The Shark Bay Discovery Centre takes you on a journey with the Living Place, Mapping Place and Experiencing Place. The Discovery Centre displays are positioned so as to represent a map of the area, it follows an organic natural flow from south to north encompassing the three distinct categories of Living Place, Mapping Place and Experiencing Place.
The Living Place introduces you to the special qualities that make Shark Bay one of the most significant places in the world. The great diversity of Shark Bay’s environment, teeming with life, movement and energy is the key to its World Heritage listing. From ancient stromatolites – Discover how a stromatolite changed the world! – to seagrass meadows and the abundance of marine life such as dugongs, dolphins, loggerhead turtles, whales, manta rays, sharks and numerous species of fish, just to name a few. The Living Place will open your eyes to all there is to discover.
The Mapping Place lets you discover how Indigenous Malgana people, Dutch traders, French naturalists, English colonisers, local pearlers, pastoralists, fishers and conservationists have layered Shark Bay with cultural diversity. From shipwreck relics, to Aboriginal song and early European maps, explore just how significant the heritage of Shark Bay is in the story of our nation.
In the Experiencing Place, you move through with all your senses brought alive to Shark Bay’s shifting shapes and moods. This sense of place is created through the entanglement of nature and culture. Discover how fish nurseries turn into salt evaporation ponds, pastoral stations become conservation reserves, fences to keep sheep in are replaced with feral-proof barriers to keep them out, homesteads become resorts, and pearling grounds become marine parks and fishing boats cast nets for tourists rather than fish.