Attractions

Tiptoeing through the Wildflowers

Every year from August to mid-November, the southern half of Western Australia is blessed with a magnificent range of wildflowers. The drier, more northerly areas produce great carpets of white, yellow, pink, and red daisylike everlastings, while the southern reaches have an incredible variety of individual flowering plants.

Wildflower shows and festivals in country towns throughout the state accompany the annual blossoming, and coach- and rail-tour companies carry enthusiasts from all around the globe on wildflower tours. You can check out the wildflowers on day trips from Perth or on longer jaunts of up to 5 days or so. Late August through October is the peak time.

If time is short, you can go to Perth's Kings Park & Botanic Garden, which has a 5-day Wildflower Festival every September.

The display of everlastings is not constant, but varies from year to year depending on winter rains. The Western Australian Visitor Centre can keep you up to speed on whatever spot is blooming brightest that week, and the staff can book you on one of the wildflower tours. The Tourism Commission produces a 40-page Wildflower Holiday Planner brochure that describes self-drive wildflower routes, accommodations and events en route, and wildflower tour operators. Download it from the commission's website (www.westernaustralia.com).

Interstate buses and trains, and local hotels fill up fast in wildflower season, so book ahead.

Dragon's Teeth in the Dunes

The Pinnacles, a 3-hour drive north of Perth, attracts thousands of visitors each year. Masses of limestone pillars, from a few inches to over 3m (10 ft.) high, simply rise up out of golden sand dunes. Some small ones are just a fragile tracery, some are tall, solid mushroom-headed giants, while the sharp jagged versions could well be taken for fossilized dragon's teeth. From a distance they can look like the remnants of a deserted city, and are best seen around dawn or dusk.

The Coral Coast: Where the Outback Meets the Sea

There is magic in the waters of the Indian Ocean where it brushes the shores of the northern portions of Western Australia's west coast. Brilliant coral reefs just meters offshore, whale sharks and dolphins, turtles and manta rays make this one of the world's most marvelous (and accessible) marine environments. Much of this is paradoxically due to the fact that inland is largely treeless semi-desert, occupied by vast sheep stations and a mere handful of people. This is real Outback with soaring summer temperatures and little rain, but this means that there are no rivers to carry sediments and pollutants to the sea. The ocean is untainted and has been able to develop some glorious natural attractions.

Since the 1960s, a pod of bottlenose dolphins has been coming into shallow water at Monkey Mia, in the World Heritage-listed Shark Bay Marine Park, to greet shore-bound humans. The dolphins' magical presence has drawn people from every corner of the globe.

Another 730km (453 miles) by road north on the Northwest Cape, adventure seekers from around the world come to swim with the whale sharks -- measuring up to 18m (59 ft.) long -- from March to early June. The Cape's parched shore and green waters hide another dazzling secret, though -- a fringing coral reef 300km (186 miles) long called Ningaloo, protected by a Marine Park. It contains 250 species of coral and 450 kinds of fish, dolphins, mantas, whales, turtles, and dugongs (manatees). Even the Great Barrier Reef can't beat Ningaloo Reef's proximity to shore -- just a step or two off the beach delivers you into a wondrous underwater garden. What is amazing is that so few people seem to know about it. That and the remoteness means beaches you'll have pretty much to yourself, seas teeming with life because humans haven't scared (or fished) it away, unspoiled scenery, and a genuine sense of the frontier. There are also carpets of everlastings (daisylike wildflowers) stretching across vast areas in August and September in good years.

This coast, called both Coral and Outback, is lonely, remote, and too hot, and often windy, to visit between November and March. The best time to visit is April through October when it is warm enough to swim and the weather is balmy, though snorkelers might want a wet suit June and July. Humidity is always low. Facilities, gas, and fresh water are scarce, and distances are immense, so be prepared.