Cervantes is a town in Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

. The town is located just off Indian Ocean Drive about 198 kilometres (123 mi) north north west of the state capital, Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

 in the Shire of Dandaragan

Shire of Dandaragan

The Shire of Dandaragan is a Local Government Area located in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, about north of the state capital, Perth. The Shire covers an area of and its seat of government is the town of Jurien Bay.-History:...

 Local Government Area. At the 2006 census

Census in Australia

The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...

, Cervantes had a population of 503. The town was named after a ship that was wrecked nearby. The ship, in turn, was named after Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...

, author of Don Quixote.

The principal industry in the town is fishing

Fishing industry

The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products....

. The Pinnacles

The Pinnacles Desert

The Pinnacles are limestone formations contained within Nambung National Park, near the town of Cervantes, Western Australia.-Formation:The raw material for the limestone of the Pinnacles came from seashells in an earlier epoch rich in marine life...

 are nearby in Nambung National Park

Nambung National Park

Nambung National Park is a national park in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia , 162 km northwest of Perth. It contains the Pinnacles Desert....

 which makes for a small industry from tourism. The saline Lake Thetis

Lake Thetis

- Fact sheet :* Situated east of the small town Cervantes, 2 km inland from the Indian ocean.* Coordinates: * The lake is 300 m wide and ca. 2 m deep.* The lake is situated on a Quaternary limestone pavement....

, which contains stromatolite

Stromatolite

Stromatolites or stromatoliths are layered accretionary structures formed in shallow water by the trapping, binding and cementation of sedimentary grains by biofilms of microorganisms, especially cyanobacteria ....

s, is nearby.

An arts festival us held every year in the town, usually on the last weekend of October. Cervantes lies on the shore of the Jurien Bay Marine Park.