We rebuild this site as a guide, not as a marketplace. Contributions are welcome when they make a reader more competent on the ground: a clearer description of a walk’s exposure, a seasonal wildlife note with a source, a history correction with a citation. They are not welcome as disguised operator pages.
What we want
- Field notes from Torndirrup, Two Peoples Bay, Porongurup, the Stirlings, Denmark country or the east coast that a careful visitor could verify
- Historical pieces that use public archives, published histories or museum interpretation without copying them
- Accessibility observations that are specific and current (and dated)
- Natural-history writing that does not harass wildlife
What we refuse
- Rankings, giveaways, or “best remaining rooms”
- Copied archive text from the old WordPress site
- AI-filled listicles with no locality
- Anything that requires a reader to buy a specific product to complete the piece
- Cultural material that should be told by Menang authors and is not yours to summarise
How to pitch
Send the contact form with topic “Write for us”. Include:
- A working title
- The heritage or IA path it would live on, if any
- Your sources
- Whether you have been there in the last two years
- A 80-word sample in the same direct-answer-first style as our FAQs
Do not send a 3,000-word attachment until we ask. Do not follow up daily. If we use your work, we will discuss byline and edits. We may say no.
Voice
Match the site: complete sentences, no invented intimacy, no fake quotes, King George Sound as geography rather than a slogan. You may be warmer than this page. You may not be cheaper with the truth.
The old author ID URLs from the previous CMS now point here so that “writer” paths still resolve. They are not a biography of a particular 2013 login.
Rights and edits
If we accept a piece, expect editing for voice, length, and the no-invention rule. We may add FAQs, cut adjectives, or ask for a source on a single verb. We will not add your operator’s booking link in the closing paragraph as a surprise. If you cannot live with that, keep the piece on your own site.
We prefer Australian English, place names as currently gazetted, and Kinjarling used with the same seriousness as Albany. We prefer metric. We prefer “southern right whale” to slang. We prefer you do not mention a “hidden gem” unless you are prepared to argue why it is hidden and why it should not stay that way.
What a Great Southern field note can be
A field note might be: how the Granite Skywalk feels in a northerly versus a southerly; how Little Beach changes with a weed wrack line; how Mount Clarence wind compares with The Gap; how a winter boat day failed and the land lookout saved the trip. Those sentences help the next visitor. A field note is not: a hotel breakfast buffet, a ranking of coffee, or a reconstruction of someone else’s trip from photographs.
If you are a scientist or ranger writing in a personal capacity, say so, and do not imply agency endorsement. If you are a tour guide, you may pitch a craft essay about reading the Sound, not a brochure about your vessel.
Compensation
Do not assume payment. If a piece is commissioned rather than volunteered, we will say so in email before you write. The domain’s job is a public guide, not a magazine with a slush pile budget. Clarity beats hope.
Pitch with the form. Wait. Write only when asked. That discipline is part of the editorial standard, not a snub. The south coast already has enough unsolicited content.
New pages in this rebuild you might extend
Contributors sometimes ask where a pitch fits. Heritage visitor-type paths — experience seeker, dedicated discoverer, aspirational achiever — accept craft essays about pacing, not psychographic marketing. Accommodation type pages want boundary observations (farm biosecurity, apartment laundry reality) without naming operators. Essential info corrections should arrive as contact fixes with sources, not as guest posts. Gallery pages are usually staff-curated image policy, not open submissions, unless you offer documented public-domain landscape work with clear provenance.
The long biodiversity hotspot essay carefully separates Global Biodiversity Hotspot science from UNESCO World Heritage listing claims — follow that example when writing ecology. Do not “helpfully” assert World Heritage status for Albany in your draft.
Sample angles that passed the internal bar (paraphrased)
How land-based whale watching failed one morning and Mount Clarence salvage changed the trip — no operator names, no fabricated dialogue. How a family split Stirling Range day when Bluff Knoll closed — practical, dated weather reference. How dual naming appeared on signage you photographed in town — cite city source, do not invent translations. How Torndirrup barriers prevented a bad decision in swell — safety without hero narrative.
Sample angles that failed
Top ten cafes. Best apartment for romance. Secret Little Beach entrance. Interview with unnamed Menang elder. Copied 2011 blog paragraph with adjectives swapped.
Length and Keystatic
Page bodies in content/pages/ target at least eight hundred words after frontmatter for non-hub pages; hubs also target eight hundred in this rebuild. Guides in content/guides/ aim higher. If we commission you, we may specify word band and internal links. Markdown structure with ## headings aids readers and CMS consistency.
Menang/Kinjarling again for contributors
If you are not Menang, do not publish cultural instruction. If you are Menang, say so and we will treat voice differently — still edited for safety and clarity, not overwritten for tourism gloss. Kinjarling is not a poetic alternate spelling for “pretty harbour”; use it where official dual naming applies.
We look for writing that survives the word-count script and a human read for invention. That is the full contributor loop: pitch, permission, draft, edit, publish, maintain via contact when facts change.