AGO Holiday Planner 2026

The Wheatbelt

Dotted across the region, wheat bins and silos, the infrastructure of a multi billion-dollar industry, are a reminder that the Wheatbelt is the largest player in the state’s agricultural exports. These monolithic structures are now cultural as well, forming the PUBLIC Silo Trail, curated by FORM, a not-for-profit with a mandate to foster a culture of creativity. Running from Northam to Albany, including Merredin, Newdegate and Ravensthorpe the first silo was unveiled in 2017. Following the trail several years ago for an international publisher I ticked the silos off one by one. Speaking to Fremantle based artist Brenton See, who painted the Newdegate silos, he talked of his love of conservation and the feeling that his work is better suited to the country, where it resonates with its surroundings. You’ll find depictions of the Western Bearded Dragon, a Red tailed Phascogale and a Mallee Fowl – all endangered – and an emblematic representation of salt pans and freshwater lakes. Dumbleyung, a quiet town 270 kilometres south-east of Perth, is a contrast to its claim to fame. On December 31, 1964, all eyes were on Lake Dumbleyung – British speed ace Sir Donald Campbell striving to break both the land and water speed records in the same year.

Clocking 444.71kph, and with just hours to spare, Campbell’s place in history was assured, and with it, Dumbleyung. A replica of his craft Bluebird can be found in the memorial park, while there are interpretative displays at the lake and Community Resource Centre. At the latter, co-ordinator Peta Stangoni isn’t just concerned with the towns moment of global fame but putting the CRC at the heart of the community. A relative newcomer, relocating her young family from Perth and leaving the corporate grind, she talks up the inhouse café with its unique coffee blended with dried native quandong, recommends stops along my journey, and shows me through the community vegetable garden. Other than stopping at service stations when they appear, CRCs are vital sources of information. In wildflower season they’ll often have up-to-date information of where to find the best displays. Similar to Calvin Squire in the north of the Wheatbelt, in its southern reaches near Kukerin, Mary and Michael Nenke have led the way with diversification. Generations have farmed here since 1914 and the now world renowned Cambinata Yabbies wouldn’t have existed had Michael not first the freshwater crustacean in their dams for the family table back in 1969. It became a small form of income, before sourcing from farms across the Wheatbelt and neighbouring Great Southern put them into international export territory. Mindful that the farm now supports the third, fourth and fifth generation of Nenke’s, the push

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Lake Dumbleyung and Wheatbelt wheat fields.

to diversify beyond wheat, sheep and latterly yabbies continued with a farm tour of the yabby operation, and a celebration of local produce with guest chefs at the Cambinata Yabbies Extravaganza. It’s that sense of resilience, ingenuity and civic mindedness writ large. With the opening of Mary’s Farm Cottages, a village like cluster of off-grid stays, the Nenke family are doing more than diversifying. They are allowing guests to get a taste of country life as it would be generations back. While the cottages have mod-cons there’s those elements that city folk are either disconnected from at home or have never seen before. Mobs of kangaroos in the back paddock, meals served at the shearing shed for large groups, and out here they’re classed as Bortle 1, the highest rating on the dark-sky scale. That’s near perfect, light pollution at an absolute minimum. Looking up with the naked eye or equipment to thousands of stars the vastness of the Wheatbelt is overwhelmed by the vastness of space.

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AUSTRALIA'S GOLDEN OUTBACK