On North West Cape, 368 km north of Carnarvon. Exmouth sprang into being in 1967, as a service centre for the near by US Naval Communications Station. The US Navy chose this site for their VLF (Very Low Frequency) transmitter because there’s a minimum of cloud (which interferes with VLF transmistsions), it’s miles from anywhere, and they thought no one would notice. They got two out of three right: protesters were soon on the job.

Exmouth makes a useful base for exploring the Ningaloo Reef, and the lagoons and beaches of the Cape Range National Park (www.parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/cape-range), which occupies the other side of the North West Cape. Also within easy reach of town is an excellent beach (Bundegi, with reef offshore), the 90-year-old wreck of the SS Mildura, and the clifftop Vlaming Head Lighthouse, where you feel you can see all the way to India.

The VLF transmitter towers are at the tip of the cape. Trivia fans will be pleased to know that the tallest, at nearly 400 m, is the highest man-made edifice south of the Equator, and taller than the original Empire State Building.