Magic of Shark Bay

IMAGINE a place where sand, sky and desert meet, to create a perfect trinity of orange, turquoise and blue, writes Stephen Lacey from Australia's far west.

Up close ... feeding the dolphions at Monkey Mia. Picture: Marianne Lacey

WE'RE flashing across the water at close to 90km/h, our rigid inflatable urged along by twin 225-horsepower engines. Everyone on board is getting a free facelift as our skin is dragged back by the G-forces.

Some lumpy swell looms in front of us. We hold on tight and use our legs like shock absorbers as the boat leaps from crest to crest. They don't call this the Aqua Rush Tour for nothing.

We're in Shark Bay, the most westerly point of the Australian mainland. It covers an area of 2.3 million hectares, with a coastline of more than 1700km.

And what a coastline it is. If you've been there, seen that, bought the snow dome, Shark Bay is the perfect antidote for complacency. In fact, it's no exaggeration to declare it the most magnificent stretch of coast we have ever seen.

Imagine a place where sand, sky and desert meet, to create a perfect trinity of orange, turquoise and blue.

The folks from UNESCO World Heritage obviously agree. Shark Bay is one of the few places on earth to be listed for all four outstanding natural universal values, including sheer beauty.

Yet most Australians have never heard of the place. Those who have, usually know only about Monkey Mia and dolphin-feeding.

Yes, there's Monkey Mia, and yes, there's dolphins – lots of dolphins – but there's a whole lot more to this very special area than that.

Like the Aqua Rush Tour, for instance. To be honest, it's not all thrills and spills. If the sea is flat, it's actually quite a smooth – albeit rapid – ride. And our guide, Greg Ridgley, always slows down to take in the sights.

We begin our six-hour tour from Denham (the main township, about 30km from Monkey Mia) and travel 18 nautical miles out to Dirk Hartog Island. The northern tip of the island has been celebrated as the first recorded landing by a European on Australian soil.

In 1616, Hartog, a Dutchman, nailed a pewter plate to a tree to prove he had landed.

The island is wild and windswept, with an austere beauty no doubt lost on Hartog, who was apparently so unimpressed he hurried back to the land of the salty-licorice eaters.

Nowadays, Dirk Hartog Island is home to a multitude of birdlife, including sea eagles and osprey.

Greg eases the boat gently along the rocky shoreline to give us a good view of a large sea eagle nesting on its eyrie.

The bird watches us closely before lifting off into the sky and returning a few minutes later, clutching a fish in its talons to feed its young.

It's our first encounter with wildlife for the day. Later, we see dolphins, Pacific gulls, loggerhead turtles and a shovel-nose ray, and enjoy a close encounter with a southern right whale and its calf.

A highlight of our boat tour is a visit to the Zuytdorp Cliffs, at Steep Point. This is as far west as you can go on the Australian mainland. Several fishermen are dotted along the cliff tops, using helium balloons to lift their lines away from the craggy shoreline. We reckon you'd have to be keen, especially with the five metre swell running past the point, like liquid mountains.

"Are you all ready to go surfing?" yells Greg. We all laugh. Surely he's not serious.

Then he quickly spins the boat around, hits the throttle and rides us up on to a 3m monster. It's the biggest wave most of us have ever seen, let alone ridden, and the feeling of being pushed along by such a beast is mind-blowing.

Our hearts pounding, we find a secluded little beach to have a cup of tea before zooming back to Denham. In total, we've covered 80 nautical miles, which explains the need for such a fast machine.

You don't need to spend long in Denham to discover the locals are rather peeved at all the attention paid to Monkey Mia, their popular neighbour.

So it was the last straw when an $8 million interpretive centre was earmarked for Monkey Mia. Denhamites dug in their heels, and the centre was built in Denham's main street instead.

It has become a great source of pride for the long-overlooked township and its 720 permanent residents, although not all the locals are in favour of its bold, titanium-coated zinc facade.

The first room of the centre is dedicated to the World Heritage listing of Shark Bay (1991).

To provide a sense of place, a map of the region has been etched into the polished concrete floor, and recorded sounds of the area (such as waves and bird calls) drift softly through the space.

Backlit display panels illustrate why Shark Bay is considered one of the planet's gems.

Its assets include vast seagrass beds which, at 4800sqkm, are the largest and richest in the world. They support a huge dugong population and provide food for a multitude of fish, which in turn feed the dolphins, sharks and rays.

Shark Bay is home to 323 species of fish; 218 bivalve species; 80 types of coral; seven species of marine animals; 230 bird and 37 mammal species; and 98 species of frogs and reptiles.

Then there are the stramatolites, colonies of algae that form hard, dome-shaped deposits. Scientists estimate the original stramatolites to be about 3500 million years old.

After a feed of local sand whiting in beer batter at the Bay Cafe, we drive back to the Monkey Mia Resort to relax for the rest of the afternoon. As the sun dribbles over the horizon, we watch a family playing beach cricket from our balcony.

The following day, we take a personalised 4WD tour out to Cape Peron with Kate Button, from Majestic Tours.

The big Land Cruiser makes easy work of the sandy tracks as Kate shares her knowledge of the natural and cultural history of the Francois Peron National Park – a vast, 52,500ha wilderness that takes in red sand dunes, white salt flats and towering sea cliffs.

There's simply nothing like this anywhere else on earth.

On our return, we call at the Peron Homestead to check out the old woolshed, before enjoying a soak in the artesian bore hot tub.

Okay, so you want to know about the dolphin feeding, right? Well, the feed takes place three times a day, with the most popular being the morning session.

The whole affair is very well governed, with rangers making sure you look but don't touch. A few lucky members of the crowd are chosen to hold a fish out for the dolphins, but that's about as hands-on as it gets.

It's still an incredible experience, as dolphins swim right up to you in knee-deep water.

But enough of the dolphins. They're grey, and they're smarter than your average politician – and that's all you need to know about them.

The writer travelled courtesy of West Australian Tourism.

The Sunday Telegraph