well, it surely all depends on taste…in my humble opinion, east coast australia is ruined for good, at least the “main attractions”, or as we like to call it “the land of drunk tourists”...the only place i liked on the east coast was a small national park called Eungella (near Mackay)...although only about an hour drive from the “tourist trail”, it was completely tranquil, almost no tourists and great scenery (not to mention plenty of platypus) when i got there…although i have to admid that my east coast trip was cut short when i realized that the time could be better spent, namely in Tasmania and New Zealand…Tassie was definitely my favorite part of Oz, just awesome landscapes, wilderness, great people and hardly any tourists!!! i spent a month down there, could have stayed for ever…all in all, i think Australia has lots of great places that are not visited by all those party-tourists that thankfully only go Sydney-Cairns…i really liked a lot of places in SA, especially the Flinders Ranges, but Coorong NP and Kangaroo Island were really nice as well…i also agree with you that there are plenty of great places around Adelaide, which makes it a nice place to live because of the amount of weekend destinations available…
unfortunately i havent seen WA, but this will hopefully happen one day…if i’m lucky, i’ll also live in Tassie (Hobart is quite agreeable) one day, or NZ…but make one thing clear, the best place in Australia is certainly Epping, as everzbody knows…