One third of the continent, a fraction of the crowds.
Western Australia covers a third of the continent and hosts a tenth of its people. What that maths buys the traveller: whale sharks with no queue, world-class wine regions without tour-bus fleets, and beaches where your footprints are the first of the day. WA rewards those who make the trip west.
Perth is the world's sunniest capital city and its most isolated — closer to Jakarta than to Sydney — which explains both the laid-back confidence and the sensational Indian Ocean sunsets (this is the rare Australian coast where the sun sets over the sea). Kings Park, larger than Central Park and free, looks down on the city and river; Cottesloe Beach does golden-hour swims; and the port city of Fremantle, twenty minutes south, supplies the character — convict-built streetscapes, a legendary weekend market, and craft brewers on the harbour.
A 30-minute ferry from Fremantle, car-free Rottnest Island loops 63 beaches around a bike trail. Its resident quokkas — small wallabies with a default facial expression of pure delight — made the island world-famous via selfie. Take the photo (no touching or feeding), then earn it with a swim at The Basin's natural pool.
1,200 km north, Ningaloo Reef fringes the coast so closely you can snorkel coral gardens straight off the beach at Turquoise Bay. Ningaloo's headline act is the whale shark swim (March–July): spotter planes find the world's biggest fish, and you slip into the blue alongside animals the size of a bus, in one of Earth's best-regulated marine encounters. From August to October the same boats run humpback swims, and manta rays cruise year-round. Base in Exmouth or Coral Bay; book whale sharks well ahead.
Three hours south of Perth, Margaret River pairs premium cabernet and chardonnay (some 200 cellar doors) with a genuine surf culture — the pros compete at Main Break every autumn. Between tastings: karri forests you can climb via spiral pegs, the Cape to Cape walking track, sea-carved caves, and a food scene — venison, marron, cheese, chocolate — that turns designated drivers into the trip's winners.
From August to October, WA stages the planet's largest wildflower bloom — 12,000 species, 60% found nowhere else — carpeting roadsides from Perth's own Kings Park festival north through the Coral Coast. Further out sit the Pinnacles desert's limestone spires, the pink lake at Hutt Lagoon, and, in the far north, the Kimberley: Broome's Cable Beach camel sunsets, the tiger-striped Bungle Bungles, and gorge country best seen April–September.