Perth sits on Whadjuk Noongar Country — the land of the Whadjuk people, one of the six Noongar nations of southwestern Australia. Western Australia is home to the largest number of distinct Aboriginal language groups of any Australian state, and the WA Museum Boola Bardip, along with a growing suite of Aboriginal-led cultural experiences, brings this extraordinary diversity within reach of visitors to the most geographically isolated capital city on earth.
Beyond Perth, Western Australia’s Aboriginal cultural landscape extends to the Kimberley in the northwest (one of the world’s last great wilderness areas and home to intact Aboriginal cultures), Shark Bay (one of the world’s oldest living Aboriginal sacred sites at Hamelin Pool), and the Pilbara (where rock art sites date back tens of thousands of years). This guide covers both Perth and the broader state.
📋 TL;DR — Western Australia Aboriginal culture essentials
- ✅ WA Museum Boola Bardip in Perth’s Cultural Centre — world-class First Nations collection, free entry to permanent galleries.
- 🎨 Art Gallery of Western Australia — strong First Nations permanent collection, free entry.
- 🌿 Whadjuk Welcome (Yagan Square) — Noongar cultural storytelling in Perth’s CBD public spaces.
- 🏝️ Rottnest Island (Wadjemup) — historically significant Aboriginal site with a dark history; new cultural interpretation being developed.
- 🦅 Kimberley region — some of Australia’s most intact Aboriginal culture, accessible via Broome.
- 🪨 Burrup Peninsula (Murujuga) — the world’s largest and oldest rock art collection, recently declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
🏛️ WA Museum Boola Bardip: Perth’s cultural centrepiece
The Western Australian Museum reopened in 2020 as WA Museum Boola Bardip (meaning “many stories” in the Noongar language) after a multi-year AUD $250 million redevelopment. The result is one of Australia’s finest state museums — a purpose-built facility that puts First Nations culture at its heart from the ground up.
The First Peoples gallery is the most significant in the new museum. It was developed with extensive consultation with Noongar communities and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities from across the state, and the result reflects their voices and perspectives throughout. The gallery covers the deep history of Aboriginal Western Australia — the archaeological evidence for 65,000+ years of occupation, the extraordinary diversity of WA’s Aboriginal nations and languages, the devastating impact of colonisation on WA’s Aboriginal peoples, and the ongoing cultural vitality and resilience of contemporary Aboriginal WA communities.
The collection of objects from Kimberley, Pilbara, Goldfields, Southwest, and Nullarbor communities is particularly strong — reflecting the WA Museum’s 130+ years of collecting across the state. Entry to the permanent galleries is free; some special exhibitions charge admission. Allow two to three hours for a thorough visit. The museum is located in Perth Cultural Centre, a short walk from Perth train station.
👉 Book Perth Aboriginal cultural tours and experiences on GetYourGuide →
🎨 Art Gallery of Western Australia: Noongar and beyond
The Art Gallery of Western Australia, also in Perth Cultural Centre immediately adjacent to the WA Museum, holds a strong collection of Aboriginal art with particular depth in Noongar art from the Southwest and Kimberley art from the northwest. Entry to the permanent collection is free.
The Noongar artistic tradition — distinctive in its use of a ochre palette and its focus on the specific landscapes of the Southwest — is well represented here, including works by significant contemporary Noongar artists including Sharyn Egan and many others. The Kimberley holdings include both traditional ochre works on bark and rock and contemporary paintings by major Warmun (Turkey Creek) artists including Queenie McKenzie and Rover Thomas — two of the most important Aboriginal artists of the 20th century.
Pair this with Aboriginal Cultural Centres Kakadu, South Australian Museum Aboriginal Culture and Aboriginal Cultural Museums Melbourne to round out your trip.
The gallery’s First Nations programming has been expanding steadily, with dedicated curatorial positions and an active acquisitions strategy. Check current exhibitions — the gallery regularly mounts major temporary exhibitions of both historical and contemporary First Nations work that complement the permanent collection displays.
🌿 Noongar cultural experiences in Perth
Perth’s Noongar community runs a growing number of cultural experiences that bring visitors into direct contact with Whadjuk Noongar culture in the urban landscape. Whadjuk Noongar Walking Tours offer guided walks through Perth’s CBD and riverside parklands, revealing the Noongar cultural meaning embedded in the Swan River landscape (Derbarl Yerrigan in Noongar) and in the specific sites that are now parks, streets, and buildings. The guides are Noongar people, and the knowledge they share about the landscape is not available in any museum.
Yagan Square, Perth’s newest urban plaza in the CBD, incorporates significant Noongar cultural storytelling into its design — digital installations, architectural elements, and interpretive panels tell the story of Yagan, the Noongar resistance leader killed by colonists in 1833 whose skull was taken to Britain and returned to Australia only in 1997. The square’s design was developed in consultation with the Noongar community and is one of the most successful examples of Aboriginal cultural embedding in Australian urban design.
🏝️ Wadjemup (Rottnest Island): the difficult history
Rottnest Island — Wadjemup in the Noongar language — is famous as Perth’s holiday island, home to the beloved quokkas and pristine beaches. It is also the site of one of Western Australia’s most painful Aboriginal histories: between 1838 and 1903, Wadjemup was used as a prison for Aboriginal men and boys from across Western Australia. Over 3,700 Aboriginal prisoners were incarcerated on the island; hundreds died there and are buried in unmarked graves.
The Rottnest Island Authority and the Wadjemup Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee have been developing new cultural interpretation of this history, including the Wadjemup Bidi (a cultural walk with interpretive signage acknowledging the island’s Aboriginal history) and the Wadjemup Museum’s dedicated Aboriginal heritage displays. For visitors who make the ferry crossing from Fremantle, understanding Wadjemup’s history transforms the experience of the island from a simple beach holiday into something more complex and meaningful.
👉 Book Rottnest Island experiences including Wadjemup cultural walks →
🪨 Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula): the world’s oldest rock art
The Murujuga National Park on the Burrup Peninsula near Karratha in the Pilbara holds the world’s largest and most ancient concentration of rock engravings (petroglyphs) — an estimated one million individual images carved into the red granite rocks over at least 30,000 years, including depictions of thylacines (extinct mainland since 2,000 years ago), megafauna, and possibly sea level changes from the end of the last ice age. Murujuga was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023, in recognition of its outstanding universal value as a cultural landscape.
Worth adding to your itinerary: Aboriginal Museums Canberra and Aboriginal Museums Sydney.
Access to Murujuga is by guided tour with Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation-approved operators — independent visitors are strongly discouraged due to the fragility of the rock art. The Ngarda-Ngarli people (the Traditional Owners of the Burrup Peninsula) have been fighting for recognition of Murujuga’s cultural significance for decades against the backdrop of industrial development adjacent to the park. Visiting with a Ngarda-Ngarli guide is the most profound way to engage with this extraordinary site.
🦅 Kimberley: the world’s last great living Aboriginal cultural landscape
The Kimberley in northwestern Western Australia is home to some of the most culturally intact Aboriginal communities in Australia — communities where traditional languages are still spoken, traditional ceremonies are maintained, and the relationship between people and Country is alive and functioning. The Kimberley is accessible via Broome, which has its own significant Aboriginal cultural offering including the Short Street Gallery and Goolarri Media (an Aboriginal media organisation), and the extraordinary Lurujarri Heritage Trail — a guided walk across Goolarri Country led by Goolarabooloo people that follows a 70km stretch of coastline connecting sacred sites along an ancient songline.
The Kimberley’s luxury Aboriginal cultural experiences for those with the budget are among the finest in Australia — expedition cruises with Kimberley-based Aboriginal guides, helicopter access to remote gorges and art sites, and immersive Country-based learning that is genuinely life-changing.
📍 Planning Aboriginal culture in Perth and WA
- Start at WA Museum Boola Bardip and Art Gallery of WA — both free, both excellent, both in Perth Cultural Centre.
- Book a Noongar walking tour for the day before or after the museum visit — the landscape knowledge complements what you learn inside.
- Rottnest Island is a half-day or full-day ferry from Fremantle — include the Wadjemup Bidi walk.
- For Kimberley experiences, base yourself in Broome and plan 3–5 days minimum — the region is vast and distances are enormous.
- Murujuga visits from Karratha (1.5 hours from Broome by air) should be booked through Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation at least 2 weeks in advance.
Interested in more Aboriginal and Indigenous experiences, read our guides to the best places in western Australia, whale watching augusta western Australia, eco lodges in Kimberley western Australia, best road trip western Australia, and things to do in the Kimberley.
