Water covers intertidal mudflats around Roebuck Bay in Western Australia, as seen in this image captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 on March 18, 2026. Among those places is Roebuck Bay, a crescent-shaped feature in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. But the large range at Roebuck Bay is mostly a consequence of northwestern Australia's unusually wide, shallow continental shelf, which helps amplify tides as they approach the coast. Around Roebuck Bay, inland vegetation greens after monsoon rains, peaking in March, and turns brown and dry by June. NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren DauphinMonsoonal rains, typically falling between December and March, transform the landscape around the bay into lush grasslands and seasonal wetlands.