| |
North West Cape Western AustraliaThe North West Cape is the finger of low rainfall, arid land which juts out into the azure waters of the Indian Ocean, facing Onslow to the west of the Exmouth Gulf. One of the jewels of the North West Cape is the Ningaloo Reef stretching around the peninsula for some 260 km, from Bundegi north of Exmouth to Amherst Point, south of Coral Bay. Exmouth is the main township of the North West Cape, with approximately 2500 people. Exmouth is situated 1270 km north of Perth. The smaller settlement of Coral Bay is located on the Indian Ocean, some 150 km further south
| North West Cape Hotels Cars Tour Specials | |
The first recorded landing in the area was by the Dutch Captain Jacobz of the Mauritius in 1618. Captain Phillip Parker King named the peninsula North West Cape. In 1884 the schooner Maud landing the Coral Bay area, the earliest recorded European activity in the Coral Bay area. The enemy action in the Indonesian Archipelago during World War II and the proximity of the North West Cape caused the North West Cape to be the location of the important allied operation named Operation Potshot. In the1950s the North West Cape was known for fishing, pastoral leases and oil exploration with the AMPOL search in the Cape Range. In 1967 a joint Australian/US communications base was established in the area and the town of Exmouth was gazetted as the support town to the naval base. Truly following in the tradition of the namesake of the town - Viscount Exmouth.In the 1990s the naval base was mothballed and the Americans moved out.
| North West Cape Attractions | |
See the awesome communication towers at Bundegi the tallest radio towers in the southern hemisphere.Ningaloo Reef, is between 100metres and 7 to 8 km from shore; it is the only fringing coral reef on the western side of a continent in the world and the only reef in the world that spawns around Easter time and Ningaloo Reef is where Whale Sharks come regularly each year. Tantabiddi, in the Cape Range National Park is the closest landfall in Australia to the continental shelf where it is believed that whale sharks rest when they are not feeding off the Ningaloo Reef. With its hundreds of tropical fish and vibrant coloured corals Ningaloo Reef is natures playground along the western seaboard of the North West Cape.The Cape Range National Park is home to a multitude of wildlife aboriginal to the North West Cape. Fossils are easily spotted at Yardie Creek; an ancient sharks tooth is visible to the sharp eyed, along the side of the ancient flattened mountain terrain of the Cape Range National Park. The Ningaloo lighthouse is the place to be, camera in hand, as the sunsets beyond the North West Cape, beyond the Ningaloo Reef, into the Indian Ocean.
Central North West Cape North West WA - Western Australia
|
|
Western Australia - Map of North West Cape Australia
|
|
