Monkey Mia beach (WA 1382) commences at the slowly curving sandy Cape Rose and trends to the southeast and finally east to the sand foreland called Monkey Mia (Fig. 4.316). There are some crenulations along the beach where shore transverse sand waves attach to the shore, including at Monkey Mia. Most of the 9.5 km long beach is backed by 10-30 m high bluffs. A 4 WD track off the Monkey Mia road runs out to the centre of the beach. The foreland begins 2 km east of the tip as a series of low foredune ridges which form a 1 km wide sand plain at Monkey Mia. The sand flats narrow from 1 km at the cape to 50 m at the tip of Monkey Mia where the jetty is located (Fig. 4.317). The deeper water off the foreland is one reason why the dolphins can easily reach the shore, one of the few locations of this type in the entire bay. It is also the reason the Monkey Mia foreland was established early on as a pearling and fishing camp and boat launching area. Today it is dominated by the dolphin trade, with a large car park, caravan park, resort, national park facility including a dolphin information centre, jetty, boat ramp and managed sessions with the dolphins. Small boats are moored off the beach and pulled up on the shore. There is also a walking track that includes two lookouts on the backing 20 km high bluffs. It is serviced by a 25 km long sealed road from Denham. read more

Beach Length: 9.2km