Tourists have started to arrive in Western Australia's Midwest for the region's annual wildflower season, but locals warn they may leave disappointed.
Key points:
- Wildflowers are in short supply in the Midwest this year
- Locals warn tourists may be misled by promotional photos using images of past years' seasons
- Warm weather and a lack of rain is being blamed for the shortage
Travellers have reported smaller than average crops of flowers in popular spots such as the Coalseam Conservation Park near Mullewa and Kalbarri National Park.
Walkaway farmer Jan Hollins said the absence of wildflowers north of Geraldton was disappointing.
"Last time we came down, two years ago, they were beautiful — but this year it's just bare all the way from Shark Bay to Binnu," she said.
Geraldton-based wildflower enthusiast Glenda Blyth said promotional campaigns using images of previous years' seasons did not reflect this year's offerings.
"Some visitors from the eastern states have flown over because they have seen these beautiful images on Facebook pages promoting the Coalseam. When they get here, it's not what they were expecting," she said.
"They are not only disappointed, sometimes they can be very angry as well."
Ms Blyth said low rainfall and warm weather could be to blame for the lack of wildflowers.
"Nature doesn't give us rain every year and the dry does take its toll," she said.
"This is probably one of the worst years I can remember for the wildflowers, especially in terms of the everlastings, but there's always lots of other flowers to see."
Ms Blyth encouraged content creators to date their images to avoid misleading tourists.
"People look at those beautiful photos and they think that's what's happening now. But unfortunately, what they're looking at might be photos from last year or the year before," she said.
"They're not actually seeing the reality of what's on the ground."
Season impossible to predict
Australia's Coral Coast chief executive David O'Malley said some images the tourism organisation had used to promote the current wildflower season were taken from previous years.
He said it was difficult to predict what each season would be like.
"Take Japan as an example, that's the one market where people come down just for our wildflowers," he said.
"They start putting the tours together in March, April for travelling in August and September. So if it's a bad season or an average season like this year, they've already booked and paid.
"There are certainly people who have gone out and expected them to be better than what they are. Unfortunately with the wildflowers, we just can't guarantee it.
"We're having a bad year this year, we had an average year last year, and the year before was one of the best on record, so you just don't know."