Shark Bay is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. It is an area centred approximately on 25°30′S 113°30′E / 25.5°S 113.5°E / -25.5; 113.5Coordinates: 25°30′S 113°30′E / 25.5°S 113.5°E / -25.5; 113.5, 800 kilometres north of Perth, on the westernmost point of Australia. An expedition led by Dirk Hartog happened upon the area in 1616, becoming the second group of Europeans known to have visited Australia. Shark Bay was named by William Dampier, in 1699.
The area has a population of fewer than 1,000 people and a coastline of over 1,500 kilometres. The half-dozen small communities making up this population occupy less than 1% of the total area.
Read more about Shark Bay: Fauna, Flora, Stromatolites, Protected Area, Discovery Centre, Access, National Parks and Reserves, Bays of World Heritage Area, Islands of World Heritage Area, Peninsulas of The World Heritage Area, IBRA Sub Regions of The Shark Bay Area
Famous quotes containing the words shark and/or bay:
“They will tell you tough stories of sharks all over the Cape, which I do not presume to doubt utterly,—how they will sometimes upset a boat, or tear it in pieces, to get at the man in it. I can easily believe in the undertow, but I have no doubt that one shark in a dozen years is enough to keep up the reputation of a beach a hundred miles long.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A great work by an Englishman is like a great battle won by England. It is an unfading bay tree.”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)