The Northern Ningaloo Region

Where is the Ningaloo Region?

The Ningaloo region is a place of world significance that has a reservoir of natural and cultural heritage. It is situated half way up the Western Australian coast around 1200 km from Perth.
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                                   Click here to access link to Google Map and photographs of the region

Why is the Ningaloo so important?
  • As one of Australia national treasures, the Ningaloo Reef has recently been granted World Heritage Listing along with the spectacular Cape Range for their outstanding natural significance.  
  • The Ningaloo Reef lies within the Ningaloo Marine Park and is one of the largest fringing coral reefs in the world at almost 300 km long and the only major coral reef system on the west side of any continent. 
  • It is outstanding due to the co-occurence of the modern fringing Ningaloo Reef, the adjacent fossil coral reefs and the dramatic limestone 'karst' system within the extraordinary Cape Range.
  • The Cape Range karst system of sinkholes and caves provides an important habitat for the most significant subterranean cave dwelling (troglobites) and aquatic animals (stygofauna) found in the world.
  • The region is extremely culturally significant containing aboriginal sites such as burial grounds, middens and fish traps, and provides the earliest record of marine resource use in Australia.
  • The reef is on the narrowest part of the Australian continental margin which has important implications for marine biodiversity in the region.
  • The region occurs in a transitional zone of tropical and temperate marine life with over 500 species of fish, 300 species of coral and 600 species of molluscs.
  • It is also the home to the gentle giant of the sea, the whale shark as well as manta rays, turtles (loggerhead, green and hawksbill), dugongs, whales and dolphins to name a few.
  • With many coral reefs in the world under threat from local impacts and global climate change, the pristine and isolated Ningaloo is of particular international significance.
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Ningaloo Marine Park
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Cape Range National Park
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Ningaloo Marine Park

Further information:

Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC)

Exmouth Visitor Centre

Tourism Western Australia

Australia's Coral Coast

Save Ningaloo Campaign