West Australian eco-tourism boosted by new Monkey Mia Visitor Centre

19/6/01
A million-dollar visitor centre with million-dollar views opened at Monkey Mia in Shark Bay today.
And those views will be beamed to the world via the Internet from a DolphinCam giving visitors a birds eye view of dolphin regulars Nicky, Nomad, Puck, Piccolo, Kiya, Surprise and Sparky.
Positioned at the edge of the beach overlooking the dolphins, the new Monkey Mia Visitor Centre will host 100,000 visitors a year with numbers growing as the people make the trek to the World Heritage Listed Shark Bay area.
The web camera, operating from the centre, will feed live coverage of visiting dolphins to CALM's website http://www.naturebase.net
Environment and Heritage Minister Dr Judy Edwards said the visitor centre was a working example of tourism and the environment living side by side under sensitive management.
The plywood panel and treated pine building was designed by Perth architect James Edwardes, formerly of Cox Howlett and Bailey, and follows a sailing theme with energy efficiency in mind.
Built less than 20 metres from the beach, the centre includes a 200-seat amphitheatre with shadecloth sails, a fish preparation room for the dolphins' strict feeding program and a beach office for CALM staff.
"This is a beautiful setting that will show off our bottlenosed dolphins in a way that lets visitors enjoy nature without making an adverse impact on it," she said.
"It achieves environmental harmony because it is managed so that Conservation and Land Management staff can give visitors guidance about how to enjoy nature while minimising their impact on it."
CALM took over the day-to-day management of the beach and marine park from the Shire of Shark Bay in 1995 and began planning the new visitors centre soon after.
"Numbers of visitors were growing and the old centre had become too small for the increasing numbers of visitors, about 70 per cent of them from Australia and 30 per cent from overseas," Dr Edwards said.
She said the centre incorporated interactive and static colourful displays to capture the interest and imagination of visitors by providing an insight into the fascinating bottlenosed dolphins and the world around them.
It was built with funds from CALM ($400,000), the Federal Department of Industry, Science and Tourism ($400,000), the Monkey Mia Trust Fund ($100,000) and the Department of Workplace Relations and Small Business ($41,000). It will be open seven days a week from 7.30am to 4.30pm.
The DolphinCam is CALM's first web camera and may be joined by web cameras in other parts of the State. It operates from 6am to 6pm. The best time for seeing dolphins is between 7.30am to 11am.
"We expect the DolphinCam will significantly increase the 50,000 hits a day that CALM's web site, naturebase.net, receives," Dr Edwards said.
The State Training Ship, HMAS Leeuwin, will be moored in the bay at Monkey Mia today. CALM staff have organised free tours between 12.30pm and 4pm.
Media contact: John Carey 9220 5050