
Published in The Wanderer Magazine - March 2015
With tourism coming in as the third biggest industry in Australia, lots of interesting events have started to pop up across the minor interior to cater for visitors and locals alike. While you’ll discover the energy and the isolation of the outback, you’ll also experience the vibrancy of some of Australia’s hidden gems.
Many of the big RV and caravan shows have increased in size over the last several years, showing a marked increase in self-drive tours across the country. Recent tourism research in Western Australia has shown a nice spread of intra/interstate, and international tourists taking in the sights.
You would be forgiven for thinking that 4WD, caravanning, and RVing are fast becoming an Aussie tradition as more and more people discover the freedom of the open road, but we have long known the benefits of hitting the highway for a memorable holiday.
The Dryandra Country Art, Food and Wine Trail has been building in popularity over the last couple of years in a pretty and accessible region of southern Western Australia. It is definitely worth the visit if you are thinking of heading out west for some scenic touring in autumn.
Dryandra Country starts approximately 150km south east of Perth, and is the gateway to Western Australia’s Golden Outback.
The location makes lovely driving from the City of Light, being just a dog-leg easterly detour on your way from Perth to Margaret River or Esperance. Well mapped self-drive tours of this region are de rigueur.
Historically, this region is bountiful, being not only the birth place of A. B. Facey (author of the internationally acclaimed autobiography A Fortunate Life), but also as a place of rich biodiversity.
Dryandra Country’s furthest eastern border is the iconic Rabbit Proof Fence, which dissects Western Australia into four curiously shaped pieces.
It attracts visitors from all over the world for its stunning annual wild flowers and orchids, and is the location of over 400 species of plant which were meticulously collected by the British Museum in the early 1900’s.
Today this region of Western Australia is an agricultural mecca, with huge flays of wide open land interspersed with dramatic rocky granite breakaways. Where agricultural land ends, nature reserves, bursting at the seams with stunning flora and fauna, begin.
Large-scale cultural events in country Australia not only help keep smaller towns alive, they foster diversity and have robust economic benefits for local businesses.