In news that will bring cold comfort to the Riverina’s drought stricken farmers, WA has just recorded a bumper wheat harvest. It is the state’s second biggest crop, of more than 17.2 million tonnes.

This crop is up 65 per cent at a time of soaring prices, making it the most valuable crop in history, according to The West Australian. The boost to the economy is estimated at $6.5 billion. 

Drought in the east, “ideal growing conditions” in the west. Who’d want to be a farmer? To rub salt into the wounds of Riverina wheat growers, more than 600,000 tonnes of WA wheat has been sent east since October 1.

Prices of other major WA crops are up, too, canola by six per cent, and barley up 11 per cent.

Perth has also made it onto The New York Times “top 52 places to travel in 2019” list.

The NYT praises major CBD developments as the prime reasons for making the long trip, but why would New Yorkers want to travel to Perth to see new buildings? Surely every city has new buildings?

The NYT also remarks on the rapid growth in quality hotels and Qantas’ non-stop flights to London as two big plusses.

I would have thought the rapid development of Perth’s major highways and freeways would have been worthy of note. Driving or being bused-in from the airport, travellers cannot be unimpressed with the quality of Perth’s roads.

Yet like all cities, the roads when initially designed were not planned with future traffic in mind. The inner city freeways are being widened with the usual peak hour hold-ups. However their rail system, with its large parking areas and locked bike racks at each station, is so quick and clean it is quite amazing.

The West Australian also reported record numbers visiting Rottnest Island, up 60 per cent in five years. Extra ferries, “celebrity visitors” and quokka selfies were credited with the improvement, but the story also mentioned Rottnest’s ageing infrastructure.

I last visited many years ago, and quite frankly I thought there were much more exciting places to visit.

However, WA authorities are concerned Perth is not getting its share of international visitors.

Despite improvements in interstate and local visitors, international visitors increased by only one per cent while Tasmania was up 15 per cent, NSW up 6 per cent, and Queensland up 5 per cent. Maybe the NYT ranking will do the trick!

Perth is not “Wagga hot” in January. The mild and breezy cloudless summer sunshine will lure you to some of the best suburban beaches that you will find anywhere – stunningly clean water, white sand, plus enough people to give atmosphere without creating overcrowding. There are classy hotels and bars along the coast doing a roaring trade, particularly at night.

But Perth also has a reputation for sharks. In fact the alarm went off when some of my family were at the beach!

The new Labor government promised drum-line trials off Gracetown nine months ago after the Margaret River Pro was cancelled. “Environmental impacts” are still being studied, despite drum lines being successful off the NSW North Coast.

The West Australian reported that lifeguards are closing an average of one Perth beach a day this summer.

Pictures of a tiger shark on the beach were enough to scare me away, but maybe not Perth beachgoers.

On January 2 when I arrived, the paper reported 15 beach closures in the previous four days.

So plenty of sharks, fewer tourist dollars. Beaches are closed if a shark up to three metres long is within 500 metres of the shore, or if a three-metre shark is one kilometre off shore.

Tagged sharks set off alarms, so they’re all right then?

Mining has still not recovered despite some very promising projects gaining approval, so WA is still losing population.

Perth and WA should be on your holiday planning list and next week, I’ll talk about why you should drive to WA.