Muja

Muja Conservation Park is a small conservation reserve in the Collie area of the southwest region of Western Australia, near the town of Collie in the southwest coalfields. The park protects jarrah-marri forest and woodland habitats in the southern Darling Range. The Collie basin is significant as the site of WA's coal industry, and the conservation park provides a contrast between industrial land use and remnant native vegetation. The park is managed by DBCA.

The park supports jarrah forest fauna: western grey kangaroos, brush wallabies, short-beaked echidnas, quendas, and woodland birds including the Carnaby's black-cockatoo. Reptiles including bobtail lizards, skinks, and tiger snakes are present in the forest understorey.

Jarrah (E. marginata) and marri (C. calophylla) form the dominant forest with an understorey of sheoak, banksia, hakea, and diverse spring-flowering proteaceous shrubs. The southwestern jarrah forest is globally recognised for its biodiversity, forming part of the Southwest Australian Floristic Region.

The Collie area sits on the southern Darling Plateau — deeply weathered Archaean granite-gneiss overlain by laterite. Carboniferous coal deposits occur in the Collie Basin — a geological depression within the Archaean basement. The jarrah forest grows on lateritic soils derived from weathered granites.

Mediterranean climate with 750–900 mm annual rainfall. Warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters typical of the southern Darling Range.

Muja lies within Bibbulmun Noongar country. The Collie area was explored and settled for coal mining from the 1880s, providing fuel for early Perth industry and railways.

Muja Conservation Park was reserved to protect representative jarrah forest in the Collie coalfields area, providing conservation values adjacent to the industrial coal mining landscape.

Bushwalking through jarrah-marri forest. Spring wildflower observation. Wildlife watching.

Located near Collie. Access via local roads. No formal facilities. Collie provides town services.

Phytophthora cinnamomi dieback, Carnaby's black-cockatoo foraging habitat, and jarrah forest management in the context of surrounding mining and forestry activities are the primary conservation concerns.