Of the many Australian destinations that could make a caravanner’s bucket list, the Ningaloo Coast in Western Australian deserves a place at the top. Join editor John Ford as he drags his Trakmaster along this not so lonely coastline.
Renowned for earning a coveted World Heritage nomination in 2011 and consistently attracting visitors who book months in advance, the coastline of far northern Western Australia stands out as one of our premier travel destinations.
Because summer temperatures soar to above 45 degrees, the tourist/peak season is concentrated around the cooler months between April and October. So, pressure on limited camping places is immense as more and more cross-country travellers descend on the area.
Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area washes against the coast for 300km. It covers an area of 604,500 hectares, including a marine park that extends 20km offshore, a collection of national parks and conservation areas, and even an air weapons range. To meet the heritage criteria, there needed to be ‘areas of incredible beauty’ and ‘significant natural habitats for the conservation of biological diversity’.
The Ningaloo Coast meets these benchmarks in spades, thanks to one of the longest near-shore coral reefs in the world, situated against an arid coastline. Most reefs worldwide are located near wet tropical rainforests, as found in Queensland. The Western Australian scenery, with its red dirt against azure water, is stunning.
South Lefroy sunset
Getting to Ningaloo with your caravan
For most of us, travelling to northern Western Australia is a long journey. Part of the region’s allure is its remoteness, but it’s also a drawback if you aren’t keen on miles of open road. The Ningaloo or Nyinggulu Coast runs from the top of North West Cape south to Red Bluff, south of Coral Bay, making it a 1200km trek from Perth or in excess of 5000km from the east.
We arrived from the north, having travelled across the Victoria Highway to Kununurra and then south. From Broome, Ningaloo is a 1370km journey through the Pilbara and Kimberley, so there’s plenty to take in along the way. The North West Coastal Highway diverts along Burkett Road towards Exmouth, approximately 200km northwest. Our first stop was Bullara Station, which Julia D’Orazio featured in issue 649 in July 2024. They have a slick operation with numerous campsites and accommodation options. The well-tuned hospitality and facilities include a cafe, restaurant and evening campfire. Explore bush tracks and fishing holes or mingle with the farm animals for a piece of outback life. Book ahead for the dining experiences, though, as they can get busy. Open April to October.
Underwater at Ningaloo Reef
Exmouth, on the eastern edge of the Cape, was another 86km further on. It’s a busy holiday town of 2000 permanent residents with a good selection of stores and cafes. We found a great place for three nights in the RAC caravan park while we had a look around and booked some tours. With the three other caravan parks in town, there’s plenty of caravan sites and numerous other options.
Before the US Navy arrived in 1960 to build the nearby Harold E Holt Communications Station, Exmouth was a relatively barren landscape. It was home to the Baiyungu, Thalanyii and Yinigurdira people for millennia, and the local aboriginal communities now share joint management of the national parks.
The Dutch visited regularly from 1618 but weren’t impressed enough to settle. One of their ship’s captains lent his name to the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse, located on the west coast. Explorer Phillip King named the Exmouth Gulf in 1818 after a British mentor, the Viscount of Exmouth.
The Communications facility changed everything. The joint USA and Australian governments constructed a massive tower array and a town to house US naval personnel and support staff. By the early 1990s, the operation was handed over to Australian interests. Since then, the town has thrived on an annual influx of tourists drawn to the natural environment and the opportunity to swim with whale sharks, manta rays and sea turtles, or to fish in the northern waters.
While many visitors to the Ningaloo Coast are determined to get to a beach campsite, basing yourself in Exmouth for a few days is a great way to experience the region and the many commercial activities on offer. And for anyone without an offroad van and vehicle, booking into an Exmouth park or the nearby Yardie Station still allows for weeks of downtime and fun.
Harold E Holt Communications Station
Vlamingh Head Lighthouse
Whale sharks, wrecks and wild scenery
A day trip took us over the northern part of the Cape to a location where the wreck of the SS Mildura is visible at low tide on the edge of the fringing coral reef. Carrying 500 cattle and a cargo towards Perth, the ship ran aground in fog in 1907 and stuck firmly. Happily, rescue was at hand within a day, and all crew, passengers and cattle were saved. During World War II, the wreck was used for bombing practice, but it survives as a monument.
Following the Mildura grounding, the government decided on a lighthouse on high ground to the south. The Vlamingh Head Lighthouse opened in 1912 and operated until 1967, when it was superseded by an electric beacon on one of the nearby towers. Twelve towers in a star shape, spanning 400 hectares, surround a central 387m main tower that transmits Very Low Frequency waves to US and Australian navy ships and submarines in the Western Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean, making it a critical defence facility. A short drive took us to the top of the lighthouse hill, where expansive views of the communications facilities and the surf break off Dunes Surf Beach, where swells are best between July and October.
Tracks to the south of town take you up into the Cape Range National Park. The Shothole Canyon Road leads through steep gorges to a walkway up to a scenic lookout over caves and wind sculptures etched into the limestone while the Charles Knife Road follows the ridge lines for even more spectacular views across the landscape to the waters of the Gulf.
Shothole Gorge
Heather was keen to swim with whale sharks, and I was eager to try a fishing charter. We both had a great time. Heather reckoned swimming with the whales was an absolute joy and she has the photo to prove it, shown hereabouts. The whale sharks migrate each year to coincide with coral spawning in April. They are the largest of the shark species but are filter feeders, taking in mainly plankton and krill. Heather’s tour boat dropped 10 swimmers at a time to swim alongside the fish for a hundred metres or so, and then they were picked up in a rubber boat for a rest while other adventurers took their turn. All up, Heather had three swims with the whale sharks on the day. Because it was later in the season, the guided tour was $400 for the day, a $100 reduction from earlier in the year when a whale swim is guaranteed.
Heather and the whale shark
My day out with the 54ft Blue Horizon fishing charter saw us steaming up the Exmouth Gulf towards the Muiron Islands. The skipper knew his job and soon had us at a productive reef in about 30 metres of water. Before long, we had decent-sized table fish on the deck. A full day’s fishing cost $340 and provided enough fillets for the freezer for the next couple of weeks.
Beaches close to town lap the waters of the Gulf and are particularly popular in the evening when dozens of four-wheel drives head down for alfresco dinners.
John’s Exmouth catch
Setting up camp at Yardie Homestead
Forsaking the pleasures of Exmouth, we skipped across the 70km to Yardie Homestead still within touring caravan range and an easy central place to explore the Cape Range National Park section of the Ningaloo Coast. We met up with friends from our hometown for a week while they showed us their favourite snorkelling and sunset spots.
Yardie Homestead is a private campground north of the national park and has 60 or so caravan sites with limited power for lights and fridges, but not for coffee machines or air conditioner. There’s a cafe, fuel and three amenities blocks. Rates are $60 a night or $360 a week for two. You need to book well ahead if you plan on staying more than a couple of nights.
Yardie Homestead camping
From Yardie Homestead and campsites anywhere in the Cape Range section, there are dozens of white-sand beaches and dive locations to explore. A tarred road runs from Exmouth to Yardie Creek at the southern end of the Cape Range National Park, but many of the tracks to the beaches are soft and sandy, so be aware.
The waters here are part of the Ningaloo Marine Park, with restrictions on fishing and snorkelling activities. Explore Parks WA distribute informative maps and great advice on all things park-related at the Milyering Discovery Centre to the south of Yardie Station.
Ningaloo’s coral reefs are accessible within wading distance from the shore in many areas, which gives them a unique appeal. At locations like the Oyster Stacks, the coral is so abundant that you must swim there at high tide to prevent damage, as the tops of some structures touch the water surface at low tide. At Turquoise Bay, the tide drifts you over the coral for effortless snorkelling among a myriad of colourful fish.
The Oyster Stacks entrance is rocky
The Ningaloo Coast is a significant nesting ground for mainly green and loggerhead turtles, which lay eggs high on the beach between November and March. Hatchlings emerge for the treacherous journey to the water in January and March. While these events are outside peak tourist times, there is plenty of activity, especially in the mating season, and we saw many turtles on our swims. It’s recommended to keep your distance when swimming with them, but they don’t seem to mind getting up close, as shown in Heather’s image here.
Swimming with loggerhead turtles
Camping in Ningaloo’s national parks
I’m guessing that most caravan travellers will arrive with an expectation of camping in one of the three camping areas of Ningaloo, comprising Cape Range National Park, Nyinggulara National Park (ex Ningaloo), south of Yardie Creek, and Warroora Station, to the south of Coral Bay.
Competition for sites is high, and it can be overwhelming trying to navigate the WA Department’s booking system (parkstay.dbca.wa.gov.au). You can book six months in advance, and, like most state park systems, ghost bookings are a problem. It can be challenging to find a suitable site without researching all the camp names, as they appear to be spread across different sites on the booking system. To be fair, park staff and camp volunteers do their utmost to check on ghost and ‘no-show’ bookings to make sites available.
Cape Range has 157 sites across nine campgrounds, ranging from five to 46 sites, all of which are accessible with a touring-style van and with compacted sites. You can stay in each WA Park for 28 days outside school holidays or 14 days where they coincide.
Sturt’s Desert Peas
Get ready for sand driving
Nyinggulara National Park (ex-Ningaloo) requires preparation for driving on sand and a careful choice of sites to ensure they are suitable. Campsites at Winderbandi, Point Billy, North Lefroy and South Lefroy offer a total of 267 places, each with a brief description and restrictions on van size. Many camps indicate soft sand, and we found this is both true and the cause for some fun.
Once you reach Yardie Creek heading south, you’ll need a 4WD vehicle and a suitable van. The creek itself is a good test, as when we crossed, there were two vans bogged in the sand. Drop tyre pressures in the car park before hitting the sand. There was a harder sand crossing a little upstream, and with 20psi in the LandCruiser and van, we had no problem getting across to the 200m dry creek bed. From here to Coral Bay, it’s about 100km on the coastal road, with sand all the way, except for the last short stretch where you meet the main road.
Coral Bay
Camp on the beach at South Lefroy
Despite poor planning, we managed to find a place at South Lefroy for a few nights. It’s a stunning place with some camps right on the beach. After packing up, I found we were seriously stuck in the sand on the tight turn as we were getting out. Happily, the TRED traction boards and 10psi all around got us moving. All the Ningaloo camps require high clearance 4WDs with low range. Dump points are the only facilities, and you need to bring your own water.
We had planned to head into Janes Bay for the day but met the camp hosts near the start of the track, who advised that the road conditions were very poor, so we decided to give it a miss. Janes Bay is just south of the old Ningaloo Station, and you can see some sheds from the road, with the homestead closer to the coast and marked on the national park map as a campsite. It’s not, and access is over Restricted Conservation Management Land.
Bruboodjoo, 25km north of Coral Bay, is a bush camping site run by the Baiyungu Aboriginal Corporation. Access is straightforward to unstructured sites, and there’s a boat launching nearby. There are no facilities, and it’s $15 per person per night.
Brubdjoo campsite
We continued south on the Cardabia Road to Coral Bay. Several tracks lead to lonely beaches where the reef looks to be further away from the coast. It’s all conservation land, so camping isn’t permitted.
Lastly, a resort
After the dusty tracks and wild remoteness of the coast road, Coral Bay is a bustling, happening town. Established in the 1970s, it’s a privately owned town featuring a beach, pub, shopping mall, caravan park and various accommodation options. They cater to every manner of water sport and wildlife tourism, including charters for whales, whale sharks, manta rays and turtles. We booked a few nights at Peoples Park Coral Bay holiday resort for $69 per night and met up with family friend Evie, who skippers one of the tour boats and who insisted we head out the next day for a dive at Five Fingers Reef, not far south. It was special with heaps of fish schooling around and lots of lively coral. The next day we took a boat tour where we snorkelled over the more beautiful reef and had turtles swimming under us.
School of fish at Five Fingers Reef
Three weeks in Ningaloo: what we learned
If we learned anything, three weeks on the Ningaloo coast isn’t enough. It’s a truly remarkable part of the country, steeped in marine life and adventure, with a new remarkable scene around every corner. Plan ahead, and it will reward the effort you put into getting there.
Useful contacts
- WA National Park bookings
- Ningaloo visitor centre
- Yardie Homestead Caravan park
- Milyering Discovery Centre
- Peoples Park Coral Bay
The long, sandy coastal road along Ningaloo Coast
THE NEXT STEP
If you want to learn the latest caravan news, find the most innovative new caravans and camping gear or get inspired to plan your next outback adventure, subscribe to our weekly newsletter. We promise to send you only the best content.
Related articles:
Top 3 coastal attractions in WA: Carnarvon, Coral Bay and Quobba Station
Explore Western Australia’s Fitzgerald Biosphere Coast
Caravanning the Ningaloo Coast: Exmouth to Coral Bay, WA