Dolphins, Monkey Mia and the Francios Peron National Park, Shark Bay, Western Australia

 Hi everyone, I hope you and yours are doing well. Last year, 2025, way back in September, October and November I brought to you blog posts about our trip up along the Coral Coast of Western Australia. You can find those posts by searching in the Blog Archive on the right hand side of this page. 

My last post of this trip, in November 2025, and was about Denham and surrounds in the Shark Bay area of Peron Peninsula - a UNESCO world-heritage listed area. If you missed it you can catch up here - Denham, Shark Bay, Peron Peninsula. Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to it. 

Today I finally bring you, as promised the second part of our tour to the Peron Peninsula - visiting the dolphins at Monkey Mia, a drive out to Point Peron. 

To get you orientated again - here is the map - 

Shark Bay (Gathaagudu), is the traditional home of the Malgana Aboriginal people. 

Monkey Mia is located on the eastern side of the Peron Peninsula about 23 kilometres via a bitumen road from the township of Denham. 

Why Monkey Mia?   Mia is the indigenous name for shelter or resting place. It is thought that a ship called the Monkey may have docked in the bay around 1834 when in search of the Zuytdorp shipwreck. The area was used by early pastoralists for loading and unloading sheep. According to the Macquarie Dictionary, the term Monkey is a colloquialism for Sheep. 

You must pay a Conservation Parks Pass entry fee at the gate to enter Monkey Mia. This fee contributes to ongoing care, management, welfare and research of the Conservation Park and its wildlife. The RAC Monkey Mia Resort is located on this land. 

We first visited Monkey Mia in 1986, parked our caravan just off the beach, and had dolphins around us every day - it is a little different today. 

This seems to be the only recent photo I have of the Monkey Mia resort as it is today.  

The resort has all the facilities you could possibly want - rooms, cabins, powered and unpowered caravan sites, restaurant, bar, swimming pools, general store, childrens' playground, recreation room, souvenir and gift shop, kayak hire, tours, walk trails, fishing (outside of the sanctuary zone), and a lovely long beach to walk along. 

The dolphin experience - The dolphins at Monkey Mia are Bottlenose Dolphins. They have been visiting the Monkey Mia beach since the 1960s when fishers returning to Monkey Mia began sharing their catch with the dolphins. 

This is a bottlenose dolphin fishing in the shallows along the beach. 

Starting from 7.45am daily, there are up to three dolphin feedings between 7.45am and 12 noon, depending on when the dolphins visit the shore. Meet at the boardwalk and seating area next to the jetty for the dolphin experience talk, and wait to be asked to come down to the beach into the Dolphin Experience area where swimming is prohibited. 

When we visited in 1986, there were many fish given out to the dolphins during the day. Today the feeding is limited to up to five female dolphins from two families who are offered small amounts of fish, and only fed by wildlife officers or volunteers. This small feed amount ensures the dolphins continue to behave and hunt naturally and teach their young hunting and social skills. 

Though it is disappointing for visitors not to be allowed to feed the dolphins - I get it. People began sharing their catch with the dolphins in the 1960s. Between 1983 and 1994 only four out of 15 calves born to beach visiting dolphins survived. These calves were not learning survival skills to catch their own fish. Research and close monitoring was introduced in 1994, and since 1995 survival of calves of beach visiting dolphins and those that do not, is similar. 

There is lots of information at the Visitor Centre where you can learn more 

This photo I took from the jetty. Staff ask if a dolphin approaches you while you are swimming, remain still or preferably please leave the water. Leave the water if dolphins are fishing in the shallows. Do not touch the dolphins and do not feed them. Please supervise children and keep pets on a lead at all times. 

This cheeky pelican follows dolphins up and down the beach as they fish in the shallows, hoping to snare of fish stirred up by the dolphins. 

There are several nature cruises you can do from Monkey Mia. We joined one when we visited in 2021. The dolphins surfed alongside the boat. This was not new to us, as we have dolphins where we live in Bunbury, and we often have them around our boat, however it was a lovely morning out on the water. 

We were thrilled to see a dugong. It came right up by the boat where we were standing by the rail, but quickly disappeared. This was exciting as we had never seen one in the wild before. 

Dugong are a large, grey brown, bulbous mammal with a flattened fluked tail, no dorsal fin, paddle like flippers and distinctive head shape. The broad flat muzzle and mouth are angled down for grazing along the seabed. Eyes and ears are small. 

You can find out more about the Dugong and see a better photo here - Australian Museum-Dugong

If you have a 4WD you can drive out to the Francois Peron National Park, known as Wulyibidi by the local Malgana Aboriginal people who occupied the area prior to European settlement and continue to live in Shark Bay today.

François Péron (1775–1810) was a French naturalist, explorer and scientist. He visited Shark Bay as part of Nicolas Baudin's expedition on the corvette Géographe, in July 1801 and March 1803. During these visits, he conducted extensive scientific research, including anthropological observations of the Malgana people and zoological studies of the area's wildlife and took thousands of specimens back to France. 

Peron Peninsula was a sheep station until 1990 when it was purchased by the State Government. Francois Peron National Park was declared in 1993.

Access to the park is on the Monkey Mia Road about 4kms from Denham. You require a WA Park's Pass to access the park. 

The park is make up of acacia-cloaked red sands dunes and arid shrublands surrounded by turquoise water. 

Before you head out on the track visit the Peron Heritage Precinct, which gives you a glimpse of the former pastoral days. You can see the shearing shed and stock yards, and there is a hot tub.  A small interpretive centre introduces the culture, history and nature of the area. You can also learn here about Project Eden which aims to eradicate feral animals and bring the land back to its original environment. 

The track is soft and sandy, please let your tyres pressures down at the tyre pressure station at the start of the track. You can pump them up again here on your way out.  Beware of oncoming traffic. 

You might see some native animals - below you can see the Thorny Devil, a blue tongued skink, and an emu. If you see an emu wondering around the caravan park, please do not feed them, keep your belongings, food and rubbish secured, supervise your children and pets. They may approach you looking for food, and they can be aggressive. 

The tip of the Peron Peninsula is stunning characterised by red sand hills, white beach sand, and blue ocean and sky. Please note only access the Peninsula if you have a 4WD. Plan for a day trip, make sure you have enough fuel, and carry food and water. Pets are not permitted in the park. Poisonous baits are laid regularly to eradicate feral animals through the Western Shield program. 

From the two clifftop lookouts at Skipjack Point you might be lucky enough to see turtles, manta rays, sharks, dugongs, dolphins and schools of fish. Swimming is not recommended at the cape due to two strong currents. 

There are some beach campsites along the Peninsula. You can find out more here - Camping areas -Shark Bay. These are great places for fishing and beach walking, but the sand is boggy getting onto the beach from the track.  We saw someone requiring a tow to get off the beach. 

Please be aware there are no supplies, services or fresh water within the park. Take all you need in with you and please take all of your rubbish out when leaving. Fires, firearms and pets are not allowed. 

There are several walk trails at Monkey Mia - ranging from 1.1km return walk, to a 2.45km loop trail - starting at the back of the resort at the World Heritage Garden, the long loop takes you up into the red sandhills, and then back along the beach - ask for a map.   If you are exploring the walk trails, please take adequate drinking water, wear a hat, loose long-sleeved clothing, and apply sunscreen. 

Thankyou for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed today's post - next time I am going to take you on a spectacular whale watching tour! 

For more information:

Discover World Heritage Shark Bay

Shark Bay - Attractions

Monkey Mia - Shark Bay

Discover Monkey Mia

RAC-Monkey Mia resort

Australian Museum - Dugong

Camping areas Shark Bay

Explore Parks - Francois Peron National Park

Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 
I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

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Until then, enjoy your day...Life only comes around once, so do what makes you happy, be kind, and be with people who make you smile. 

A walk along Koombana Bay and the Bunbury waterfront, Western Australia

Hi everyone, I hope you and yours are doing well. 

The last few weeks, I have shown you some of the walks near where I live. Today I will share another. 

Back in 2017 I shared a walk around a walk around the Leschenault Inlet in Bunbury - the city near where I live. On the map below you can see the Leschenault Inlet which I wrote about in that post. 

The last few days we have had beautiful sunny winter days - perfect for walking. Last Thursday we went into Bunbury and walked along Koombana Bay from the Dolphin Discovery Centre to the old gantry crane. When I looked it up on the internet the distance showed 2.5 kilometres, but that was via the roads. We walked along the beach front. You can see the route on this map. The blue line shows the drive route - but look closer and you can see where the land meets the water - this is where we walked along the walking paths. 

We parked at the Dolphin Discovery Centre and walked west. Opened in 1994, the not-for-profit Dolphin Discovery Centre was established to allow tourists and locals to interact, learn about and enjoy the local wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) that regularly visit the area. There is a dolphin interaction zone on the beach, interpretive centre, swim tours, as well as a cafe. You can learn more about their work here: Dolphin Discovery Centre

You can't see the dolphins very well in these pics below, but as you can see people have gathered to see them. You should not interfere with them or feed the dolphins. 

Here is a previous post I wrote about the dolphins around Bunbury: A magical dolphin experience. No I wasn't in the water with them to take this photo. This was from a previous summer when we were out in a boat and I hung over the side with my camera to take some images as the dolphins swam up to us. SO magical. 

Koombana Bay beach is very popular during summer, especially with those staying at the caravan park across the road. It is a safe beach for children. These shade sails are taken down in the winter (this is an old photo) and the lookout tower was unfortunately uprooted and blown across the path during recent storms. A bit further along is where they play beach volley-ball during the summer. 

Along here there is also a very popular playground and picnic area, very popular with families. 

Next stop is the Wardandi Boodja - a five and a half metre corten steel sculpture located in the park on the foreshore. The sculpture represents a Noongar face, created by sculpture artists Nicole and Alex Mickle of Safehaven Studios as well as the local indigenous community who played a significant role in helping to create the artwork. The messages around the base of the sculpture encourage us to slow down and listen, and step gently. 

From here we walk past the 62-Thirty Cafe and the Koombana Bay Yacht Club. Many of the boats are parked up in the yard for the winter. 

Then we walk over a bridge that takes us over the channel that links Koombana Bay to the Leschenault Inlet. Locally called "the plug" there are gates that can been closed during big storm surges. Along here you can learn about the many ship wrecks that litter this part of the coast from years ago. 

On the other side of the bridge are big new high-rise residential apartments, a hotel and many cafes and restaurants looking out over the bay. There is a new little bar that we sometimes stop at if we are walking along here during the late afternoon in summer. There is a new little Asian cafe along here - Flow 36 - which is a great place for lunch. I need to take a photo next time we are there. 

From here we just keep walking around past all the restaurants until we reach the breakwater going out to the old gantry crane. In this photo below you can see where we have just walked by. You can see the walk bridge where we walked over "the plug" on the left hand side.

It is a pleasant walk out to the old crane. Big boats are moored in this sheltered waterway I think some people live on them. In the second photo below you can see an overall view of the boat harbour with the walk out to the old crane on the right and the land-backed wharf of the outer harbour on the left.  This photo was taken a few years ago - I need to take a new one. 

The old jetty is gone now, replaced with this rock breakwater causeway jutting out into Koombana Bay.  The original jetty was constructed by convict labour employed by local contractor, William Forrest in 1864. Previously people and goods were transferred by boat from ships anchored offshore.   The jarrah and karri decking was supported on piles of jarrah, blackbutt and wandoo. The jetty was decommissioned in 1982 and despite an intensive campaign the jetty fell into disrepair and its demolition was completed in June 2013.

Today only the electric ship loading crane remains. The crane was built in 1911 by Sir William Arrol & Co Ltd in Parkhead, Glasgow. Arrol was a civil engineer who also built the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland and the Tower Bridge in London. He also built the Arrol Gantry at the Harland and Wolff Shipyards in Belfast which were used to construct the Titanic and her sister ships. 

From here we turn back down the causeway, passed another restaurant and the Jetty Baths playground and picnic area. 

And the Australian Darter drying his wings after diving for fish, and the white egret posing.

Then back the way we had come, past the restaurants, over the footbridge, back past the yacht club, to the Koombana Bay 62-Thirty Beach Cafe for coffee and a muffin before heading back to the car. Please don't feed the seagulls! The don't need any encouragement. 

That's it from me today. I hope you have enjoyed this walk along Koombana Bay and the Bunbury waterfront. Do you have a favourite waterfront walk? Perhaps you would like to tell us about it in your comments. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 
I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

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Until then, enjoy your day... it won't be back. 

A magical dolphin experience

 Do you ever have a day that turns into something magically unexpected? Our last Sunday was like that. We are blessed to live near water, the Collie River, the Leschenault Estuary, Koombana Bay and the Indian Ocean.  We decided to take our boat out in the bay to see if we could catch a feed of herring. 

The water was at it's sparkling best. So flat the reflections were a perfect copy. 

The pelicans were at their usual spot having their morning meeting on the sandbar between the river and the estuary. 

And soon we were out in Koombana Bay with the Indian Ocean beyond. 

As soon as we anchored a dolphin swam right up to our boat. I had my newish point and shoot camera with me. It has an underwater feature that I hadn't used before. I leant over the edge of the boat with the camera, but at this angle I couldn't see the camera screen, so I just pointed the camera in the general direction of the dolphin and kept snapping.

The dolphin came right up to where I was. Then minutes later returned with her baby. This was a truly magical and most amazing experience to interact like this with these wild dolphins. It is a day that I will always remember. We have encountered dolphins many times out in the bay, but never like this. 

At one stage we had four or 5 dolphins swimming around our boat. But despite this we still managed to catch our bag limit of herring. 

In Bunbury the Dolphin Discovery Centre  located on the Koombana Bay beachfront aims to educate people about wild dolphins through their education programs, interpretive centre, beach interactive zone, and dolphin boat tours. 

The Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) have been visiting the Koombana Bay beach since the 1960s. The Interaction Zone was established in 1990 and the Dolphin Discovery Centre in 1994 to allow tourists and members of the community to interact, understand and enjoy the group of five to six dolphins that regularly visit this Zone

Koombana Bay is home to about 50 dolphins who live in the Bay all year. An estimated additional 100 visit throughout the year. 

You can read more about the Bunbury Dolphin Discovery Centre, their history and work by visiting their website here - Bunbury dolphins

People are advised if out boating to let the dolphins come to you, don't pursue them, and please don't feed or touch them. 

Have you ever had a dolphin smile at you? 

Other places in Western Australia where you can interact with wild dolphins are:

The Peel-Harvey Estuary at Mandurah

Monkey Mia, Denham, Shark Bay 

We are so lucky to have these amazing creatures so close to home. 

The camera I used is a Olympus Tough 

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed this little look at the wild dolphins of Bunbury. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 

I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!
   
All Seasons
MosaicMonday at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf

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ThroughMy Lens 

Image-in-ing
My corner of the world through my camera 
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global hosted by Randomosity. 
       and Little bird - Pienilintu
Thankful Thursday 
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Hello there! I love reading your comments. If you scroll down to the bottom you can comment too! I would love to hear from you.