Pickering Brook

Out in the Darling Range, about 32km east of Perth, Pickering Brook is at the centre of WA's most productive stone fruit-growing area. Although it's gazetted within the Perth metropolitan area, the village atmosphere is delightfully rural, with gentle bushland interspersed with orderly rows of fruit trees.

The Darling Range, which hosts Pickering Brook, forms a dramatic backdrop to Perth and the coastal plain and is the spine of Australia's biggest regional park. Covering some 35,000ha, the Darling Range Regional Park presents hills to climb, bush trails to traverse, waterfalls to cool the air and old railway routes to explore.

The park spans 85 kilometres, from the Avon Valley National Park in the north to historic Serpentine in the south, and links the inner wheatbelt to the picturesque Swan Valley and the city. Trails through the park connect several national parks - Lesmurdie Falls, John Forrest, Serpentine, Gooseberry Hill and Kalamunda - and some of Perth"s most scenic attractions, including Helena Valley and Wungong Gorge.