Whale Watching in Western Australia

The coast as a migration highway

For a few months each year the Western Australian coast becomes one of the busiest whale highways on the planet. The state sits on the migration route of one of the world's largest humpback populations, and it also hosts southern right whales, a reliable gathering of orcas, and seasonal blue whales. You can watch from a boat or from a clifftop, in the tropics or in the cold southern ocean, and the experience changes completely depending on which species you are after and which month you turn up. As with the wildflowers, the single most useful thing to get right is timing.

Humpback whales

Humpbacks are the ones most people see. The western population was hunted to the edge in the last century and has recovered strongly, now numbering somewhere above thirty thousand animals. They travel north along the coast from roughly May to August, heading for the warm Kimberley waters where they calve, then return south from September into December, this time with newborns in tow. The southbound leg is the better one for watching, because the mothers move slowly, rest in sheltered bays, and the calves are curious and often surface close to boats.

The easiest place to start is Perth. Day cruises leave from Hillarys and Fremantle from about September to early December, and on a good day you will see breaching and tail slapping within an hour of the marina. Further south, Geographe Bay off Dunsborough and Busselton is calm and protected, which makes it a favourite resting spot for mothers and calves and a comfortable trip for anyone prone to seasickness. Augusta, at the bottom of the south west, is one of the first places the whales appear on the northbound run, with boats working Flinders Bay from late May. In the north, Exmouth offers something rare: a licensed humpback swim on Ningaloo Reef from about August to October, where you enter the water in small groups while the animals pass. It runs alongside the better known whale shark season, which uses the same boats earlier in the year.

It is worth clearing up a common mix up here. The whale shark, the gentle giant Ningaloo is famous for, is a shark and not a whale at all, and its season runs earlier, from about March to August, when it feeds on the reef's annual coral spawn. The humpback swims use the same operators and the same stretch of reef but happen later, once the whales arrive. If a Ningaloo swim is on your list, decide which animal you are travelling for, because the two windows only overlap at the edges.

Southern right whales

Southern rights are the other great whale of the WA coast, and in some ways the more dependable show. Rather than passing through, they come to the southern shore to breed and calve, settling into sheltered bays from about June to October and often staying put for weeks. Because they hug the coast, they are the species you are most likely to see from land, sometimes only a hundred metres or so beyond the surf. Good spots include the bays around Albany, the coast near Esperance, Flinders Bay at Augusta, and Point Ann in the Fitzgerald River National Park, which has a lookout built for exactly this. Bring binoculars, settle in, and give it time; once your eye learns to pick out a blow or a black back rolling at the surface, you start seeing them everywhere.

Further around the south coast, the waters off Esperance and the bays within the Fitzgerald River and Cape Arid national parks see southern rights and the occasional humpback through winter and spring. Because so few people are watching, a sighting there can feel like your own private one. The trade off is that there are fewer organised tours, so this is land based watching for the patient.

The orcas of the Bremer Canyon

Off the small town of Bremer Bay, the continental shelf drops away into a deep submarine canyon, and each summer that canyon draws the largest known gathering of orcas in the southern hemisphere. From about January to April, day boats run out to the shelf edge to find them, and sightings are remarkably consistent for an animal that is usually so hard to predict. The same waters bring pilot whales, sperm whales, beaked whales and large numbers of seabirds, so the trip is a full day of open ocean wildlife rather than a single sighting. It is a long way to drive and a long day at sea, but for many people it is the most memorable wildlife experience the state offers.

Blue whales and the Perth Canyon

Less famous, and harder to see, are the pygmy blue whales that feed at the Perth Canyon off Rottnest Island, usually in autumn from about February to May. A handful of specialist trips go looking for them. Blue whales are the largest animals that have ever lived, and even a distant view of one is worth the effort, but set your expectations honestly: these trips are about the chance of a giant in deep water, not a guaranteed close encounter.

Boat or clifftop

The choice between a boat tour and land based watching comes down to budget, sea legs and the species. Boats get you close and are the only practical way to see humpbacks well off Perth or orcas at Bremer, but they cost more and the open ocean off the south coast can be rough. Land based watching is free and works best for southern rights, which come to the coast anyway. If you do take a boat, pick a morning departure when the wind is usually lightest, take something for seasickness well before you sail rather than once you feel ill, and remember that licensed operators must keep their distance, so the best encounters happen when a curious whale chooses to come to the boat.

What you will actually see

Set your expectations around behaviour, not just numbers. A humpback announces itself with a blow, a bushy spout of mist you often spot before the animal itself. From there the show varies. There is the slow roll and dive that lifts the broad tail clear of the water, known as fluking; a long pectoral fin held up and slapped against the surface; and, on the best days, a full breach, where a forty tonne animal throws most of its body into the air and lands in an explosion of white water. Mothers with calves tend to be calmer and closer to shore, while groups of males escorting a female can be fast and rowdy. Southern rights behave differently again, lolling in the shallows of a bay for hours and sometimes raising their tails to the wind like sails. Orcas travel and hunt in tight family pods and move quickly, so a Bremer Canyon day is about following the action rather than waiting for it. Knowing the difference helps you read what is happening rather than just watching a distant splash.

A short history worth knowing

It is easy to forget how recently this was a killing coast rather than a watching one. Albany was home to the last operating whaling station in Australia, which only closed in 1978. The site is now the Albany Historic Whaling Station at Discovery Bay, where you can walk through the old works and stand beside a restored whale chaser. It is a sobering counterpoint to a morning spent watching living whales a few kilometres offshore, and it puts the recovery of the humpback population into sharp perspective.

What to bring, and watching responsibly

For land based watching, a pair of binoculars changes everything, and a long camera lens helps but is not essential. Pick a headland with some height and a wide view, give your eyes time to settle into scanning the swell, and look for the blow rather than the body. Mornings are usually calmer and clearer. On a boat, dress in layers, because the wind offshore is colder than the beach suggests, bring a waterproof outer, and take any seasickness remedy before you leave the marina rather than once you feel unwell. Whatever you do, keep your distance from animals on the shore and in the water. Licensed operators work to strict approach rules that protect both you and the whales, and a mother with a calf is best given plenty of room. The reward for patience and good manners is that a curious whale will often close the gap itself, which beats chasing one every time.

Planning a whale trip

Because the species are spread around the coast and across the calendar, it helps to build a whale sighting into a trip you are already taking rather than chasing one in isolation. A spring drive through the south west naturally lines up with humpbacks in Geographe Bay and southern rights near Albany. A trip up the Coral Coast in winter or early spring puts you in Exmouth for the Ningaloo swim. A dedicated run to Bremer Bay in late summer is the one exception, a trip worth making for the orcas alone. Whichever you choose, book the boat tours ahead in peak months, because the good operators in Perth, Augusta, Exmouth and Bremer Bay sell out their best weeks well in advance.