Norwegian Bay Whaling Station

Norwegian Bay is located on Ningaloo Station through the sand dunes south of Lefroy Bay. Offshore sit the wrecks of the SS Fin, The Zvir and the SS Perth and on the coastline remain the remnants of what was once the Norwegian Bay Whaling Station that operated periodically from 1915 until 1957.

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Originally built in 1915 and owned by the Norwegian Whaling Company, the whaling station was used as a shore base for its steam powered whale chasers until 1920. It was then purchased by the Australian North West Whaling Company who ran the station and its three ships, with a mainly north European crew until it was no longer viable to run the station and it was closed in 1929.

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Following World War II, the station was revamped and brought back into operation. At the time being one of the most advanced whaling stations of the period with state of the art steam powered processing facilities, permanent housing, two jetties, slipways and flensing decks. During this time it once again operated from 1949 until 1957 when operations moved to a Carnarvon based station.

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Today the foundations of the many buildings still remain at the site amongst the rusted and twisted remains of the oil holding tanks, various boilers and machinery used for  processing of the whale oil.