The Shire of Shark Bay is a local government area of Western Australia in the

Gascoyne The Gascoyne region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northwest of Western Australia, and consists of the local government areas of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Shark Bay and Upper Gascoyne. The Gascoyne has about of ...

region. It has an area of and a population of about 950. It is made up of two peninsulas and

Shark Bay Shark Bay () is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The area is located approximately north of Perth, on the westernmost point of the Australian continent. UNESCO's listing of Shark Bay as a World Heritage S ...

, located at the westernmost point of Australia. There is one town in the Shire of Shark Bay, Denham, which is the administrative centre for the Shire. There are also a number of small communities; they are

Useless Loop Useless Loop is a town located on the Heirisson Prong on Denham Sound in Western Australia, in the southern region of Shark Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town of Denham is situated about north-east of Useless Loop across the sound on ...

(a now-closed mining site),

Monkey Mia Monkey Mia is a popular tourist destination located about north of Perth, Western Australia. The reserve is northeast of the town of Denham in the Shark Bay Marine Park and World Heritage Site. The main attraction are the bottlenose dolph ...

(a popular resort where

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...

s come in), Nanga and Hamelin Pool. The Overlander and The Billabong are roadhouses.

History

The Shark Bay Road District was gazetted on 13 May 1904. In 1951 the then current officials were dismissed. On 1 July 1961, it became a shire under the ''Local Government Act 1960'', which reformed all remaining road districts into shires.

Wards

The Shire is divided into three wards: * Denham Ward (five councillors) * Pastoral Ward (one councillor) * Useless Loop Ward (one councillor)

Towns and localities

The towns and localities of the Shire of Shark Bay with population and size figures based on the most recent

Australian census The Census in Australia, officially the Census of Population and Housing, is the national census in Australia that occurs every five years. The census collects key demographic, social and economic data from all people in Australia on census nig ...

: * For the purpose of the 2021 Australian census, Francois Peron National Park was counted as part of Denham. * Boundaries of national park and locality are not identical

Economy

Major employers include the salt works at Useless Loop along with the fishing industry and the various retail outlets meeting the needs of the tourist industry. There are some 30 personnel employed by the Department of Environment and Conservation and twenty by the Shire. There is a primary school and a Distance Education structured secondary school. Numbers of school aged children fluctuate around the 100 mark. The police station is staffed by 3 officers. Local industries include

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

, pearl marine culturing, mining of

shell grit Grit is a material eaten by birds to aid in their diets and digestion. Wild birds find grit naturally while foraging, and farmers can purchase grit for their domestic fowl. There are two forms: soluble grit, which dissolves in a bird's digestive sy ...

and various

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

activities.

Tourism

The creation of the Shark Bay World Heritage Site has created significant impact on the community within the shire area.

Community

The Shire council produced a community newsletter title the ''Inscription Post'' from 1989 until January 2011 when it was produced by the Shark Bay Community Resource Centre.

Climate

The Shire of Shark Bay has a mild arid tropical

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

, with mean daily maximum temperatures ranging from in July to in February. On 18 February 2024, Shark Bay recorded a temperature of . Rainfall is low and variable, with most rain falling in the winter months and a certain amount due to cyclone activity. The average annual rainfall is .

Population

Heritage-listed places

, 53 places are heritage-listed in the Shire of Shark Bay, of which three are on the

State Register of Heritage Places The State Register of Heritage Places is the heritage register of historic sites in Western Australia deemed significant at the state level by the Heritage Council of Western Australia. History In the 1970s, following its establishment of the N ...

, all on

Dirk Hartog Island Dirk Hartog Island is an island off the Gascoyne (Western Australia), Gascoyne coast of Western Australia, within the Shark Bay, Western Australia, Shark Bay World Heritage Area. It is about long and between wide and is Western Australia's ...

References

External links

* {{Coord, -25.927, 113.534, type:adm2nd_region:AU-WA, format=dms, display=title