Welcome to Western Australia, mate

These are some of the main things visitors to Australia are looking for. Most manage to see them all by bopping around the country on planes, which can be quite the hassle and very expensive. But I found them all within a relatively short drive of Perth, the capital of Western Australia.

I’d taken three previous trips Down Under, but this was my first time in the vast state of Western Australia, which is the roughly three times the size of British Columbia and has a population just slightly larger than Metro Vancouver (about 2.7 million people).

I fell deeply in love on a driving trip that took me from the Mediterranean-like climate and fine wineries of the Margaret River to the surprising city of Perth and then partway up the so-called Coral Coast to the truly astonishing Kalbarri National Park.

From south to north, here’s a look at a variety of ways to sample the southern part of WA on an easy driving trip.

MARGARET RIVER