nikosk

Hi there!
I’m planning a 2-week trip to Western Australia, next spring-summer, backpacking hopefully, and I was wondering if it is practical and cost effective to get around, some part of the area, by public transport - bus, train… A first search is very dissapointing, cost-wise. Transport is so sparse and expensive, compared to south-east Australia (I’ve been there a few years back, and loved it).
I ‘m interested in a variety of sights, cityscape, nature, indigenous culture, hiking …
Though, I should mention, not really my thing about drinking, night life, surfing...
I read that having your own car is the best way to visit all kinds of sights, but I won’t have…
Tours would be too expensive on the other hand...
I am flexible about what itinerary to build, as long as I can stick to easy and low cost transport, and still see good things, so it could make for a worthwhile trip, to this beautiful area. It would be a pity to come all this way, and miss all the good stuff because of transport difficulties or cost...
Perth and surroundings close by, like Freemantle, are an obvious choice at first, since my intl flight will land there, so perhaps a few hundred miles away from them, would make a good radius to cover in 2 weeks time. Pinnacles seem definately very interesting. Maybe places like Kalgourlie, Esperance, Bunbury could make for a good trip? - And if there is an easy way to get there and around?
Any ideas on how to do it, if doable at all, suggestions about which nice places do have good access for the independent low budget traveler, would be invaluable !
I have a guidebook already which I read, it would be a great help if you could just point me to the right direction, so I focus my search to specific places and how to combine them in a loop around Perth.
Many thanks!
Nikolas

Melnq8

Hi Nikolas -

That's a tough one - getting around WA without a car has its challenges.

Train and bus transport within the CBD and suburbs is easy, but getting further afield, not-so-much. As you've found, transport is sparse and expensive...mainly because WA is HUGE and sparsely populated outside of the city centers.

For Perth and vicinity -

https://www.transperth.wa.gov.au/

For TransRegional towns - https://www.pta.wa.gov.au/our-services/transregional

Albany, Broome, Bunbury, Busselton/Dunsborough, Carnarvon, Collie, Esperance, Geraldton, Kalbarri, Kalgoorlie, Kalgoorlie to Laverton, Karratha/Roebourne, Kununurra, Manjimup, Monkey Mia, Narrogin, Pilbara, Perth to Broome, Perth to Port Hedland, and Port Hedland.

For the southern half of WA -

https://www.transwa.wa.gov.au/Plan-y...y/Road-Coaches

Perth to Bunbury -

https://www.transwa.wa.gov.au/Plan-y...The-Australind

Kalgoorlie, Esperance and Bunbury are walkable - it's the getting there that's difficult.

These sites might help as well:

https://www.australia.com/en/youth-t...est-coast.html

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/austral...ocal-transport

https://www.shareyourride.net/carpoo...ern+Australia/

https://www.coseats.com/

Good luck! I hope this helps.

tripplanner001

Mel's given you a lot of information about transport options. I spent 4 nights in downtown Perth back in November, and used mostly public transportation to get around, so I will try to add.

Within the city center, I found it easy to get around by bus, but I mostly walked from place to place, and it is a nice way to explore the city. King's Park is very much worth a visit, and it is easy to do by bus or on foot.

Similarly, I found Fremantle easy to walk around. You could get from Perth to Fremantle and back by train or by ferry; the train is faster and runs more frequently. In Fremantle, if you don't walk to walk everywhere, there are free buses that take you around most of the sights.

I also visited Cottesloe Beach by train - very easy to do.

Rottnest Island is reachable by ferry, and once on the island, there is a bus system to take you around; I didn't find Rotto worth the time and expense though.

There are other places you could visit by train but I ran out of time.

nikosk

many many thanks guysl!!! Great info!
Though, things still seem tricky to me
Even if I find a good and low budget way to get to a city , I still need to find asolution to move around that city further away, which can be more difficult...
It seems I should rely more to near-Perth areas, with daytrips , as tripplanner001 did, if I got it right, thanks for feedback on your experience!
Melnq8 thanks for the cities suggested, and the many very interesting weblinks, I see there are a lot of details there, I'll check to see how I could connect some rides into a kind of loop way, and return to Perth after a few days.
I' ll try to organize only a couple of bases for staying outside Perth, see the cities there and do some bush walking around, where / if such areas are reachable on foot out of the city, or with local transport...
Probably the south has more options than the north, maybe I should focus there for a start and see how it could work
Thanks again for the very insight info, happy travels to all!!

Melnq8

Keep in mind that Perth is jam packed with regional parks, many of which are reachable by public transport. I so miss the parks of WA!

nikosk

thanks Mel, that's a good plan!
It makes perfect sense I should base myself for a big part of the trip at Perth, and except the city itself, to enjoy as many as possible reachable nice areas around it, since the transport system is better, cheaper, and distances are shorter!
thanks again for your tips!!!

Bokhara2

nikosk

you are absolutely right Bokhara2, though I am not very optimistic about driving, or anyway using, a car but I'll keep that possibility in mind, some opportunity might come up, even on the spot, and make things work nicer! Let's see...
Thanks, all the best!!

Nnlsbin

Often facebook backpacker groups have people looking to share the cost of fuel to different areas if you were willing to travel in cars with strangers