A mob of euro kangaroos bursts from mangrove scrub and bounds across terracotta dunes as a Land Cruiser brakes hard on a white-sand beach. This is Francois Peron National Park on Western Australia's Coral Coast, 850 kilometres north of Perth, and the driver is Darren Capewell — "Capes" — a Malgana and Nhanda descendant running Wula Gura Nyinda Eco Cultural Adventures.
The park sits inside the UNESCO-listed Shark Bay World Heritage Area, known as Gutharraguda — "Two Waters" — in the Malgana language. The protected zone spans a 52,000-hectare former sheep station on a narrow peninsula, plus Dirk Hartog Island next door. It's a striking collision of scenery: red desert cliffs and acacia-dotted dunes dropping into vividly blue Indian Ocean water. From the lookout at Skipjack Point, the clear water makes it easy to spot manta rays, sharks, turtles, dolphins and dugongs foraging below.
But the real draw of a tour like Capes's is the framing. As he puts it, his work isn't tourism — it's looking after Country, the all-encompassing Indigenous idea of land, culture, home and creation. Tourism, in his view, is simply a vehicle that lets him be on Country and share it. He sings in language during the drive, and introduces guests to plants like the summer-scented wattle, a fire-resistant acacia endemic to Western Australia that perfumes the coastal dunes and historically provided First Nations people with shelter and fuel.
There's also literary history in the sand. Writer Robyn Davidson ended her famous 1977 trek from Alice Springs — roughly 1,700 miles with four camels and a dog, recounted in her book Tracks — at Hamelin Pool near Shark Bay.
Practical takeaway for travellers: if you book an Indigenous-led 4WD tour here, expect wildlife sightings to be fleeting rather than guaranteed. Capes's advice on photographing the wallaroos — have your finger on the trigger before you even spot them — is worth heeding. Come for the marine life and red-dune-meets-ocean scenery, but stay for the interpretation; you'll leave understanding the landscape rather than just having seen it.
This story suits travellers planning a Western Australia road trip beyond Perth, cruisers with Shark Bay on the itinerary, and anyone keen to spend tourism dollars with Aboriginal-owned operators.
