WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Perth
 

Perth is the city where the sun (almost) always shines. It is a city that is surrounded with some of Australia’s most magnificent natural beauty, as well as teaming with restaurants, shopping and cultural precincts. The city is located beside the Swan River and within minutes of the CBD, you can experience beach lifestyle, natural bushland and wine regions. Visit Kings Park - one of the world’s largest inner city parks where you can enjoy more than 400 hectares of sculpted gardens and take a treetop walk or an Indigenous cultural tour. Swan Bells is one of the largest musical instruments in the world, while the Perth Mint is home to the world’s largest gold bar collection. If shopping is your thing, there are plenty of options, particularly around King Street; and there are plenty of options if you want to relax by the river or beachside.

Broome

Broome is a pearling town with a vibrant history and stunning landscape. While there, you will want to experience riding a camel on Cable Beach; visit the Japanese Cemetery where you can learn more about the region’s pearling history (more than 900 divers are buried in the Japanese cemetery alone); go pearl shopping in Chinatown; see dinosaur footprints at Gantheaume Point; shop at the Courthouse Markets; and explore the surrounding natural wonders, including Horizontal Falls. Horizontal Falls is unlike any other waterfall and as the name suggests, the water passes horizontally. The waterfall comes to life through two narrow openings on each side of a sandstone ridgeline, and as the water flows through these gaps, it creates a waterfall effect.

Purnululu (Bungle Bungle) National Park
 

Purnululu (Bungle Bungle) National Park is truly one of the most fascination geological landmarks in the state and one of the world’s last frontiers. The park itself is World Heritage Listed and is 350 million years old, but was only discovered in 1983 by a film crew. The park comprises of almost 240,000 hectares and has long been used by Indigenous people during the wet season, when plant and animal life was abundant. The Range itself is a maze of curious orange and black striped beehive shaped domes. You can drive here by 4WD, camp out under the stars and enjoy a hike on the rough terrain, or to make things easier, take a local guided tour or scenic flight for an experience that you will not forget.

Penguin Island
 

Penguin Island is open from September to early June and is home to a colony of Little Penguins, the largest population of the birds in Western Australia. The island and the marine park is home to a variety of other wildlife including wild dolphins, sea lions, stingrays, pelicans, kings skinks and more than 50 species of sea birds.

Ningaloo Reef
 

Ningaloo Reef is a protected area and between mid-March and the end of July, you can get up close and personal diving and swimming with the astonishing Whale Shark. These massive mammals can grow up to 18 metres long and make Ningaloo Reef their home during the coral’s spawning season. It is one of the only places in the world where they appear regularly in large numbers and you are able to enjoy this moment through a number of tour operators who take you into the ocean, joining them in their world.

The Pinnacles
 

The Pinnacles are located in Nambung National Park and are limestone formations which were created with the raw material for the limestone coming from seashells in an earlier epoch rich in marine life. These shells were broken down into lime rich sands blown inland to form high mobile dunes. While you can visit the area any time of year, the Spring months provide more mild weather and will allow you to experience the wildflowers in bloom. The pinnacles are best viewed in the early morning or late afternoon when the sunlight brings out the best colours and shadows.

Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk
 

Just outside the town of Denmark you can discover the world famous “forest of the gigantic tingle trees” at the Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk. The walk is 40 metres high through the canopy of the forest and links to the Ancient Empire boardwalk where you can get up close and personal to the 400 year old giants. Take the path to see the most popular giant, known as Grandma Tingle, and venture further along the winding track to experience seven more of these natural giants.

Heirisson Island
 

Heirisson Island, near Perth, is one of Australia’s oldest Aboriginal sites, dating back around 39,500 years. The area around the island is traditionally associated with the Beeloo Nyungah people and the first European to visit the island was in 1697, well before the discovery of Australia, when Flemish explorer Willem de Vlamingh was exploring the Swan River in long-boats.

Margaret River
 

The Margaret River region has much to offer, from river cruises to wine tours introducing you to the flavours of the Margaret River’s best wineries and often taking you to places you would never otherwise have known about; and farmers markets where you can experience and purchase seasonal, fresh and local produce.

Kalgoorlie
 

Kalgoorlie (now known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder) is located 595km east-northeast of Perth at the end of The Great Eastern Highway, and it is one of WA’s most well-known towns. It features majestic architecture, and the world’s biggest open-cut mine.

Shark Bay
 

World Heritage Listed Shark Bay is around 800 kilometres from Perth and is a world of natural beauty, biological diversity and history, with the area being home to an array of reptiles and amphibians, birds, fish, corals and plants. There are at least 70 of these species are not found anywhere else in the entire world.

The Kimberley
 

The Kimberley is a vast landscape with contrasting scenery. From the Bungle Bungle mountain ranges to the romantic beachside town of Broome there are a range of sensational experiences in this diverse wilderness. There are eight grand gorges, with the most famous being Mitchell Falls. You can hike to Mitchell Falls Plateau, over waterfalls, into natural spas and through underground caves. In the heart of the Kimberley is Halls Creek, on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert and is the gateway to the Purnululu National Park. The Kimberley is also where you will find Australia’s largest artificial lake,  Lake Argyle, and Argyle mine - the largest producer of diamonds in the world, most famous for its production of the rare pink diamond. El Questro Wilderness Park is another must-see, along with Cygnet Bay - Australia’s oldest operating pearl farm and was the home to the world’s largest fine quality round South Sea Pearl.

Staircase to the Moon
 

The Staircase to the Moon is caused by the rising of the full moon reflecting off exposed mudflats at extremely low tide, and is a stunning optical illusion that looks like – as the name states – a staircase leading to the moon. You can see this between March and October at Onslow, Dampier, Cossack, Point Samson Peninsula, Hearson Cove, Port Hedland and Broome.

 

• Swimming with whale sharks

• Touring the Kimberleys

• River cruise on the Margaret River

• Cape Le Grand National Park

• Little Beach, Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve

• Fremantle Prison

• Seaplane over Horizontal Falls