World Heritage listed Shark Bay, covers many protected areas and conservation reserves, including Shark Bay Marine Park, Francois Peron National Park, and Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve. The Peron Peninsula, which this trek note heads up, takes in many attractions such as the stromatolites at Hamelin Pool, the historic Telegraph Station Museum, Shell Beach, Denham, and one of the biggest tourist attractions in the region - Monkey Mia.
Monkey Mia is a tourist hotspot with flawless blue-skies and a Mediterranean-style feel, providing accommodation and plenty of things to do like: camel rides, cruising, sailing, snorkelling, 4WDriving and not to mention dolphin feeding. Located at the aptly named Dolphin Beach, and famous for its kilometres of secluded crystal blue waters and pristine white-shell beaches, Monkey Mia has attracted schools of dolphins to its tranquil shores daily for more than forty years. These bottlenose dolphins (part of a pod of around 300 wild dolphins in the bay) have visited everyday in the last five years - excluding only four times, and it’s the only place in Australia where dolphins visit daily.
Denham, Australia's most westerly town was traditionally a pearling and fishing town. It is now the gateway to the famous bottlenose dolphins at nearby Monkey Mia (25.5km). There are a couple of free camps around the Denham area although you need to contact the Denham council for permission. These are Whalebone Bay, Fowlers Camp and Eagle Bluff, which you'll pass on your left on the way into Denham.
How to Use this Trek Note
If you'd like to download this Trek there are two options:
- Purchase our app ExplorOz Traveller. This Australian-made GPS & Navigation app will allow you to download all the ExplorOz Treks to your GPS enabled smartphone/tablet/iPad or laptop and enable active route guidance along the route as per the Directions shown on this page. The app enables offline navigation and mapping and will show where you are as you travel along the route. The app also allows you to edit/customise the route. Viewing the Trek in the Traveller app also includes all the words, images and POIs exactly as on the website (excludes Wildflowers). For more info see the ExplorOz Traveller webpage.
- Alternatively, if you already have another raster mapping software program (or an HN7 device) you can try downloading the route line data files via the Download Trek button shown below the map on this page (OR purchase EOTreks Route Files). Be aware that this doesn't include maps or text just the route line.
TIP | To purchase our maps for offline use, you will need to purchase an EOTopo map licence (available either in App Version, or Raster Version). |
Environment
The bay itself covers an area of 10,000 square kilometres, and has an average depth of 10 metres. It is divided by shallow banks and has many peninsulas and islands. The coastline is over 1,500 km long and is located in the transition zone between three major climatic regions and between two major botanical provinces. The waters within the bay are home to over 320 fish species, thousands of dugongs (sea cows), dolphins, sharks and rays. It is an important breeding and nursery ground for fish, crustaceans, and coelenterates. The region supports 26 threatened Australian mammal species, over 230 species of bird, and nearly 150 species of reptile.
Hamelin Pool contains the most diverse and abundant examples of stromatolite forms in the world. Stromatolites were formed by algae, sediment and sand, binding and forming hard rock for millions of years. They have survived in this area because of the high salt content of the water which is trapped by a sandbar at the mouth of the bay which traps the salt in the pool when rapid evaporation occurs in hot conditions. Predators and other marine life which feed on the bacteria and algae of which stromatolites are composed of, cannot tolerate the salinity of Hamelin Pool, which is usually twice that of sea water.
History
Although, Dirk Hartog sailed in the Shark Bay area in 1616, Shark Bay was named by William Dampier in 1699. Shark Bay was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1991. Monkey Mia is two names, whereby ‘Monkey’ is allegedly derived from a pearling boat called Monkey that anchored at the now Monkey Mia in the late 19th century, and ‘Mia’ - being the Aboriginal term for home or shelter. Other sources conclude that the most likely origins are either from; pet monkeys owned by early Malay pearlers who camped at the location, a colloquialism for ‘sheep, or the name of a schooner called Monkey that arrived in 1834.
The surrounding area was originally gazetted in 1890 and used as a base for the pearling and fishing industries. In 1964 a lady from one of the nearby fishing camps befriended the dolphins, regularly feeding them. Generations of wild dolphins have enjoyed the regular human contact which has now become a part of their daily lives. In 1985, an information centre was built, and in 1988, a special state government grant was provided to develop roads, carparks, and facilities. It was not until November 1990, that the waters adjoining Monkey Mia was declared a Marine Park managed by the Department of Conservation and Land Management, CALM (now Department of Environment and Conservation, DEC). In more recent years, closer attention has been given to the Aboriginal roots of the area and their knowledge of the local land. For visitors, the most visible evidence of this change is the culture walks, where visitors are taught to respect the land.
TrekID: 30