Greens Pool is a sandy white beach with boulders on the south coast of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

between

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

and Walpole. This sheltered area is part of William Bay National Park and has a sandy white beach ringed by large

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

boulders that prevent the swell of the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

reaching the shoreline. The pool is roughly long from east to west and at its widest point from the beach to the protective rocks. Early settlers of the region used the beach location for outings and picnics. The area has a car park, viewing platform and toilet facility with a reasonably steep sandy path down to the beach. The granitic rocks along much of the south coast formed 1.5 billion years ago, placing them among some of the oldest rocks in the world. As the

Australian continent The continent of Australia, sometimes known in technical contexts by the names Sahul (), Australia-New Guinea, Australinea, Meganesia, or Papualand to distinguish it from the country of Australia, is located within the Southern and East ...

collided with

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

, the rocks along the south coast became part of the Albany-Fraser Orogen, and 600 million years ago the area was a massive mountain range. The mountains eroded away long ago and the remaining rocks were once deep down in the base of the range. The high pressures and temperatures these rocks experienced during the mountain building event caused them to melt then recrystallise, forming granitic

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures a ...

es and migmatites, which are referred to as granites. The pool is a popular tourist attraction within the National Park; in 1993-1994 the park had 110,000 visitors, and in 2011-2012 the park had some 218,105 visitors. In 2020, Greens Pool was ranked 13 in TripAdvisor's Top 25 Beaches in the South Pacific Greens Pool was named to honour Police Inspector John Green, who was originally a farmer in Denmark. His son, Victor Green, drowned in nearby

Wilson Inlet Wilson Inlet is a shallow, seasonally open estuary located on the coast of the Great Southern region of Western Australia. Description The inlet receives water from the two main rivers: the Denmark River and the Hay River and some smaller ...

in 1922, and often used to fish at the pool. It was originally known as Green's Pool but the

Lands Department The Lands Department is a government department under the Development Bureau responsible for all land matters in Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic ...

dropped the apostrophe for many place names although the letter "s" was retained. Robert Byleveld constructed the first track to Greens Pool in the early 1920s when most of William Bay was inaccessible and visited infrequently. Many species of fish inhabit the area, including; estuary cobbler, southern garfish, species of flathead, southern blue devil,

King George whiting The King George whiting (''Sillaginodes punctatus''), also known as the spotted whiting or spotted sillago, is a coastal marine fish of the smelt-whitings family Sillaginidae. The King George whiting is endemic to Australia, inhabiting the s ...

, skipjack trevally and

Australian herring The Australian herring (''Arripis georgianus''), also known as the ruff, tommy ruff, or Australian ruff, is one of four Australasian fish species within the genus '' Arripis''. It closely resembles its sister species, the Australian salmon, alth ...

References

{{coord, 35, 1, 27, S, 117, 14, 6, E, display=title, region:AU_type:isle_source:GNS-enwiki Great Southern (Western Australia) South coast of Western Australia Beaches of Western Australia