Peron Peninsula

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Peron Peninsula
Location in Western Australia

Peron Peninsula (Malgana : Wulybidi) [1] [ full citation needed ] is a long narrow peninsula located in the Shark Bay World Heritage site in Western Australia, at about 25°51′S113°30′E / 25.850°S 113.500°E / -25.850; 113.500 . It is some 130 kilometres (81 mi) long, running north-northwesterly, located east of Henri Freycinet Harbour and west of Havre Hamelin and Faure Island. It is the largest of the Shark Bay peninsulas. Significant settlements include Denham and Monkey Mia. Shark Bay Airport is located there. It is the location of former Pastoral leases Peron and Nanga stations, and is the main location of land access to points within the World Heritage site. The northern area contains the Francois Peron National Park. It is surrounded by the Shark Bay Marine Park and its lower southeast part is adjacent to the Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve.

Contents

The Taillefer Isthmus, the narrowest section of the peninsula, is between Nanga and Goulet Bluff which has Shell Beach located on the eastern side which lies in the L'Haridon Bight.

The northernmost point is Cape Peron, which is a namesake of Cape Peron in the metropolitan Perth coastal area.

History

The peninsula is named for French naturalist François Péron, who visited the area with the Geographe expeditions of 1801 and 1803. [2] The peninsula was used as a sheep station from the late 1880s until being purchased by the national government in 1990. In 1919 Peron Peninsula Station had a total area of 106,000 hectares (263,000 acres) divided into 25 paddocks and was stocked with 12,000 sheep. [3]

Peron Homestead Artesian Bore

The Peron Historical Homestead is near Denham. [4] [5] [6]

It includes a visitor center. Peron Peninsula is part of the Carnarvon Basin, a geological structure lacking permanent fresh surface water. During the 1900s artesian bores were sunk to provide a greater quantity and quality of water. The resulting water comes up hot (35–60 °C or 95–140 °F) and has high salt and mineral content. [7] [ full citation needed ]

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The Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve is a protected marine nature reserve located in the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Shark Bay in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The 127,000-hectare (310,000-acre) nature reserve boasts the most diverse and abundant examples of living marine stromatolites in the world, monuments to life on Earth over 3,500 million years BP.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faure Island</span> Island in Shark Bay, Western Australia

Faure Island is a 58 km2 island pastoral lease and nature reserve, east of the Francois Peron National Park on the Peron Peninsula, in Shark Bay, Western Australia. It lies in line with the Monkey Mia resort to the west, and the Wooramel River on the eastern shore of Shark Bay. It is surrounded by the Shark Bay Marine Park and Shark Bay World Heritage Site and, as the Faure Island Sanctuary, is owned and managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC).

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Useless Loop is a town located on the Heirisson Prong on Denham Sound in the Southern Region of UNESCO World Heritage Site Shark Bay, Western Australia. The town of Denham is on the opposite shore of the sound and the more famous Monkey Mia near Denham. Useless Loop is a closed company town, with 70 employees and their families servicing the Solar Salt Operation Shark Bay which was established in 1962 by Shark Bay Resources Ltd. A joint venture was formed in 1973 with Mitsui & Co. Ltd which acquired full ownership in 2005, incorporated as Shark Bay Salt Pty Ltd. In 2015, Useless Loop's salt exports were running at a rate of 1.4 million tonnes per annum.

L'Haridon Bight is one of the bays on the eastern side of the Peron Peninsula in the Shark Bay World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia.

Henri Freycinet Harbour, also known as Freycinet Estuary, is one of the inner gulfs of Shark Bay, Western Australia, a World Heritage Site that lies to the west of the Peron Peninsula.

Tourist Drives in Western Australia are routes through areas of scenic or historic significance, designated by route markers with white numbers on a brown shield. Tourist Drives were introduced into Western Australia while Eric Charlton was the state government Minister for Transport in the 1990s. The 28 numbered routes collectively traverse more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) across the state. In addition to the Tourist Drives, there are unnumbered routes such as the Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail, and local governments may designate and maintain local scenic drives, generally unnamed and unnumbered.

Main Roads Western Australia controls the major roads in the state's Gascoyne region. North West Coastal Highway, a north-south route near the coastline, is the main highway the region. A series of main roads connect coastal towns to the highway, and local roads provide additional links and access to the inland portion of the region. Roads are often named after the towns or areas they connect.

The Malgana, also known as the Malkana, are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamelin Station, Western Australia</span> Former pastoral lease in Western Australia

Hamelin Station or Hamelin Station Reserve is a tourist site and conservation reserve, that was a pastoral lease, occupying an area of 202,000 hectares near the Shark Bay World Heritage Area in Western Australia. It was formerly a sheep station running merino sheep. It is famous for its free flowing artesian bore from the Birdrong Formation in the Carnarvon Artesian Basin, near the homestead, which has created an artificial lake that has become a haven for bird life.

Ocean Park Aquarium is a privately owned open-to-public oceanarium located approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south of Denham in the Shark Bay area of Western Australia that is a major tourism drawcard in the area. Visitors can experience marine creatures on display such as coralfish, butterflyfish, clownfish, lionfish, stonefish, moray eel, stingrays, sea snakes, octopus and crustaceans in the indoor aquarium centre.

References

  1. "Aboriginal Languages".
  2. "Shire of Shark Bay - National Parks". Archived from the original on 21 September 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2009. Australia Tourism website, accessed 14 December 2009
  3. "Advertising". Western Mail . Perth, Western Australia: National Library of Australia. 13 November 1919. p. 14. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  4. Western Australia. Department of Conservation and Land Management; Suba, Tanya (1995), Heritage assessment of the Peron Homestead and station precinct in the Francois Peron National Park, Shark Bay World Heritage Area, The Author, retrieved 24 October 2024
  5. Gostelow, Philip (2017), Peron Homestead shearing shed, shearers quarters, cook house and mess hall, 5 January 2017 , retrieved 24 October 2024
  6. Jones, Daryl (2012), Aerial photographs of Peron Homestead, 16 April 2012 , retrieved 24 October 2024
  7. Tourism website

Further reading

(available as a photocopy at Battye Library)

26°06′22″S113°40′02″E / 26.10611°S 113.66722°E / -26.10611; 113.66722