Western Australia - "Must Sees"
 

We will be visiting WA for the first time next month. We plan on going to Margaret River, Tree Top Walk, The Wave Rock, the Pinnalces and Monkey Mia. Is there anything else we should include in the trip. We were thinking of going to Broome, but we feel that it is just too far. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

New Norcia is well worth a visit. It's a Bendictine monastry/schools/churches and very interesting. You could visit en route between Perth and the Pinnacles.

There's a peninsular with a lighthouse at the bottom left hand corner (I forget its name) where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet. Very rough water and nice view.

Albany has quite a few points of interest (type it into the search box for earlier threads) and you can head north from there to Wave Rock via the Simpson Range.

Oh, and there's a stromatolite pool just outside Cervantes (near the Pinnacles).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatolite

How about a day trip from Perth to Rottnest Island to ride bikes and see the quokkas?

someotherguy - perhaps you're thinking of Cape Leeuwin?
Pemberton is a very quaint timber town down near Margaret River (if memory serves me correctly)we really loved our stay there.

Hi,

Assume you will have a car? The SW corner of WA is one of those places to take the back roads if you have time. I would also recommend the caves south of Margaret River, unless you have already been to loads of caves with spectacular rock formations!!

Rottnest Island is a must.

I never made it to Wave Rock - it's way over East and from what I've read since is probably overrated and not worth the time.

Monkey Mia is so-so. The real highlight of my stay in that area was a one day tour with a local - taking in a beach made of millions of tiny shells; red sea cliffs from where you could peer down and see stingrays and sharks swimming around; old abandoned homesteads, back tracks you would not find yourself - well I didn't have a car there but I still think sometimes local knowledge is a HUGE plus.

Kalbarri is well worth a stop - gorge to walk, boat trips to take; nice laid back sort of place.

Have fun.

If you have the time and enjoy national parks, I highly recommend Albany. Pemberton is also worth some time - huge karri trees, nice wineries and national forests.

I posted a trip report from Western Australia here in July - here's the link if you're interested:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34838163

Have fun - WA is a great place to visit.

In addition to Lake Thetis near Cervantes, there are stromatolites in Hamelin Pool, at the end of Shark Bay. I've heard that it's a fascinating place to visit. It's a heck of a lot farther than Cervantes, but it's quite near Monkey Mia (which sounds dreadful).

These stromatolites are the oldest living things on earth (3.5 billion years) and are on my own shortlist of things I want to see on my next visit (along with Boab trees, Aboriginal rock art, and Kata Tjuta).

Bungle Bungle, about 90 mins by small plane north of Broome but it'll be too hot that time of the year.