Farm Stays in Margaret River, WA

Three hours south of Perth, the Margaret River region occupies the leafy corner of Australia between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin — a strip of country where beef and dairy paddocks, world-famous vineyards and tall karri and jarrah forest run down to a coastline of surf breaks and limestone caves. The farming here predates the wine: group settlement dairy farms opened this country in the 1920s, and around Cowaramup, Rosa Brook and Witchcliffe the paddocks still carry cattle between the cabernet rows.

A farm stay in Margaret River lets you live at the region's unhurried pace rather than commuting into it. Mornings might mean feeding cattle, collecting eggs or walking the property's forest edge; days fan out to more than a hundred cellar doors, the surf at Prevelly and Gracetown, Boranup's karri cathedral, and caves like Lake and Mammoth. The region's food scene — from farm gates and the Margaret River Farmers' Market to some of Australia's most awarded wineries — is all within twenty minutes of most properties.

Winters are green and mild with Atlantic-style rain fronts rolling through; from June to September the whole region glows, and whales begin passing the capes. Summer is dry, warm rather than hot thanks to the sea breeze, and busy — book school holidays early. Spring splits the difference and adds wildflowers along every forest road.