Drummond Cove Holiday Park

Wildflowers are the big thing round here: visitors in July and August can expect carpets of colour in the Chapman River Regional park and even more so in the Kalbarri National Park, an hour and a half north of town. Even if you’re passing through out of blooming season, the Kalbarri makes for cracking excursions, canoeing along the river gorges or walking the trails, through a diverse landscape full of rare birds including pelicans, ringneck parrots and black swans.

Head into Geraldton if watery pastimes are your bag: sea fishing and whale spotting boat trips depart from the harbour, while surf shacks hiring out kit and offering schooling to newbies dot the shore.

If you’re up for adventure on a grander scale, fly or charter a boat out to the Houtman Abrolhos islands, an archipelago of 122 uninhabited outcrops, where shipwreck diving, birdwatching and total desert island solitude are top of the bill. Some itineraries will drop you for a short wander or a day-long expedition; others fly over the area, taking in the islands and the coastal bubblegum-hued Pink Lake (which is an hour's drive if you prefer terra firma).

Leave time for town pursuits as well, learning about the local shipwrecks, mutinies (and maybe murders) at the Museum of Geraldton, immersing yourself in the indigenous culture at the Yamaji Art Centre, and visiting the dingoes, emus and kangaroos being cared for by the Waminda Wildlife Sanctuary.