Wildflower season blooms in vibrant fashion in WA’s Midwest

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Despite fears of a water starved wildflower season, late winter rain has helped to put on a colourful show in WA's Midwest. The abundance of blooms is good news for tourists and the regional economy.

Transcript

00:00An organic carpet of colour has transformed the Midwest on a big scale.

00:09The number of flowers in the Geraldton and Mullawa region this year has defied a serious

00:15lack of rain.

00:16In the last two years we've been able to double the amount of orchids we've seen.

00:21The main orchids here are the spider orchids and then we've found in the last couple of

00:26years two different types of spider orchids, as well as leek orchids, the shell orchids,

00:31little green hoods, so it's just amazing.

00:34Flower lovers and farmers were equally worried about low rainfall until the skies opened

00:41in late June.

00:42Farmers were thinking they weren't going to get any crops at all, I was thinking we weren't

00:45going to get any wildflowers.

00:47The timing of the end of season rain created perfect conditions for a rare rainbow reaction.

00:54We didn't even see it coming and we ended up getting 300 mils of rain in one month.

00:58Because the rain came quite late, we now have all the different colours at once, which is

01:03really unusual.

01:04An abundance of colour is drawing so many people to the region this year and businesses

01:10are happy to report that they're being run off their feet, which is good news for tourists

01:16but even better for local business owners.

01:19We're seeing in excess of 200 people a day sometimes.

01:23I was looking back at August 23 and I think the most we got in a day was about 100 people

01:30through our doors.

01:31So we've had people from Canada, New Zealand, Europe, it's really lovely to show them what

01:36WA has to offer.

01:38As the weather dries, the opportunity to see these floral treasures will soon close, but

01:44where there's a will, there's a way.

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