For Southern California residents, Australia’s faraway wonders feel familiar-yet-unexplored on its Western coast.
Living close to the Pacific Ocean on the wonderful Westside of Los Angeles, I love where I have resided for the last 30 years. But I’ve also got a perpetual wanderlust and love jumping on a plane at LAX heading off to some far-flung country and new adventures.
Australia has always been a favorite of mine, and like most Angelenos (and other U.S. tourists), when I first went Down Under, I took multiple trips to that friendly country’s East Coast spots – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and my favorite place, Queensland’s Port Douglas, a gateway to doing some epic scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef.
But tales of “The Other West Coast” swirled around me in all those Aussie visits, of the beautiful weather all year-round on the Indian Ocean side of that massive island nation and of three especially intriguing places. So I recently set off to see Perth, the Margaret River wine valley to its south and the Ningaloo Reef to the north – it turned out all three offered spectacular, unforgettable experiences.
PRETTY PERTH
Perth is the big city on Australia’s West Coast, the capital of the state of Western Australia and a five-hour flight across the vast, sere outback – another fascinating place to visit, but that’s for another story.
Landing in Perth made me immediately think of home, albeit a smaller version of the City of Angels, as glimpses of forested mountains are followed by the vast Indian Ocean beyond as the plane descends. There are skyscrapers, too, and obvious suburban enclaves; the difference is the Swan River that dominates Perth’s landscape and creates a massive, lake-like body of water as it wends toward the ocean.
Checking into COMO The Treasury Hotel is like stepping back in history, as that posh place in the center of the city was originally built in the 1870s, served as the State Buildings for generations and is now transformed into the very modern hotel along with shops, galleries and restaurants to explore. From that home base, it is easy to wander this very walkable city.
Traveling solo (consult page 20) means I can roam at will, so I first took a deep dive into Perth’s history at the Museum of Perth, from the Noongar people to the non-convict English who settled here in 1829 as an alternative to the established Sydney penal colony.
Then it was off to Kings Park and Botanical Garden – the huge haven of flora and fauna with postcard views of the harbor to the west and the Darling Mountain Range to the east – taking a fascinating walking tour with Go Cultural Aboriginal Tours that included a Dreamtime story that helped me imagine what this place was like before colonization.
Fremantle Prison. (Photos courtesy of CAOA)
Two must-do Perth experiences are just down the coastline. Exploring Fremantle is a trip, with its old-time gold-rush architecture and hippie-ish atmosphere. Starting at Two Fat Wombats on Market Street for one of their famous espressos got me fueled to discover the Fremantle Prison via a Cultural Attractions of Australia behind-the-scenes tour. That massive UNESCO site constructed in 1850 is full of dark criminal tales, which fueled my lifelong fascination with criminal behavior. Think Alcatraz, only on land and older!
And while the prison may be landbound, it’s just minutes from Western Australia’s most famous island, Wadjemup Rottnest, via the Rottnest Express ferry. That’s the place where the quokkas live – yes, those tiny smiling marsupials – a seriously adorable little critter made famous by the selfie photos every island visitor takes. A quick ferry ride from Fremantle leads to this picturesque place, where I rented a bicycle and took an easy solo sightseeing meander. Surfers ride some famous breaks here, too, and everyone jumps in the water on a warm day.
MARVELOUS MARGARET RIVER
Speaking of surfing, I was astonished to discover that my second stop, a few hours’ drive south of Perth, was not only the famed Margaret River wine region but a place where wild surf and wineries converge. Surfer’s Point is even the home of a pro surfing stop on the World Surfing League tour, and surfboards are a common motif in the wineries that sit literally a mile or two from the breaks. Who knew?
Choosing the Cape Lodge as home base with its beautiful lakeside setting was perfect for me, especially since they have a small winery and an acclaimed restaurant on the property. It’s just a few minutes to some of the most renowned wine producers in this part of the world.
I gleefully enjoyed bouncing from Vasse Felix, Leeuwin Estate and Moss Wood, an on to lesser-known spots like 100% organic House of Cards and MadFish Wines. Beautiful places each one, pouring the gorgeous Cabernets this place is known for, as well as lovely Chardonnays, tasty Shiraz blends and more exciting quaffs made the Margaret River a place I yearn to return, despite my life plan to visit every wine region in the whole world.
EXCELLENT EXMOUTH (AND NINGALOO)
Flying north, I went in search of one of the world’s best-kept coral-reef secrets near Exmouth. That’s Ningaloo Marine Park, a huge, unspoiled fringing reef right off the shore that’s an integral part of the “Ningaloo Coast” UNESCO World Heritage Site.
There I found my scuba dream – 220 species of brilliant corals, 500 varieties of colorful fish, dolphins, turtles, manta rays and reef sharks – an incredible array in warm tropical waters. Plus, humpback whales and whale sharks migrate past here, too, the huge sharks from April to July and humpbacks from July to December. You can snorkel with them, which I found to be a breathtaking experience. Be prepared to feel very, very small.
I made sure to get all my gear and boat reservations via Exmouth Dive and Whale Sharks, a one-stop PADI-certified shop for all, and headed into Cape Range National Park to stay at the magnificent Sal Salis Ningaloo Reef Resort, where beachfront glamping tents put you steps away from the ocean waves crashing nearby. That wild, isolated place and the incredible underwater encounters I had each day there made it a most excellent and memorable Australian experience on that other West Coast, which can certainly rival our beloved one stateside.
-Jenny Peters