Mid West wildflower season not like the advertising following a dry winter, according to local tour guides

It’s the time when the Mid West-Gascoyne comes to life and travellers visit from far and wide, but this year’s wildflower season has been a little underwhelming compared to the advertising campaigns. Glossy magazines and TV advertising show thick beds of wildflowers across the region, but local guides and experts say it’s not the reality of this year’s season. Due to the lack of winter rain this year, wildflowers have been late to bloom, but the ads are depicting an abundance of colour which could lead to high expectations and disappointed visitors. Wildflower expert Kathryn Park said the popular wreath flowers were late to bloom this year, while everlasting daisies, which tend to bloom in large fields, were hiding more than usual. “There weren’t fields and fields which a lot of people would like, they were there, you just had to look for them. Unfortunately last week we had some warm weather so they’ve just started to turn now and lose their colour,” she said. “We’ve unfortunately lost all our orchids because of the warm weather — they’re the first ones to come out and the first ones to go —but the bush flowers are still looking quite lovely. “The cornflowers are just starting to come out . . . other stuff is starting to come through that’s a bit more hearty.” Ms Park said feedback from visitors was that it was not like previous years, but people understood the region had a dry season. “People think they’ve missed them and it’s like, no, they’re still coming. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the rain, but it’s looking nice out there now,” she said. “It depends on what people want to see, back in the day you used to be able to get fields and fields of all the everlastings but with farmers cropping you don’t get fields and fields often anymore.” Midwest Adventure Tours operator Cameron Williams agreed the season was nowhere near as thick or abundant as what advertising suggested this year. “I know that our tourism bodies do, when it comes to wildflower season, they might market quite a lot of beautiful fields of everlastings and it doesn’t really align with what’s happening for that season,” he said. “There’s beauty everywhere. As in fields of carpets of everlastings, no, they’re not so much happening, but the orchids have been amazing this year which is really nice, it’s just a little bit more than just what’s advertised.” “Being a tour operator, you obviously make them aware that the season’s not so great . . . no one’s really disappointed, but I guess that aligns with sort of the level of service that’s provided. “They’re just not as abundant as they were in the last four years that I’ve been operating.”