Shell Beach — Attraction in Shark Bay

As the name implies, Shell Beach is made up of trillions of tiny shells from the white Fragum cockle, with deposits up to 10 metres deep in places.

Shell Beach is one of only a handful of places on earth where shells replace beach sand - very picturesque!

In the early 1900s, the shells were quarried and hard packed, cut into blocks and used to construct a number of historic buildings in the nearby town of Denham, some of which can still be seen today such as the Old Pearler Restaurant.

Shell Beach is located 45 kilometres south-east of Denham in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area.

On a calm day, the ocean at Shell Beach transforms into an intense palette of greens and blues - with the water is twice as salty as the sea (hypersaline), The result of being so salty, is a lack of competition and predators for the Fragum cockle, leading to an incredible abundance of this one species. Also the extreme saltiness makes it easy to float for those who aren’t strong swimmers - similar to the Dead Sea in Jordan.

There is shelters, area information, ablutions but camping is not permitted...

This is a must do. It is an easy unsealed drive in with parking for cars and caravans. The beach is so tranquil, clean and with such clear water. The small shells are so fascinating as the whole beach is literally just these shells and it’s a must to take some iconic photos with them. The clean and pure white shells are closer to shore, while more compact broken shells are closer to the carpark, so keep walking to the shore to see the good stuff!

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Head to Shell Beach and you’ll see shells! Lots of them!

In all seriousness, it’s a pretty incredible sight. A 60km stretch of beach only made up of tiny, white shells (sometimes up to 10m deep). Lots of opportunities for a photo!

We didn’t swim (it was already late in the day) but the water is twice as salty as the ocean so it’s apparently a great place for a dip and a float.

Toilets were clean (they are bush loos), and the interpretive signage is good. Lots of parking for vehicles with trailers. There were lots of flies, but that’s par for the...