MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
11 October 2026
Shirley and I spent months planning a two-week trip to the Margaret River wine region of Western Australia.
I made a list of iconic vineyards and mapped a path that would take us both to a dozen different cellar doors. Shirley booked the flights and all our accommodation.
Two days before we departed, I caught a cold. Two days after we landed, Shirley caught it, too.
In the days that followed, we stumbled about in a fever dream. Shirley couldn’t sleep. I could barely stay awake.
In retrospect, I think we had the flu or a respiratory virus of some absolute and vicious kind.
Impaired and diminished, robbed of taste and drained of vitality, our itinerary suffered; wines and wineries made little sense.
I had hoped to keep a travel diary, but even words eluded me. I couldn’t find the energy, the clarity or confidence. I wrote the entries listed below, but that was it.
We purchased wines, from time to time. We packaged them together and posted them to Melbourne, before we too left the west.
Three weeks later, the wines arrived: a dozen bright and diverse travellers, holding in their slender frames the essence of a region we had seen but barely grasped.
Wines of poise and power. Wines of depth and intrigue.
Like working periodically on a giant jigsaw puzzle, we pieced together a portrait of the west: bit by bit, month by month, one bottle at a time.
We prolonged the journey – we fulfilled our quest – far from Margaret River, but close enough to taste.
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TRAVEL DIARY: WESTERN AUSTRALIA
20 April 2026
Western Australia joined the federation of Australian states on 1 January 1901, when the Commonwealth of Australia was formed.
But the west took some convincing.
Initially hesitant, WA joined the federation after other colonies threatened to proceed without them.
Even after federation, WA expressed persistent discontent at their geographic and economic isolation, a reality only partially eased by the construction of the transcontinental railway in 1917.
WA history spans at least 60,000 years, beginning with Indigenous Australian inhabitation.
Dutch explorers came and went in the 17th-century, before the British established the Swan River Colony in 1829, with Perth as the capital.
Today, WA is an almighty state built predominantly on mining and agriculture.
A mere three million people occupy more than 2.5 million sq kilometres: a third of the Australian continent; a vast stretch of ancient land, the size of Western Europe.
I’ve travelled the world, and most of Australia, but I’ve never been to WA.
Until today.
I’m heading west: a four-hour flight from Melbourne to Perth, on a ‘bucket list’ adventure with the lovely Shirley Bateman.
22 April 2026
I left Melbourne with a nasty cold: sore throat, blocked nose, a sense of deep fatigue.
My ear drums took a hammering on the four-hour flight to Perth. I arrived in the west feeling battered and bruised.
I lost the morning to these ailments, but we ventured out this afternoon and visited three beaches: Scarborough, City and Cottesloe.
I have never stood with sand in my toes and seen the Indian Ocean, but an image of that ocean has occupied my imagination for many, many years.
Wild, bright and brilliantly blue, the Indian Ocean sparked in me both awe and optimism.
And nothing else we did today comes close to that fulfilment.
25 April 2026
Ten days ago, I caught a cold. Today, it’s some kind of chest infection. Poor Shirley has it, too. We’re travelling Western Australia, water-logged, grey and diminished.
And yet…
Almost 250km south of Perth, the Margaret River wine region is a universe unto itself: a vast stretch of wilderness, where giant gum trees tower over empty roads that stretch between iconic vineyards.
The air is lemon-scented, delicious and refreshing.
The Indian Ocean throws itself against a vast and empty coastline. Booming sets of wild, fierce waves crash against pristine sand, sending sheets of spray into the sky.
Intimidating. Captivating. The effect is mesmerising.
The locals are so down-to-earth, casual and direct. I feel pale and poor by comparison, neurotic and inept.
And yet we keep on keeping on: travelling through the landscape, the two of us together, sustained by our environment and the people of this place.
Margaret River wineries we visited (and loved), April 2026:
Deep Woods Estate
Flametree wines
Leeuwin Estate
Voyager Estate
Vasse Felix
Cullen Wines
Howard Park
Xanadu
