About Ningaloo Reef

Aerial shot of Ningaloo Reef
  • The reef covers 5,000 square kilometres around the North West Cape from Exmouth to Red Bluff, and stretches over 260 kilometres along the coastline.
  • It is enclosed within the Ningaloo Marine Park (NMP), which was listed in 1987.
  • This reef is unique because it is one of only two coral reefs in the world that have formed on the western side of a continental land mass.
  • Captain L. Jacobz of Mauritius was the first European to set foot on Cape Range, the land adjacent to Ningaloo Reef, in 1618.
  • The original inhabitants of the area were there for over 30,000 years before that!
  • In the area, Mandu Mandu Creek rock shelter is one of the oldest reliably dated archaeological sites in northern Western Australia and contains many old artifacts linking to the original inhabitants.
  • These people made use of caves and rock shelters, leaving deposits that contain evidence of the collection and use of fish, shellfish and crabs. There are also emu and macropod bones present.
  • Flora includes low scrub, wildflowers and some trees.
  • Land animals include the emu and the kangaroo (both on the Australian Coat of Arms), osprey, monitor lizards (rarely seen), bush turkey, white cockatoos and pink and grey galahs.
  • Besides whale sharks, marine wildlife in NMP includes dolphins (Indo-Pacific and bottlenose), occasional whales (humpback and killer), manta rays, marine turtles (loggerhead, green, flat-back and hawksbill), reef sharks, over 200 species of coral, 600 species of molluscs and 500 species of fish, among others.
  • Once a year many corals on Ningaloo Reef reproduce by mass spawning. This spawning takes 1-2 nights and occurs 8-9 days after the full moon in March. This event sets off a huge food chain, and it is soon after that the whale sharks come for the feast.