People & Places
A trip to Western Australia
Western Australia is thousands of kilometres from anywhere and, as Meagan Bromley discovered on her trip into the state, a million miles from the worries of the world
Before my trip to Western Australia, I had never been anywhere in the world where you can drive for six hours and see absolutely no sign of other people. Nor had I ever been anywhere where it is more common to see a kangaroo bounce by than be passed by a car or truck on the highway. Honestly, when we tried to relieve our collective bus passenger boredom by playing drinking games, we decided to take shots every time another vehicle passed and found ourselves so sober that we finally switched over to marsupials.
Even more amazing was the fact that after driving for about six hours through desolation and intense desert heat, a town would stand alone and have a population of about 300 people. Because I was told before booking my trip that if I tried to rent a car and drive the Western coast of Australia on my own that I would surely die, I opted for the less life-threatening option of going an organised tour.
A couple of tour companies offer hop-on/hop-off bus options departing from Perth and ending in Broome. The hopping options allow backpackers to spend a good period of time all along the coast, spending a few days at each unique location. However, some people without the luxury of unlimited time, like myself, just plough right through the distance for a solid seven days of hectic fun.
Perth bills itself as the most isolated city in the world. Strangely enough, it reminded me of my hometown – San Diego, California. The city is on the coast and fortunate enough to have mildly warm and pleasant weather all year round. Also, like San Diego, the city was heavily influenced by the military in its development which means its waterfronts are characterised by battleships and destroyers in some areas and recreational beaches in others. Perth is also surrounded by lovely suburbs with clean streets and nicely manicured lawns (many of these suburbs were originally areas of housing for the Australian Navy).
A large part of Perth's population is made up of retired military and first generation Australians who have emigrated from the UK, meaning that for the most part, people are upper middle class and somewhat politically conservative. There is also a strong Indian community – in fact, my favourite spot in Perth was a vegetarian Indian restaurant down on a jetty which not only served amazing food, but was run co-op style by local families who only requested a small cash donation for a buffet plate. The nearby suburb of Fremantle provides a historical look at 19th century whaling and WA's small involvement in convict history. It also has a hidden treasury of used bookshops and cafes offering English breakfasts. The moment our tour bus left the outskirts of Perth, I could tell the rest of Western Australia would be an entirely different experience than its capital city.
I had already been living Down Under for about three months before my trip to WA, and was starting to think that the common perception of Australians was completely unfounded. I had never once heard the terms 'billabong' or the essential 'fair dinkum' genuinely used by Australians until I met Western Australians. For an entire week I answered to nothing but 'mate' or 'love' and replied to every question with 'no worries'. Furthermore, I don't think that I changed out of a bathing suit or was overly concerned with showering for an entire week. The extreme weather of WA makes its residents plan their entire lives around it. Whereas on other road trips the driver may decide to stop to get gas or food, our driver also stopped wherever there was a chance to cool off – a natural billabong (waterhole), hot spring or a good chance to swim in the Indian Ocean. Also, because most towns along the coast would turn their generators off by nine in the evening and had a water supply defined by drought conditions, it often made more sense to just go for a late night swim under the thousands of stars than to take a cold two or three minute shower in the dark.
I first realised that it would make sense to stay in a bathing suit during a hike in the Pinnacles Desert outside of Geraldton. I was looking at the strange above ground stalagmite formations in the bright yellow sand when I suddenly heard thunder crack and found myself in the middle of a torrential downpour in the middle of nowhere (a common phrase in any story about WA). By the time we all scurried back to the bus (like the idiot tourists we were) the sun was shining again and my clothes were well on their way to being dry. Similarly, there are so many opportunities in WA to enjoy the outdoors, that you arrive clean, dry and (in my case) incredibly pale and leave windblown, covered in red dust, sun-kissed, possibly scratching at a few bug bites and with a big smile on your face.
In one of my favourite spots along the coast, Monkey Mia, I snorkeled, sailed and snoozed in the nets of a catamaran, and got to pet the wild dolphins that swim right up to the beach and play all around the tourists' feet. A couple of days later, up north in Exmouth, I went out on a glass-bottom boat to see the largest variety (though not the largest in size) of corals at the Ningaloo Reef. This reef is also the closest to the shore out of anywhere on earth and is much healthier at the moment than Australia's Great Barrier Reef on the east coast. This is likely because the area is so untouched by people or boats and does not receive the same amount of tourist damage or pollution as the east coast.
After my adventure in WA I'll admit that it was nice to get back to a bit of civilisation, but I will also say that I've never been somewhere so apart from the rest of the world yet so appreciative of the world. I didn't read a newspaper or see any news or Internet the entire week I was there but instead was able to enjoy the most beautiful sunsets
followed by nightly shooting stars and opportunities to see the moon rise over the pitch black desert.
I began to value basic things like water, shelter from the elements and electricity that I would never have even considered before going to WA. And despite the complete isolation of the western coast, while there I still met some of the nicest, most fun loving people that I encountered in my entire time in Australia.
Read other articles about Western Australia:
Bunbury: Life outside Perth
Skilled migration to WA
Prices in Mandurah rise sharply
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