The Boolagoorda Trail starts and ends at the Hamelin Pool Telegraph Station. It takes the visitor on an easy flat 1.4 kilometre loop walk to a 200 metre Boardwalk. From there you can experience the world’s oldest lifeforms, known as stromatolites, thriving in the shallow seas.
The Boolagoorda Trail offers the visitor a unique insight into ancient lifeforms as well as much more recent human activity. Near the trailhead is an assortment of station buildings including the Hamelin Pool Telegraph Station. Built in 1884, the station provided a vital link between Perth and Roebourne, until closure in the 1950s. It's worth paying a small fee for entry into the museum. Just beyond the trailhead is a quarry site where tiny shells compacted over time to form a huge mass. Early settlers cut out blocks which were solid enough for building materials. The old pearler restaurant and St Andrews Church in Denham are built of this shell grit. The trail's furtherest point is where people can get a glimpse of what life was like 3500 million years ago in the primeval seas. These stromatolites look like mushroom shaped rocks, but are infact colonies of cyanobacteria.
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Start Point: Hamelin Pool Telegraph Station, 30km west of Overlander Roadhouse, 735km north of Perth
End Point: Hamelin Pool Telegraph Station, 30km west of Overlander Roadhouse, 735km north of Perth
Region: Hamelin Pool, Coral Coast
For more information, a location map and GPS file please visit Trails WA.
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Hamelin Pool is accessed from the Shark Bay Road 27km from the North West Coastal Highway. The road is sealed apart from a short unsealed two-wheel drive section to the carpark. It is an easy 750 metre return walk between the carpark and stromatolites.
The 1800 metre Boolagoorda loop trail goes through the old coquina quarry and telegraph station. You can also drive to the telegraph station which also has a commercial campground and tea rooms and offers tours of the telegraph station museum.
It’s a good idea to let someone know where you’re going. Fill in a trip intention form to send important details about your trip to your emergency contact. If you are lost or require help and have phone reception, call 000 and ask for police. The international standard emergency number is 112, if you dial this number in Australia you will be treated exactly the same as a 000 call. If you believe your life is at risk, activate your personal locator beacon (PLB), then make your position visible to rescue teams and keep warm and dry.
Hamelin Pool is home to the most diverse and abundant examples of stromatolites in the world. Also referred to as 'living fossils’, stromatolites are living representatives of life over 3500 million years ago when there was no other complex life on Earth.
A 200m boardwalk at Hamelin Pool provides excellent views of the stromatolites, microbialites and microbial mats. Please help protect these structures by staying on the boardwalk.
Nearby is the Old Hamelin Pool Telegraph Station which was built in 1884 as part of the communication line between Perth and Roebourne. The original building is now a museum housing many artefacts.
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Francois Peron National Park
Regional Western Australia
