Photo shows a green turtle at Osprey Bay on the Ningaloo coast, near Exmouth.

We are in the small coal mining town of Collie in another 'shoebox' room, primarily designed for mine workers, but open for travellers like us. Collie is south east of Perth amongst low hills. Both the Munda Biddi (cycling) and the Bibbulmun (hiking) trails pass through here on their way south, although this time we are doing neither and are on our slow way back towards the east coast of Australia after a side trip up to Exmouth and the Coral Coast.

Western Australia is a huge state. It stretches from the cool, temperate south coast right up to the Kimberley in the deep tropics. Having retrieved Matilda, the Merc., we headed north along the coast from Perth by passing kilometre after kilometre of white sand beaches, sand dunes and small coastal towns after eventually freeing ourselves from the remorselessly spreading northern suburbs of Perth.

In succession, we sampled the national parks of Nambung, Lesueur, Kalbarri and Francois Peron, each of which progressively got dryer and dryer. The eucalypt forests of the south became mulga, Banksia and Grevillea scrub and then low heathland. Each national park was uniquely different, Nambung with its limestone pinnacles, Lesueur with its swathes of wildflowers, Kalbarri , its Murchison River gorge and Francois Peron, perched between the tentacles of Shark Bay.



Photos taken between Perth and Shark Bay: from top row to bottom right:

Kalbarri NP: The Murchison River gorge
Kambung NP: the pinnacles, Francois Peron NP: Shark Bay
Wildflower in Lesueur NP, Murchison River in Kalbarri NP.


Ningaloo Reef is about 1,200 km north of Perth and just west of the little town of Exmouth which lies near the top of the Exmouth Gulf. Ningaloo is an unusual feature, being a fringing coral reef, unusual because it is on the western side of a major continental landmass and because nowhere else in Australia is there a coral reef attached to the mainland shoreline. The Great Barrier reefs on Queensland's coast lie at a distance from the mainland and although there are fringing reefs there, they are all attached to the sides of offshore islands.

Ningaloo is managed by WA's Parks and Wildlife department who have done a good job protecting the 250 km long reef from development and deterioration from visitor pressure. We were wondering how the coral communities here had fared compared to the coral reefs in Queensland, so we were glad to note that there was very little damage, although both the amount of coral and the diversity of marine life wasn't as great as many other reefs we have been to. Ningaloo is lucky in that it is not exposed to sediment from rivers, is located in a low rainfall area and there is no farming nearby, all of which mean the main danger is from offshore gas exploitation and climate change. The latter is a very real threat. Depending on how humanity faces up to its collective challenge at stabilising temperatures, Ningaloo is on track to irreversible damage because of bleaching episodes, expected to have reached a frequency that will not allow recovery by 2045. That goes for all other world reefs as well, of course.

Ningaloo is also known for its whale sharks, the world's largest, who like the humpback whales, come up this far north in the winter months. By August they have gone south again, so we didn't see either large whales or their fishy cousins. What we did see was a remarkable green turtle nesting occasion. We had seen turtles while snorkelling and many more looking into the lagoon while on the Ningaloo beaches, but one night, with clear skies and a full moon we ventured out from our campsite to search for turtles coming ashore to lay eggs. They prefer high tides and dark skies, so we started looking at about 9 pm just as the moon was rising. First we saw a turtle arrive on the shoreline, then as we walked slowly along the beach, nesting turtle after turtle became visible in our red torch lights. Most of them had already got to the egg laying stage, by which time they are oblivious to disturbance, but others were digging their nests and others still, laboriously making their way up the beach past the high tide mark.



Photos taken at Ningaloo Marine Park near Exmouth:

Geoff at Turquoise Bay
Lovely Ningaloo beach, amgel fish, butterfly fish
Trevally, lagoon coral bommie, bumphead parrot fish
Green turtle, Nesting turtle climbing the beach at night, flutemouth.


We are watching the unfolding flooding events in the eastern states, which have had a disproportionate effect on northern and eastern Victoria and outback NSW. We will be making our way back soon but will probably stick to a coastal route to avoid flooded highways and towns. The three climatic events that exacerbate flooding - La Niña, the negative phase of the Indian Dipole and the positive phase of the Southern Annular Modulation are all predicted to ease in the next few months, hopefully allowing the east to dry out and create a more normal pattern of weather next year.