Gascoyne, WA
reef-doorstep · whale-shark · backpacker · barefoot
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Drive to the coast
1 min
By road
Nearest major hospital
1h 39m
By road
Airport access
1h 21m
By road
Schools access
Limited
Rainfall
Very dry
Coral Bay is a very small settlement of about 245 people on the Ningaloo coast, built around a reef that reaches the beach itself — no boat is needed to snorkel it. The population here is young and highly transient: the median age is 33, renting accounts for 57.8% of dwellings, and couples without children outnumber those with them by more than two to one, a profile shaped by seasonal tourism and dive-industry work rather than settled family life.
Perth is close to 12 hours away by road, and even Learmonth Airport near Exmouth is over an hour's drive north. The nearest hospital, in Exmouth, is around 1 hour 40 minutes away. There is no fixed-line or fixed-wireless NBN footprint here; the connection is satellite. Rainfall is very low, in keeping with the rest of this coast.
Coral Bay suits people whose work or extended stay revolves around the reef itself, not anyone needing a school, routine healthcare or a conventional local job market.
16 photos
Coral Bay suits people who want to live inside the reef itself rather than near it: dive and tour operators, boat crew, and other tourism workers who can build a life around the whale shark and manta ray season. It also suits grey nomads and backpackers happy with a short stay. It does not suit anyone needing a school, routine healthcare, or steady work outside tourism.
Coral Bay has no school, no full-time doctor and no fixed-line internet — the connection is satellite. Perth is close to 12 hours by road, and even Exmouth's hospital and airport are over an hour and a half away. Housing is scarce, with a small number of sales pushing the median well past a million dollars. Life here runs on tourism seasons, not year-round routine.
Snorkel straight off the beach into Ningaloo Reef
Join a whale shark or manta ray tour departing the beach
Fish or kayak in the sheltered bay
Median house price
$1,500,000
No WA-wide median published
Sourced from REIWA (Real Estate Institute of Western Australia) · REIWA, 12 months ending August 2026
Healthcare access
Very limited
Shopping & everyday services
Moderate
Supermarket within 10km, limited other retail
Internet connection
Satellite
Outside both the fixed line and fixed wireless NBN footprints — Starlink and other satellite services still reach almost anywhere, but the built NBN infrastructure here is satellite-only.
Job market by industry
Trades — 14.6%
Largest share of local jobs
Employment figures cover this town's wider statistical region, not the town alone — you'll see the same figures for Geraldton, Kalbarri, Esperance, Hopetoun, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Exmouth, Denham and Carnarvon.
The score ranks this region against other regions for the same occupation, not against other jobs here — a low score means it isn't a regional stronghold for that field, not that there are no vacancies. Counts online job advertisements, so trades and farm work hired by word of mouth are undercounted, and outside capital cities this is published at a regional level larger than one town.
Coral Bay (SAL 50338) · 2021 Census
Younger than the national profile, with 10.6% aged 65 or over against 17.2%. Among households, couples without children outnumber couples with them (65.5% of families against 24.1%), and renting is well above the national rate, at 57.8% of dwellings against 30.6%. Lone-person households are more common than average (50% against 25.6%).
Population
245
Population growth
+22.9%
Exmouth (SA2 511021277)
Median age
33 years
Labour force participation
78.7%
Growth is measured across the wider area named under the figure, which can be a different size to the town.
Share of total population in each band — rounding means these won't land on exactly 100%.
Couples are a share of total families; lone-person households are a share of total households — different bases, not one breakdown.
Median personal income
$871
Per week · ≈ $45,292/year
Median family income
$2,349
Per week
Median household income
$1,166
Per week
Personal is one person's income; family and household cover everyone living together — a single-income household will show a lower household figure than its highest earner's personal one. Personal income also covers every resident aged 15 and over, retirees included, so it reads low in a town with an older population even where household income is solid.
Owner-occupied
35.9%
Rented
57.8%
Born in Australia
66.5%
Born overseas
28.2%
Doesn't sum to 100% — people who didn't state a birthplace are excluded rather than redistributed.