And I am not biased. This is the reality of Albany, a town of thirty thousand people who really don’t want it to change. I don’t have a business here reliant on locals or tourists.

Albany is 420 km’s south of Perth in Western Australia. It was the state’s first settlement and has a strong sense of place in the national history of what is still a very young country.

As far as white Australia is concerned anyway.

If you visit Australia, come over to the west. If you do this, then Albany is a must see and well worth the trip over. A small plane takes the trip down and back to Perth every morning and afternoon, and a bus service runs daily, which takes six hours. Better still, hire a car and meander down the long way, through t

We all get a bit tired sometimes of where we live, because we become accustomed to it. There are people bored by living next to deserted beaches on tropical islands, fed up with the site of mountains from their stunning chalet in picturesque Swiss villages and some cant wait to get away from their secluded cottage by a ‘river somewhere’.

I am one of those lucky ones, but it did take me many years travelling to find the place I wanted.

I have my gripes with where I live, but they are petty, meaningless and based on a frustrating lack of get up and go in the local community.

This is, of course, subjective, and why people come and live here in the first place. The pace of life and the natural beauty.

And as far as beauty goes, Albany is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

That is a big call, and it’s not made by a local who hasn’t been anywhere else, nor from someone with a vested interest in getting people here. I have no agenda.

From the window in front of me in a rented house on one of two hills overlooking the town of Albany, the view is extraordinary.

I can see most of a spectacular natural harbour, shimmering blue in the early morning light. Low hills on the other side about four km’s away, and in the foreground up to half a kilometre from the waters edge the town scattered with hundreds of trees spread out like a banquet below.

A dozen twirling windmills generating electricity are sitting on a hill to the right several kilometres away, silhouetted against an azure sky.

Flowers, parrots, colours, honeyeaters playing in the tree touching the window a metre from my nose.

Is this paradise?

15 km’s around the harbour is a national park with some of the wildest coastline in Australia, with King Waves smashing over majestic granite cliffs. Sweeping beaches and deserted inlets break up the coastline where the Southern and Indian Oceans meet.

Another natural harbour at Emu Point is fed by two flowing, winding rivers teeming with fish while the harbour itself holds a tiny island in the middle where pelicans breed.

Moving around the coast the other way you’ll find tiny deserted coves, with squeaky while sandy beaches, bush backdrops and the kind of blue seas that look as though they’ve been touched up in Photo Shop to give a sense of fantasy. This is not a blue you’d use in a painting if you wanted to convey any kind of reality.

Inland two small mountain ranges alive with animals and an astonishing abundance of wildflowers found nowhere else in the world. Ancient ranges, classed as the oldest on Earth, the Stirling Ranges and Porongurup’s are intersected with spectacular walks and sweeping views.

You could spend a month here and find something new every minute of the day. I have been here for 21 years and still find new places I never knew existed.

And I am not biased. This is the reality of Albany, a town of thirty thousand people who really don’t want it to change. I don’t have a business here reliant on locals or tourists.

Albany is 420 km’s south of Perth in Western Australia. It was the state’s first settlement and has a strong sense of place in the national history of what is still a very young country.

As far as white Australia is concerned anyway.

If you visit Australia, come over to the west. If you do this, then Albany is a must see and well worth the trip over. A small plane takes the trip down and back to Perth every morning and afternoon, and a bus service runs daily, which takes six hours. Better still, hire a car and meander down the long way, through th

This is, of course, subjective, and why people come and live here in the first place. The pace of life and the natural beauty.

And as far as beauty goes, Albany is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

That is a big call, and it’s not made by a local who hasn’t been anywhere else, nor from someone with a vested interest in getting people here. I have no agenda.

From the window in front of me in a rented house on one of two hills overlooking the town of Albany, the view is extraordinary.

I can see most of a spectacular natural harbour, shimmering blue in the early morning light. Low hills on the other side about four km’s away, and in the foreground up to half a kilometre from the waters edge the town scattered with hundreds of trees spread out like a banquet below.

A dozen twirling windmills generating electricity are sitting on a hill to the right several kilometres away, silhouetted against an azure sky.

Flowers, parrots, colours, honeyeaters playing in the tree touching the window a metre from my nose.

Is this paradise?

15 km’s around the harbour is a national park with some of the wildest coastline in Australia, with King Waves smashing over majestic granite cliffs. Sweeping beaches and deserted inlets break up the coastline where the Southern and Indian Oceans meet.

Another natural harbour at Emu Point is fed by two flowing, winding rivers teeming with fish while the harbour itself holds a tiny island in the middle where pelicans breed.

Moving around the coast the other way you’ll find tiny deserted coves, with squeaky while sandy beaches, bush backdrops and the kind of blue seas that look as though they’ve been touched up in Photo Shop to give a sense of fantasy. This is not a blue you’d use in a painting if you wanted to convey any kind of reality.

Inland two small mountain ranges alive with animals and an astonishing abundance of wildflowers found nowhere else in the world. Ancient ranges, classed as the oldest on Earth, the Stirling Ranges and Porongurup’s are intersected with spectacular walks and sweeping views.

You could spend a month here and find something new every minute of the day. I have been here for 21 years and still find new places I never knew existed.

And I am not biased. This is the reality of Albany, a town of thirty thousand people who really don’t want it to change. I don’t have a business here reliant on locals or tourists.

Albany is 420 km’s south of Perth in Western Australia. It was the state’s first settlement and has a strong sense of place in the national history of what is still a very young country.

As far as white Australia is concerned anyway.

If you visit Australia, come over to the west. If you do this, then Albany is a must see and well worth the trip over. A small plane takes the trip down and back to Perth every morning and afternoon, and a bus service runs daily, which takes six hours. Better still, hire a car and meander down the long way, through t

A dozen twirling windmills generating electricity are sitting on a hill to the right several kilometres away, silhouetted against an azure sky.

Flowers, parrots, colours, honeyeaters playing in the tree touching the window a metre from my nose.

Is this paradise?

15 km’s around the harbour is a national park with some of the wildest coastline in Australia, with King Waves smashing over majestic granite cliffs. Sweeping beaches and deserted inlets break up the coastline where the Southern and Indian Oceans meet.

Another natural harbour at Emu Point is fed by two flowing, winding rivers teeming with fish while the harbour itself holds a tiny island in the middle where pelicans breed.

Moving around the coast the other way you’ll find tiny deserted coves, with squeaky while sandy beaches, bush backdrops and the kind of blue seas that look as though they’ve been touched up in Photo Shop to give a sense of fantasy. This is not a blue you’d use in a painting if you wanted to convey any kind of reality.

Inland two small mountain ranges alive with animals and an astonishing abundance of wildflowers found nowhere else in the world. Ancient ranges, classed as the oldest on Earth, the Stirling Ranges and Porongurup’s are intersected with spectacular walks and sweeping views.

You could spend a month here and find something new every minute of the day. I have been here for 21 years and still find new places I never knew existed.

And I am not biased. This is the reality of Albany, a town of thirty thousand people who really don’t want it to change. I don’t have a business here reliant on locals or tourists.

Albany is 420 km’s south of Perth in Western Australia. It was the state’s first settlement and has a strong sense of place in the national history of what is still a very young country.

As far as white Australia is concerned anyway.

If you visit Australia, come over to the west. If you do this, then Albany is a must see and well worth the trip over. A small plane takes the trip down and back to Perth every morning and afternoon, and a bus service runs daily, which takes six hours. Better still, hire a car and meander down the long way, through t

Moving around the coast the other way you’ll find tiny deserted coves, with squeaky while sandy beaches, bush backdrops and the kind of blue seas that look as though they’ve been touched up in Photo Shop to give a sense of fantasy. This is not a blue you’d use in a painting if you wanted to convey any kind of reality.

Inland two small mountain ranges alive with animals and an astonishing abundance of wildflowers found nowhere else in the world. Ancient ranges, classed as the oldest on Earth, the Stirling Ranges and Porongurup’s are intersected with spectacular walks and sweeping views.

You could spend a month here and find something new every minute of the day. I have been here for 21 years and still find new places I never knew existed.

And I am not biased. This is the reality of Albany, a town of thirty thousand people who really don’t want it to change. I don’t have a business here reliant on locals or tourists.

Albany is 420 km’s south of Perth in Western Australia. It was the state’s first settlement and has a strong sense of place in the national history of what is still a very young country.

As far as white Australia is concerned anyway.

If you visit Australia, come over to the west. If you do this, then Albany is a must see and well worth the trip over. A small plane takes the trip down and back to Perth every morning and afternoon, and a bus service runs daily, which takes six hours. Better still, hire a car and meander down the long way, through t

And I am not biased. This is the reality of Albany, a town of thirty thousand people who really don’t want it to change. I don’t have a business here reliant on locals or tourists.

Albany is 420 km’s south of Perth in Western Australia. It was the state’s first settlement and has a strong sense of place in the national history of what is still a very young country.

As far as white Australia is concerned anyway.

If you visit Australia, come over to the west. If you do this, then Albany is a must see and well worth the trip over. A small plane takes the trip down and back to Perth every morning and afternoon, and a bus service runs daily, which takes six hours. Better still, hire a car and meander down the long way, through the southwest’s forests and magical Tingle trees. Don’t get caught up in one of those ‘see the south west in three days’ tours that doesn’t do anywhere justice.

Not unless you use the trip as one of reconnaissance.

Wineries, superb cuisine, whales cruising around the beaches and enough wildlife to open a parkland. Albany is proof we live in a beautiful world and of course, we’re leaving soon to travel and find somewhere else.

The grass is always greener and besides, sometimes paradise is just not enough.