Monkey Mia, WA, Australia

Today was the day we were off to see the Dolphins! Whilst Denham is a nice little seaside village, close to the Francois Peron National Park, there isn’t a great deal to attract tourists. Other than Monkey Mia that is!

Monkey Mia, 28km away was originally gazetted in 1890 and used as a base for the pearling and fishing industries but it wasn’t until the 1960s when a fisherman and his wife began feeding Bottlenose Dolphins when returning with their catch that it really became popular.

As news of the dolphins coming inshore spread, visitors started to come to see them.
In 1985, an information centre was built, and in 1988, a special state government grant was provided to develop roads, carparks, and facilities.

In November 1990, the waters adjoining Monkey Mia were declared a Marine Park and they are now managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife. Things have changed a lot over the years, no longer can you touch and play with the Dolphins as it was determined that this caused them undue stress and the regular feeding of all Dolphins coming inshore stopped them from fishing themselves. The mortality rate of their young was almost 90% which prompted the changes to what we see today.

Only five mature females are fed at Monkey Mia now, with three feedings each day, limited to 500grams of fish. With a daily diet of 12kg the Dolphins must still hunt for their food but they seem happy to come in to visit with the tourists.

We arrived ready for the 7:45 Dolphin Experience and after paying our $8.50 each, were lined up on the boardwalk above the beach waiting for the Rangers. Right on cue the Dolphins began to arrive and it was interesting to note that the Rangers can identify them by markings and damages to their dorsal fins. In all there were probably ten or more Dolphins swimming in and around the beach with the young stating close to their mothers and the males staying further out.

We watched the first experience from the water and the jetty and Matthew was one of the nine or ten people chosen to feed one of the Dolphins. Lucky him.. It was incredible watching these gentle animals swim right up next to us, rollover to take a look at us and then shoot off to chase a fish or have a play. As the second feeding was only about an hour later we hung around for that also, taking a few pics from the jetty and then watching from the elevated jetty position as another 70 odd people enjoyed watching from the water.

There was, of course, a kayak hire hut and Merryn & Patrick hired a two-man kayak whilst Matthew and I tool an electric-powered glass-bottomed boat for an hour. This was truly fantastic. In between the feedings the Dolphins waited around and were happy to swim right alongside our boats (or under them) and the entire hour was filled with us snapping photos.

Take a look at the pics, they speak volumes about the day. Absolutely right up there with the best things I’ve done on this trip.

After lunch, we ventured out to the Peron Station Homestead, just a short drive from Denham and the location of the hot artesian bore pool. After an interesting wander through the informative centre describing the history of the homestead and the now National Park we gathered up our swimming gear and found the pool.

Hmmm, it’s not like Mataranka or Katherine. Nothing natural about this other than the water! The pool is in an old corrugated iron tank lined with concrete but big enough for ten or so people I guess and the water is pumped constantly into the pool by a windmill. I was up for it despite the water looking a murky brow colour (it was clear coming out of the pipe).

Phoof, it’s hot. I got my feet in but that was about all for a while, it certainly takes some getting used to. As it turns out the water is a constant 40 degrees and I can tell you that this is very hot. I did manage to lower my body beautiful into the pool and I was eventually followed by Merryn, Patrick & Matthew. We didn’t last long; you end up light headed and short of breath, a bit like a super hot spa.

After dropping Glen & Matthew back at the caravan park the rest of us drove out to Eagle Bluff to search for Dugongs, Sharks, Rays etc. A great boardwalk along the clifftop provides a sensational view but it’s so high and the water was so choppy that everything we saw was too hard to identify.

Denham still has not much to offer but the whole Dolphin thing was terrific and worth the detour off the highway