Shark Bay
Shark Bay became Western Australia's first World Heritage listed area in 1991. The World Heritage site covers 2.2 million hectares of land and sea on the coast of Shark Bay. Shark bay meets four out of ten selection criteria:
- Colourful and diverse landscapes
- Rare flora
- World class examples of earth's ecological processes
- Rare fauna
Hamelin Station Stay
We stayed at Hamelin Station Stay. It was the perfect location to explore Shark Bay. Hamelin Station is a large working sheep station which stretches approximately 100km in length.
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| Hamelin homestead |
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| Renovated shearers quarters and new amenities block |
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| Shell bricks! |
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| New amenities block |
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| The lake |
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| Horse feeding |
Hamelin Pool Stromatolites
Hamelin Pool is one of only a few places in the world where living stromatolites exist. These rocky looking lumps in the water are composed of bacteria and algae. The water at Hamelin Pool is twice as saline as usual sea water. This is due to sea grass banks situated across the bays entrance and rapid evaporation from the shallow waters. Animals that feed off these substances cannot tolerate such saline conditions and that is why the stromatolites grow undisturbed.
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| Red capped stromatolites |
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| Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool |
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| An eagle |
Shell Brick Quarry
The bricks are only cut now to mantain Heritage buildings in Shark Bay. It is no longer a working quarry.
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| Shell brick quarry |
Monkey Mia
Monkey Mia Reserve is home to the world famous Monkey Mia dolphins. Dolphins appear regularly to interact with visitors. The dolphins are fed 500g up to 3 times a day. Only selected dolphins are fed. Last year over 100,000 people visited Monkey Mia to see the dolphins! Ella, Lara and I were chosen to feed Nicky, the 35 year old dolphin. She is the oldest beach visiting dolphin. She was named Nicky after a boat incident left her with a distinctive nick in her dorsal fin.
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| Feeding Nicky |
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Nicky
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Shell Beach
Shell Beach is a unique beach made up of countless tiny cockle shells layered up to ten metres deep. The beach stretches for over 120 kilometres. The shells were once quarried and used to build the walls of buildings in the Shark Bay area.
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| Running on shells! |
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Eagle Bluff lookout
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