Holiday houses in Gingin

One of the oldest towns in Western Australia, Gingin was settled in 1831, only two years after the first British colony was established in the state. The quiet country town is around a five-minute drive off the Brand Highway, the major inland road heading north from Perth to the coastal city of Geraldton. It’s a great base for exploring the small towns of the Chittering Valley. This fertile valley is dotted with farm gates and vineyards and cute towns such as Bindoon, New Norcia, and Wannamal.

Gingin itself sits on a big looping bend in Gingin Brook, a tree-lined waterway cutting through the compact centre of town. Many of Gingin’s colonial buildings remain intact, with most of the surviving 19th-century buildings clustered around the brook along Weld Street, the main road through town. It’s on this street you’ll find the grassy banks and old shade trees of the popular riverside Granville Park.

Without sea breezes to moderate the summer heat, Gingin experiences a long, dry hot season. By late spring you’ll encounter summer-like conditions that last to mid-autumn. Even late autumn days are warm, although the nights will be much cooler by the time the Gingin British Car Day kicks off in May in Granville Park: Hundreds of lovingly restored classic and antique British cars line up alongside food trucks and market stalls at this event. Winter in Gingin is mild but wet, with much more rain than the summer months. Wildflower season starts in July and continues until mid-spring — Gingin is one stop on a wildflower trail across the Chittering Valley.

Gingin Walkabout Trail

Gingin’s compact town centre is filled with historic buildings dating from the second half of the 19th century to the early 20th century. Pick up a trail map from the town’s visitor centre on Brockman Street and check out the cluster of old homes, churches, and civic buildings in the streets around Gingin Brook.

Gravity Discovery Centre

One of the state’s premier science education facilities, the not-for-profit Gravity Discovery Centre and Observatory is a 20-minute drive from Gingin. Here you’ll find a cosmology gallery as well as the Leaning Tower of Gingin, at which you can recreate famous gravity experiments. And at the centre’s telescope observatory, you can reimagine the night sky during Aboriginal astronomy sessions with a local Indigenous elder.

Yanchep National Park

Home to one of the biggest populations of koalas in the state, Yanchep National Park is a 40-minute drive from Gingin on the way from the coast. The national park is also home to western grey kangaroos as well as emus, parrots, and waterbirds. Check out the wildlife on trails ranging from full-day hikes to leisurely short walks.