Attractions
Alice Springs Desert Park
Larapinta, Northern Territory
A walk-through park at the foot of the West MacDonnell Ranges that shows the plants and animals of Australia's deserts in recreated habitats: sand co…
Travel tips in Australia
Attractions
Australia Zoo, Beerwah
Beerwah, Queensland
The zoo made famous by Steve Irwin, the 'Crocodile Hunter', and still run by the Irwin family.
Natural features
Blue Lake, Mount Gambier
Mount Gambier, South Australia
A volcanic crater lake on the edge of Mount Gambier that turns a brilliant cobalt blue from about November to March, then fades to a steely grey for …
Natural features
Blue Mountains and the Three Sisters
Katoomba, New South Wales
A plateau of eucalyptus forest, sandstone cliffs and valleys west of Sydney, a UNESCO site, named for the blue haze of eucalyptus oil.
Walks and treks
Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk
Bondi Beach, New South Wales
A 6 km clifftop walk from Bondi Beach past Tamarama, Bronte and Clovelly to Coogee, with ocean pools and the Waverley Cemetery on the cliffs.
Natural features
Broken River platypus, Eungella National Park
Queensland
Eungella ('land of cloud') is a high plateau of misty subtropical rainforest west of Mackay, and Broken River is one of the best places in Australia …
Natural features
Cape Hillsborough wallabies at sunrise
Bucasia, Queensland
In Cape Hillsborough National Park, north of Mackay, wallabies and kangaroos come down to the beach at dawn to feed on seed pods and mangrove leaves …
Natural features
Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake
Kentish, Tasmania
The jagged peaks of Cradle Mountain rising above Dove Lake are Tasmania's most famous view, in the Cradle Mountain–Lake St Clair National Park, part …
Natural features
Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation
Wujal Wujal, Queensland
The oldest tropical rainforest in the world, part of the Wet Tropics UNESCO site, where the rainforest meets the reef at Cape Tribulation.
Tours and activities
Great Barrier Reef from Cairns
Cairns, Queensland
The world's largest coral reef system, a UNESCO site, stretching 2,300 km.
Tours and activities
Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles
Timboon, Victoria
A 243 km coastal road in Victoria built by returned WWI soldiers, past surf beaches, rainforest and koalas, to the limestone stacks of the Twelve Apo…
Natural features
K'gari (Fraser Island)
Urangan, Queensland
The world's largest sand island, 123 km long, officially renamed K'gari, its Butchulla name, in 2023.
Natural features
Kakadu National Park
Gunbalanya, Northern Territory
Australia's largest national park, a UNESCO site for both nature and culture, with wetlands full of crocodiles and birds, waterfalls such as Jim Jim …
Natural features
Karijini National Park
Western Australia
A park of deep red gorges cut into the ancient rock of the Pilbara, with waterfalls, cold clear rock pools and fern-lined chasms.
Natural features
Kata Tjuta and the Valley of the Winds
Yulara, Northern Territory
A group of 36 huge red domes about 50 km from Uluru, in the same national park, and many visitors think it's even more impressive.
Walks and treks
Kings Canyon Rim Walk
Northern Territory
A 6 km loop walk (about 3 to 4 hours) around the rim of Kings Canyon, where sheer red sandstone walls drop 100 m to the canyon floor.
Attractions
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane
Fig Tree Pocket, Queensland
Opened in 1927, Lone Pine is the world's first and largest koala sanctuary, with more than 100 koalas in a bush setting on the Brisbane River at Fig …
Attractions
MONA (Museum of Old and New Art), Hobart
Berriedale, Tasmania
Australia's most talked-about museum, created by gambler and collector David Walsh and carved into a sandstone cliff beside the Derwent River.
Natural features
Natural Bridge, Springbrook National Park
Tallebudgera Valley, Queensland
A rock arch over Cave Creek, formed when a waterfall wore a hole through the roof of the cave beneath it, so that the creek now pours through the hol…
Tours and activities
Ningaloo Reef whale sharks
Exmouth, Western Australia
A fringing reef close to shore, a UNESCO site, where from March to July you can swim with whale sharks, and humpback whales and manta rays at other t…
Walks and treks
North Gorge Walk, Point Lookout
Queensland
An easy 1.2 km boardwalk loop around the headland at Point Lookout, on North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah), and one of the best wildlife walks in Q…
Historic sites
Port Arthur Historic Site
Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania
The best-preserved convict settlement in Australia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Natural features
Rottnest Island and quokkas
Western Australia
A car-free island off Perth with turquoise bays and quokkas, small smiling marsupials that are unafraid of people.
Tours and activities
Sydney Harbour Bridge and BridgeClimb
The Rocks, New South Wales
The 'Coathanger', a steel arch bridge opened in 1932.
Buildings
Sydney Opera House
Sydney, New South Wales
Jørn Utzon's masterpiece, with its white sail-shaped shells on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, opened in 1973, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Attractions
Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo
Dubbo, New South Wales
An open-range zoo in Dubbo where animals from Africa, Asia and Australia live in huge enclosures separated by moats rather than cages.
Attractions
Taronga Zoo, Sydney
Mosman, New South Wales
Sydney's zoo sits on a hillside at Mosman with probably the best view of any zoo in the world, looking across the harbour to the Opera House and the …
Natural features
Turquoise Bay, Cape Range National Park
Exmouth, Western Australia
A white-sand beach in Cape Range National Park where the Ningaloo Reef comes right up to the shore, making it one of the best places in Australia to …
Natural features
Uluru (Ayers Rock)
Yulara, Northern Territory
The great red monolith in the centre of Australia, 348 m high and about 9.4 km around, sacred to its traditional owners, the Anangu.
Natural features
Whitehaven Beach and the Whitsundays
Whitsundays, Queensland
A 7 km beach of brilliant white silica sand on Whitsunday Island, with swirling sand and water patterns at Hill Inlet seen from the lookout.
Natural features
Wineglass Bay, Freycinet National Park
Tasmania
A perfect curve of white sand and turquoise water on Tasmania's east coast, framed by the pink granite peaks of the Hazards.
Historic sites
Alice Springs Telegraph Station
Alice Springs, Northern Territory
The stone buildings of the 1872 telegraph station, built on the Overland Telegraph Line that linked Adelaide to Darwin and Australia to the world.
Natural features
Angourie Blue Pools
Yamba, New South Wales
Two deep, clear freshwater pools in old quarries just behind the beach at Angourie, a small surfing village south of Yamba.
Historic sites
Australian War Memorial, Canberra
Campbell, Australian Capital Territory
A shrine, museum and archive commemorating Australians who died in war, with the Roll of Honour and the Hall of Memory.
Tours and activities
Barossa Valley
Tanunda, South Australia
One of Australia's oldest wine regions, settled by German Lutherans, famous for Shiraz, with cellar doors, bakeries and the Maggie Beer farm shop.
Natural features
Brown Lake (Bummiera), North Stradbroke Island
Queensland
A freshwater 'perched' lake on North Stradbroke Island, coloured a deep tea-brown by tannins from the paperbark trees around it, with a white sandy s…
Natural features
Byron Bay
Byron Bay, New South Wales
A laid-back surf town with beaches and the Cape Byron Lighthouse at the most easterly point of mainland Australia.
Natural features
Cable Beach, Broome
Cable Beach, Western Australia
A 22 km stretch of white sand and turquoise water on the Indian Ocean, with Broome's famous camel trains strolling along it at sunset.
Attractions
Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo
Eudlo, Queensland
One of the largest Tibetan Buddhist centres in the West, set in 160 acres of subtropical rainforest in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.
Historic sites
Craig's Hut, Mount Stirling
Mansfield, Victoria
A rustic mountain cattlemen's hut on a high ridge of the Victorian Alps, built as a film set for the 1983 movie The Man from Snowy River and rebuilt …
Natural features
Cylinder Beach, Point Lookout
Queensland
A sheltered, patrolled beach in a curve of the coast at Point Lookout, North Stradbroke Island, one of the best family beaches in south-east Queensla…
Natural features
Ellenborough Falls
Wingham, New South Wales
One of the highest single-drop waterfalls in the Southern Hemisphere: the Ellenborough River plunges about 160 m off the edge of the escarpment into …
Natural features
Finch Hatton Gorge
Mirani, Queensland
A rainforest gorge in Eungella National Park with boulders, waterfalls and clear swimming holes.
Walks and treks
Grampians National Park
Victoria
Sandstone ranges in western Victoria with waterfalls, Aboriginal rock art and plenty of kangaroos.
Natural features
Kangaroo Island
Kingscote, South Australia
A large island off South Australia with wildlife everywhere: sea lions at Seal Bay, kangaroos, koalas and echidnas.
Natural features
Litchfield National Park
Northern Territory
Waterfalls and plunge pools for swimming, such as Florence Falls, Wangi Falls and Buley Rockhole, plus giant magnetic termite mounds, about 1.5 hours…
Food and drink
Melbourne laneways
Melbourne, Victoria
Melbourne's lanes and arcades are full of street art (Hosier Lane), cafés, bars and restaurants; it's Australia's coffee capital.
Natural features
Monkey Mia dolphins, Shark Bay
Denham, Western Australia
Wild bottlenose dolphins have been coming to the beach at Monkey Mia for more than 40 years.
Natural features
Mount Buffalo National Park
Myrtleford, Victoria
A granite plateau in the Victorian High Country, rising high above the Ovens Valley near Bright, with tors, waterfalls, snow gums and alpine wildflow…
Natural features
Myall Lakes National Park
Bulahdelah, New South Wales
A large coastal park on the mid north coast of New South Wales with one of the state's largest coastal lake systems, 40 km of beaches, and rainforest…
Natural features
Phillip Island Penguin Parade
Phillip Island, Victoria
Every evening at sunset, little penguins (the world's smallest) waddle ashore in groups across the beach to their burrows.
Natural features
Purnululu (Bungle Bungle Range)
Western Australia
Beehive-shaped sandstone domes striped orange and black, in the Kimberley, a UNESCO site.
Shopping
Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne
Melbourne, Victoria
Melbourne's big open-air market, trading since 1878 and covering two city blocks.
Natural features
Springbrook National Park
Tallebudgera Valley, Queensland
A plateau of ancient rainforest on the rim of an old volcano in the Gold Coast hinterland, part of the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage Area.
Natural features
Standley Chasm (Angkerle Atwatye)
Northern Territory
A narrow gap in the West MacDonnell Ranges, where the red quartzite walls rise 80 m and are only a few metres apart.
Natural features
The Pinnacles, Nambung National Park
Cervantes, Western Australia
Thousands of limestone pillars, some up to 3.5 m tall, rise from the yellow sand of the Pinnacles Desert, formed over thousands of years from seashel…
Natural features
Umpherston Sinkhole, Mount Gambier
Mount Gambier, South Australia
A collapsed limestone cave in the middle of Mount Gambier that was turned into a sunken garden in the 1880s by James Umpherston.
Attractions
Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary, Mylor
Mylor, South Australia
A wildlife sanctuary in the Adelaide Hills, created from a run-down dairy farm and now planted with native trees, lakes and creeks inside a predator-…
Natural features
Wonnangatta Valley
Victoria
A remote valley deep in the Alpine National Park, reachable only by 4WD tracks, and one of the classic 4WD destinations in the Victorian High Country.
Natural features
Yamba Main Beach and lighthouse
Yamba, New South Wales
Yamba is a relaxed holiday town at the mouth of the Clarence River, with accommodation for every budget, and its Main Beach is the heart of it: a pat…
Natural features
Engelbrecht Cave, Mount Gambier
Mount Gambier, South Australia
A limestone cave that runs right under the streets of Mount Gambier, with clear underground lakes that cave divers explore.
Natural features
Good Night Scrub National Park
Gin Gin, Queensland
A small national park in the hills inland from Bundaberg, protecting one of the largest remaining patches of dry vine scrub (dry rainforest) in Queen…
Food and drink
Lygon Street, Carlton
Carlton, Victoria
Melbourne's 'Little Italy', the heart of the city's Italian community since the 1950s.
Natural features
Wingham Brush Nature Reserve
Wingham, New South Wales
A small pocket of endangered subtropical floodplain rainforest on the bank of the Manning River in the town of Wingham.