Western Australia

Cute marsupials, spectacular bush and vineyards which stretch for miles: Time Out samples the splendours of Western Australia.

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I’ve never understood the fuss about Australia. Seventeen hours on a plane, the other side of the world yet still speaking the same language, it’s always seemed a bit of a schlep for a barbecue on a beach. But one three-week trip later and I’m sold. While Sydney and Melbourne are centres of culture and style, Western Australia is all about beauty. My boyfriend and I started off in Fremantle. Freo (never ones to waste a syllable, the Aussies) is friendly and quaint with a few touches of its colonial past visible beneath a sparkling modern veneer. There’s a handful of accomplished restaurants, the cool Maritime Museum and spruced-up harbour: enough for a few days’ R ’n’ R. The Esplanade Hotel overlooking Fremantle Park is the town’s smartest hotel, but for homespun style we liked Fothergills of Freemantle, a dainty bed and breakfast (00 61 8 9336 2805, rooms from $95). However, as entertaining as Fremantle is, its real attraction is it proximity to the wild and dazzling Aussie outback.

Western Australia is road trip country, so we hired a campervan from Kea Campers (00 61 800 25 25 55/ www.keacampers.com) and headed out bush. Even a couple of days in the outback reveal a host of sights. The countryside is astonishingly diverse: wheat fields shining blond in the sun stretch for miles before gradually morphing into dense forest populated by lolloping roos or wide vistas of ochre earth and white gum trees. WA’s best-loved regions cling to the coast. The lush lowlands of Margaret River are where the wine flows free. Most of the 100-strong vineyards run wine-tasting tours, which makes veering from one to the next particularly appealing.

In our desire to truly get away from it all we headed east, to the isolated splendour of Dundas Nature Reserve, some 720km from Fremantle. Giant red crags – part of a geological formation that dates back 550 million years – loomed above the eucalyptus tree forests that fringed the eerie moonscape of Dundas salt lake. The area is vast, with endless Ray Mears-style bushwalking opprtunities aplenty.

The finest attraction was closer to base camp in Freo. Rottnest Island (www.rottnestisland.com), an ecological haven a half-hour ferry trip away, was a solitary delight. The ferry lands near a small, but busy township of holiday homes, plus a clutch of shops and restaurants. As we stood in line to rent our bicycles for the weekend, it seemed like we’d never escape the throngs of holidaymakers.

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