Shark Bay Western Australia

"Shark Bay Australia Travel Information"  

This World Heritage Area on the coast of Central Western Australia is a beautiful place to visit. After hours of drive across arid landscape, suddenly there are bright-blue waters and white-sand beaches, and lots of dolphins and pelicans. Many people come here for the famous Monkey Mia dolphin feeding, but there are also the world-famous stromatolites, the many species of birds of the area, and some history in the François Péron National Park.

Listing by Chitika



Great trips from Perth:

THREE DAY TRIP  INCLUDING PINNACLES DESERT AND KALBARRI

FOUR DAY TRIP INCLUDING SAND BOARDING

FOUR DAY TRIP INCLUDING EXMOUTH

FIVE DAY TRIP INCLUDING PINNACLES, KALBARRI, AND NINGALOO REEF

Shark Bay Stromatolites
Soon after the entrance to the area area on Useless Loop Road, there is a turnoff to Hamelin Pool. Many travellers miss it but it’s a biologists’ and geologists’ dream – there are the world-famous stromatolites – a sedimentary rock that contains the oldest known fossils of living organisms in the world and have taught us how old the life on the Earth really is. It is of course not impossible that there is some older evidence that we haven’t found, but thanks to the stromatolites we know that the bacterial life on the Earth started at least 3.5 billion years ago.


Stromatolites. Poster by AllPosters, all rights reserved. Buy the poster.

Eagle Bluff, Shell Beach and Birds of Shark Bay
Back on the Useless Loop Road, further west there is the turnoff to Denham-Hamelin Road which first goes past Shell Beach – a 60km long beach that instead of sand is covered in shells. Further north on the left hand side of the Denham-Hamelin Road is Eagle Bluff – a lookout point with good views over the water where you can see sharks swimming in the ocean – the place wasn't called Shark Bay for no reason. Around here you can also see many of the 240 species of birds.


Eagle Bluff. Poster by AllPosters, all rights reserved. Buy the poster.

Denham and Monkey Mia
Further north you come to the township of Denham – the biggest place in the bay with some eateries and tourist information centres, and the Ocean Park – a small marine park where you can learn about this marine ecosystem.


Places to stay in Denham include Comfort Resort, Heritage Resort and Oceanside Village Hotel.


Road to Monkay Mia. Poster by AllPosters, all rights reserved. Buy the poster.

History of Shark Bay: François Péron National Park
North of Denham is the François Péron National Park – a 52,000 hectare national park with some beautiful cliffs and scheduled beaches and the old Péron Homestead where you can learn a bit of the history of the area. This used to be the centre of a sheep station before the area was turned into a national park in 1990. There are hot springs here, equipped with two self-pressure pipes that suck the water up to the surface where you can have a swim. The park is accessible by 4WD and there are three camping sites and one lookout point in the northern end of peninsula.


Salt plains near Denham. Poster by AllPosters, all rights reserved. Buy the poster.

Shark Bay Australia: Monkey Mia WA
South of François Péron National Park is Monkey Mia – the smallest but most famous place in Shark Bay. Monkey Mia is hardly bigger than the Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort where there is Monkey Mia Dolphin Lodge & Backpackers, Peron Cafe and Monkey Bar, and a caravan park. The beach behind the caravan park is beautiful, large pelicans walk around here and bottlenose dolphins come close to the beach every day.


Monkey Mia. Poster by AllPosters, all rights reserved. Buy the poster.

Shark Bay Australia: Feeding Wild Dolphins
Once a day the bottlenose dolphins are fed by volunteers and you can join the feeding – don’t get your hopes up about getting a chance to have a go – the groups get large and the bottlenose dolphins are only fed a small part of their daily dietary needs to not to make them dependant on humans. But a few people, usually kids get to give the dolphins a fish each. Whether you get to feed them or not (I didn’t), it’s an experience having them swimming around you, they are curious animals and will check you out.


Wild dolphin in Monkey Mia. Poster by AllPosters, all rights reserved. Buy the poster.

Tours from Perth to Shark Bay Australia
If you are down in Perth and haven’t got your own transport, there are three day tours including Pinnacle Desert and Kalbarri, four day 4WD trips including sand boarding, four day tours including Exmouth in Ningaloo Reef, and five day tours including Pinnacles, Kalbarri and Ningaloo Reef.

And, you can stay at the Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort mentioned above.


Monkey Mia road. Poster by AllPosters, all rights reserved. Buy the poster.

Here's a map of Shark Bay Australia, where I have tagged the places that I mentioned on this web page. You can click on the tags to see what places they are, and double-click anywhere on the map to zoom it in and see the places closer. Drag the map to move around, and if you want to see the satellite image with Google Earth, click on "Sat" in the top right hand corner.


 
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