STOKES INLET

Located 81 kilometres west of Esperance on Stokes Inlet Road only 4Km off the main highway (the closest campsite in this area to the main road.) There are two campsites with the first (north) being most suitable for small caravans. (Big rigs and big vans (as with most CALM sites) are not catered for.) It is a nice location near the inlet. The road in is unsealed but in fairly good condition.

The Young and the Lort Rivers flow into the upper end of the estuary which in turn empties out into Dunster Castle Bay. Most of the time a sand bar blocks the flow of water into the sea and it is only breached during times of very high rainfall in the area. The estuary is the largest of its kind in the area and is the only one with reasonably deep water, up to 10 metres.

When the bar an the estuary mouth is breached by sea water it allows the entry of various species of marine fish but as the estuary becomes too saline during times of low rainfall most of the fish that enter die off. The one exception to this is the black bream which has successfully colonised the estuary waters.

Australian shelduck, grey teal, little black cormorants, black swans, chestnut teal, sandpiper, red-capped plover. Australasian grebes, Australian pelicans, little pied cormorants, white-faced herons, great egrets and pied oystercatchers are among the 29 species of birds known to live around or to visit the estuary. 

Stokes Inlet and the Lort River were named after John Lort Stokes by John S. Roe in 1848.

There s a 4 kilometre heritage trail.

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