Planning a trip to Perth and Western Australia
Visitor Information
Tourism Western Australia is the official source of information. Its website, www.westernaustralia.com, provides a good overview, or the web pages of local tourism boards. A private company, Visit WA (www.visitwa.com.au), offers an online tour-planning service.
The Western Australian Visitor Centre in Perth, which dispenses information about the state and makes bookings. The Department of Environment & Conservation (www.dec.wa.gov.au) has information on the numerous national and marine parks.
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 daisy-like 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 around the globe on wildflower tours. You can view the wildflowers on day trips from Perth or on longer jaunts of up to 5 days or so.
If time is short, you can go to Perth's Kings Park & Botanic Garden, which has a month-long 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. Tourism WA produces a comprehensive Wildflower Holiday Guide that describes self-drive wildflower routes, accommodations and events en route, and wildflower tour operators. There's a dedicated wildflower website, www.wildflowerswa.com.
Interstate buses and trains, and the few local accommodations fill up fast in wildflower season, so book ahead.
Escorted & Package Tours
Tour Operators
Western Australia's biggest coach tour company, Australian Pinnacle Tours (tel. 1300/551 687 in Australia, or 08/9417 5555; www.pinnacletours.com.au) serves Perth, the Southwest, Monkey Mia, the Northwest Cape, the Kimberley, and attractions about a day's drive away, such as New Norcia and the Pinnacles. Australian Pinnacle Tours also does four-wheel-drive tours. Western Xposure (tel. 1800/621 200 in Australia; www.westernxposure.com.au) specializes in soft adventure and promotes its tours as "eco-based," covering much of the state. Global Gypsies (tel. 08/9341 6727; www.globalgypsies.com.au) runs four-wheel-drive tag-along safaris into the Outback, including the Kimberley. The tours are fully escorted and catered, and there is limited passenger seating for non-drivers (three seats per tour). Global Gypsies can help with the hire of four-wheel-drive vehicles and all equipment.
Aerial tours make sense in Western Australia. Look into the personalized or set tours offered by Kookaburra Air (tel. 08/9417 2258; www.kookaburra.iinet.net.au). Tours from Perth can take you throughout Western Australia, including Ningaloo and Margaret River, and the Red Centre.
If you're looking for background information on indigenous (Aboriginal) issues and more particularly indigenous tours, check the website for the WA Indigenous Tourism Operators Collective (www.waitoc.com).
Getting Around
The forests, coastal scenery, and vineyards of the South and Southwest make for pleasant driving; otherwise you should fly, given the distances and the mostly monotonous countryside.
If you do hit the road, remember that gas stations and emergency help are often far apart. (Keep the gas tank full!) Road trains (convoys up to 53m/174 ft. long) and wildlife pose more of a threat than elsewhere. Try to avoid driving at night, dusk, and dawn -- all prime animal-hopping and feeding times.
The Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia, 832 Wellington St., Perth, WA 6000 (tel. 13 17 03; www.rac.com.au), is a good source of maps and motoring advice. For a recorded road-condition report, call Main Roads Western Australia (tel. 1800/013 314 in Australia).
Skywest (tel. 1300/660 088 in Australia; www.skywest.com.au) is the state's major regional airline. Qantas (tel. 13 13 13 in Australia; www.qantas.com.au) also provides service from Perth to some smaller centers.
One of the great train journeys of the world, the Indian Pacific provides a passenger service once or twice weekly on a continent-covering 66-hour trip from Sydney via Adelaide and Kalgoorlie to Perth. Greyhound Australia (tel. 13 14 99 in Australia) has one interstate coach service, from Darwin to Broome to Perth.
Inside the state, passenger trains run only in the southwest. They are operated by Transwa (tel. 1300/662 205 in WA; www.transwa.wa.gov.au) from Perth to Bunbury, south of Perth; and to Kalgoorlie. Transwa also runs coach services from Perth, north to Kalbarri and Geraldton; to the wine and forest regions of Margaret River, Augusta, and Pemberton; south to Albany; and southeast to Esperance.
All major car- and motor-home-rental companies have offices in Perth.