement, north of the cape, is Augusta. Located on headland of the cape is the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse and the buildings that were used by the lighthouse keepers.
In Australia, the Cape is considered the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean
