So many great places to visit in the World Heritage Listed Shark Bay region, so to explore the area we based ourselves in Denham. Shark Bay is one of the few sites in the world that meets all four of the natural criteria to be listed as a world heritage site.
The traditional name of Shark Bay is ‘Gutharraguda’, which means two waters.
On the way in we visited the below areas.
Hamelin Pool Stromatolites So if you are anything like us, you will have absolutely no idea what stromatolites are, except that they look pretty cool in photos!
Well from what we gather from reading at the site and googling, this is what stromatolites are.
Basically they are living fossils. They are layered rocks built up over millions of years by microbes. They are actually living and very slowly growing microbial colonies that may grow less than 1mm per year.
Hamelin Pool is home to the most diverse and abundant examples of living stromatolites in the world and these are over 3500 million years old.
Shell Beach It’s fairly obvious why this beach was named Shell Beach, it’s full of shells! In fact, the whole beach is made up of cockle shells, up to 10 meters deep.
It is apparently one of only two beaches in the world made entirely from shells.
Can’t say it would be the most comfortable beach to sunbake on, but it was interesting to visit!
Prior to Shark Bay becaming a World Heritage Site, the shells were mined and used for the construction buildings in Denham. We later noticed this wall in a cafe in Denham.
The pic below was taken after George telling Shelly that he would have to leave her on the beach as he couldn’t take any ‘Shells’ away with him!
