WHAT'S HOT

Countdown to Field of Light

A total of 16,000 glass spheres have safely made their journey from the UK to Albany, ready for their moment to shine in one of the biggest outdoor art installations WA's South West has ever seen. Launching to the public on October 4, UK artist Bruce Munro's Field of Light: Avenue of Honour is part of Australia's Anzac Centenary celebrations, marking the end of WWI. From September 18, more than 50 local volunteers―many with a personal connection to the Anzacs―will 'plant' thousands of lights under the memorial trees along Albany's Avenue of Honour. Commissioned by not-for-profit group FORM, the artwork will honour the men and women who served in the Great War and in every conflict since. Every sunset from October 2018 until Anzac Day 2019, the Avenue of Honour will glow in the colours of the national flowers of Australia and New Zealand, the wattle and the kowhai.

Swimming with humpbacks to continue

Visitors to Ningaloo Marine Park on WA's mid north coast can look forward to swimming with humpback whales for at least another two years, with approvals now granted for the in-water interaction trials to continue for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Currently underway in Coral Bay and Exmouth, this year's swimming with humpbacks experience will finish in October. The tours, which start in August each year, complement the region's other nature-based offerings such as whale shark swims (March to July), and manta ray interactions which are available year round.

Wildflowers and whales on show in WA

WA is home to an array of spectacular natural attractions that drive visitors from near and far to see nature at its best. The State is currently experiencing one of its biggest wildflower seasons on record, with an abundance of blooms on show from north to south. Between now and November, visitors can check-out more than 8,000 species of wildflowers throughout WA's South West. Hot spots include the Cape to Cape Track, Fitzgerald River National Park, Stirling Range National Park and Porongurup National Park.

Nature lovers can also witness the annual southern migration of whales between September and November, as humpback and southern right whales make their way from the birthing waters of the Kimberley to the southern Antarctic waters. The ultimate way to witness the whales at play is on a guided tour off the coast of Perth, Dunsborough, Augusta or Albany.

WA wins at Gourmet Traveller Awards

WA's bar and restaurant scene continues to impress, picking up two out of ten national awards at the 2019 Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards. Parisian inspired bar Liberte, located in Albany in WA's South West, was awarded Bar of the Year. In a nod to WA's regional offerings, it's the first bar outside of a major city to win the award. Head chef and owner Amy Hamilton serves up a French and Vietnamese-inspired menu, with a focus on local produce, and a wine list that celebrates the region's local winemakers. 

Perth's State Buildings wine director Emma Farrelly won Sommelier of the Year. Emma has produced award-winning wine menus across top venues in Perth for more than 16 years, and currently overseas the wine list at Wildflower, Post, Long Chim and Petition – all located within the State Buildings.

LIFESTYLE AND CULTURE

New events announced for Margaret River Gourmet Escape

The Margaret River Gourmet Escape is set to return to the region this November (16 to 18) with a packed program of food and wine events featuring international and local culinary greats. Festival headliner Nigella Lawson will showcase a decadent menu of her favourite late night eats and participate in a Q&A as part of a new event - Supper with Nigella - to be held at Xanadu Wines on Saturday November 17.

Additional tickets have also been released for the iconic Westpac Gourmet Beach BBQ, Feast in the Forest, Cape on a Plate, Caves Road Cantina at Black Brewing Co., Smith & Daughters 90's Trattoria Dinner, Chows Table Chinese Feast, Singapore Airlines Escape Garden and the Westpac Leeuwin Estate Platinum Lounge. 

Western Australia Gourmet Escape is a new event which will run over 10 days in November 2019, beginning with a weekend program in the Swan Valley, continuing in Perth during the week before concluding in the Margaret River wine region the following weekend. It is a natural progression from Margaret River Gourmet Escape and has the potential to grow into one of the best food and wine events in the world.

Cinema retursn to the city at new Perth precinct

Perth has welcomed another retail, dining and entertainment precinct with stage one of the Raine Square development in the CBD now open. The opening marks the return of cinemas to the city, with Palace Raine Square Cinemas – a luxury complex featuring nine traditional cinemas, four Palace Platinum boutique screens, two bespoke bars, and a rooftop terrace overlooking Yagan Square. The precinct's flagship restaurant, Michelin star chain Tim Ho Wan has also opened, along with an eclectic mix of local and international food operators, speciality stores and boutique retailers.

Perth welcomes new retail offerings

Opening to the public on October 3, DFO Perth offers a new retail experience with premium and designer brands at up to 70 percent off all year round. Located at the Perth Airport T3/T4 precinct, it will be home to more than 100 national and international retailers, a dining precinct offering local and international cuisines, outdoor playground facilities, plus features such as luggage storage lockers, designated parenting facilities, quiet rooms and bilingual digital directories.

Perth city has also welcomed the opening of its first Uniqlo store. Located in Murray Street Mall, the Japanese clothing retailer – specialising in minimal design and seasonal basics – is housed on two levels and sells the full collection for men, women and children.

Black Swan Theatre 2019 program release

Western Australia's leading theatre company, Black Swan, will celebrate local talent and female writers in its 2019 season, exploring 'Where the Heart Is'. Artistic Director Clare Watson promises an inclusive and diverse program of classic and contemporary plays that are fresh, funny and pertinent. The season begins in February 2019, as part of the Perth Festival, with the Pulitzer prize-winning drama Our Town by Thornton Wilder performed under the stars in the State Theatre Centre's Courtyard. Australian classic The Torrents will show in June and stars comedian Celia Pacquola (from ABC's Rosehaven and Utopia). Other shows on the calendar include Nakkiah Lui's Australian romantic comedy hit Black is the New White, and the first Australian Sikh story to feature on WA stages - Fully Sikh.

New Beyond Bling! exhibition at Art Gallery of WA

Following on from the success of Heath Ledger: A Life in Pictures exhibition, the Art Gallery of WA (AGWA) will be exhibiting another street-smart Culture Juice show – Beyond Bling! The exhibition will feature 300 varied pieces of jewellery from the WA State Art Collection, ranging in date from the 1800s to current times. It'll showcase the best, the bizarre and the most sophisticated jewels in AGWA's historical and contemporary collections, including capsule displays from key collectors, major historic works of gold nugget jewellery from antiquarian expert Trevor Hancock, displays from Perth's 'King of Bling', Shane Pavlinovich, and a special display of works from the renowned Georg Jensen collection. The free exhibition opens on October 13 and runs until January 14, 2019.

Masters Racing Carnival returns to Perth

The 2018 TABtouch Masters Carnival returns to Perth's Ascot Racecourse in November – the world's only single-track carnival featuring a Group One race worth $1,000,000 across three consecutive Saturdays. The Kirin Railway Stakes Day will be held on Saturday, November 24 – one of the most exciting days of the racing calendar, with live entertainment, fashion and dining. The final sprint race for 2018 will be on Saturday, December 1 at the Crown Perth Winterbottom Stakes Day, then on Saturday, December 8 the Magic Millions Kingston Town Classic Day will feature the southern hemisphere's richest Group One race. Travel and hospitality packages for the event are available.

FOOD AND WINE

Great Southern Distilling Co named Australian Distiller of the Year

Great Southern Distilling Co was recently named 'Australian Distiller of the Year' by Whisky Magazine's Icons of World Whisky Awards. Founded by Cameron Syme in 2004, the Great Southern Distilling Company has received many awards for producing some of the world's best whisky and gin. The company's flagship brand Limeburners whisky, established in Albany, has grown to include another two distilleries, one in Margaret River - where Giniversity Gin is produced - and a new distillery in the Porongorups, which will produce the Tiger Snake bourbon-style whiskey.

Perth's latest food and wine hot spots

Inner city suburb Mount Lawley has welcomed Harvey Leigh's Public House to bustling Beaufort Street – a 180-seat venue serving food, beer, wine and cocktails. Taking over the old Beaufort Local site, Harvey Leigh's Public House is an upmarket pub, complete with a wine school and beer garden. Visitors can take the opportunity to choose from a calendar of wine classes, with co-owner Dan Wegener (also of Wine Rooms by Harvey Leigh's with his wife Katie) regarded as one of Australia's best sommeliers.

The team behind Northbridge's Jack Rabbit Slims have opened a late-night pizza and live-music bar in the heart of Perth on Murray Street. Lucy's Love Shack's motto is simple – “Good Pizza. Bad Decisions. Rock out with no lock out” – and will see venue-goers partying into the early hours, with food service available until close at 5am. Lucy's Love Shack will host at least one live music band each evening, including rock, punk and heavy metal.

Three of Perth's hospitality heavyweights have joined forces to bring a late-night Japanese whisky bar to Perth's Hibernian Place precinct. Former Olympic swimmer turned restaurateur Eamon Sullivan, whose current venues include Bib and Tucker and May Street Larder, and head chef at both these venues Scott Bridger – will join Perth bar owner Andy Freeman (Varnish on King, The Flour Factory, Cabalitos) – to open Goody Two's at the end of October. Located underneath Freeman's latest Moroccan-inspired venue Hadiqa, Goody Two's will be a 200-person late night bar, open until 3am on Friday's and Saturday's. Visitors can expect live entertainment, a Japanese inspired food menu, and a drinks list featuring more than 100 bottles of Japanese whisky.

Another new opening for Perth is Palace Arcade - the city's first arcade bar. Located in the old Dominion League site on Beaufort Street in Northbridge, it features 50 vintage gaming machines that are rotated monthly from owner Saran Bajaj's collection of around 150 machines. Classic games from the 80's and 90's will be featured, including The Simpsons, Street Fighter, X-Men and Space Invaders. The food is supplied by Mack Daddy's New York Pizza, available whole or by the slice, and the drinks menu is poured by popular bar tenders Tom Kearney and Mitch Gurrin, who have stayed on following Dominion League's closure.

TOURS, ATTRACTIONS AND ACCOMMODATION

March opening for new Rottnest Island eco village

Bookings for the much anticipated new accommodation offering on Perth's Rottnest Island, Discovery Eco-Village - Rottnest Island, will open in late October, for stays from March 2019. Nestled in the sand dunes overlooking the pristine Pinky's Beach, the 83-tent eco-village will offer environmentally conscious contemporary accommodation for families, couples and groups, with a resort pool and Beach Club, while the tents will be well appointed with ensuite bathrooms and private decks. It's the first accommodation property to open on the island in more than 30 years. Home to 63 beaches and 20 bays, Rottnest Island is located 19 kilometres off Perth's coast, and is easily accessible via a short ferry trip from Perth city, Fremantle and Hillarys, or via helicopter or small plane.

Time magazine names Tribe Perth hotel in top 100

Tribe Perth was named one of the best accommodation spots in the world by Time Magazine. The global publication recently released its top 100 global destinations list, and Tribe Perth – alongside only two other Australian accommodation offerings – was included in the list. The 126-room hotel opened in May 2017 and was Australia's first integrated modular design hotel, offering guests an affordable luxury experience. Its contemporary design focuses on communal spaces that are part collaborative workspace, part social club, featuring break out spaces, lounges, and outdoor courtyard.

Yanchep Campground officially opens

Yanchep National Park, located 50 kilometres north of Perth, has officially opened its new campground. Visitors now have access to hardstand sites, grass sites, a group camping site, a barbecue shelter and toilet facilities installed at Henry White Campground. Yanchep National Park is easily accessible from Perth and home to western grey kangaroos, and features nine designated walk trails and more than 400 caves to explore.

Upgrades for Lucky Bay Campground

The campground and recreation area at Lucky Bay in Cape Le Grand National Park, located near Esperance in WA's Golden Outback, has reopened after receiving more than $4.2 million worth of upgrades. As one of WA's iconic attractions – with its white sand, turquoise waters and friendly beach-loving kangaroos, it has long been a popular location for campers. The upgrades include new toilets and showers, and a new recreation area separate from the campground, with barbecue shelters and toilets. The Lucky Bay and Cape Le Grand campgrounds can now be booked online through the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions' online campground booking system.

Glamping at Yeeda Station

Yeeda Station, located 160 kilometres east of Broome in the Kimberley region in WA's North West, now offers glamping accommodation in spacious open plan ensuite eco-tents. The station already offers powered caravan and camping sites, along with communal barbecues, access to exclusive barramundi fishing spots, and homestead facilities with meals available on request. Prices start from $250 per night for two people in the eco-tents, and $85 per night for two for powered sites. The station also offers Call of the Kimberley day tours, which provide an insight into day-to-day life on a working cattle station, and include a stockman's morning tea and long table lunch.

Kimberley Wilderness Adventures 2019

APT has released its 2019 Kimberley Wilderness Adventures brochure, and is offering a range of early bird super deals for bookings made by December 15, 2018. On selected tours, offers include fly free deals and savings of up to $800 per couple. The brochure features packages staying in wilderness lodges with all meals, transfers, and national park guides included; and a new range of short breaks including the three-day Purnululu 4WD Experience and three-day Lustre of Cape Leveque tour. Prices start at $1,695 per person twin share.

True North Adventure launches South West tours

True North Adventure Cruises has released a new tour that takes guests along WA's southern coastline. Launching in January 2019, Adventure South West is a seven night cruise starting in Esperance (with guests flown in from Perth), discovering the pure white sand beaches and turquoise waters of Cape Le Grand National Park. It then travels along the South West coast, discovering the wildlife at Bremer Bay Canyon, then onto the Margaret River region to sample wine and local produce. The cruise finishes in Fremantle – where guest will be able to swim with wild dolphins in Rockingham, and visit Perth's idyllic island playground, Rottnest.

New Pink Lake Buggy Tours

Port Gregory Caravan Park, located in WA's Coral Coast north of Geraldton, has started offering Pink Lake Buggy Tours. The six seater buggy allows guests to be driven along the Port Gregory coastline and through sand dune tracks, taking in local flora and fauna along the way. The tour includes a stop on the sand dunes for an elevated view of Hutt Lagoon, the area's famous pink lake. Tours take approximately one hour, departing and returning to the caravan park twice daily at 9.30am and 3pm, and cost $80 per adult.

ADAMS release new Pinnacles and Mandurah tours

ADAMS Pinnacle Tours has released two new tours that celebrate iconic WA experiences. The Pinnacle Desert and Night Time Star Gazing Tour showcases WA's changing light as the sun sets over the unique limestone spires of the Pinnacles, offering a new perspective of the moon-like landscape. The tour also includes a stop to see koalas at Yanchep National Park, a traditional Aussie pub dinner and views along the Indian Ocean Drive coastline. The full day Mandurah Coastal Tour is the first of its kind in the Peel region and includes a dolphin adventure cruise with Mandurah Cruises, a visit to the thrombolites, the Mandurah foreshore and boardwalk, and Cape Bouvard.

Westside Tours launches two new WA tours

Explore the coastal sand dunes of Lancelin (located a 90-minute drive north of Perth) in a custom built four wheel drive bus, before sand boarding down some of WA's largest sand dunes on Westside Tours' 4WD Sand Dunes and Sand Boarding Adventure. The 45 minute adventure ride is $30 per adult or $80 for a family (two adults and two children). The Orchard, Aussie Farm and Mandurah Day Tour includes a visit to Raeburn Orchard in Perth Hills, before an Australian farm experience - including a small petting zoo and an Aussie barbecue lunch. The tour finishes in Mandurah, and includes an optional one hour dolphin and scenic canal tour with Mandurah Cruises. Tours cost $149 per adult, with transfers to Perth included.

WA landmarks voted Australia's best

Three of the State's iconic tourist attractions have been included in Trip Advisor's 2018 Travellers' Choice Awards list for Top 10 Landmarks in Australia. The historic Fremantle Prison – built in the 1850s by convicts and the only World Heritage listed building in the State – came in at number eight on the list. Number nine is the HMAS Sydney II Memorial, located in the Coral Coast town of Geraldton. The memorial site honours the 645 Australian sailors who were lost off the WA coast during a World War II battle with German raider HSK Kormoran. The Kings Park War Memorial was number 10 in the list. Located in the iconic Kings Park and Botanic Gardens, the State War Memorial commemorates the Western Australian servicemen and women who have served in all wars and conflicts in which Australia has been involved.

Direct flights from Perth to Gold Coast

Virgin Australia will start operating its first non-stop flights from Perth to the Gold Coast during this season's summer holiday period. The new Perth route will operate twice a week on Thursday and Saturday during a six-week period between December 13 and January 26. The flights have been scheduled as an evening departure from Gold Coast and morning departure from Perth. Currently, Jetstar is the only airline offering the nonstop flights.