I was lucky enough to spend over an hour meandering Canal Rocks in Western Australia. After spotting a large crab scuttle under a rock crevice, I watched the incoming tide crash and spill over the rocks, creating natural waterfalls everywhere I looked. Read on for Canal Rock's history.
Location: Canal Rocks Western Australia is a 3 hour drive south of Perth, in the Yallingup National Park
About the area
Warm tropical waters flowing the Leeuwin Current intertwine with the cooler Capes Current resulting in magical unique marine life. Canal Rocks in Western Australia showcases one of the most diverse temperate marine environments in Australia.
The protected marine ecosystem between Geographe and Flinders Bay harbour a sea floor scattered with enormous gneiss boulders, rocky crevices and thick seaweed. The unique landscape provides ultimate hiding places for Western King Wrasse, Dusky Morwong and Scalyfin, while vibrant sea squirts, sponges and coral cling to the boulders.
Above the water, subtle banding on the rocks scatter throughout the landscape which is characteristic of gneiss. Gneiss, pronounced as "nice" is a type of rock which metamorphosed from molten rock to granite, kilometers beneath the surface approximately 750 million years ago. The gneiss was formed with extreme temperatures and heightened pressure creating minerals and texture in the granite. The result is the creation of gneiss and the limestone coverage we can observe in person today.
The current day Canal Rocks Western Australia once neighboured Greater India however 230 million years ago, the supercontinent Gondwana showed signs of formation. In more recent times, a mere 2 million years ago, sand dunes blew to the coast forming many of the cliffs in the region. Linear canals sculptured the area to provide us with scattered rocky islands.
The unusual erosion pattern of vertical canals has been caused by millions of years of crashing waves on intersecting joint systems, fractures and faults within the gneiss.
Check out the following video!
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