Feature by Fleur Bainger

Cuddle up to canvas while exploring Western Australia’s national parks, sweeping beaches, and remote islands. With a light environmental touch, safari tents allow you to holiday amongst the raw nature and extraordinary wildlife you’ve come to see. But they’re not necessarily basic – hot showers, fancy food, swimming pools and ensuite flushing toilets are outback luxuries now shared by many good camping places.

Sal Salis Ningaloo Reef

Just 16 safari tents face World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Marine Park at Sal Salis, on the state’s mid-west coast. Each has been carefully designed to bear minimal impact on the fragile natural environment, and positioned with extraordinary access to the largest fringing reef system on the planet.

A short walk over dunes into the shallows and there it is, home to rare turtles, tropical fish, manta rays and a labyrinth of coral. On land, kangaroos bound freely between the solar-powered tents, lapping at bowls of water on the tent decks, placed to rinse sand from your toes. Evening brings sunset drinks and sophisticated multi-course dinners, served beneath the stars.

Unmissable experience: Swim alongside the world’s largest fish, Ningaloo’s harmless whale sharks, which visit March-July. Humpback whale swim tours operate July-October.

_{Sal Salis, Ningaloo Reef}

Karijini Eco Retreat

Camping in the heart of a conservation reserve grants you a front seat to each day’s exploration. Aboriginal-owned, sustainably run Karijini Eco Retreat is tucked inside Karijini National Park, a land of rocky clefts, meandering gorges and humbling geological grandeur in WA’s Pilbara region.

Rock dated at 2.5 billion years is ribbed with unusual layers in terracotta hues; running your hands over the undulations grants a wondrous sense of connection. Back at base, king beds and bunks are dressed with linen and there’s access to solar hot water showers, flushing toilets and an outback restaurant – rarities in locations this remote.

Unmissable experience: scrambling your way through the narrow chasms of Hancock Gorge.

_{Karijini Eco Retreat by Nick Rains}

Discovery Rottnest Island

Safari camps don’t often come with a resort pool and cocktail bar, but Discovery Rottnest Island isn’t like all eco-sustainable accommodations. For starters, it’s visited by friendly quokkas, the iconic marsupial found on the car-free isle 12mi from the WA capital city of Perth. They’re lured by the beach club’s grassy lawn, which leads to raised boardwalks made of recycled materials and 83 ensuited tents powered by renewable energy sources. A handful of ocean-facing tents deliver ultimate privacy and unobstructed views – get one if you can.

Unmissable experience: watch for dolphins and fur seals as you cycle or bus around Rottnest Island, or get up close with a Rottnest Express high powered adventure boat tour.

_{Pinky Beach and Bathurst Lighthouse, Rottnest Island}

Emma Gorge Resort

Emma Gorge Resort is walking distance to one of El Questro Wilderness Park’s star attractions. Deep within WA’s red dirt-tinged Kimberley region lies the rocky valley of Emma Gorge, which is reached via a one hour bush walk from the safari village. Its base brims with invigoratingly cool water, fed by a splintering, 65m waterfall.

After a dip, drive to Zebedee Springs, where you can bathe amongst ancient palms in warm, felt-like natural waterholes, or helicopter to an isolated perch and gaze across vast, ancient landscape. Return to your ensuited tent cabin to lie beneath the fan and listen to the croaks, trills and chirps of local wildlife as you drift to sleep.

Unmissable experience: cruise Chamberlain Gorge at sunset and meet playful archer fish, who spit water at dangling fingertips, mistaking them for prey.

_{Emma Gorge Resort}

APT Bungle Bungle Wilderness Lodge

You can see the 350-million year old Bungle Bungle Range - the drawcard of World Heritage-listed Purnululu National Park, in WA’s far north - from this outback glamping hub. Preface the dazzling view with a three-course, open-air dinner, then watch as sunset coats the dome-like rock formations in a spectacular evening show.

Wondrous stargazing follows. Cloudless skies and minimal ambient light mean space is blacker and the stars more luminous than almost anywhere else. APT’s Bungle Bungle Wilderness Lodge is certified with Ecotourism Australia, committing to care for this special place sustainably and ethically.

Unmissable experience: Take the Domes Walk between banded formations that rise up to 300m tall, finishing in the natural amphitheatre of Cathedral Gorge.

_{Bungle Bungle Wilderness Lodge}

Woody Island safari huts

You may not want to leave the private deck of your ‘luxury retreat’ tent, gazing at views of the glittering Southern Ocean at the bottom of Western Australia. No one would blame you for wanting to stretch across the king bed’s beautiful linen, or chill on the couch. But then you’d miss bush hikes to secluded corners of Woody Island, which is a haven for quail, geckos and skinks, not to mention fairy penguins, shearwater birds and kangaroos. You’d also forego snorkelling or kayaking over sub-tropical fish and lacy sea grasses. Luckily, you can do all of it.

Unmissable experience: Arrive via HeliSpirit’s scenic helicopter tour of Cape Le Grand National Park and Lucky Bay – its sand has been declared the whitest in Australia.

_{Woody Island, near Esperance}

Olio Bello luxury bungalows

These glamping bungalows edge a mirror-still lake at Olio Bello, an organic olive grove that produces oodles of extra virgin olive oil in the Margaret River region, south of Perth. Only six safari-style huts are squirrelled away in a private nook of the property, which hosts a restaurant nearby, leaving nothing around you but nature, wildlife and 8,000 olive trees.

Minimal environmental impact is the focus, without skipping out on niceties such as air conditioning and bioethanol flame fireplaces, along with a private ensuite and kitchenette within the canvas sides and hard floors.

_{Olio Belo, Margaret River}

Published September 2021.