I RECENTLY went on a family holiday to Uluru in the Northern Territory. The kids hadn’t seen what I thought was the world’s biggest rock — it’s certainly the most famous — so it seemed like as good a time as any to remedy that.

Three days is all it takes to see the sights, in particular the various ways of viewing Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) at dawn, daytime and dust. There isn’t much by way of infrastructure and it’s certainly an isolated part of the NT.

Camera Icon Peter van Onselen. Australian political academic, author, political journalist and commentator. Credit: Supplied

But such barriers seemed incidental and the set-up is more than accommodating. While I was there I learnt something I didn’t know: it’s not the world’s biggest rock, not even close. That title goes to Mt Augustus, in the central northern part of Western Australia.

How did I not know that? Why isn’t Mt Augustus the most famous rock in the world? I did a bit of research. It’s twice the size of Uluru, similarly spectacular if not more so. And despite its isolation, with a little bit of government help, it has the potential to be a far more appealing tourist attraction than Uluru.

The failure to sell Mt Augustus over Ayers Rock is classic WA, the State which once didn’t even have a tourism minister and currently doesn’t have a dedicated full-time head of tourism.

Missed opportunities sum up WA’s inability to market its tourism hot spots against east coast options, and in this case one of the only attractions the Northern Territory has to offer.

For a start, calling it a mountain and not a rock distorts what Augustus really is. Anyone who bothers to google it will see how similar it is to Uluru, only much bigger with greater potential to explore its surrounds.

This is but one of many fails in WA to sell its attractions to the world.

Camera Icon Mount Augustus is located north east of Gascoyne Junction. Credit: Tourism Western Australia

Ningaloo Reef is far more spectacular than the dying Great Barrier Reef, but it gets barely any attention. And you can walk out to it from the coastline, unlike the Great Barrier Reef which requires a long boat ride.

The Margaret River wine region is not only superior to the Hunter Valley or Barossa regions in terms of its chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon varieties, but it’s also surrounded by great beaches and tall forests.

Perth beaches are long and uncrowded unlike Sydney’s, and much cleaner, yet overseas it’s all about Sydney’s offerings. And Broome leaves far North Queensland for dead.

It’s high time this State better markets itself, especially now the mining boom has come off and WA needs to broaden its appeal.

Peter van Onselen is The Sunday Times’ political analyst and a professor at UWA