If you go to Exmouth in January, you are an idiot. I say that with love, because I was that idiot back in 2018. I thought I was tougher than the sun. I thought ‘dry heat’ meant it wouldn’t be that bad. It was 46 degrees Celsius at Yardie Creek, the air conditioning in my old Pajero gave up the ghost three hours north of Carnarvon, and I spent four days horizontal in a humid tent feeling like a piece of lukewarm ham. It was miserable. I hated every second of it.
Western Australia is about a third of the entire continent. You can’t just ‘visit’ it in one go, and the ‘best time’ depends entirely on whether you want to freeze your toes off in a vineyard or get a tan that borders on a medical emergency. Most travel sites give you these neat little charts. They’re useless because they don’t account for the wind or the flies.
The North is a trap if you time it wrong
From May to August, the Kimberley and the Pilbara are basically perfect. That’s the ‘Dry.’ The sky is so blue it looks fake. But everyone knows this, which means every man and his dog is up there in a kitted-out LandCruiser. I once waited forty minutes for a coffee at a Dôme in Broome. Forty minutes. For mediocre coffee. It’s the price you pay for not melting, I guess.
But here is my genuinely unpopular opinion: I think Broome is overrated in the peak season. It’s expensive, crowded, and feels like a theme park for people who own caravans worth more than my house. I much prefer Kununurra in the shoulder season—late September. It’s pushing 38 degrees, sure, but you actually get to see the landscape without a hundred other tourists in the background of your photo.
What I mean is—actually, let me put it differently. If you aren’t okay with sweating through your shirt by 9:00 AM, stay away from anything north of Geraldton between November and March. The heat in Marble Bar during those months feels like someone is holding a running blowtorch three inches from your eyeballs. I’m not exaggerating. I tracked the temperatures during a work trip once; it stayed above 40 degrees for 12 days straight. You don’t ‘see the sights’ in that. You just survive from one air-conditioned room to the next.
The flies in the Pilbara are like a physical weight you have to push through. They don’t just buzz; they colonize your face.
The South West is for people who like moodiness
I used to think the South West (Margaret River, Albany, Denmark) was only good in the summer. I was completely wrong. Summer in Margaret River is a nightmare. You can’t get a table at a brewery, the traffic on Caves Road is stupid, and the beach is packed.
Go in June. Yes, it rains. Yes, it’s windy. But there is something about sitting in a cabin with a wood fire and a bottle of $60 Cabernet while the Southern Ocean tries to tear the coast apart that just feels… right. Albany in July is peak ‘brooding protagonist’ energy. I once spent three days in a rental in Denmark just watching the mist roll over the tall karri trees. Didn’t see another soul. It was the best trip of my life.
I know people will disagree with this, but I think the beaches in the South West are actually better in the winter. You can’t swim, obviously—unless you want hypothermia—but the scale of the waves at places like Contos or Surfers Point is terrifyingly beautiful. In summer, they just look like nice beaches. In winter, they look like the end of the world.
Anyway, speaking of the ocean, if you’re going to the Ningaloo Reef to see the whale sharks, you have a very narrow window. March to July. If you show up in August hoping for whale sharks, you’re probably going to be disappointed. You might see a humpback, but it’s not the same. I spent $450 on a tour once just to see a very distant tail fin. Expensive mistake.
The part nobody tells you about the ‘Wildflower’ season
People lose their minds over the wildflowers in September. It’s the ‘Goldilocks’ zone for the whole state. Not too hot in the north, not too cold in the south. The wildflowers in the Mid West look like a spilled bucket of neon paint across the scrub. It’s stunning. But it’s also the time when the ‘Grey Nomads’ are in full force.
If you’re driving the Indian Ocean Drive in September, prepare to be stuck behind a caravan doing 80km/h in a 110 zone for three hours. It’ll test your religion. Also, I refuse to recommend the Pinnacles. I don’t care if it’s on every ‘Top 10’ list. It’s a bunch of yellow rocks in the dirt. You pay $15 for the privilege of driving your car in a circle around them. Total waste of petrol. Go to Kalbarri instead. The Murchison River gorge makes the Pinnacles look like a backyard rockery.
Quick verdict on timing:
- April/May: Best for the Ningaloo Reef and the start of the northern trek.
- September/October: Best for wildflowers and the Perth metro area.
- June/July: Best for the South West (if you own a thick coat).
- December/January: Only if you hate yourself or really, really love 40-degree heat and flies.
A petty note on gear
I have this weird, irrational hatred for BCF (Boating, Camping, Fishing). I know everyone shops there, but a guy at the Midland store was incredibly condescending to me about a tent pole in 2014 and I haven’t been back since. I’ll drive an extra twenty minutes to an Anaconda or some independent camping shop just to avoid giving them my money. Is it petty? Yes. Does it affect my travel? Frequently. But we all have our hills to die on.
If you’re heading out, get a proper 12V fridge. Don’t rely on ice. Buying bags of ice at $6 a pop at every roadhouse is a sucker’s game. I spent $900 on fuel alone for a 10-day loop from Perth to Exmouth and back in a LandCruiser that gets about 18L/100km. If I’d been buying ice on top of that, I would’ve been eating 2-minute noodles for a month afterward.
I honestly don’t know why more people don’t talk about how expensive this state is. It’s not just the flights; it’s the ‘remote tax’ on everything. A pint of beer in Kununurra was $16 last time I checked. That’s not a holiday; that’s a financial shakedown.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that Western Australia doesn’t care about your itinerary. You can plan for the ‘best time’ all you want, but the weather does what it wants. I’ve seen it rain in the Pilbara in the middle of the Dry, and I’ve seen 35-degree days in Perth in May.
Is it worth the hassle? Probably. Just don’t come in January. Seriously. Don’t do it.
Why do we keep going back to places that try to kill us with heat and insects? I haven’t figured that one out yet.
