Cape Range, to the north of Exmouth, forms the spine of the peninsula that stretches up towards North West Cape. Cape Range is the only elevated limestone range on the north-western coast of Western Australia, its impressive weathered terrain has plateaus of up to 314 metres high. It is rugged and waterless , temperatures are high from November to April , so extreme care should be taken if attempting to walk too far off the beaten track. Vegetation in the park includes mangroves, acadia, cossia, spinifex species, minilya lily, grevillea eucalyptus, and venticordia. Fauna to be found includes rock wallabies, red kangaroo, euros, eighty species of reptiles, and over one hundred species of birds on the cape.

Charles Knife Canyon

Charles Knife Canyon is 23 kilometres south of Exmouth. Almost directly across from Kailis Fisheries, this road is the opposite of Shothole in that the vehicle is driven up to the top of the range with spectacular views of huge gorges and the vast expanse of Exmouth Gulf on the horison. Charles Knife Road is bitumen for the first 5 km, and takes you up onto the top of a ridge between two canyons. In some places the gap between the canyons is only just wide enough for the road and both sides plunge precipitously down tho the canyon floors which can be quite unnerving. There are several lookout points and trails within the canyon. Thomas Carter Lookout offers views of both Marine Park and Exmouth Gulf. To watch the sun rise over the Gulf from the top of Charles Knife Road is an unforgettable experience.

Shothole Canyon

The 8 km gravel road drive up through this canyon gives a totally different perspective to the scenery in this rugged, isolated but extremly beautiful corner of the country. The road you travel is the same road cut through the valley in the 1950s to the place where oil was first struck in Australia. It's only a short walk from the road to see the quite spectacular canyon walls and caves at close range.

The trail up the side of the canyon is extremely steep and very narrow in some places, climbing 120 metres along the ridge. This unsealed Shothole Road, named after some shotholes which were used for blasting for seismographic experiments in the 1950s, has given the canyon its name.

Mandu Mandu Gorge

A highlight of any visit to Cape Range is Mandu Mandu Gorge, where deep blue water, cut off from the sea by a sandbar on the coast, lies imprisoned between vertical cliffs giving one the impression of a semi-tropical fjord. Walking up the gorge in the early morning or the evening makes a very pleasant excursion.

Yardie Creek

The sealed road from Exmouth through Cape Range National Park ends at Yardie Creek. Centuries of erosion have formed a spectacular multi-coloured gorge. Hidden within the safety of the gorge walls is a colony of black-footed rock wallabies.

Valmingh Head

Vlamingh Head, the northern tip of North West Cape, is located 17km north of the Exmouth townsite. It has the distinction of being one of the few places in Australia where you can watch the sun rise and set over the sea. Vlamingh Head's main feature is its Lighthouse which overlooks Lighthouse Bay. It was completed in 1912 in response to the wreck of the Mildura off North West Cape in 1907. Remants of the wreck can still be seen not far from the lighthouse (right).
At the time, Vlamingh Head was physically very isolated and difficult to reach by sea. The nearest port was some two hundred miles away and the closest beach for landing supplies was over three miles from the proposed site. Provision of fresh water for the labourers, and the lighthouse keepers, was a major obstacle that needed to be overcome, and which shadows the whole history of the lighthouse.
Due to considerable damage to the Lighthouse from Cyclone Vance in 1999, in late 2000 and early 2001 a considerable amount of restoration works were carried out to the lighthouse and adjoining storage shed. Currently the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse is not open for tours, however you can still enjoy the magnificant views from the hill which is a popular spot to watch the sunset, passing humpback whales or for a scenic view of the Ningaloo Reef.
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The Ningaloo Reef is one of the rare places on earth where you are able to walk from the beach straight onto a coral reef. A protected marine park area that follows the length of North West Cape on the ocean side, Ningaloo is a virtually untouched barrier reef of 260km length protecting a shallow, brilliant white sandy lagoon of clear tropical waters. More than 500 species of tropical fish and 220 species of coral make up the Ningaloo Reef.

The Ningaloo Reef is home to a myriad of marine life, including one of the rarest, and the largest fish in the world - the Whale Shark. These leviathans, of up to 18 metres in length, are regular visitors to the Ningaloo Reef from March to June, when the plankton rich waters draw them close to the reef in search of food. Whale Sharks are only one of the many seasonal visitors to the Ningaloo Reef and is it possible to swim with them here through organised tours. Humpback Whales are in the area from June until November. Manta Rays can be seen along the reef near Exmouth from May to November, and year round in Coral Bay. As summer arrives, so do the Green, Loggerhead and Hawksbill turtles to begin their nesting season after their mating season in October to November.

Mangrove Bay 

Mangrove Bay is a sanctuary zone which includes a bird hide overlooking a lagoon area. A variety of birds roost in the lagoon at high tide and many feed on small fish and other marine life in the shallow waters. Closer inspection may reveal an Osprey or Brahminy Kite perched above surveying the coastline. During the summer months many migratory birds can be observed in the area.

Harold E. Holt Naval Communications Base

In 1963, the US leased an area of North West Cape for the establishment of a VLF Communications Station, as part of its world wide nuclear submarine force communications network. The area's cloud-free atmosphere suited to VLF transmissions. The base was subsequently named the Harold Holt US Navy Communications Base, named after the former Prime Minister of Australia - who mysteriously drowned while he was in office. The town of Exmouth, which is quite remote, was originally constructed in 1964 as a support town for the base.
The base's vast array of antennas and towers stand out in stark contrast to the harsh natural beauty of the surrounding terrain. The facility is divided into three principal sites - Areas A, B and C. The most visible is area A, which lies on the northernmost tip of the peninsula is the North West Cape VLF Transmitter Station. It is supported by a central tower surrounded by two concentric circles each of six smaller towers ranging from 304 to 387 metres in height and is 2.5 km in diameter. It communicates over immense distances with submerged submarines in the Indian Ocean. The towers are the tallest located on a tropical cyclone prone coast in the world. When constructed, they were the tallest man-made structures in the southern hemisphere.
The base played a major role in US communications and intelligence throughtout the Cold War. During its early years, the base was manned totally by hundreds of US military personnel whose left-hand-drive fully imported Chevrolets, Pontiacs and Chryslers were more common around the town of Exmouth that Australian right hand drive vehicles.
In 1972, US Naval Communications Station Harold E Holt became a joint facility, with an RAN officer as second in command, and 35 Royal Australian Navy personnel integrated into the general operations at the base. Though many of the US personnel went home, enough stayed to retain the "American" flavour of the town. Perhaps the collapse of the cold war has removed the need for covert communication by the US in the Indian Ocean, but for whatever reason, the United States turned over control of the station to Australia in 1999 and withdrew all its personnel. It was then run by the Australian Department of Defence with only a handful of personnel, none of whom lived on the base. Today, the base is run by the private concern, Boeing Australia.

Brief History of Cape Range

Cape Range harbours an ancient history of Aboriginal habitation, providing a fascinating story of the life and culture of these first inhabitants. The history of their 30,000 years of occupation is unfolding from the study of artefacts, middens and rock shelters, amongst which is one of the oldest reliably dated archaeological site in northern Western Australia, at Mandu Mandu Creek rock shelter.
The first European to set foot on Cape Range was Captain Leneart Jacobzoon of the Mauritius in July 1618. It is now generally believed that it is Yardie Creek that appeared on the first maps of the WA coast under the name of Willem's River, the location of the second landfall of the Mauritius. A crew member was Willem Jansz, who made the first recorded sighting of the Australian mainland aboard the Duyfken in 1606.. A letter of Jansz describes the coast of Western Australia from Point Cloates to North-West Cape. Soon after the discovery, the name of Willems River appeared on Dutch maps, being first shown on Hessel Gerritsz's map of 1618-1628.

Right: Located on the site of Operation Potshot, this monument commemorates the use of the West Australian coast for the allied attacks on the Japanese

In 1942 the US Navy established a submarine base under the code name "Operation Potshot". Extensive facilities were built adjacent to where Learmonth Airforce Base now stands. Although the submarine tenders only stayed in the area for a very short period, the base continued to operate as a refuelling facility. The famous Operation Jaywick which attacked shipping in Singapore Harbour departed from Exmouth Gulf. The Japanese bombed the location in 1943. A cyclone in 1945 extensively damaged the base and troops were withdrawn.
In 1953 WA Petroleum (WAPET) acquired the use of the remaining defence buildings and commenced an era of oil exploration which was highlighted by a significant oil discovery in Rough Range. The Rough Range No. 1 well was spudded on 5th September 1953 and oil was discovered a couple of months later - on 1th November 1953 from a zone at approx 1100 metres depth. Success in the first well led to a rapid escalation in the drilling programme.
Wapet constructed a road network which is still in use through Charles Knife and Shothole Canyons. On 27th November 1954, Cape Range No.1 test well in Shothole Canyon unexpectedly found a 3500 metre thick sequence of strongly gas-bearing black shales of Jurassic age, previously unknown in this basin. Unfortunately, these contained no porous zones to allow production of the gas. Though oil and gas were never produced commercially from the area, the test drills paved the way for the later development of the North West Shelf Gasfields nearby. The cap of this test well (below) is visible at the head of Shothole Canyon.