The federal government has formalised the nomination of Western Australia's famous Ningaloo Reef to a World Heritage listing.
Environment Minister Peter Garrett was in Perth on Wednesday to announce the addition of the area to Australia's National Heritage List and the sending of a nomination to the World Heritage Centre in Paris.
The Ningaloo coastline - a popular tourist drawcard - stretches some 260km along WA's north west cape, from Exmouth to Coral Bay, covering coral reefs and sponge gardens.
"The Ningaloo coast tells an extraordinary story of biogeography, climate change, the assembling of continents and the opening of oceans," Mr Garrett told reporters in Perth.
He said the Ningaloo Reef is home to some of Australia's most iconic marine animals, including dugongs, marine turtles, manta rays as well as whales and dolphins.
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The nomination will be assessed over the next 18 months.
Its proposed nomination had already been welcomed by researchers, who say the reef can be used to predict the effect of climate change on coral reefs.
Emily Twiggs, an applied geology researcher at Perth's Curtin University, says Ningaloo was already well known as one of the world's best coral reef "laboratories".
Supported by WA's Marine Science Institution (WAMSI), Ms Twiggs and her Curtin University supervisor, Associate Professor Lindsay Collins, have spent several years studying reef core samples of the eastern Ningaloo Reef within the Exmouth Gulf.
The samples, which have given them a history of the reef's growth over several thousand years, are being used to discover how the reef has responded to environmental change, including sea level fluctuations, coastal flooding and cyclone activity.
The reef's isolation, pristine waters and untouched corals made it the ideal place to monitor the response of coral reefs to climate change, Ms Twiggs said.
"Because it is largely untouched by human activity, the Ningaloo Reef is one of the better coral reefs to study the impact of climate change," she said.
The Ningaloo Reef becomes the 89th addition to the National Heritage List.
