Australia's Golden Outback Holiday Planner 2022/23

HOW TO GET THERE: By Road:

The Wheatbelt has a good network of sealed roads and gazetted drive trails. There are a number of tour companies offering one day and extended holidays from Perth throughout the Wheatbelt if you’d like to leave the driving to someone else. By Coach/Train: Transwa operates coaches to many of the Wheatbelt towns and The Prospector train stops in Cunderdin, Kellerberrin, Merredin, Southern Cross and Kalgoorlie. Tel: 1300 662 205

P repare yourself for a captivating, friendly and old-school hospitality remains. Sweeping roads stretch through this rustic country, revealing a patchwork of golden fields, character towns, pioneering history, festivals and self- drive trails leading to spectacular granite outcrops with infinite views and unique ecosystems. The Wheatbelt is rich with stories of early day explorers and settlers, and of fortunes made and lost in the gold rush of the late 1800s. The town of Southern Cross is famous as the site of the first gold discovery in 1887, and the Golden Pipeline is the audacious solution to supplying life-giving water to the faraway goldfields. This region is the traditional land of the Njaki Njaki - Ballardong – Gubrun people, and its features hold great cultural significance to them. Understand what it means to tread in the footsteps of their ancestors by taking a locally owned indigenous tour and discover how the open road adventure to a place less hurried where life is unpretentious,

tammar wallabies, brushtail possums and tawny frogmouth owls. Book an overnight stay at secluded camp sites, guesthouses, charming B&Bs, rural cottages or visit an authentic farmstay. Make a point to pause, look up at dark desert skies for a boundless canopy of bejewelled stars and be sure to enjoy the area’s fantastic farm-gate produce. Olive oil, preserves, yabbies, emu oil and lavender products are all found here, as are award-winning boutique wineries created by passionate producers. The countryside provides one of nature’s most dazzling shows from July to early November when the landscape explodes into colour as grain crops ripen, wildflowers bloom and winter orchids light up the land. As wildflowers are dependent on seasonal rain, check information with local visitor centres. Time your Wheatbelt adventure to coincide with events; spend an Anzac Day dawn service in a woodland town, join a country triathlon or watch a classic agricultural show.

Dreaming guides survive even today. Both Indigenous and pastoral history is captured along interpretive trails and in museums of military and railway memorabilia. Tin horse sculptures , an art deco theatre and a historical retro drive-in cinema form part of a huge collection of curiosities and legends. Wave Rock , one of our state’s most recognisable tourist attractions, is a five- minute drive from the town of Hyden. The unique granite cliff – also known as Katter Kich to the land’s original custodians - stretches over 100 metres and stands 15 metres high, appearing like a giant wave about to crash over the surrounding bush. There are other fascinating granite rock outcrops in the Wheatbelt such as Elachbutting and Chiddarcooping near Mukinbudin, Kokerbin Rock at Bruce Rock and Buckley’s Breakaway at Kulin. Nature lovers and bushwalkers will enjoy the Dryandra Woodland nature conservation area. This is one of the most important sites in our state for wildlife preservation harbouring numbats,

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