Turquoise Bay is an ideal spot for swimming and snorkelling

Exmouth (including North West Cape)
Old US naval town surrounded by wild and interesting coastal scenery
Located on the eastern coast of the North West Cape 1270 km north of Perth and 13 m above sea level, Exmouth was, historically, a naval town serving the US Naval Communication Station, Harold E. Holt, and the Learmonth RAAF Base. The US Navy left in the early 1990s and while part of the old naval base is still used by the Australian Navy (another part has become accommodation for backpackers) today the town is driven primarily by tourism with deep sea fishing, the beautiful Ningaloo Reef and the complex coastal wildlife (whale sharks are prevalent in the area) attracting visitors to this hauntingly beautiful region.

Like so much of the Western Australian coastline the area around Exmouth was known to Dutch sailors from the early seventeenth century. The first Europeans to sight North West Cape were Haevik Claeszoon von Hillegom and Pieter Dirkszoon who sailed through the area in the Zeewolf on 24 June 1618. A month later Willem Jansz and Captain Jacobsz came ashore from their ship Mauritius. In the ship's log for 31 July 1618 it is recorded 'On the 31st of July we discovered an island and went ashore, found human footsteps, on the west side the land extended NNE and SSW; it was the length of fifteen mijlen; northern extremity is in twenty-two degrees S.' What they had landed on was not an island but North West Cape.

There is evidence that most of the famous Dutch sailors including Dirk Hartog, Willem Vlamingh (the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse, named in his honour, is located 19 km north of Exmouth. Built in 1912 it has been replaced by radio signalling, however half day tours can be booked at the Exmouth Tourist Bureau), Abel Tasman and the doughty Francisco Pelsaert all passed through the area.

Pelsaert, whose ship the Batavia was wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos on 4 June 1629, rowed from the present site of Geraldton to Batavia. He stopped near Point Cloates to take on water.

In 1801 the French explorer, Nicholas Baudin, sailed up the coast and named Cape Murat after Napoleon's brother-in-law.

Perhaps the most important early visitor was Phillip Parker King who was forced into the gulf on 11 February 1818 and explored the region for the next eight days. It was King who named the gulf Exmouth, after Viscount Exmouth RN, and it was King who reported that the whole area was desert and therefore unsuitable for settlement. So persuasive was King's assessment of the region that it wasn't until 1899 that the first settler, Thomas Carter, took up land on the lonely, dry peninsula.

However between 1818 and 1899 the peninsula had been regularly visited by the pearl fishers who scoured the coast in search of good pearl beds. A cyclone entered the gulf in 1876 decimating the pearling fleet and killing 69 men.

The modern settlement of Exmouth can be dated from May 1963 when the Australian and United States governments agreed to establish the $66 million Harold E. Holt US Naval Communication Station at North West Cape. This single event created the town.

The area's strategic importance had been recognised during World War II when Exmouth Gulf became an important submarine base for Australian and US submarines. The base, nicknamed 'Potshot' by the Americans, operated between 1942-45. In 1945 most of the facilities were destroyed by a cyclone. It was during the war that the Learmonth airstrip, named after Wing Commander Charles C. Learmonth, was opened.

View across Ningaloo Reef from Cape Range National Park

The establishment of Exmouth was the culmination of Federal Government plans which had begun in 1962, and which, by 1963 had already seen the Western Australian Town Planning Department choose three sites on the northerly tip of the peninsula (Vlamingh Head and areas to the north and south of the present town) where it was planned to use 121 hectares to build a town which could house 702 people.

From its earliest days it was always a military town. The town was gazetted in 1963 and its first two Civil Commissioners were Colonel K. Murdoch and Air Commodore T. Walters. In 1964 there were only four permanent houses in the town. Most of the population lived in the Burtenshaw Caravan Park. The town and the Naval Communication Station were both opened on 16 September 1967. The population of the town peaked at around 4300 in the late 1960s. Today there are less than 3000 people in the town of whom about 25 per cent are American service personnel and their families.

The Exmouth Tourist Bureau used to hand out a single sheet headed 'Two Nations - Two Goals. Freedom and Peace. Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt'. Written in dull military prose it declared: 'The Australian Government has a prime responsibility to provide the nation with security from armed attack and from the constraints on independent national decisions imposed by the threat of armed attack'. A couple of paragraphs later it observes 'Australia has no defined enemy at the moment.'

It is worth registering that critics of the base argue that in the event of a nuclear war it would be a prime target as its thirteen huge radio masts monitor the movements of US warships in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific.

Things to see:  

Coming down off the Cape Range plateau

Cape Range National Park
Undoubtedly the premier attraction in the area is the Cape Range National Park (which includes a substantial amount of the Ningaloo Marine Park - see Coral Bay). The park, which was established in 1965 and extended in 1974, has been designed in such a way to provide a cross-section of the peninsula from the dissected and desert-line plateau (the rainfall on the peninsula is so unreliable that there have been years when less than 100 mm has fallen) to the coastal plains, the mangrove swamps, the lagoon between the shoreline and the Ningaloo Reef, and the sea life which lies beyond the reef.

In the excellent 28-page CALM booklet Range to Reef the variety of activities in the park is described: 'Hike through eucalypt woodlands or climb down deep rocky gorges and enjoy breathtaking scenery. Walk over a flat spinifex plain and a succession of ancient fossil reefs, climb coastal dunes down to sandy beaches...dive into an emerald lagoon and swim over the coral reef.'

An appropriate starting point in the Cape Range National Park is the Milyering Visitor Centre. The centre is a model of modern design with solar heating, rammed earth walls to reduce temperature variations, a composting toilet which is used to fertilise the gardens, and extensive natural light. It has audio visual displays, books on the region and advice about hiking in the park.

There are two main roads into the park. Shothole Canyon Road, 16 km south of Exmouth, is a convenient entry point. This unsealed road, originally named after some shotholes which were used for blasting for seismographic experiments back in the 1950s, leads into the park's gorges. It is worth noting that the area is dangerous. The walls are sheer, the rocks are loose, and in summer the temperatures become dangerously high.

Shothole Canyon Road is connected to Charles Knife Road (which runs along a nearby ridge) by a 5 km walking trail.

Further to the south, near the Learmonth RAAF Base is the Solar Observatory. Although not open for inspection the white parabolic discs can be seen from the road. The station monitors solar activity and is part of a worldwide network of similar stations. The fact that the area boasts an excess of 3500 hours of sunshine each year was an important consideration when the base was established.

Ningaloo Marine Park
The Marine Park offers visitors a rare opportunity to inspect the reef and its fauna at close quarters. It stretches south along 260 km of coastline from Bundegi Beach, near Exmouth. At points the reef is no more than 100 metres from the shore and its waters are home to such spectacular creatures as the huge whale shark, the humpback whale, green turtles, dolphins and dugongs.

The Marine Park was declared in 1987 in an attempt to protect Western Australia's largest coral reef and to control public access to it. It is a unique area because the reef is so close to the dry landmass and because it is here that the Australian continent is closest to the continental shelf. The reef boasts 170 hard corals, 11 soft corals and 475 species of fish. In its own way it is as good as the Great Barrier Reef and it is much more accessible.

Both the Peoples Caravan Park and Bayview Holiday Village have glass bottom boat tours available.

Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station and VLF (Very Low Frequency) Antenna Field
To the north of the town are both the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station (6 km) and the VLF (Very Low Frequency) Antenna Field (11 km) both of which are restricted areas although tours of the Communication Station can be arranged through the Exmouth Tourist Bureau. The bureau has brochures on the base and the excellent and very detailed regional guide Coral Coast Tourist Information has a very detailed description of the base's workings. The huge towers, which are higher than the Eiffel Tower, are probably Australia's most vulnerable point in the unlikely event of nuclear war.

Neil McLeod from Ningaloo Safari Tours steers on Yardie Creek Gorge

Vlamingh Lighthouse and Cape Range National Park
The road to the north of the town continues around the coast to Vlamingh Lighthouse and from there becomes a 4WD track down through the Cape Range National Park.

One of the highlights of the trip is the Vlamingh Lighthouse which is now open to the public for tours every day. It was relit for the first time in 34 years on 14 July, 2001 utilizing the original kerosene and counterweight system. It is the only originally fired and driven light in the country. There are various displays being completed for installation in the building that will give visitors a taste of life on the Cape in past years. The tours can be booked directly through the lighthouse ph 0407 970 647 or 0419 190 357 or the Exmouth Tourist Bureau.

Another highlight is Yardie Creek which is caught by the sand dunes before it reaches the sea. The effect is of a strange fjord with vertical cliffs dropping into the creek waters.

Cyclone Vance
Cyclone Vance, one of the worst to hit the Western Australian coastline, ripped through the town on 22 March 1999 causing extensive damage. With typical country town resilience the townsfolk rebuilt the town in the space of a couple of months.

	Tourist Information
	Exmouth Tourist Bureau Payne St Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 1176 Facsimile: (08) 9949 1441
	Motels
	Ningaloo Lodge Lefroy St P.O. Box 894 Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 4949 or 1800 880 949 Facsimile: (08) 9949 4900 Rating: ***
	Hotels
	Potshot Hotel Resort Murat Rd Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 1200 Facsimile: (08) 9949 1486 Rating: ***
	Bed & Breakfast/Guesthouses
	Garalia Station Guesthouse Bullara-Giralia Rd Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9942 5937
	Yardie Creek Homestead Guesthouse Yardie Creek Rd Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 1389
	Holiday Homes & Units
	Argosy Court Holiday Units Murat Rd Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 1177
	Potshot Court Holiday Units Murat Rd Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 1200 Rating: ***
	Lodges & Chalets
	Mermaid Ningaloo Diving Lodge 11 Sargent St Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 2269
	Caravan Parks
	Exmouth Accommodation and Caravan Park Yardie Creek Homestead Yardie Creek Rd Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 1389 Rating: **
	Exmouth Caravan Park Lefroy St Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 1331 Rating: **
	Ningaloo Caravan Park Lefroy St Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 2377 or 1800 652 665 Facsimile: (08) 9949 2577 Rating: ***
	Ningaloo Resort Lefroy St Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 2377 or 1800 652 665 Facsimile: (08) 9949 2577 Rating: ***
	Exmouth Cape Tourist Village 968 Truscott Cres. Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 1101 Facsimile: (08) 9949 1402 Rating: ***
	Lighthouse Caravan Park Yardie Creek Rd Vlamingh Head Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 1478 Rating: ***
	Camping & Other
	Mermaid Luxury Holiday Homes P.O. Box 498 Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 2269 Facsimile: (08) 9949 2268
	Restaurants
	Golden Orchid Chinese Restaurant Thew St Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 1740
	Potshot Inn Murat Rd Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 1200
	Truscott Memorial Club Payne St Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 1246
	Whalers Licensed Restaurant 5 Kennedy St Exmouth WA 6707 Telephone: (08) 9949 2416