Kings Park, (Noongar: Kaarta Gar-up) is a park overlooking Perth Water and the central business district of Perth, Western Australia. The park is a mixture of grassed parkland, botanical gardens and natural bushland on Mount Eliza with two-thirds of the grounds conserved as native bushland. Offering panoramic views of the Swan River and Darling Range, it is home to over 324 native plant varieties, 215 known indigenous fungi species and 80 bird species. It is the most popular visitor destination in Western Australia, being visited by over five million people each year. Besides tourist facilities, Kings Park contains the State War Memorial, the Royal Kings Park Tennis club and a reservoir. The streets are tree lined with individual plaques dedicated by family members to Western Australian service men and women who died in World War I and World War II. The park is also rich in flora (both native and introduced) and during September of each year Kings Park hosts Australia's largest wildflower show and exhibition – the Kings Park Festival. The park is an unincorporated area outside all local government areas; it is administered by the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority, which is a state government authority. History Prior to European settlement and exploration Mount Eliza was known as Mooro Katta and Kaarta Gar-up, the Aboriginal names given by the Nyoongar inhabitants. The area has been an important ceremonial and cultural place for the Whadjuk tribe who had campsites and hunting grounds in the area. In the 1880s Kings Park was used by the Perth section of the Volunteer Rifle Corps (a civilian militia) for shooting. At the base of the southern face is a freshwater spring, known as Kennedy Spring (Goonininup), which provided year-round water for the native inhabitants. The spring was noted by the first European visitors to the area, Willem de Vlamingh's party, on 11 January 1697. The Lieutenant Governor of the Swan River Colony, James Stirling, chose the townsite of Perth for this reason – the only local spring. He named the area Mount Eliza for Mrs Ralph Darling. The Colony's first Surveyor General John Septimus Roe recognised the qualities of the area and tried to protect it, by identifying the land to be set aside for public purposes. By 1835 Roe's protection was overturned and the first shipment of five tonnes of jarrah was cut on Mount Eliza, becoming the colony's first export. Logging