The Shire of Shark Bay is a Local Government Area of Western Australia. It has an area of 25,423km² and a population of about 950. It is made up of two peninsulas, located at the western most point of Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. There is one town in the Shire of Shark Bay, Denham

Denham, Western Australia

Denham is the administrative town for the Shire of Shark Bay, Western Australia. At the 2006 census, Denham had a population of 607.Located on the western coast of the Peron Peninsula north of Perth, Denham is the westernmost town in Australia, and is named in honour of Captain Henry Mangles...

, which is the administrative centre for the Shire. There are also a number of small communities; they are Useless Loop

Useless Loop, Western Australia

Useless Loop is located in the Southern Region of Shark Bay, Western Australia. Shark Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which also home to the more famous Monkey Mia. Useless Loop is a closed company town, servicing the Solar Salt Operation Shark Bay Salt which has been in operation since 1968...

 (a now-closed mining site), Monkey Mia (a popular resort where Dolphins come in), Nanga and Hamelin Pool. The Overlander

Overlander, Western Australia

The Overlander Roadhouse is in Western Australia, between Geraldton and Carnarvon on the North West Coastal Highway.Its remoteness has led to the area around it being known as Overlander, though there is no such official locality...

 and The Billabong are roadhouses.

History

The Shark Bay Road District was gazetted on 13 May 1904. On 1 July 1961, it became a Shire under the Local Government Act 1960.

Wards

The Shire is divided into 3 wards:

• Denham Ward (5 councillors)
• Pastoral Ward (1 councillor)
• Useless Loop Ward (1 councillor)

Economy

Major employers include the salt works at Useless Loop along with the fishing industry and the various retail outlets meeting the needs of the tourist industry. There are some 30 personnel employed by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and twenty by the Shire. There is a primary school and a Distance Education structured secondary school. Numbers of school aged children fluctuate around the 100 mark. The Police Station is manned by 3 officers.

Local industries include tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

, fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

, salt

Salt

In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...

, pearl

Pearl

A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...

 marine culturing, mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 of shell grit

Shell grit

Shell grit is grit from shells. It is used for, among other things, as source of calcium for birds.Other uses include protecting plants from slugs or snails and in aquariums.-External links:...

 and various pastoral

Pastoral

The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...

 activities.

Tourism

The creation of the Shark Bay World Heritage Site

Shark Bay, Western Australia

Shark Bay is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. It is an area centred approximately on , 800 kilometres north of Perth, on the westernmost point of Australia. An expedition led by Dirk Hartog happened upon the area in 1616, becoming the second group of Europeans...

 has created significant impact on the community within the shire area.

Community

The Shire council produced a community newsletter title the Inscription Post from 1989 until January 2011 when it was produced by the Shark Bay Community Resource Centre.

Climate

The Shire of Shark Bay has a mild arid tropical climate

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...

, with mean daily maximum temperatures ranging from 22 °C (72 °F) in July to 32 °C (90 °F) in February. Rainfall is low and variable, with most rain falling in the winter months and a certain amount due to cyclone activity. The average annual rainfall is 228 mm.

Population

Year	Population
1911	226
1921	231
1933	257
1947	183
1954	233
1961	387
1966	387
1971	687
1976	696
1981	629
1986	1,081
1991	1,570
1996	1,840
2001	2,025
2006	1,841

External links

Official websites:

• Shire of Shark Bay