See the star-filled skies of the outback on an astro-tourism trail through Western Australia
There are plenty of reasons to visit Western Australia with single-hop flights from the UK; brand new top quality hotels in Perth; and Margaret River and South West WA named best region in Asia Pacific by Lonely Planet – but did you know WA is also rolling out the welcome mat for astronomy tourism at a bunch of outback towns this year.
Visitors to outback WA experience world-class stargazing there, far away from serious light pollution. Perth is the most isolated capital city in the world which means the majority of WA’s light pollution is concentrated in one tiny area of a vast and beautiful landscape. Carol Redford from Astrotourism WA has been working with WA towns to implement a new Lighting Management Policy (developed in collaboration with the International Dark Sky Association and Warrumbungle Dark Sky Park) to help guide lighting choices and design across this new WA Astrotourism trail. “We have hundreds of small and welcoming country towns that have low levels of light pollution where visitors can see the Milky Way as it’s meant to be experienced,” Redford explains.
Visitors can also learn more about Aboriginal Australia’s astronomy culture and heritage. Worl Wangkiny is the new Aboriginal Astronomy Centre at Perth Observatory. Visitors can take an authentic and high-quality tour set in a magnificent bush location, with changing products throughout the six Noongar seasons. Also the Gravity Discovery Centre Observatory at Gingin 70 kms north of Perth runs Aboriginal Astronomy stargazing evenings.
Australian Kamilaroi woman and Monash University student astrophysicist Krystal De Napoli explained recently to Australia ABC: “western astronomy has known about variable stars for maybe 200 years, and yet when we look into Indigenous oral traditions there are descriptions of variable stars going back thousands of years. With variable stars there are subtle changes in their brightness over days and years, so it's something that takes a considerable amount of observation to determine their existence. Indigenous astronomers were able to see this change, and not only see this change, but describe it in a way that has the relative dimming of the different stars described over time.”
New places for stargazing and astrophotography are being added to the Astrotourism WA map. Astrotourism WA’s Carol Redford wants country towns to protect WA’s dark night sky from artificial light pollution so that we can become a world-class destination for visitors to experience the awe-inspiring Milky Way. Eighty percent of the world’s population now live under some form of sky glow and there are billions of people on this planet who cannot see the Milky Way anymore.
Looking to the future Redford told Lonely Planet, which picked astrotourism as one of its top trends for 2019: “I aim to help WA‘s Local Government authorities to protect regional WA’s dark night sky, so that we’ll have a world-class tourism asset for decades to come”.
