While stromatolites might sound like something belonging in a cave, these ‘living fossils’ grow in the water at Hamelin Pool. Rock-like in appearance, they’re actually alive, and reveal what life might have been like 3.5-billion years ago, when there was no other complex life on Earth. Remarkably, this is the world’s most abundant colony of them. It’s just one of the natural allures of the state’s World Heritage listed Shark Bay, the largest bay in Australia with more than 1,000 kilometres of beaches. Not all of them are sandy – welcome to Shell Beach. Here, the snow-white colour comes from billions of tiny coquina bivalve shells, up to 10 metres deep and stretching for 70 kilometres. And just when you thought the outlook couldn’t get any prettier, you arrive at Monkey Mia.