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 in Australia
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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…
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.