New Exmouth Gulf Marine Park from the air Roger Smith
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
LAGO is a delightful local abbreviation for the most serene experience I’ve ever had in a place that is — at last — the Exmouth Gulf Marine Park. But you’ll need to read the full story to find out what LAGO means, it’s worth it!
Landing at Exmouth airport is like flying into a surreal painting that messes with your eyesight.
I always get a window seat because I can’t miss what I consider is Australia’s most spectacular sight. As the aircraft loses altitude a swirling palette of ochre reds and aqua blues spills into view, spreading from horizon to horizon.
At first it’s difficult to take in the giant scale of what you’re looking at until you realise aqua is Exmouth Gulf and ochre is the surrounding land.
Depending on the haze, at about a thousand metres above the Gulf you begin to make out all the nuances of the western shoreline but the eastern shore remains ethereal, often merging with the sky, hiding a massive network of mangrove lined channels.
Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you can see humpback whales breaching below you….not just one, but many!
No words can really describe Exmouth Gulf, you have to go there and see it for yourself. It’s huge and, in contrast to the surrounding arid land, the water abounds with every sort of marine life you could imagine.
Dugongs, sea snakes, dolphins, whales, sawfish, sharks, octopus; and that’s just the beginning — I could fill this story with the names of all the seagoing creatures of the Gulf. And there’s more being discovered each year.
Exmouth Gulf Marine Park: result of a 20 year global campaign
Exmouth Gulf is a marine wonderland that has been nurturing nature for millions of years — virtually unchanged since European settlement of Australia — but over the past 20 years a constant push for industrialisation of the Gulf led to ongoing calls to protect the region in perpetuity. Read a timeline of events from Mission Blue
On 5th September 2025 the WA government posted a media release that headlined:
“The Cook Labor Government will establish a new marine park spanning the entire Exmouth Gulf to conserve and protect the globally significant marine habitat for generations to come.”
I can’t glorify the “the Cook Labor Government” subliminal boast about a decision that should have happened 15 years ago.
Labor did not create the park, it succumbed — at last — to decades of pressure by people from all over the world who knew that Exmouth Gulf was, and remains, one of the most significant water bodies on the planet.
Which raises the question: why must people fight to protect wild places that are so obviously natural wonders? In this case the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization agrees.
In 2011 UNESCO proposed that the Gulf be included in what was to become the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area. This was a no-brainer because the famed Ningaloo Reef borders the entrance to the Gulf. The two made perfect partners but no, the Gulf was excluded from the new WHA leaving it vulnerable to industrialisation, which began almost immediately.
Exmouth Gulf’s exclusion from UNESCO’s Final World Heritage Listing was caused by a lack of vision by the Australian and Western Australian governments not by UNESCO.
Vast and remote, Exmouth Gulf a magnificent Marine Park
Due to its convoluted shoreline there’s much conjecture about the Gulf’s size. It’s generally referred to as being about 2,600 square kilometres but a simple Google map calculation adds another 400 km2 to bring it up to a more realistic 3,000 km2.
It’s a reasonably shallow, funnel shaped water body about 80klms long and 50klms wide, bounded on the west by the North-west Cape, Ningaloo Reef and the pounding waves of the Indian Ocean stretching all the way to Africa, 8000klms away.
To the east you must cross 3,000klms of some of the harshest, driest country on earth before you come to a landscape that is hospitable. Perth, the closest city, is over a 1000klms away.
This is a very remote place.
What is a LAGO and how does it work?
My experiences on Exmouth Gulf can be described in one word: enraptured. Every moment I have spent over it, beside it, on it or in it has been mind blowing.
From the time we watched a female humpback whale and her calf asleep in the Gulf’s cradling waters, 10 kilometres off Exmouth; to a seething mass of giant tuna leaping out of the water hunting a large school of fish; to tens of thousands of budgerigars flying across the Gulf on an inexplicable journey northwards — my personal list could go on and on.
But none of this eclipses a moment that caught me completely off guard as, late one afternoon, I walked over a sand dune to the Gulf’s shoreline near the town of Exmouth.
Behind me the sun was dipping towards the horizon, its rays catching the sea spinifex along the beach.
But it was the state of the Gulf that caught at my heart: its waters appeared like slightly rippled glass rising up towards the rays of the earth’s shadow growing out of the eastern horizon.
I stopped, popped off a photo (see below) then sat, dumbfounded, on the dune. I have never experienced such serenity.
Out there, under that water, a tumult of life was bubbling away but on the surface was purified peace. The locals know this time well because it happens most evenings, regardless of the winds or waves of the day.
They’ve affectionately given it a name: Late Afternoon Glass Off, often abbreviated to LAGO
So there you have it: the perfect nickname for a time of day in a place that is at last at rest from exploitation and can go back to being its own pure self…..
But can it? Sadly that’s not the end of the story.
Turn Towards Climate Action – join our citizen science tour
Ocean heating caused by climate change is impacting on Ningaloo reef and Exmouth Gulf. This gives you a good reason to visit, in fact I hope it gives you added impetus to go see the place and help protect it.
We must turn towards climate action not away from it. Your voice, along with thousands of others, helps bring about change. Go to Exmouth, be involved, there’s still much to see there and even more to do to help the place.
Exmouth Gulf & Ningaloo: How You Can Help
The Exmouth Gulf Marine Park owes its existence to the perseverance of thousands of people from all over the world who never gave up fighting for it. You can join them
- the Baiyungu, Thalanyji and Yinikurtura People – traditional custodians
- Protect Ningaloo
- Oceanwise
- Mission Blue (Story Map)
- Cape Conservation Group
- Australian Marine Conservation Society
- Echidna Walkabout’s dear friends in Exmouth, we cherish your support and friendship
- Tour Operators who fight for Ningaloo and the the Gulf
For a deeper insight into the region and the threats watch the incredible 3 part series: Ningaloo Nyinggulu by Tim Winton on ABC iView
More stories about Ningaloo & Exmouth Gulf
➡️Tiny seahorses : Italian videographer tells why she loves Ningaloo
➡️Coincidences at Ningaloo: Unveiling the Indian Ocean’s wildlife
➡️Why Protect Ningaloo?
Help unleash the power of Conservation Travel
Step into the future of travel. Join one of our Conservation Travel tours. An increasing number of these tours include an important Citizen Science project.
➡️Echidna Walkabout is a Founding Member of Australian Wildlife Journeys.
➡️We create, guide and operate tours for Australian Geographic Travel
➡️$10 from every person on tour goes to Koala Clancy Foundation
➡️Donate to Koala Clancy here
