h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Western Australia is an amazing part of the country. I took a backpacker bus up to Exmouth, and stood in the water with dolphins at Monkey Mia, went snorkelling over the reef at Coral Bay and Exmouth. It was fantastic!
I also went up to Broome, which has a very long beach of white sand, and is a pretty developed town with lots of pubs and even a couple of clubs! It's a refreshing change after all the backwater towns before it.
The best thing about WA is that most tourists can't be bothered to go that far, so its quite quiet. The worst thing is that the distances between places are huge.

A West Australian here...

I even live in Fremantle.

Anyone who does not actually reside permanently within the borders of the City of Fremantle is called a 'tourist' by the locals. We (the Freo-ites) can be seen at the less obvious Cafes at times when out-of-towners aren't around, ie before 8am weekdays and never on the weekends. If you really want to experience the 'local' flavour of the Freo Markets you need to be there on Friday morning before 10am (they open at 9am) as by 11am the place is absolutely crawling with coach delivered pizzas... sorry, tourists.

You can always tell the English and West European travellers by their tans so smooth and golden (not having spent 18+ summers in ultra high UV rated climes) and the girls wear shorts all year round.

The tourists from Asian countries (predominently Japanese) are found in groups of at least 4 people. The men wear socks with their sandals. The girls look like a cross between an anime character and a school girl even when they are actually in their mid 20s. This form of tourist also carry the smallest, and niftiest, cameras and mobile phones.

Broome no longer has a white sandy beach thanks to Cyclone Stephen. Don't worry it (the sand) will be back after winter, maybe... definitely by next year's tourist season.

BTW Those 'backwater' towns are actually the hub of our minerals industry, whether it be Iron Ore (Port Hedland) or Oil/gas and Salt (Dampier and Karratha).

Carnarvon (also devastated by the latest cyclone) is from where most of WAs fresh tropical fruit (especially bananas and Avocados) and other veg. comes. As a result our fruit and veg prices have skyrocketed as some stuff now has to come from further afield ie the Ord River or even Eastern States, at least 1500kms away.

As for distances, Perth is known as the most isolated Capital city in the world, not far wrong, Adelaide is 2000kms.

I liked Freo, but didn't spend much time there I must confess. I had the best Mexican (and strawberry daquiri or however it's spelt)I'd had for ages there.
We spent a night in Port Headland. The youth Hostel was very nice, and one of the local bars had topless barmaids. I think that was the place where the thing to go see was the very long pier. Maybe not.
We also stayed in Karratha, although not in the youth hostel, which had some very scarey characters staying there. Not much stays with me about that part of my trip.
After Broome we went on to Derby, and then Fitzroy Crossing. The backpackers there is very friendly, and you can go on tours to Geikie Gorge, Windjanna Gorge and Tunnel creek. Tunnel creek is a river that runs though solid rock, and you can walk through in the dark. Cool but scarey.
My final port of call in WA was Kununurra, which has lots of fruit picking work, and a very good supermarket.

Onya, Quadrapop,
But there is more to WA than the coast. As you say, some of those "backwater towns" are the mainstay of the mining industry but others are the traditional roots of the grains and livestock industries. Some of them even welcome tourists.
Freo is an old stomping ground of ours but we prefer to live in rural WA and grow our olives to sell to the trendies who inhabit the capucino strip.
It's nice to see that H2G2 researchers are keeping up the traditions and going boldly into the unknown in order to bring knowledge and enlightenment to the rest of the galaxy.

Hmmm... Olives. Which bit of the WA outback? What kinds of Olives? I've seen more olive groves in SA than in WA.

You make one more Aussie (there are 19 officially at: http://www.h2g2.com/forumframe.cgi?forum=37993&thread=54168 ) unless you are one of those who have added their name to that forum.

My personal favourite parts of WA are the Tingle Forrest and the Murchison Gorge area.

Q'pop

Will no one mention Kalgoorlie?

ah, sweet sweet Kal, where the tourist sites include the brothel strip and where the local hostel, nestled amidst such houses of ill-fame, boldly proclaims on its hot pink gates that it charges "$19 per night". I wonder how many would-be lotharios have stumbled diappointed through those gates, muttering about ambiguous advertising...

and if anyone does go then it is obligatory to check out the two-up school. this is where people accumulate, about seven kms out in the bush, to toss a couple of coins and bet on the result. and then repeat same action twenty thousand times. thousands of dollars changing hands in the middle of nowhere, not a smile to be seen, ground glinting with a billion broken bottles, totally cool atmosphere. I saw a blind woman there, betting on the toss of a coin.

i heard this wonderful saying: that perth is closer to the moon than it is to melbourne. astrophysics not being my forte i refuse to look too closely at the stat, so excuse me if i just quote it blithely.

my stars, i love western australia. everyone should go there. but preferably not at the same time.

I live in Bunbury but just returned from a visit to Albany, where I had the best steak I've had for a long time. You also have to see the Whale World centre - where you can walk around an old whaling ship, see where they cut up the poor beasts, have a coffee and buy a nice piece of tourist tat. It sounds terrible but was actually very interesting.

There are also some great natural wonders, like the blow-holes and the natural stone bridge. One of the best things for me was the wind farm, seeing those great windmills - and hearing the incredible roar of the blades - was awe inspiring.

I've been living in Australia for just 10 months and have only just scratched the surface of WA, but I'm looking forward to seeing more!

Having grown up inland in the South west corner, I have to put in a plug for the very scenic area between bunbury and walpole (on the south coast, west of albany). There are beautiful rolling hills, forests, rivers, friendly people, some tourist facilities, wildlife, great wineries and lots more.

Probably best visited by car, but watch out for the kangaroos on the roads!

hello hello
i'm another freo-ite (actually just out of freo, but thats where i spend all my time) but i've been all over wa. i especially love the south (who doesn't?) especially the harvey, bunbury area. actually i've travelled all over australia and i have to say i like wa the best cause its so quiet. queensland drivers sent me mental (they honk at everything and i kept jumping out of my skin, not very comfortable ) i have to admit i absolutely loved cairns -snorkelling on the great barrier reef, the daintree rainforrest, Kuranda- and i quite like the nt. went on territory day so we got to let off fireworks, yay!
but wa is the coolest!
strangeone