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The Western Australian margin is a unique coral reef province, with modern coral reef development occurring at latitudes as far south as 29°S. The genesis of this coral reef province may go back to the Oligo-Miocene, since geological features ~30 million-year-old and younger interpreted as coral reefs are known from offshore seismic surveys. The nature of these seismic reefs is, however, uncertain, as they are only sparsely sampled, and as time-equivalent outcrops are only present in a few remote and understudied locations. This study investigates middle Miocene shallow-water limestones with tropical fauna formed along the North West Shelf (NWS) between ~13 Ma and ~15 Ma, when the southward extension of the seismic reefs was at its maximum. The outcrops and cores investigated are dominantly composed of peloidal packstones and micritic floatstones containing larger benthic foraminifera, Halimeda sp …