TRADEABOAT.COM.AU | 69TRAVEL | SOUTH WEST CAPES, WESTERN AUSTRALIAEleven ships were lost in Hamelin Bay alone
(including four in one night), while other wrecks
occurred off Augusta, Calgardup Bay, Cape
Leeuwin, Ringbolt Bay and Lockeville.
All shipwrecks are protected under
Commonwealth and State legislation, and the
Western Australian Museum has statutory
responsibility for their management.
A lighthouse was built on each of the
extremities – Cape Leeuwin in 1885 and Cape
Naturaliste in 1903 – and both are listed on the
State Heritage Register.
EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT
Augusta was founded in 1830, making it the
third oldest settlement in the colony of Western
Australia (after Albany in 1826 and Swan River
in 1828), on the estuary of the Blackwood River
overlooking Hardy Inlet.
Settlement of the Busselton area followed in
1837, and a whaling station operated at Castle
Rock until the 1850s.
The impetus for development in the region
came in the 1870s, when timber merchant
Maurice Coleman Davies began to exploit the
local karri and jarrah hardwood forests.
He established sawmills at Coodardup,
Karridale, Boranup and Jarrahdene and shipped
the timber through the ports at Flinders Bay
and Hamelin Bay to overseas markets.
As the timber trade boomed, settlers flocked
to the district to work in the mills.
The region underwent a resurgence of growth
in the 1920s, as returning soldiers arrived under
government settlement schemes, and commercial
fishing, pastoral enterprises and tourism became
the region’s economic mainstays.NGARI CAPES MARINE PARK
The Ngari Capes Marine Park (NCMP) was created
in June 2012 to cover 1,237 square kilometres of
coastal waters, extending from the southern half of
Geographe Bay, around Cape Naturaliste and Cape
Leeuwin to Flinders Bay near Augusta.
On April 10 2018, the NCMP zoning scheme
was gazetted, with fishing prohibitions set to come
into effect in April 2019 that will impact about 11
per cent of the marine park and shoreline.
The South West coastline has been shaped by
geological and hydrological events over the last
600 million years into a narrow continental shelf
with a complex array of intertidal limestone and
granite reefs bordered by rocky headlands and
cliffs interspersed with long, sweeping beaches.
North-facing Geographe Bay has a sandy
shore fronted by gently sloping shallows and
backed by a narrow plain of low foredune ridges.
The broad crescent of Flinders Bay opens
to the south between Cape Leeuwin and
Black Point.The Leeuwin-Naturaliste coast and Flinders
Bay are subjected to high energy seas and heavy
swells generated by the Roaring Forties, a strong
wind zone in the vicinity of 40-degrees south
across the southern Indian Ocean.
Geographe Bay is relatively protected from
the direct impact of prevailing south-westerly
swells by Cape Naturaliste.
The marine park comprises one of the most
varied aquatic environments in Australia.
Warm, tropical waters of the Leeuwin
Current mingle with the cool waters of the
Capes Current, resulting in a rich diversity of
marine plants and animals, many of which are
endemic to this coast.
At least 13 species of whales and three of
dolphins have been recorded in the marine park,
which is considered an important nursery area
for them.
Humpback whales and southern right whales
are often seen with calves in Geographe Bay and
Flinders Bay.
Bottlenose dolphins are common throughout
the marine park and are frequently sighted
within the Hardy Inlet.
New Zealand fur seals and Australian sea
lions haul out on islands within the marine park,
which also provide important breeding and
nesting habitats for the 85 species of sea birds
and shorebirds recorded here.