Best time to visit Southern W.A.

Thanks Val. I was reading part of your 2012 blog yesterday and noted that the weather was not the best for you. I believe WA school holidays are from 25th Sept – 12th Oct. We will be travelling in a Colorado 4x4 and prefer to stay in caravan park cabins or country pubs. May have to camp at Cape Arid.
Cheers,

G'day Allan,

We just returned from our lap around the block, got home Friday arvo. Traveled clockwise.
Yep grandkids went back to school at the beginning of this week.
The winds across the Nullabor weren't too bad but we struck a bad blow between Norseman and Southern Cross. We were very glad to scuttle into the SC caravan park and shelter for a couple of days. Not a bad little park either by the way.
The weather in general can be a bit unpredictable as the seasons change. Absolutely beautiful spring day on Friday and yesterday, cold and light showers today as a front passes through.
The south coast can be very windy and cold if the wind is coming from the southern ocean and a bit on the warm side if coming from the north.

Other than that, a nice part of the state. Enjoy.

Cheers
Pop

School holidays for 2014, 2015 and 2016 are listed below for all states;

School holiday dates

Hi Allan,

If you are staying in cabins then I doubt that the weather would trouble you much. Its a different matter when camping! As others have said, easier to keep warm than to keep cool. A lot will come down to how much you want to see the wildflowers - there will probably be some about for most of the year, but the spring display is wonderful and I personally would risk a bit of wind and damp to see those flowers, including the ground orchids. Bear in mind that the display will vary depending on the amount of rain that falls in autumn and winter. 2012 was quite a dry year and the display, even in the Fitzgerald River NP was not a patch on what it was in 2009.

Cape Arid is a wonderful spot, but I dont think there are any cabins there, so yes you would probably need to camp.

Cheers,

Val

A really wet winter is needed to get the wildflowers really going in W.A.
In 1974, after a beautiful, cloudless, warm, rain-free Autumn, it started raining on the 19th June - and it virtually never stopped raining every day, until the middle of September.

The wheatbelt was awash for weeks - I can remember driving North up a road East of Kondinin, and the floodwater never went below halfway up the doors of my Holden ute for more than 10kms.

However, when it finally stopped raining, and the warmth returned in Spring, the wildflowers were absolutely amazing.
I could never remember a wildflower season like it, and I've never seen one like it since. The varieties, the size of the plants, and the colours were incredible.

Ron you may well be right, but if you come from the east and have never seen the WA spring wildflowers then even a moderately good display after some average rainfall is amazing. 5 years on and I am still identifying the vast number of wildflower photos that we took in 2009 - that locals said was an "average to good" year.

Cheers,

Val

We live near the Porongurups and the temp today and yesterday max 14 however earlier in the week high 20's. Really depends on weather pattern, remember it is easier to stay warm with clothes on than strip off and sweat it out.
You are welcome to contact me for further info.
Regards Ric

I probably should have mentioned, watch the winds and follow the synoptic weather charts when travelling most of W.A.
A high pressure system setting up in the central Bight area is a classic Summer weather pattern.

When this happens, you'll get stinking hot Northerly winds from the interior right over W.A. and the place roasts.
Those hot Northerlies are best avoided by laying up for a day or two somewhere, preferably near the coast.
Travelling in hot northerlies means your vehicle runs extremely hot, you risk tyre damage, and your fuel consumption will rocket.

The worst Summer feature of W.A. is the coastal trough. This is a slow-moving long area of low pressure that stretches North to South over W.A.
A trough will commence to form near the West Coast under summery conditions, and it then moves slowly across the state from West to East.
In doing so, it produces sticky, windless humidity that you get little relief from.

A West coast trough can be very slow-moving and can take a week or more to reach the S.A. border.
When this happens, the only relief from the heat and humidity you'll get, is right on the coast.

Thanks Ron for your reply. Re accommodation, as mentioned in an earlier "Follow up" we stay in caravan park Cabins where possible.
Cheers.

O.K. - Sorry, I missed that part initially. That's my style of touring, too - I've spent too much time when I was working full time, camping out and roughing it!
Nowadays I'm very happy to stay in cabins, pubs and hotels! SWMBO would stay in 5 star hotels every time, if she could! LOL

There's some nice cabins in the parks nowadays, and many old pubs have been renovated and seek out tourists.
Typical of that is the Muntadgin Hotel - relatively isolated and in a pretty featureless Eastern agricultural area - but a classic old pub, nonetheless!

W.A. Country pubs

Cheers, Ron.

So Allan, after all that, and I don't mean just what Ron has laid out, which by the way I think is pretty much on the mark.

Are you still coming to the Wild West?? (;=))

Cheers
Pop

Yes Pop, we are still coming to the wild west. The above info is a lot of "food for thought" and may take a while to fully digest.

Cheers

Hi Allan

Any time you see this pattern, a High actually in, or slightly above, the bight is a great time to visit the south Coasts. (With the exception of summer - I doubt you will choose summer as a time to travel this area anyway).

You will not get cold rainy weather as the airflow is from over the continent and is dry and warm. You can get this pattern all through the year it even possible to get clear warm days in July if you know your patterns.

When it turns bad just head up into the Great Western Woodlands for a while.

Dont mistake my passion here. We are used to Queenslands Gems, Fraser, Straddie, Cooloola and the Whitsundays etc hence I only ever go to places like Esperance or Isralite Bay when we are sure we are not going to freeze. Often we camp in the dunes for a week at a time and welcome the odd morning shower of rain to replenish our fresh water supply, but there are far better places to be when it rains for longer.

The coastline is too magnificent to miss out on by not knowing a bit about the weather. Dont be put off by a few days of rain, just go somewhere else for a while - heading north will take you out of it fairly quickly, might cost a bit in fuel to head back down when it settles but what price can you put on the bliss of lazing around in the sun on the prettiest (least settled) coastline in Australia.

PS note the wind direction in my wifes hair in the nice sunny scene below - its blowing offshore....because...there is ....a high in the bight!

Hope this Helps

Thanks Motherhen. Yes we are a bit limited on time, have allowed five weeks in total but expect to take about a week travelling each way. The only way to extend our stay would be to go into the school holidays (which I do have off). Had considered the thought that we may travel either to or from W.A. during the holidays. As a rule we prefer to avoided school holidays due to extra traffic & extra demand on accommodation.
I been watching your weather closely & noted it’s been cool. S.A. had it very hot yesterday & we maxed out at 28 here.
Cheers