Head off the coastal track and Detour to Spectacular

Australia's Golden Outback, which encompasses 2000 square kilometres Gascoyne Murchison region in the state's north, wants travellers to take a different path and take in the natural beauty beyond beaches.

A slight detour off the beaten track opens up a whole new world.

You could stay on a sprawling cattle station and have a yarn with the owner as you watch an outback sunset, paddle on the Gascoyne River or walk the streets of historic towns like Yalgoo and Big Bell, where gold miners once hoped to find their fortunes.

Or venture into caves that are ancient galleries of Aboriginal rock paintings.

You'll also find the world's largest rock - Mount Augustus, or Burringurrah to the local Wajarri people, a lone rock that's twice the size of Uluru and 1700 million years old. The rock's colours shift in the changing light.

At night, look up at the dazzling night sky unaffected by city lights and pollution.

The owners of vast pastoral properties welcome guests with a make-yourself-home and accommodation options ranging from circa 1800s grand homesteads and antique-furnished guesthouses and cottages, to riverbank camping grounds and simple dongas at places like Wooleen, Mellenbye, Melangata, Mount Augustus, Nalbarra and Gabyon stations peppered through the region.

Travellers can take self-guided walks or guided motorbike, quad bike, horse or 4WD tours with property owners.

And in the world-renowned wildflower season carpets of everlastings spread to never-ending horizons and the colours of mull amulla, scarlet red sturt desert pea, orchids and golden billy buttons create vibrant displays.

While the wildflower display is seasonal, more than 20 wattle species thrive in the mineral-rich earth amid plains of spinifex and towering gum and mallee trees.

The Gascoyne Murchison region is also home to more than 270 species of birds thanks to waterways and gorges eroded out of sandstone for millions of years.

Kangaroos and emus share this home, as well as dragons - or Ctenophorus Caudicintus and Gowidon Longirostris as they are officially named.

Find out more about Australia's Golden Outback HERE