MARGARET RIVER Surf-flecked beaches and sun-soaked vineyards are what attract people to this holiday region two and a half hours south of Perth. If you can tear yourself away from the powdery sands and warm turquoise waters of the coast, inland you’ll find fertile green landscapes rather than arid desert. There are also nearly 100 cellar doors where you can taste the local wine as well as a booming craft beer and spirit scene and a smorgasbord of gourmet dining options.
Four views of
BROOME This sleepy pearling station is rich in Aboriginal heritage, has a thriving Chinatown and is a jumping off point for those who want to explore the wild coast of the western Kimberley. Here you can see where the red outback meets the blue sea, although the most famous stretch of sand – Cable Beach – is white and best explored by camel. At Gantheaume Point you can see 130 million year-old dinosaur footprints in the reef rock at low tide.
© DANIEL TRAN/ESPERANCE
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
ESPERANCE This part of south WA is famous for its pristine beaches lapped by the turquoise Indian Ocean. Lucky Bay claims to have the whitest sand in Australia and even attracts sun worshipping kangaroos. Even more unusual is the bubblegum pink lake on Middle Island. Ringed by a white salt shore and divided from the bright blue ocean by a strip of green paperbark and eucalyptus trees, this spectacular lake’s colour comes from the algae that thrive in its very saline water.
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Closer to Asia than Sydney and larger than most countries, WA is an ancient land of spectacular natural wonders
PURNULULU NATIONAL PARK Containing the bizarrely beautiful beehiveshaped rocks of the Bungle Bungle range, this park is in the east of the vast Kimberley region, a sacred and ancient wilderness. The orange and black striped sandstone domes rise from the arid savannah and can only be accessed in the dry season (April to November). Other highlights include a walk through the Echidna Chasm, a fiery gorge up to 200 metres high and barely a metre wide in places but filled with prehistoric Livistona palms.
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MAY/JUNE 2022
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