Day 76 Little Lagoon

Today we visted Little Lagoon and Lagoon Creek. On the way we stopped at the Denham Lookout which has views out over to Dirk Hartog Island.





Little Lagoon has water the purest turquoise blue in colour and crystal clear. The beach surrounds the entire lagoon and it is so calm and beautiful. The water is so clear that you can see the patches of grass or rock under the surface, along with some small fish. Little Lagoon was listed as number #5 by Tourism Australia's Beach Ambassador in Australia's Top 10 beaches for 2025.










We next stopped at Nicholson Point.




Then it was back to town for some lunch at the Old Pub. Known as Australia’s most westerly hotel. was Built in 1967 and incorporates sections constructed from coquina shell blocks, which are naturally compacted and cemented masses of tiny cockle shells harvested from the region's unique shell deposits.



After lunch we went to the Discovery Centre and watched a 3D film illuminating the wrecks of the HMAS Sydney (II) and HSK Kormoran, which built on the knowledge we had already learnt at previous museums. Exhibits include some of the very interesting and colourful stories of the residents of Shark Bay, interviews with scientists and DPAW officers, a timeline dating back from 1616 to the present, displaying an old map that Captain Dirk Hartog and William Dampier illustrated while on voyage around our bays, and artefacts from the Zuytdorp ship wreck lost in 1712. We spent a couple of hours hearing all about the flora and fauna.






The Dirk Hartog Plate is the oldest known physical artifact tracking European visitation to Australia. On 25 October 1616, Dutch Captain Dirk Hartog blew off course aboard the Eendracht. He made landfall at Cape Inscription on what is now called Dirk Hartog Island in Shark Bay. To record the historic three-day visit, his crew took a common pewter dinner dish, flattened it out, and scratched a message across its surface. They nailed this makeshift post stone directly onto an oak timber post before departing.



Hamelin coquina is a rare, sedimentary limestone formed entirely from the compacted, naturally cemented shells of the tiny Hamelin cockle (Fragum erugatum). Because the water in Hamelin Pool is twice as salty as standard ocean water, these tiny cockles thrived completely undisturbed by natural predators. Over thousands of years, billions of their discarded shells accumulated up to 9 metres deep in places, compressing over time into a solid, carvable stone. An Ingenious Building Solution, the Early European settlers facing a severe shortage of local timber or traditional building stone turned to the coquina beds. This is used in the Old Pearlers Restaurant and Saint Andrew by the Sea Church.