Road Trip - Denham

We took a day trip around the Shark Bay region. We drove through Denham, and saw the mix of old "tin shed" buildings next to modern brick/colorbond buildings, giving a wide contrast in the change in building styles over the years. At the jetty we saw the deep channel which comes right up to the shore. We were there are low tide, and spotted this catamaran "moored" (or is it "beached"?) near the shore.

We drove in to look at Ocean Park, which is a huge working aquarium just outside Denham. On the road leading into the park, there were all these road signs that had sea creatures like shark, jelly fish, etc. Then a little further in there were signs for Mrs Mac's pies, icecream, and coffee. I can just picture the roadsign now: Cappucino's for the next 5 kms.


We drove into Eagle Bluff. At the bluff there is a boardwalk which overlooks the bay. Apparently during high tide you can see marine life from the lookout, but we were there at low tide. Around the boardwalk there's a number of signs talking about different aspects of the region. Things like the reason why there's a high salt content in Shark Bay. An early aboriginal fish trap. European settlers mined for guano.

That one was an interesting story. The plaque read:

Guano Rush

Guano from migratory birds has built up on Shark Bay's small islands over thousands of years.

Most of Shark Bay's small islands have flat tops where the guano was scraped and shoveled off 150 years ago.

In the mid-1800's, phossphate-rich bird guano was worth a small fortune as fertilizer. Ships from all over the world came to Shark Bay to fill their hulls with guano destined for European farms.

From Eagle Bluff we went to Shell Beach. Bivalves get swept into the bay, and the waves, wind and tides deposit them on this beach. Over the years the shells have built up, and are approx 5 metres deep. We decided to walk out to the water. Because it was low tide, the water was a long way out. When you stop at the water and look back you can see how the shells have built up over time. It feels very strange walking out on shells to the water - very little sand.