Hello everyone, my wife and I are taking a trip to W.A. for 9 to 12 months. Leaving home from Brisbane possibly June or July (flexible). We are asking advice as follows. We understand that if we head straight to Broome area, we need to leave there by end of Sept. If we started to head to Nullarbor /Esperance first, then we would be in a colder climate which we're trying to avoid. Apparently the best time to visit Perth/Esperance is November-Feb. We would really appreciate feedback and advice from anyone with itinerary suggestions, routes etc. We have a 24' Jayco towed by a Ford Everest (prefer not to go off road) We certainly don't want to back track in such a big State if it can be avoided.
I would go across the top and head to the Kimberley area first. While generally you would want to leave the Kimberley by the end of September into October is fine for us in Broome particularly if you have a powered site and air conditioning and at a park with a pool, of course it depends on how you deal with hot weather. Then head down stopping at maybe Eighty Mile beach before going to Karijini, then consider Point Sampson and Karratha and Onslow before Exmouth/Coral Bay and further south. There is heaps on the west coast to keep you busy for a long time. Main thing I would consider is where you will be in the summer school holidays, if you want to be on the coast anywhere from Shark Bay down to Perth or around to Esperance you need to book well in advance, the other option is to use that time to explore inland around the wheat/granite belt where it will probably be fairly hot but not packed out like the coast is. The south coast is ideal for after the summer school holidays.
My recommendation is you need to be leaving Broome about end of June, early July. Then slowly head south but don't just follow the coast. Around Perth in September but after doing inland areas.
Inland north of Perth is mostly masses of flowers, the SW is variety, just stop any where on the side of the road and there will be different flowers, some are so tiny you need to be on hands and knees to see.
This will give you the full range of wild flowers through to February in the south West. Nothing is set in concrete as it all depends on the rainfall but stop at local tourist centres and they can usually provide good advice. You need to be weaving east west north and south for the best. Don't forget WA is one third of Australia and a lot to see. My favourite place is Karajini, inland from Port Headland , Karratha.
This just my opinion after living 60 years in WA and still not seen it all.
Thank you Meredith for your sound advice and appreciate it. Our dilemma is the time frame to spend in certain places /regions in order to be in places at the best time, while utilising the approx 9 -12 months away from Brisbane. You mentioned the wheat /Granite belt to fill in time, would that be the best place to fill in some time away from the school holidays?
Thank you Meredith for your sound advice and appreciate it. Our dilemma is the time frame to spend in certain places /regions in order to be in places at the best time, while utilising the approx 9 -12 months away from Brisbane. You mentioned the wheat /Granite belt to fill in time, would that be the best place to fill in some time away from the school holidays?
Thank you
John
We really enjoyed exploring the wheat/granite belt area and also some of the Southern forest areas around places like Bridgetown. Those areas aren't really the places that families go for summer holidays so can be a very good choice for then. Best times for places is often subjective, most popular time for the Ningaloo coast for example is April to August which is the times you can swim with whale sharks, but it is super busy there then and personally we find the water in July/August simply too cold for long snorkels which we love, we have found that after the early October school holidays it is much quieter there, the water is warm and for us it is the best time. It partly depends on if your perfect weather is like us swimming weather if we are somewhere we can swim, or just want it warm enough to sit outside a bit but never get hot. Our experience touring WA was that it is super busy along the west coast during grey nomad season of May to August, the further you get away from those months the quieter it gets and the less need to do any major booking/planning except for the school holidays.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT. Looks like we'll start leaving Brisbane Mid June next year via Catherine > Broome ... at this point We have a lot of planning. Still some what a jigsaw puzzle.
In Exmouth right now. Getting quite warm, returning south now. The biggest tip is, unfortunately, make some firm decisions about where you want to be and when then BOOK! The number of travellers up here is unbelievable. From June to September anything north of Geraldton is solidly booked. National Park stays are great, but if you want somewhere popular, like Cape Range (Ningaloo) get on the Web at midnight, exactly 6 months before you want to be there and make a booking... if you can! You can get lucky and grab a site closer to the date, many cancel bookings, but you do need to be lucky and not as choosy about the site. You can usually get a couple of nights in any of the campgrounds, just not longer stays. People next to us at the van park just got a week at Osprey Bay (the most popular campsite) because someone had cancelled at the last minute.
Places further inland (apart from Karijini) are usually easier to get into (Kennedy Range is a great place, for example). Seriously even campsites on the Gibb which used to be basic clearings 20 years ago (Silent Grove, for instance) are now fully organised campsites which are regularly booked out.
Down south it is just as busy during the summer months. Lucky Bay, near Esperance, is a huge caravan park masquerading as National Park. Getting off track will improve your options, but sticking to the blacktop nowadays dramatically reduces your travel flexibility.
No matter what itinerary you decide upon, you'll love it. Beautiful areas. Just get used to red dust in everything (and I do mean everything!).
Do you mean red dust to get used to even if we don't go OFF Road as such??....
As we are planning to leave Brisbane about June; > Catherine>Broome then head South we'll keep the bookings in mind as we decide the actual departure date.
Although we haven't closely studied the routes etc (without off road and red dust ) Our concern would making to Perth / Esperance (during warm weather ) etc Nullarbor ... then head back to Brisbane,
is that we finish the trip earlier than anticipated. Unless of course we back track somewhat ... am I on the right mentality track??
As we hear and form a rough Itinerary of where to stay and length of stay times it may make some more sense and feeling comfortable with it.
Don't get me wrong, we don't have to strictly plan and are open for changes as we go; but the above thoughts are still there.
Thanks again Mark, safe travels - Enjoy your trip.
It's been some years(2015) since we were in WA and a highlight for us was a helicopter flight over the Purnululu NP (Bungles Bungles). We did this from Warmun. Helicopter flights can be done from other places as well. Driving through the Pinnacles was also something very different. When in the Perth/Fremantle area we stayed at a CP at ****burn Caught buses (both paid and freebies) around Fremantle, also the train at Fremantle that took us to Perth then the free Perth "CAT" buses. We also went to Rottnest Island from Fremantle. Back then there was 'cheap Tuesday' trips to Rottnest Island. If you do WA and get into SA ahead of time do the Eyre Peninsular. The cliffs are wonderful. Cheers and have a good trip.
Thank you, we're wandering how far south from Broome should we be by the end of September; that is to avoid extreme weather events etc.? I'm aware that
End of September Broome itself is fine, the earliest ever cyclones in WA have been December and a handful of those in 200 years. Heavy rain again normally isn't an issue until around the end of the year. October is fine in Broome, just getting hot.
-- Edited by Meredith on Monday 7th of October 2024 09:05:44 AM
thanks for the info, that helps alot. We always looked forward to the Kimberlys but we're not off road travellers and with some walking difficulties (long walks). Is there any drives for us to see some of the wow factors to suit us? Helicopters are out unfortunately.
May I suggest you both get a pair of hiking sticks. I have used one of a pair on uneven ground just for an extra bit of stability. They are spring loaded. There would be some lookouts in the Kimberlys close to the road. Someone who has been there recently may be able to help with information. Spend some time in the Kalbarri National Park, both inland and sea cliffs. Roads have been bituminized since we were there and there's the skywalks now also. Cheers.
) Our concern would making to 
