EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

In 1826, two years before the establishment of the Swan River Colony, the British sent Major Lockyer and a team of hopeful colonists to settle the strategic Princess Royal Harbour . It was a pre-emptive response to French exploration of Australia's Southwest, and the small colony, originally called Fredrickstown, was allowed to grow at a natural pace - avoiding the vicissitudes of Swan River Mania that plagued Perth in the 1880s, when thousands of colonists poured into the town. Prior to the building of Fremantle Harbour in the 1890s, ALBANY was a key port on the route from England to Botany Bay, a coaling station in the age of steamers. It was also the last of Australia that many Anzacs saw on their way to Gallipoli in 1914.

Now serving the southern wheat and sheep belt, Albany has also become the centre of one of the Southwest's main holiday areas. Factors such as weekend proximity to Perth, moderate summer temperatures, a surfeit of natural splendour and historical kudos all combine to make an agreeable and genuine destination, largely bereft of bogus tourist traps