Hamelin Pool Stromatolites Hamelin Pool, Western Australia, Australia
By SIDEandHEEK on 11-Sep-10. Waypoint GC2F13P

Archiving this cache.

Find #: 3146
Date: Mon 13 Oct 2014
Time: 12 13 PM
We left Kalbarri today and drove to Monkey Mia.
Along the way we found 5 caches of which this was the 4th.
I've been aware of these stromatolites for a long time, and seeing them was to be one the highlights on our road trip from Melbourne.
We saw the ones in Lake Thetis on the way up, and these were a lot different, and more spectacular in number and diversity of shapes.
I've sent an email to the CO via his caching profile.
Thanks for placing this cache SIDEandHEEK

As we head from town to town as part of our "Purposeful Meander around Oz" the Rats and the Mini Rats found this cache.

Arriving here we had no idea what we were about to see as we'd never heard of Stromatolities and in the eyes of a 9 year old boy "they're just rocks in the water Dad", but for the rest of us this was a very interesting place. The area has certainly changed and we didn't have any idea what the questions were referring to but with the help of the CO we can log our find on this amazing piece of history.

Thanks for being part of our great adventure.
TFTC

I have been informed that the old signs with the information in them for my questions have been removed and replaced with new signs. I need to update the questions now to relate with new signs. If you visit the earthcache in the meantime please do your best to answer what you can from your visit or wiki searches and send me a pic and I'll grant your visit. Thanks Brendan

After walking around the site several times we were wondering where we would find these answers in the end we just enjoyed looking around and reading all the informative signs, it wasn't until we looked around the old telegraph station that we found a heap of old signs and the realisation dawned that they had been all replaced with new signage, we managed to find the answers on the old signs and CO has given us the tick to log. A fantastic spot to visit to see such ancient life forms, new signage has been photographed for the CO to update the questions. TFT Earthcache SIDEandHEEK

Whilst driving South on our way to Denham we stopped here to see these amazing Stromatolites. I never realised how ecologically important they were here on Earth. Fascinating to read about and see.
I stumbled upon some of the old signs that seemed to have been removed and found a few of the required answers to the clues. Thanks B for letting us know about this place with this Earthcache.

Fantastic spot. Interesting to get the answers to the question. Tftc

This is a very beautiful place to visit, with glorious aqua blue sea above white sand. The fact that it also has these amazing stromatolites with their long and important ecological history only adds to a visit here. We would have come anyway, but how much better to be able to do an Earthcache that highlights the importance of these growing stones.
TFTC its a great one!

This entry was edited by SKI Pair on Saturday, 02 August 2014 at 09:29:00 UTC.

This was another find in Western Australia while crossing Northern Territory and Western Australia from Darwin to Perth on Gibb River Road through the Kimberlys. During this 8500km journey we've met many nice and friendly people [^], visited countless marvelous places, saw lots of interesting local wildlife (and plants), took some 2500 pictures home and logged some 300 Caches .

We've enjoyed the walk and exploring the area while we've learned a lot about Hamelin Pool and the Stromatolites, cool . But finding at home all necessary information to answer the numerous questions was somewhat a pain for us... The answers were sent to the owner .

Thanks for the E-Cache,
$8Vs (Cacheators)

After 4 years we are back by the stromatolites.
The look different now, because it's low water.
The questions were a little bit difficult.
Thnaks for the cache at this beautifull fenomenon.

CO approved our find months ago but we forgot to actually log the cache. This is one of the most amazing places we have seen in Australia.

A group of us had an incredible journey up the West coast of Australia. We stopped off at Geraldton and Kalbarri before heading up to Shark Bay and Monkey Mia. By the time we had reached the 353 turn off the sun starting to get low. We stopped at the Hamelin Pool for a good rest and to learn wonders about the Stromatolites. These are amazing and it's so interesting (1) how old they are and (2) how they grow. The sign boards here are a wealth of information and visiting here was an amazing experience. TFTEC SIDEandHEEK. A definite favourite point from us.

After two days working in the Mudflats next to Exmouth my working colleagues and I drove back to Perth. Here at Shark Bay we made a little overnight stop. We spend the night in Hamelin Station and before we visited the Stromatolites we visited Shell Beach.
We arrived here one 30 min before sunset and due to this the light was amazing but the Stromatolites no so good to see like during daytime. Although it was high tide! Wished we could stayed here longer! TFTC and showing me this place. Without this EC I probably would not have seen this!
The picture is coming in the next days after I uploaded them from my SD card!

Very interesting and educational tour. On our way to Shark Bay we stopped here and had a look at this formations. Thanks to the Owner to put here an Earthcache.

Visited the strimatolites with katzenfreund8. We had some problems to answer correctly, but thanks to the owner we can log this cache. Thak you for bringing us here!

We enjoyed our visit and appreciate the time taken in setting up this Earthcache. We are very lucky to have such a beautiful planet. Photo attached. With greetings from Cornwall, England, TFTC

what an awesome day we had collecting amswers for this cache well donesideandheek thanks for the cache

very nice location, we stayed at the near campground and looked for the answers in the next morning. lots of history and nature! we enjoyed! thanks and greetings from switzerland

Found it on our road trip from Perth to Exmouth and back. Great location.
We had a bit of struggle to find all answers.
TFTC

You have gotta love Stromatalites. We do. TFTC.
As a bonus we saw Thick Billed Grasswren and Chiming Wedgebill in the carpark

Answers send, confirmation within a few minutes.

Our Little one kept asking what the signs said even before we were there.
He learned a lot again from this Cache.
Now he has something Special he can tell his friends about back home in Germany.

Thanks for teaching us,
RR369 from Bremen

This was our 2nd cache find in a caching run of 2 Finds & 0 DNFs today.
We found it at 12:17 so this now makes our total find count 7141.
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We thoroughly enjoyed our stroll around the board walk. The information signs contain a wealth of information, but we almost missed a vital clue as the sign has been broken off its post.
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Thanks SIDEandHEEK for the hunt today.

This entry was edited by ian-and-penny on Saturday, 19 October 2013 at 03:14:54 UTC.

This is an awesome part of the world with the boardwalk and interpretive signs making it extremely accessible to the visitor.

We gathered the info as we went around marvelling at it all. A unique place!

Thanks SIDEandHEEK for the earthcache and your prompt response

Stopped in on our way to Exmouth. Very nice spot.
TFTC

we hunted and searched our way around and then we sent our homework to the teacher...and it passed (phew!)
TFTC

On holidays here with my family... Mum & Dad did all the hard work for this one but they told me all about the stromatolites! TFTC SIDEandHEEK

On our way to Denham and Monkey Mia, we stopped by this amazing spot [^]. We gathered the required info as we made our way to the end of the boardwalk to check out these awesome lifeforms . A little choppy today, so possibly not the best conditons to view them ... got plenty of photos anyway
Thanks for bringing us to this beautiful spot SIDEandHEEK ... and TFTC [^]

Posting after the go ahead from the CO
Fresh start to the day as we leave Denham on the way we dropped into Hamelin pool to see the Stromatolites ..
Thanks for the cache

We are logging this cache with the CO's permission.....we got one question wrong oops!!
A fantastic area with very well preserved stromatolites. We have visited similar features at Lake Thetis near Cervantes and unfortunately they are looking very sad.
The thrombolites we saw at Lake Clifton are reasonably well preserved at this stage but the 'stroms' here are quite stunning.
Many thanks SIDEandHEEK for a great lesson in our natural environment. [^][^]

We're travelling with a failed cache extract -- it provides cache location but no information... A "gaff 1 tour", I believe it would be called.

Anyway, we couldn't read the questions so just enjoyed the stromatolites.

tftc

In Western Australia you take these remarkable structures for granted. Living in Busselton meant I had to pass those at Lake Clifton (Mandurah) and those at Lake Thetis (Cervantes) to get to these at Hamelin Pool, all in this same trip.
TFTH

Approval received.
On our way to Denham with the family for a week. This area is fascinating and should be high on the list to see for everyone. Had a great time. TFTH SideandHEEK

Tracking TB visit

Tracking TB visit

Found whilst on holiday from Norway with my family. Excellent place to visit. Answers sent and approved from A1HydeAndSeek. TFTC.

This was a must do cache and place on our trip down under! We hired a car and drove from Monkey Mia and visited all the main attractions on the way. This was a real high point. A great place to visit and so well presented with lots of fun facts and information. We probably took about 200 pics. Maybe one or two are good. TFTC.

E'd answers
Scorching out on boardwalk at 2:40pm. But nice breeze and mid tide so we saw fish amongst the stromatolites and could imagine we saw bubbles. NINO TFTEC
Ps edited to correct date

Really interesting place, even if very hot today, nearly 40 ° celsius

A most interesting place. It helps us to continue to learn.

Great educational walk and a great snapshot into the evolution of our world ad we know it. Plus with a few difficult questions to answer we feel like we're on a school excursion. TFTC

A very interesting Cache and a very good idea. We should place something like this back home in switzerland (not the stromatolites). TFTC and greetings form our honeymoon.

Stopped here on the way to Denham, it has been 13 years since we where last here so its great to see they are well looked after and a good educational side-trip for the junior geo cachers .
Thanks for a great Earth cache [^].

Email sent, awaiting confirmation but as we might not have reception for a while, we thought we'd log this now so we don't forget to.

After meeting Sir David Attenborough in August in Perth for Azz's 30th birthday (Sir David was doing live shows in Australia titled "Life on Earth" and was a collaboration of his decades in documentary making), and finding out that Shark Bay is one of his favourite places on Earth due to these Stromatolites, we just could not miss coming here to see them for ourselves and luckily there was this Geocache to mark our visit

It's amazing that we owe our existence to the Stromatolites, and we are lucky enough to have such intact ones to be able to marvel at!!

Thanks for the cache SIDEandHEEK, hope you don't mind that we logged our find before officially getting confirmation first?

AzzAndJadey

Has taken us two months to log this find! We really enjoyed our stay at the Hamelin Pool caravan park, and it is always a bonus when there is a cache nearby. Thanks for all of the information and effort put into this cache, a real learning experience- how about that shell block quarry?

Very interesting looking at structures which date back so far
1. stromatalites are layered limestone rock built by single-celled cyanobacteria(blue-green bacteria) which trap and bind sediments
2.A sand bar called the Faure
3. Super salty water due to the restricting sand bar means few sea snails
4.500 to 1000 years ago. Colour could be due to iron in the water or visiting bacteria
5.Wagon wheel ruts from wagons carrying wool
6.Tidal movement, waves and abrasion due to sand and shell
7.Oxygen from stromatalites helped raise the percentage to 20% thus allowing all air breathing life forms to evolve.


This entry was edited by Golfnutscaravan on Tuesday, 16 October 2012 at 08:38:21 UTC.

Stopped in on our way home from Exmouth. We had been here before but our friends had not. Had a very nice lunch before doing the walk. The tide was very low which made us realise how fragile these are. Thanks for an interesting earthcache.

What interesting site! And interesting in more than one way, because I am biogeologist and my ancestor was François L'Haridon, surgeon for Hamelin's scientific expedition ! It was impossible for me to miss that super earthcache! Thanks to SIDEandHEEK.

Really interesting to learn all about this fascinating building block of life --- thank you very much.

Seeing these stromatelites was one of the goals of our WA trip. Awesome having an earth cache to go with it. Amazing creatures, we owe them our existence. Thanks for the cache.

Thanks for the approval and thanks to Mr. St. and his little friends for their brilliant work.

There is considerably more information available here since our last visit (twenty years ago) We appreciate having a really good excuse to stop here again. Not only to grab another Earthcache smiley but having to learn much more about these structures just to answers the multiple quaetions. Good job Side&Heek. TFTC

Found it when touring this area with a group Adventurous Women. Very interesting area and information.
"Zo zie je nog eens iets" Thanks for bringing us here!

Late log entry. Found with Coast’n Along. Helped Coast'n find the answers.

Coast’n Along and Kool Running heading north from Esperance to Karratha, then heading back to Albany in 5 weeks. Found the required information and took in a biology lesson at the same time.

Gotcha !!! Thanks for passing my answers.... Bringing us to this interesting spot and TFTC

After having a tastfull breakfast at Hamelin Pool Telegraph Station, we had a walk to the seaside, to learn something about stromatolites.

Thanks for log-permission and regards to the owners

Some interesting shapes and an excellent boardwalk to access them as well, It's amazing that they had not been dug up and used for fertiliser or something similar.

Very interesting sight and great boardwalk to see them from on a still day with a low tide but not today as the tide was in and the wind had built up quite a swell. TFTC location

Am logging in anticipation that our answers are correct. Great place. Never heard of stromatolites before but wrote it so many times while doing cache that I think its firmly embedded in my brain now [not an easy thing to do]. Thanks, not as complicated a cache as I thought it would be.

Doing some GPS house cleaning and I noticed this one was not logged despite getting the cache owners permission some time ago.. Ooops 6 months later is better than never right

Brilliant spot and very interesting, a huge thanks to the cache owner for having the vision to draw is unto this spot, most enjoyable.

TFTC
AlliedOz aka The Jokers

Great area!

Highlite of my day, until I fed a kangaroo.

Great location. It was very interesting learning about the Stromatolites. TFTC.
Our first Earth Cache.

Found it on our trip to Denham.
It's a very nice location for a walk.
The stromatolites are worth a detour.
TFTC
_Luis

Found on the trip from Darwin to Perth.
T4TC

With the holidays half completed, geoson and I decided on a road trip, he is not a big caching fan, but we had an agreement that as we travelled to Shark Bay and back, a few detours along the way were allowed.

This is a very interesting spot, we parked at the local caravan park kiosk, and approached via the telegraph station. It was a slow walk as we took in the history of this area.

The history of the Stromatolites was great. To think that these organisms were the reason we have life on this planet is amazing.

Thanks SIDEandHEEK for giving us a reason to stop. Logged with permission of CO

On my trip with my daughter aussiefalke we drove from Darwin, to Broome to Port Hedland, through Carnavon, to Exmouth, to Monkey Mia, to Geraldton, to Hyden, to Bunbury and finally we went through Freemantle on our way to Perth.
We also stopped at this cache..
Thank you very much for showing us this beautiful landmark
Thanks and best greetings from Germany
Team sissifalke

We've been to Australia for almost a month. Drove >5000KM with a campervan, took ~3500 pictures, seen Sydney, Melbourne, Kangaroo Island, Adelaide, Perth ... what a great trip!

And of course we also found quite a number of caches


Of this one I especially remember that it was hot like hell and there were millions of flys seeming to be keen to crouch in eyes and nose ... horrible.

Made it hard to focus on finding the answers ... but we more or less succeeded

TFTC!

This entry was edited by Trithdurol on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 4:18:08 AM UTC.

The second time after 2009 we are here, this time the cache had to be done. I will provide the answers you requested asap via email but please don't delete the log as I want to keep travelling of the trackables I have with me correct. Thank you!

Just finished logging my finds for the area 5 of 6 : http://coord.info/GC2MA3P
Excuses logged, as my laptop died; today is January 1st 2012. Returning to the area I was glad to revisit this spot as I missed out 18 years ago on the drive by. Thanks for history lesson, its incredible what these scientist come up with.

A fascinating place to visit although plagued by flies on the day we were there. Thanks for bringing us to this place.

Stopped off here on our drive from Carnarvon to Monkey Mia. I had never heard of Stromatolites before.

Found with brekmiller on our way from Carnarvon to Monkey Mia.

I saw some Stromatolites last year at the Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. This is the first time I seen any on the coast.

TFTC!

Great spot.
Learnt a lot of new info about Stromatolites.
TFTH

Today we visited the stromatolites with our guided tour. It was very interesting and i learned a lot. Thanks for this earthcache.

Greetings from Switzerland

A very fun and educational stop on our great visit to Shark Bay!

We were visiting WA with Robyn's 88yr old mother, mostly looking for wildflowers for her, but calling into other interesting places while we were in the state. We found the Hamelin Pool Stromatolites interesting and had lunch nearby. Unfortunately, we found the number of questions tedious to answer which to some extent spoilt our enjoyment of the area It probably didn't help that one of the signs appeared to be missing. TFTC SIDEandHEEK

We really enjoyed our visit to Hamelin Pool and learnt a great deal about stomatolites. Logged with the approval of the owner. TFTC SIDEandHEEK

Called in here with dingbat12 on our way to Denham, enjoyed the experience and chased down the answers and now back home again catching up on logs. Have now permission to log the find. thanks sideandheek

Its hard work logging these earth caches but I think I answered all the questions. TFTC at this interesting spot.

We have visited this site previously before we knew about geocaching. Lots of people here this time. Enjoyed walking around with our notepad taking down screeds of notes to answer all the questions required for this cache!

Great spot and excellent location for an earthcache. (have permission to log this cache)

TFTC SIDEandHEEK

This entry was edited by FelixII on Sunday, 21 August 2011 at 12:27:17 UTC.

Great location, TFTC

Found them and emailed answers

Visited here with e.gregory1. Loved the stromatolites and the informative walk. TFTC

An early morning visit on our way into Denham. A beautiful place when it is fine and not windy. Also enjoyed the interpretive walk along the foreshore. Thanks SIDEandHEEK for the cache.

We were there at 10.50am on our way to Exmouth after staying a few days in Denham. We had already seen stromatolites and thromatolites in Lake Thetis in Cervantes where we were told that they were the only ones, however the ones here are much more impressive and the information about them is much clearer.
In the crysal clear water we could see shoals of small fish and then the occasional larger one here and there - must be a nursery area as well.
Thanks SIDEandHEEK for highlighting this area.

A great place to visit. Thanks for the cache.

On our trip from Perth to Broome we had a rest at the Hamelin Pool Stromatolites. The flies are really very annoying at this interesting place.

Thanks and greetings from Germany

A very interesting place.

A FTF for a earth cache for the Albany Nomads.
Very interesting site though the flies just about carried us away.
Many thanks for bringing us here

On our tour up to the north, we also stopped here on the 6th of april, but I answered the questions only on the 26th of april, so congratulations to the Albany Nomads for the FTF. What an intersting place...
T4TC and many greetings from Germany [blue]aNtO oN tOuR[/blue]

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