Shark Bay World Heritage Area

Carnarvon - Northern Gateway to Shark Bay

Carnarvon is a moderate sized town of about 9000 people with all facilities and services. Located about 900km from Perth, it has an ideal climate. Average annual temp is 26 and average annual rain is 229mm. They claim they are 10 deg cooler than Exmouth in summer and 10 deg warmer than Perth in winter. Pretty good eh? Carnarvon is located in the Gascoyne River region and the river provides water for many of the 176 fruit and veg plantations in the region. These plantations provide 70% of WA's winter vegetable requirements. They produce 30,000 tonnes of fruit and veg each year. We bought some nice bananas from a plantation for $6.00 a Kilo - bargain! The region suffered from severe storms and floods early this year and many of the plantations are still recovering - some were destroyed completely.

One Mile Pier at Carnarvon

The One Mile Pier is the longest in WA and maintained as a tourist attraction. It was originally used to carry wool, livestock and goods to and from the region. Carnarvon was the first port in the world to load livestock onto ships for transport to markets. The jetty is now the most popular fishing spot in the town.
Stayed at the Coral Coast van park in Carnarvon for 3 days. This park had several people from the south staying for months. A bit like people from NSW and Vic going to Queensland for the winter.
Travelled from Carnarvon down the Brand Highway towards Denham and the Shark Bay area.

Sunset over Lake at Hamelin Station

We decided to have a farm break along the way at the Hamelin Station, which is an operating sheep station about 90km from Denham. Many of the sheep and cattle stations are doing it tough financially and some are going into the tourist business to supplement their income. Hamelin Station have built amenities and facilities on their property to give people a unique camping experience.

Wildflowers at Hamelin Station

Hamelin Station Wildflowers

We have stayed in over 40 van parks so far on this trip and the amenities here were the best we have seen so far. They only have 30 sites which were unpowered but a great place to spend a few days. The wildflowers were starting to come out and were beautiful. It would be fantastic to see them when in full bloom in a month or so. The types and colours of the flowers are phenomenal and you can see why people flock from all over to see them. We were amazed at how they can grow so well in the ground which seems to be hard and barren.

Shearing Sheds at Hamelin Station

The station shears about 10,000 sheep each year. This occurs around November - December and the place would be a hive of activity at this time. The shearing shed had 8 stations meaning it could handle 8 shearers at the same time. With each shearer doing around 100 sheep per day it would take 2 to 3 weeks to shear all the sheep. The shearing facilities looked modern compared to others I've seen with fully electric systems, hydraulic press and plenty of space.

Our Camp Site at Hamelin Station

Quarry for Shell Building Blocks - Hamelin Pool

A few Km from the station is a place called Hamelin Pool. There's an historic telegraph station here which was built in 1884 as part of the Northwest Telegraphy Network. It's been decommissioned several year ago and is now a tourist attraction. The coast here has beaches of shell (not sand). The shells are from trillions of cockle shell fish. The shells in the picture have been quarried for blocks which were used as building blocks in the past. They are still cut to repair or replace blocks in historic buildings in the area.

Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool

Shell Beach - Shark Bay Are

Also in this area are marine growths called stromotilites. These are living rocks formed by the binding of cyanobacteria
in shallow water. This is one of the few places in the world where they can be easily seen.

Some of the Trillions of Cockle Shells

Dolphin Feeding at Monkey Mia

The Monkey Mia Dolphins

A bit further north from Hamelin Pool is Shell Beach. The shells are from the Hamelin Cockle and thrive in the area due to the super salty water. The discarded shells have been heaped into massive piles up to 10m thick to form the beach. The beach is kilometers long and over 100m wide. The beautiful shoreline gives way to crystal clear water with intense green and blue colours. These shells would make ideal shellgrit for chickens to make their eggshells harder but it is forbidden to take them from the beach.

Monkey Mia is world famous for its dolphin interaction experience. Every day between 8.00am and 12 noon on up to 3 occasions, the dolphins come right into the beach up to a metre from the edge to be fed. This ritual has been happening for about 40 years, with a small number coming in. The DEC rangers don't touch the dolphins but its OK if the dolphins touch them. There are about 15 dolphins that come in but only have about 5 dolphins in the feeding program and give prescribed numbers of fish to these. They are still wild animals but appear tame as they swim around the rangers and look at the people spectating on the shore. Its truly a unique experience. 

The Pepper Trail at Peron Heritage Precinct

We visited the Peron Heritage Precinct which gives an insight into what life was like on an early sheep station, Peron Station. It was interesting to compare this to Hamelin Station where we stayed and is still operating. The property was acquired by the government some 20 years ago and they created this attraction. The old sheds, quarters and yards still exist and tourist facilities have been added.

Peter with Arthur Pepper

A trail has been built for tourists to walk around the precinct to see the buildings, displays etc and this is called the Pepper Trail, after one of the original stockmen at the station, Tom Pepper. We were surprised to meet a gentleman there called Arthur Pepper, the son of Tom Pepper. Arthur was also a stockman on the station when it closed and gave us some factual information on what things were like then. He was a typical country type with a quirky sense of humour and unique accent.

Big Lagoon at Francois Peron National Park

Little Lagoon at Francois Peron National Park

Two features of the Francois National Park are the Big and Little lagoons. These are tidal lagoons with the little lagoon almost perfectly circular in shape. Both are pristine waterways and natural nurseries for several fish species. These are popular spots for fishing, swimming and canoeing but the big lagoon has 4WD access only over a sandy road/track. There's a campground at Big Lagoon and it would have been nice to stay there if we had time.

Leaving the beautiful Shark Bay area and moving south again down to Kalbarri and then to Geralton.

Exmouth and the Coral Coast

Cape Range National Park - Coastline

After a night in a pleasant rest area at Barradale, we arrived at Exmouth which is the northern gateway to the Ningaloo Reef. Also, the Cape Range National Park is accessed from here. The popular activities here are viewing the reef, fishing and viewing marine life such as whale sharks, reef sharks and turtles. Tours to swim with the whale sharks are run but at $375.00 per person, a bit stiff for us. Exmouth is essentially a tourist town with the usual tour operators everywhere. We had 2 nights here then headed into the Cape Range National Park for some real camping.

Sturts Desert Pea Wildflower

The national park is about 40km from Exmouth and has 90 campsites in 9 areas - stretching from Neds Camp to Yardie Creek. They can't be booked and you just have to front up to the rangers office each morning at 8.00am to see if there are any vacancies. We arrived there at 6.10am and there were two cars in front of us. I think they were there all night. We were lucky enough to get the last spot and proceeded to the Mesa camp.

Relaxing on the Beach at Mesa Camp

Each of the camp areas in the park have their own hosts. These are people (usually older couples) who stay in the park campgrounds for the winter, about 4 1/2 moths, and look after the grounds and guests. Our hosts were John and Maureen, a couple from Perth in their seventies and have been doing this for 17 years - pretty dedicated but its a peaceful life and quite cheap as the DEC provide the water, fuel and camp fees. Still there are many people willing to do this and I think a waiting list for those interested.

Camping at Mesa Camp - Cape Range NP

We stayed at Mesa for 3 days which was a stretch for us as far as power was concerned. We were running our lights, TV, Austar, freezer and radio and just managed to keep the batteries charged with the solar panels. From our camp we visited the beautiful beaches and bays along the coast of the park. The water was so clear and calm, probably due to the closeness of the reef which was only a few hundred metres from the shore.Would like to have stayed here longer but had to move on down to Coral Bay.

Snorkeling at Coral Bay

Drove the short 200Km down to Coral Bay and the Bayview van park. This is one of two parks in the town. A very popular spot for West Australians as it has an ideal climate, about 330 days of sunshine each year. The park was full of kids due to the school holidays. Can't win all the time! Coral Bay is a very small community and you can walk to everything, shops, beach and water activities. Many tour operators here also, mainly taking people out to the reef for the coral or marine viewing, As the reef was so close to the shore, we were able to see enough by snorkelling out from the beach.

Snapper Feeding at Coral Bay

One of the popular activities here is the daily feeding of snapper in Bills Bay at around 4pm. Without fail the fish come in to about 40m from the beach, in calf deep water and are fed fish pellets. The fish are very tame and are quite big, at least 15" long.

Coral Bay Coastline

The coastline around Coral bay is pristine and idyllic. Sand is fine and white, the water is clear and marine life plentiful. An ideal place to spend some time away from the hustle and bustle. Activities are all on or around the water but its also possible to do not much at all and soak up the ambiance. In the short time we were there, we manged to do a bit of both.

Maud Sanctuary - Ningaloo Marine Park

A few km from Coral Bay is the Maud Sanctuary - this is a marine sanctuary and a rugged but serene coastline.
The Ningaloo Reef itself is some 260Km long,  stretching from Bundegi Beach (near Exmouth) to Amherst Point (near Coral Bay). There are 250 species of coral and 500 species of fish here. The fish are colourful but the coral although having normal coral shape, lacks colour and is mostly brownish. Exmouth, the Cape range national park and surrounds have been nominated as a World Heritage area and this may soon be granted.
From here we head to Carnarvon and on to the Shark Bay World Heritage area.

The Pilbara and Tom Price

220 Tonne Haul Truck at Tom Price Mine

Tom Price is a town built to accommodate the iron ore mine and its people. It was built in the 60's after an American, Thomas Moore Price, discovered iron ore in the mountains here. Apparently he lobbied State and Federal governments to allow mining to proceed and for the ore to be exported.

Diane with one of the Smaller Mechanical Shovels

Tom Price was a vice president of Kaiser Steel in the US, and was the person most responsible for the mine being developed. Since then the mine has grown to be one of the largest in the world and produces some 28 million tonnes of high grade ore per annum. In addition to this shovel, the mine has another 8 with a capacity of up to 27 m3. Pretty big! They also have 35 huge haul trucks which have a payload capacity of 220 tonnes and weigh 164 tonnes unladen. They cost about $4 million each!

Tom Price Mine from the Lookout

More than half the truck drivers are female as they are much gentler on the equipment than the males.
 The mine is wholly owned by Rio Tinto and they must believe there is a future in iron ore as they plan to expand the mine to almost 40 million tonnes per annum in the next 10 years. The mine has plenty of ore to last another 50 years.

Kings Lake at Tom Price

Due to its livelihood being mining and associated activities, most of the workers are young people. The average age of the town is just 29 and the average wage is more than double the national average. A high proportion of the workers and contractors work on a fly in fly out basis but its a hard life.

One of the few recreational areas in the town is Kings Lake. This looks nice enough until you find out the water comes from a sewerage treatment plant and the water is contaminated!

View of Tom Price from Mt Nameless

Mount Nameless overlooks Tom Price and at 1128 m above sea level, its the highest accessible peak in WA. Its about a 20 minute drive from town or 1 1/2 hour walk. The drive up is pretty rough and suitable for 4WD only. Each year they have a running race up the mountain and the record is just 19 minutes! After two pleasant days in the nice van park, we took off for Exmouth and the Coral Coast.