Beyond Perth
Rottnest Island lies 20km (12.5 miles) offshore. This haven for watersports enthusiasts is connected to Fremantle by ferry services. The marsupial quokka is unique to the car-free island. Well to the east of Perth is the thriving gold-mining town of Kalgoorlie with its Museum of the Goldfields, and towns which were once the centre of Western Australia’s gold rush, such as Coolgardie. Also interesting is Wave Rock, a 2700-million-year-old formation resembling a tidal wave, close to Hyden. The Darling Ranges, behind Perth, are popular with visitors and contain several national parks. The Avon Valley, a 90-minute drive from Perth, is an agricultural area. In this region can be found the town of York where the York Motor Museum and the Residency Museum are worth seeing. Nanbung National Park, 240km (150 miles) north of Perth, is well known for its amazing limestone pillars, The Pinnacles. At Monkey Mia, on the mid-western coast, there are wild bottlenose dolphins that come into the shallows to greet visitors. Also in the north of the State, The Kimberley, a wild semi-desert region rich in Aboriginal legends, has in recent years become a thriving diamond-mining centre. The city of Broome, on the north coast, is the pearl capital of the world. At the opposite end of the State is Albany, founded in 1827 and the first European settlement in Western Australia; it is noted for its blowholes and winter whale-watching. Augusta, to the west, is also visited by several species of whale.
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