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.
View Larger Map
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