Travel: Shark Bay, WA

By Ron and Viv Moon

Shark Bay rests like an oasis in the great, bulging swell of the WA coastline, about 700km north of Perth. This vast expanse of protected shallow water is a nursery for a myriad of sea creatures, from the harmless and endangered dugong to turtles, dolphins, fish, shellfish, rays and more.

Ancient lifeforms grow and flourish in the shallow, salty, tepid pools at the southern extremity of the bay, while in the more open waters skirting islands and headlands whales frolic and giant fish cruise in search of large schools of delicious morsels.

Most modern-day travellers head to Denham, located 130km off the main Northern Highway and on the western edge of the Peron Peninsula. This delightful seaside town has all a traveller needs, including a number of caravan parks. About 48km south of town right on the coast is Nanga Bay Resort, while closer to the main highway on the southern end of the bay is Hamelin Pool Station, complete with a pleasant caravan park. Here you'll also find a historic telegraph station which can be toured by arrangement, a shell block quarry, once the source of the region's prime building material, and the famous stromatolites - living 'rocks' that inhabit the shallow waters and helped to make this region a World Heritage-listed area.

On land, in an effort to replicate the riches of the sea, Project Eden is attempting to rejuvenate the entire Peron Peninsula in what is one of the most exciting arid-zone conservation programs ever undertaken in Australia.

Not far from Denham on the eastern coast of the Peron Peninsula is Monkey Mia and its world-famous dolphins. Be warned: we found it to be little more than a well set up beachside caravan park, with a charge just to enter the place, so unless you are keen enough to stay overnight, and are visiting in dolphin peak season, don't bother.

The Francis Peron National Park, which takes in the northern section of the peninsula, was once the 52,500ha Peron sheep station, and a reasonable road penetrates the park as far as the old homestead and shearing shed. It's worth a stop to check out what working and living conditions were like not that long ago in the remote regions of Australia.

North from the homestead a sandy track leads through the park to the most northerly headland of Cape Peron. A few camping areas just back from the beaches can be reached via this main access track. During our visit there were few, if any, campers.

Birdlife is common while the shallow encompassing waters offer pleasant swimming and snorkelling.

As you'd expect the fishing can also be pretty good, but special bag limits and size restrictions apply to some species caught in the Shark Bay area, so make sure you are up to date on the latest rules. With that in mind, once we'd stocked up with supplies at Denham we headed out to Steep Point - the most westerly tip of the Australian mainland and possibly the best land-based fishing spot in Australia!

To get there, the good dirt road sweeps around the southern end of the bay passing Tamala homestead. This property, 100km west of Denham, is a large cattle station that takes in much of the coast on the southern shores of Shark Bay. The owners offer camping at two excellent beachside locations on their property - while one is ideal for the keen fisherman wanting to get to the offshore islands, the other is meant more for the shore-based angler.

South of Useless Loop and the 'no-go area' of the saltworks, a marked route to Steep Point leads west off the dirt road and quickly becomes a sandy track where low tyre pressures are essential.

This route cuts through steep dune country before coming to the protected shores of one of the long, finger-like inlets that make up this western area of Shark Bay. During high tide you'll be driving through water at times, but once at ranger headquarters and with permit in hand you are allowed to head for the camping areas that line the coast nearby. These beaches are pure magic and are ideal for swimming and fishing, as they are well protected.

From the camping area the track continues through dunes to the cliff edge and the tall rugged headland of Steep Point. Constantly pounded by Indian Ocean swells the cliffs along this section of coast offer a tall, dramatic, western edge to the Australian mainland.

Access to Dirk Hartog Island by 4WD begins at one of the first camping areas north of the ranger base. There you drive across the soft beach, through a splash of salt water and onto the vehicle barge that is just big enough for one! The 3km wide crossing to a cosseted bay on the southern-most end of the island is normally an early morning affair as the weather can make any other time quite treacherous.

If that is not your scene, cruise over in your own boat, grab a charter boat, or charter an aircraft from the seaside resort of Denham and travel to Dirk Hartog a lot more easily and quickly.

A large number of visitors stay in the fine accommodation of the renovated homestead, located just back from the high tide mark, in a small bay on the lee side of the island. However, there are a number of designated camping spots where visitors with either a boat or a vehicle can stay and enjoy the island's history and its unique position in the heart of a World Heritage area on the edge of a magnificent marine park.

Once on the island you are basically allowed to go anywhere a vehicle track leads - during our time there we headed north to the further-most tip of Cape Inscription, some 90km by sandy track from the landing point.

This far northern headland is one of the most historic points in Australia. In 1616 Dutch Captain Dirk Hartog came ashore in what was the second recorded landing in Australia by a European (the first was on Cape York in 1606). Hartog announced his visit by inscribing a pewter plate and nailing it to a wooden post on the cliffs above the bay before continuing on his way north along the coast and onwards to Java.

In 1697 William de Vlamingh landed at the same spot and found Hartog's weathered plate. He copied that text and added his own to another plate which he then nailed to a different post. Vlamingh took Hartog's plate back to Holland where it remains, while an exact pewter replica is in the lounge of the Dirk Hartog Island homestead.

A couple of years later English buccaneer William Dampier anchored and surveyed the northern end of the island before exploring Shark Bay, which he named, before continuing north.

In 1772 the French captain, de St Allouran, landed a little further south in Turtle Bay. Here, in a little known proclamation, followed by a volley of muskets and the burial of a couple of coins, St Allouran claimed Australia in the name of France - five years before Captain James Cook claimed the continent for Britain! One of the coins and a bottle were recovered in 1998, confirming the event.

Another French expedition under the command of Captain Hamelin arrived in 1801. One of the officers on that expedition, Louis de Freycinet, returned 17 years later, found the Vlamingh plate and returned it to France. It is now on display at the Maritime Museum in Perth.

In 1867 the island was taken up as a pastoral lease, with a shearing shed being built two years later. By the 1920s the island was running 26,000 sheep, but such numbers couldn't be sustained. In 1968 the Wardle family purchased the island and today Kieran and Tory Wardle manage the place with young son William, instituting the grand plan to change their income dependency from wool to tourism.

While 1993 saw the first tourist, it wasn't until a couple of years ago that 4WDs and land-based fishing groups were allowed easy access. Daytime adventurers are now catered for, but numbers are strictly controlled.

Our six-day stay was spent exploring the island, leaving little time for fishing or snorkelling, two of the great attractions of the place. Shark Bay's scenery is impressive: protected, white, sandy beaches on the east side of the island are in stark contrast to the sheer, wave-pounded cliffs on the western side.

In other excursions we found small bays that offered shelter to nesting turtles, discovered old shepherd's huts and the ruins of not-so-old shipwrecks. We watched whales cruise offshore and seals waddle up the beach, and revelled in the rich and varied birdlife that the island has to offer.

The island has fantastic fishing, for which it is primarily recognised, but it also lays claim to many other fascinating attractions. Whether you stay for a day or for longer, you will fall in love with Dirk Hartog Island and Shark Bay. We did!

Shark Bay fast facts

Caravan parks
Blue Dolphin Caravan Park: (08) 9948 1385.
Denham Seaside Caravan Park: (08) 9948 1242.
Nanga Bay Resort, south of Denham: (08) 9948 3992, www.nangabayresort.com.au.
Hamelin Pool Caravan Park: (08) 9942 5905.