Coral Bay

Introducing Coral Bay

Coral Bay is a tiny beachcomber community nestled on a beautiful bay, at the southern tip of Ningaloo Marine Park. Its town consists of one street, down which you amble to the white-sand beach to swim and snorkel on the reef just offshore. It’s a super base for outer-reef activities as well, such as swimming with (harmless) whale sharks, scuba diving, whale watching and fishing.

Coral Bay’s Main Beach is designated for swimming; enclosed by a protective reef, there’s good snorkelling within 50m of the shore. You can hire snorkel gear, boogie boards and glass-bottomed canoes (from $8 to $20 per hour) on the beach.

Just 20 minutes’ walk north of Main Beach is Point Maud, where manta rays swim, and around the point, Bateman Bay is a breeding ground for reef sharks from October to March. We probably don’t need to tell you that swimming is not a brilliant idea here.

Coral Bay has no shire services: private owners supply its electricity and water (not all taps contain desalinated water for drinking), but there are plans to develop tourism here in order to sustain the increasing number of visitors and establish Coral Bay as a town.

The main shopping centre on Robinson St has an ATM and newsagent, and internet access is in the ‘visitors centres’ (which the tour operator booking offices like to call themselves).

Last updated: Sep 23, 2008