Day Trip to Exmouth, Western Australia

While staying at Bullara Stations we did a day trip to Exmouth and Cape Range, about an hour away. We had always planned to stay at Cape Range National PArk, but it was continually booked out. I would check the website each evening, and just after 9am (when it was updated with cancellations, but I always seemed to miss them. A couple of  times I was actually in the process of booking an available site when I was 'pipped at the post' and it became unavailable. So a day trip it was.

First stop was Pebble Beach and it was amazing to see all the pink pebbles, hard to walk on, but very pretty. The water in the bay was still a little murky from all the recent rain. So different to the coast.

Exmouth was ok, but not a lot to see, but maybe we were not there long enough to really get to know what was there. The harbour area is beautiful, like most harbours. Exmouth was only proclaimed as a town in 1963, and the following years saw construction of many buildings, mainly due to the US army family houses, rather than living on the base.

The info centre is good and the staff very helpful with campsites and places to go. There is an aquarium and discovery centre there at a cost of $19 per adult. We were told it is very good, and maybe if we were in Exmouth longer than a day we may go there, but today we wanted to head to the coast and the Ningaloo Reef. There is a cafe and outside in the complex is an art gallery.

At the top end of the info centre is the big prawn. Constructed in 2004 of fibreglass over steel, it weighs 2000kg. Standing 7 metres tall, the big prawn was big, but not as big as the Ballina big prawn. Originally located at the Kailis Gulf Fisheries at Learmouth, it was relocated in 2014. The prawning industry produces 900 tonnes of wild caught prawns annually.

There are two IGA’s in Exmouth for stocking up on food, but very expensive e.g. loaf of bread $5. We didn't need anything other than bread as we try to keep stocked up - just in case.

We headed up to the VLF Antennas (Very Low Frequency) and ended up on Bundegi Beach for lunch. We packed our lunch but thought we would get a drink form the Beach Shack but it was very blowy so we made do with our water. Peter did get a coffee after lunch.

The next stop was the Ningaloo Reef on the other side of the peninsula. Such beautiful beaches and so many pull ins to see it. We headed up to Vlamingh Head Lighthouse – wow what a view. It was surprising that it was more windy on the Exmouth side of the gulf. We could see the VLF Antennas from the lighthouse. The antennas were built in the 1960's after an agreement between the Australian and US governments to fill a gap in the US missile programme during the cold war. The 13 towers were built. The centre tower is 389 metres high.

The lookout at the lighthouse has information boards about some of the many ship wrecks along the coast.

In May 1943, there were Japanese bombing raids on the Exmouth gulf. Two Japanese aircraft dropped one bomb into the gulf without any human damage. This lead to a tower being built at Vlamingh Head Lighthouse.

The sandbags date back to WW2 and are very fragile. 

With the many shipwrecks on the reef, a lighthouse on Vlamingh Head was constructed in 1911 and was completed in 1912. It is visable up to 22 nautical miles and two lighthouse keepers were required to keep the kerosene light flashing. It ceased operation in 1967 with the introduction of electric light on the VLF tower. A great bit of history with magnificent views.

Next we drove down to Turtle Interpretation Centre – wow. Ningaloo Coast is one of the important turtle nesting rookies in the Indian Ocean. The Jurabi Turtle Centre in an interpretive undercover centre that explains the life cycles of the turtles. During summer the turles mate in the shallows and come to the coastline to lay their eggs.

The World Heritage listed Ningaloo Marine Park has the one of the worlds largest fringing reefs. The water was too cold for snorkeling, which was sad because the fish life is suppose to be amazing, turtles, manta rays and whale sharks - . There were no people on the beaches when we were there, so maybe they thought the same thing.

Then we went to the Cape Range National Park, 40 km from Exmouth, – no camping sites – all booked lovely beaches – we tell ourselves it’s too cold to swim now anyway. We did check the bookings a couple of times just in case there were cancellations.

Milyering Discovery Centre in the Cape Range National Park has displays of marine habitats and the heritage of the area. We were told at the Park Ranger station that they update the bookings twice a day, in the morning and about 3pm, so that’s when we were checking.

As we headed back to Bullara Station, we stopped at Harold E. Holt Naval Commnication Station. This consists of administration buildings, workshops, and support buildings originally used for the Australian and US VFL transmitter system. Today it is managed by Capability Acquistion and Sustainment Group Australian Naval Communication Group.

We filled up with cheap fuel, just south of Exmouth in the industrial area - thank goodness for the fuel app - and headed back to Bullara as the sun was setting.