Roebuck Bay

It overlies yellowish-red Broome Sandstone of Cretaceous age which, when exposed at the base of the cliff, shows occasional fossil footprints of dinosaurs.

[4] Landward of the mangrove-lined creeks along the eastern shore are bare flats that are only flooded on high spring tides, with the hypersaline soil inhibiting the establishment of vegetation, except for some areas of samphire.

The wet season spans the austral summer, with most of the year's annual precipitation falling during this period, primarily in the form of severe tropical thunderstorms.

The lengthier dry season occupies the remainder of the year, typically from May to November, when the temperatures are slightly cooler yet still very warm, and rainfall is extremely light and rare to nearly non-existent.

[4] The mangrove swamps that line the eastern and southern edges of the bay and extend into the tidal creeks are important nursery areas for marine fish and crustaceans, particularly prawns.

[3] The intertidal mud and sand flats support high densities of benthic invertebrates, providing a key food source for waders or shorebirds.

It is a principal spring arrival site in August–October for large proportions of the Australian populations of many species, and especially for the larger ones that travel non-stop from China to Australia.

The IBA also encompasses the low-lying, occasionally inundated, coastal grasslands to the east of the bay on Roebuck Plains Station, including Lake Eda, where many waders roost during very high tides.

In the 1890s, Roebuck Bay was the terminus of a proposed but unrealised land grant railway from Angle Pole across the border in the Northern Territory.

Roebuck Bay, with its sheltered waters, was the site chosen for the undersea telegraph cable from Asia to come ashore in 1871, to continue overland to Perth.