West Australian Vista - Hamelin Pool

Hamelin Pool

Hamelin Pool is located 98km south of Denham , at Shark Bay , in Western Australia. Hamelin Pool is a landlocked marine basin separated from Shark Bay by a shallow sand bank. At the Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve you can find colonies of algae which form hard, dome shaped columns called stromatolites. Also at Hamelin Pool you can explore the remains of the old Telegraph Station which was established in 1884.

Stromatolites

Just a short walk from the carpark you will come across strange cauliflower looking rock like structures popping up above the waterline. You have arrived in one of only two places in the world where living marine stromatolites occur, the other is in the Lee Stocking Island, Bahamas. The stromatolites were discovered in Hamelin Pool in 1954 and are the world's oldest living fossils.

Flint Cliff Telegraph Station

In 1884 the Flint Cliff Telegraph Station was established at Hamelin Pool, in Shark Bay. The name was later changed to 'Flagpole Landing' when they began using a flag as a marker for ships bringing supplies to the settlement. For almost eighty years telegraph stations were an essential part of life to the north-west (Geraldton to Wyndham) and outback regions of Western Australia. A single strand of thin wire would carry the Morse code signals to operators stationed at post offices around the state. In many cases it was the only means of rapid communication in isolated settlements, though most outback settlers had two-way radio contact with their nearest Royal Flying Doctor service.

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