Indian Ocean Drive runs from Perth and rejoins the Brand Highway just south of Port Dennison. As the name suggests, this road follows the coast and there are plenty lovely beach side places to stay along the way. We picked up the Indian Ocean Drive at Jurien Bay, which is about half way between Perth and Geraldton.
Jurien Bay has a marine park which has an extensive reef system that runs parallel to the shore which makes it an ideal place for diving and snorkeling. This marine park and its immediate surrounds are the only major breeding area for Australian sea lions along the western coast of Australia, with about 800 sea lions living along this coast. Australian sea lions are the rarest sea lions in the world. Jurien Bay has a unique tourist attraction, an underwater interpretative trail which is the first of it’s kind in WA.
With the weather being against us, we opted for a drive around the Pinnacles Desert Discovery in the Nambung National Park, about 45 kilometres south of Jurien Bay. Within the park there are thousands of limestone pillars which rise mysteriously from the sand dunes, some of which are up to 5 metres tall. Some are jagged, sharp edged columns rising to a point while others resemble tombstones, all in an eerie landscape which is in sharp contrast to the surrounding area. These amazing natural limestone structures were formed approximately 25,000 to 30,000 years ago, after the sea receded and left deposits of sea shells. Over time, coastal winds removed the surrounding sand, leaving the pillars exposed to the elements.
The visitors centre at the Pinnacles has a display of wildlife from around the area and has 2 of the smallest possums in the world. These little fellas are honey possums which only grow to 70 mm long. They live on the nectar of the many saw tooth banksia trees that flourish in the area. Apart from some bats, honey possums are the only mammals in the world to feed exclusively on pollen and nectar.
We were a bit ahead of the wild flower season but the Banksia’s and Bougainvillea’s that are in flower put on a very colourful display when they are at different stages of flowering.
Kalbarri has one of Western Australia’s iconic photo opportunities. Like the Northern Territory has Ayres Rock, Western Australia has Natures Window at Kalbarri National Park. This is a rock formation that frames the rugged country and the Murchison River behind it. Early in the morning the sun brings out the true colours of the rock and the contrast of the river which is nicely positioned looking through the window.
Back in town, Rainbow Jungle is the biggest parrot collection we have ever seen anywhere. Built amongst a beautiful garden setting with ponds and waterfalls, it is a very relaxing place to visit on a hot day. Parrots from all around the world are on display here including some beautiful Macaws.
The evenings are beautiful with the sun setting in the west across the Indian Ocean. From the Overlander Roadhouse on the North West Coastal Highway, we turned onto the Shark Bay World Heritage Drive to Monkey Mia which is another must see destination along this coast.
We visited here about 20 years ago with our 2 daughters but the place has changed a lot over this time. When I rang to book in I was told that the only site they had available for the next 3 weeks was a beach front site. These sites are a little more expensive but it was sure worth the extra few dollars.
With 180 degree view of the bay, and dolphins swimming by regularly just metres from the shore, what better dolphin experience could you have. Certain dolphins are fed a small amount of fish if they visit the beach before noon.
This is a big change to what used to happen last time we were here where they used to feed buckets of fish to keep the dolphins close to the visitors on the beach. This changed as they found that the baby dolphins were not surviving as the mum’s got lazy and stopped teaching the young to catch fish for themselves. The new system works very well and they have an excellent survival rate. Dolphins are identified by their dorsal fin and the most popular dolphin last time we were here was “Holyfin”. This dolphin passed away at the age of 35 in 1995 and now it is one of her daughters called “Nicky” which comes in most regularly for a visit.
It’s great to see wild dolphins interacting with people. They aren't trained, they just visit of their own accord which we are told upsets some people as they stand there all day and not see a dolphin.The amount of visitors each day is displayed on the wall with between 160 and 270 visitors being the regular amount, but with Easter and Anzac day just past, there were 737 people on one day. Apparently it was absolute bedlam.
Where there is a chance of fish scraps there are always pelicans, and this lot not to be outdone by the dolphins, just love sitting around in the sun having their photo taken as well. Monkey Mia is the main tourist attraction in this area, but the main town on Shark Bay is the little fishing village of Denham about 26 kilometres away. Denham is home to the Shark Bay World Heritage Discovery Centre which has displays to show why this area is heritage listed.
To be world heritage listed, the area must meet at least 1 of the 10 criteria. Four of the criteria are natural criteria and Shark Bay meets all 4 of those. Other sites around the world that meet all 4 of the natural criteria are the Great Barrier Reef, the Galapagos Islands and the Grand Canyon, so this ranks Shark Bay as one of our planet’s most important wilderness regions. The 4 natural criteria are Natural Beauty, Earth’s History, Ecological Processes and Biological Diversity.
Denham is also home to the HMAS Sydney Memorial, which pays tribute to the 645 sailors that lost their lives when the Sydney was sunk by the German ship Kormoran, while in service protecting the west coast shipping trade during WW2. On 12 March 2008, 67 years after both ships were lost, searchers on board the SV Geosounder located Kormoran lying more than two and a half kilometres beneath the surface of the Indian Ocean. Four days later and just over 12 nautical miles away the Geosounder’s crew located HMAS Sydney lying on the flat sandy ocean floor at a depth of 2,468 metres. The HMAS Sydney lies 112 nautical miles off the coast of Shark Bay.
Just down the road from Denham is the Ocean Park aquarium which features marine life from around Shark Bay. The guide explains the various species which are held in open top tanks. Pink snapper, parrot fish, tiger fish, “blowies”, stone fish, mulloway, star fish, stingrays and many more are on display, but the highlight was the feeding of the lemon sharks.
Another areas that contribute to the world heritage listing of this area are Hamelin Pool, Eagle Bluff and the Stromatolites. Eagle bluff has beautiful clear shallow water about 50 metres below the cliff top walk.
There is no access to the beach so the area is pristine and there are often sightings of turtles, various fish, rays and sharks. There are 2 small limestone islands just off shore which were once mined for guano (fertiliser) but are now important bird breeding colonies.
Shell Beach is another unique area of Shark Bay as there is no sand and the shore is lined with Fragum Cockle shells which are metres deep.
The cockles live in the sea and can be as many as 4,000 per square metre. When the cockles die, all the shells wash to shore and over the years they have become compressed, and can now be cut into blocks for buildings. Hamelin Pool in Shark Bay is one of only 2 known places in the world where living marine Stromatolites exist.
It is said that these living fossils contain microbes similar to those found in 3,500 million year old rocks, which is the earliest record of life on earth. A board walk takes you off shore about 80 metres to see the difference between the Stromatolites that are constantly under water and those that spend some time out of the water when the tide goes out. We stayed overnight at Hamelin Pool Station where we heard one of the most unusual birds that we have heard for our whole trip.
Photo taken off the internet
I spent an hour of so trying to track this bird down but could not find it as it is very clever in that it seems to be able to throw its voice. We were told by the park manager that it looks like a small top notch pigeon and found out from the Michael Morcombe & David Stewart eGuide to Australian Birds app that it is a Chiming Wedge Bill. These birds are only found from the coast of central Western Australia inland to the southern part of the Northern Territory, west and central South Australia, and the south-western corner of Queensland. This station doesn't offer powered sites nor do they have water to the sites, but they have a fantastic amenities block and well equipped camp kitchens so the overnight stay was lovely and peaceful.
Carnarvon was our next place to explore and we stayed at the Wintersun Caravan Park on a lovely fully grassed site for the week. Here we were 4,500 kilometres from Geelong and we ran into a lady that went to Grovedale State School at the same time as we did. She was a little older than us but Judy went to that school with this ladies sister. Of course the conversation got around to “do you remember this person” and “do you remember doing this”. Funny how you run into people that you least expect.
Seventy five kilometres north of Carnarvon is a magnificent piece of coast which is full of blow holes. The ocean rushes into the shore and you can hear the rush of air coming up the hole and then the water spurts into the air possibly 40 to 50 metres. The power of the sea crashing into the coast makes for spectacular scenery.
Carnarvon also played a big part in the Apollo space missions with it’s OTC dish Earth Tracking Station which was built in conjunction with NASA in 1966. Australia also received it’s first satellite television broadcast from this dish. The dish which is a very imposing 29.6 metres in diameter and weighs 300 tonnes, closed after assisting in tracking Halley’s Comet in 1987, but they have a very interesting space museum in one of the old buildings.
They have a photo of Shark Bay taken from a fixed camera on Apollo 13 during one of its earth orbits. Carnarvon has 176 plantations and produces over 30,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables every year. Everything from bananas, avocados, tomatoes, mangoes, sweet corn, beans and stone fruit to fresh sea food which is brought in daily at the jetty. All the produce from Carnarvon including grain and wool used to be transported by sea to Freemantle.
Carnarvon has a jetty stretching out into the sea for 1 mile that used to be used for loading all this produce, but now days the jetty has a little tourist train that takes passengers to and from the end of the jetty where the fishing is good if the tide is right, if you are using the right bait, if the wind is in the right direction and if you were there "yesterday" when they were biting.
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