The tremendous variety of vegetation provides a haven for native animals and birds. As home to at least 19 native mammals, the park is one of the State's most important in terms of faunal conservation.
Several species have only recently been rediscovered in the park. The dibbler, a small marsupial with distinctive white eye rings, was thought to be extinct until 1967, when it was rediscovered near Albany. Captured in the park in the 1980s, this secretive animal is largely carnivorous, though it also feeds on nectar and pollen, and has never been found in any large numbers.
The heath rat was thought to be extinct in Western Australia until the 1980s, when its presence was first indicated by bone remains in a disused owl nest and a tooth in a fresh owl scat, and finally live in traps in Fitzgerald River National Park.
Like the dibbler and the heath rat, the woylie and tammar wallaby were once much more widespread, but declined rapidly following European settlement. Clearing of vegetation, predation by introduced foxes and cats, and altered fire regimes are probably the main contributing factors to the decline in range and number of these small mammals in Western Australia.
Likewise, the ground parrot, one of three endangered birds present in the park, was once found from Augusta to Cape Arid in Western Australia, but is now restricted to Fitzgerald River National Park and Cape Arid National Park. The ground parrot nests on the ground and spends most of its time walking around quietly, foraging for seeds and fruits, spending only two brief periods each day (about half an hour just before sunrise and for a similar period just before sunset) flying and calling to other birds.
Most of the threatened animals are concentrated in the north of the park in heaths and mallees, remnants of typical Wheatbelt vegetation that has now been largely cleared elsewhere. Most species were also recorded in patches of vegetation that had been unburnt for at least 15 years and sometimes 35 years.
Maintaining a mosaic of vegetation types and ages is possible in a park the size of Fitzgerald River National Park, and essential to maintaining its biological diversity. In today's terms, the Fitzgerald River National Park is far from worthless. It is one of Australia's most important national parks and its international importance is reflected in its designation as a World Biosphere Reserve.
As well as being the repository of numerous rare plants and animals, it is also one of the last great wilderness areas of the south.
Fitzgerald River was named by John Septimus Roe in 1848 after Governor
James Fitzgerald