Thereâs a car park there . May have to pay a small amount ? We ended up booking in staying a few nights . Your not supposed to feed them now . Although they do at minimal amounts . Dolphins know the feeding times . I would go there again . Except for the Emu poo . Nice place..

You ask if it is worth going to Monkey Mia, Wheels

Unfortunately I can not answer that question as beauty is in the eye of the beholder
On the road from Denham to Monkey Mia, there is a white beach, made from sea shells, which is something you do not see every day

Around 1990 I camped at Denham, and took a day trip to Monkey Mia to see the Dolphins

There were no Dolphins so I went to the tourist building

After taking my money to see some pictures on the wall, and a very short video
They informed me that the Dolphins do not come every day

I waited all day, and no Dolphins came, I was awfully dissapointed

Aus-Kiwi wrote:

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Shell beach I think itâs called is beautiful.,

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 Agreed - beautiful just to walk on especially. I think they built a few houses from the shells as well.

 

Regards

Years ago, we went there to see the dolphins. We had a friend's daughter who was besotted with them. In those days we were allowed to swim with them as well. I was standing in the water almost up to my neck and we saw a fin poking out of the water, coming towards us VERY FAST! Normally, I would be sh1tting myself at that, but this time it seemed OK. The friend had a ball - she swam with the dolphins for an hour or more. It was freezing cold too....

We then went back to Denham. The caravan park amenities block was made from shells. They simply get a chainsaw and cut blocks from the beach. Very light and good insulation. Simple construction too. Hamelyn is an interesting place just out from Denham. There is an old telegraph station there. It had an aquarium tank inside the building with two stromatalites in it. They had a fluorescent light suspended over the tank, with a piece of plywood covering one stromataliate. The one exposed to the light furiously bubbled away, making Oxygen whilst the other was dormant. They moved the plywood and then it started to bubble almost immediately whilst the first stopped bubbling. Very impressive display. Then, we walked about 200 m down to the water and saw lots of stromatalites in their natural state. No boardwalk, no fences etc - pure natural. I understand things have changed nowadays, but it would be worthwhile going there for a look.

-- Edited by erad on Sunday 15th of April 2018 03:53:55 PM

Wheels wrote:

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Question being is it worth driving to Monkey Mia and do you have to pay

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 If you have seen dolphins elsewhere then probably not.

We based ourselves at Hamlin Pool. We found the stromatalites more interesting. You can drive from there to Monkey Mia when and if the dolphins are active. It will save you 200 km of van towing as well.

Went there 12 months ago. Waste of time and money.
$18 per person entry fee to the car park. Car park patrolled every hour for fines.
Greenies are trying to shut down monkey mia. Claiming that wild animals should not be encouraged to interact with humans and that if not for the fisher folk cleaning there fish back in the 60's there would be no dolphins there.
Now only 1 show per day at 7:30am.
Must assemble and stand on the beach and listen to a half hour superstitious gibber jabber from a local indigenous person and then 10 minutes of nonsense from a Parks WA about how bad we all are to the poor creatures and environment.
Not permitted to get nearer than 5 meters to the water at all. If you want to swim or get your feet wet you must walk 250 meters up the beach.
Only 5 female only dolphins are fed 3 sardines each and then it is all over withing about 5 minutes, by 8:15, until the next day. Rarely see any dolphins all day.
Poor tourist operators are trying to encourage dugong sightseeing boat trips as a means of preventing bankruptcy. Pretty bl00dy ordinary in my opinion as the dugongs are extremely shy to any sounds and dive under when your boat is still 100 meters away. Just black shadows in the distance.
The WA state government has excised the monkey mia headland from the national park and it is now classed as a State Park. This means your parks pass is worthless there.
The WA state government has sold off the caravan park to the Royal Auto Club (RAC) of WA. $65 per night for a very small powered piece of gravel with tired old facilities.

Don't expect that monkey mia will exist at all in the next few years. Such a shame.

As with most things there are "ways and means" we long stay at Denham now as Monkey mia has become a money making joke ! to visit without the hassle, you go up around 10 am with your fishing gear clearly visible in the car and drive round the right hand side of the kiosk that collects the money, if they stop you tell them you are going fishing off the point and not interested in the other rubbish. Nine times out of ten they will just ignore you and let you pass.

The the other option we use is just say we are visiting for lunch as we are long termers in Denham and again they let you in. One particular evil woman on the gate though, very over weight, is a real hitler and argues, we just inform her we are going to report her actions and she capitulates quite quickly.

The boat ramp also is public access so if you have a a tinny again just drive round the kiosk to the ramp and park.

Sounds silly but we like to have lunch there a few times during our 3-4 month stay in Denahm and the entrance fee soon adds up. The locals have an unwritten rule and never pay for entry.

Dhutime wrote:

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I would go again. Just sitting there or a stroll on the beach is great. But not much else to do.You said that you are not interested in the dolphins so maybe stay away . By the way Shell beach is before you get to Denham not on the road to Monkey Mia .

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I am afraid that I loosely used the name Shell Beach, as that was how a local from Denham, described it to me

It is actually a lagoon, sometimes with a bit of water in it. The ground around/of this lagoon is made of sea shells which appear to have been bleached white by the sun.

From memory it was not too far up the road from the airport, and could be seen from the road, which runs from Denham to Monkey Mia