Wheatbelt to Goldfields Epic
Outback Wilderness

FIFTEEN DAY TOUR

 
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Featured Tour Highlights

Premier Mill Hotel

The Premier Mill Hotel is a beautifully restored, iconic former flour mill in the country town of Katanning.
"The Premier Flour Mill has high historic and social significance. It was the first major industry to be established in the Great Southern. The Mill [is] scientifically significant in that it was the first supplier of the town's electricity, the mill itself being the first building to have an electric light installed. It also had the most up-to-date machinery of its time. The mill also has rarity value for its completeness, authenticity and condition." - State Heritage Office, Western Australia.
Discover a touch of luxury in the Great Southern

National Anzac Centre

Experience the Anzac Legend at Albany's award winning National Anzac Centre, situated within the Princess Royal Fortress. Assume the identity of an actual service man or woman, and follow their experience of the Great War. Their stories start at recruitment and continue through training and embarking, life on the convoys and the conflicts at Gallipoli, the middle east and the Western Front. Keep an eye out to see if there is a display dedicated to your character in the National Anzac Centre. At the end of your journey through the Centre, discover the fate of your character. For those lucky enough to survive, read about their return home and the difficulties they faced adjusting back into normal society. 

Princess Royal Fortress

The National Anzac Centre is located within the grounds of the heritage listed Princess Royal Fortress, one of only two pre-federation fortresses built to protect intercontinental trade routes. At the time all main-land Australian colonies contributed to the cost, demonstrating rare pre-federation cooperation between the colonies. The convoys which left King George Sound as interpreted within the National Anzac Centre chose Albany as a place to gather due to the defences and protection the Fortress was able to provide the fleet. If it was not for the Princess Royal Fortress, the convoys would never have gathered in such numbers in one position. Wander the grounds of the Fortress and experience what it was like to protect Australia’s shores at times of war. Explore original gun batteries, large coastal gun defences and the barracks where officers lived and worked. If you're lucky you may even catch a traditional gun salute!The National ANZAC Centre

Experience the Anzac Legend at Albany's award winning National Anzac Centre, situated within the Princess Royal Fortress. Assume the identity of an actual service man or woman, and follow their experience of the Great War. Their stories start at recruitment and continue through training and embarking, life on the convoys and the conflicts at Gallipoli, the middle east and the Western Front. Keep an eye out to see if there is a display dedicated to your character in the National Anzac Centre. At the end of your journey through the Centre, discover the fate of your character. For those lucky enough to survive, read about their return home and the difficulties they faced adjusting back into normal society. 

Hopetoun Accommodation

Wavecrest Resort - Situated in the pristine coastal location of Hopetoun in Western Australia’s southern coastal region, Wavecrest Village has been created around the natural beauty of a rural setting with an emphasis on a sustainable living, holiday, adventure and leisure environment.

Wavecrest Tourist Park - Situated in the pristine southern coastal location of Hopetoun, minutes away from the spectacular natural wonders of the Fitzgerald River National Park.

Wave Rock

This world-famous rock is a granite cliff, standing 15 metres high, 110 metres long and shaped remarkably like a huge wave. Other interesting rock formations in the region include Hippo’s Yawn, Mulka’s Cave and The Humps.

Indigenous Australians have inhabited the Hyden and Wave Rock region for many thousands of years and there are significant historic sites located here. Sandalwood cutters are believed to have been the first white men in the area, and farming began in 1922. The descendants of these early settlers still live here today, some of which play host to the 100,000-plus tourists who flock to the area every year.

 

Gold and Nickel Discoveries

The Archaean greenstone belts have contained the mineral rich gold and nickel mineralisation that bought many mining booms and busts to Western Australia. The discovery of the surface gold deposits in Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie, Dundas and Norseman in the early 1890’s bought prospectors from all over Australia and the globe to these major gold finds that were “world class.” The stories of the gold discoveries and the wealth it generated for Western Australia also bought some incredible personal stories – from miners trapped by floodwaters to mining engineers who became Presidents. The “nickel boom” of the 1960’s bought a new generation of corporate explorers to Western Australia from North America, Europe and South Africa. The discoveries of commercial grade nickel sulphide deposits in Kambalda paved the way for a tremendous expansion of mining in the region from Lake Johnston to Yakabindie.

Great Western Woodlands

The woodlands are the single largest intact temperate woodlands remaining on the planet. They extend well over 16M hectares and contain an extraordinary number of flora and fauna species. Granite outcrops such as Caves Hill, Burra Rocks and Victoria Rocks that rise above the landscape have been used as reliable water catchment sources for timber and sandalwood cutters and early pioneers. These massive outcrops are surrounded by unique eco systems that have evolved over millions of years.

The woodlands exist within the geological Yilgarn Craton that is almost 3 billion years in age making these geological landscapes some of the oldest on the planet.

Sandalwood shop

Established in 1997, Mt Romance pioneered the distillation and use of Australian Sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) in the fragrance industry. Today the 60,000m2 facility is the world’s largest distiller of Sandalwood oil, and works to support local and global communities through our commitment to quality, sustainability and ethical business.  

Stirling Range

The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 337 km south-east of Perth. It is over 60 km (37 mi) wide from west to east, stretching from the highway between Mount Barker and Cranbrook eastward past Gnowangerup. The Stirling Range is protected by the Stirling Range National Park, which was gazetted in 1913, and has an area of 1,159 km2 (447 sq mi).

Public Silo Trail

FORM’s PUBLIC Silo Trail is putting regional Western Australia up in lights, bringing world class murals to grain silos, transformer boxes and iconic infrastructure in unexpected towns right across the state. So explore the Wheatbelt following the PUBLIC Silo Trail, an ambitious project between FORM and CBH Group that has brought internationally renowned artists to regional Western Australia to transform a string of massive grain silos into works of art. What better way to get off the beaten track and spend some time in some of the Wheatbelt’s most welcoming and down-to-earth communities? Completed in 2018, this permanent, open-air ‘gallery’ links rural and coastal towns across Western Australia’s southern regions, spreading a visible legacy across silos, walls and electrical boxes from Northam to Albany.