Amazing Australian Places

Australia is a big country of many different climates and regions and this has led to the creation of some amazing places; an ex- coral reef in the middle of the desert, the oldest rainforest in the world, mysterious rock formations etc.

Queensland

Botanic Ark

Near Mossman in far north Queensland this place is a botanical Noah's ark, the owners have traveled the world over and brought home an amazing variety of seeds they have planted on their property, guided group tours can be arranged.

Cape Tribulation / Daintree

The oldest rainforest in the world that has survived for at least 120 million years and is home to the endangered cassowary. Probably also the most easily accessible and safest rainforest in the world. Several days are needed to see and appreciate this area. The Daintree has been protected as a National Park since 1981 and has been on the World Heritage List since 1988, it adjoins the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park which was the first park in Australia to be placed on the World Heritage list. This park is within 2.5 hours drive from Cairns International Airport and has a good choice of tours and accommodation to explore this unique area. More info...

Carnarvon Gorge

About 500 km. inland from Bundaberg this gorge has for many years sheltered an eco-system that has survived the times so now, in the middle of barren dry cattle country you can find an oasis of waterfalls, pools, ferns, mosses and palms down in the bottom of this amazing gorge.

Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy is an opal mining town in the middle of nowehere in the South Australian outback where the majority of residents live in caves underground. Even the local church, motels etc. are all in underground caves. Besides the opal mines to visit there are some other attractions like Crocodile Harry to add some colour to this town.

Cooktown

Cooktown is one of Australia's most historically significant towns, in 1770 on the banks of the Endeavour River pictured above James Cook and his crew managed to fix his ship after their disastrous crash on the Great Barrier Reef. They spent seven weeks here, discovered many species of flora and fauna, most notably the kangaroo, and then managed to continue their journey further north where they planted the Union Jack and claimed Australia, otherwise this country might have still been New Holland today, which was its name before Cook claimed it. More info....

Daintree

See Cape Tribulation

Fraser Island

Photo by Rob Lapaer of Rainforest Hideaway B&B, Cape Tribulation, N.Qld.

Fraser Island lies just a bit to the north of Brisbane on the Queensland coast and is the world's largest sand island. Very popular with tourists, locals and fishermen who enjoy the long stretches of beach, the beautiful fresh water lakes and the rainforests, (which you would not normally expect on a sand island). Also known for its dingoes which are a more pure strain than mainland dingoes. Despite strong warnings from authorities not to feed the dingoes people still did which led to the unfortunate situation where dingoes became more and more cheeky and aggressive, leading to many people getting bitten and even a nine year old boy getting killed, after this rangers shot several of the most troublesome dingos. More info...

Great Barrier Reef

Early 2004 a survey was held in the U.K. asking people about the 50 things to do before you die and the majority placed scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef in the top three. It is the largest living coral system in the world, stretching 2300km along Queensland's coast from Bundaberg to the top of Cape York it contains 1600 reefs and a 1000 islands and is the site of the biggest orgasm in the universe; this is one of the terms the North Queensland dive industry uses to describe the annual coral spawning where three to five nights after the full moon in november or december when the water temperature hits 28 degrees, the entire 2300 kms of Great Barrier Reef lets go of zillions and zillions of brightly colored sperm and eggs that float around for several days and fertilize eachother. Fish go into a feeding frenzy and the ocean sometimes resembles an oiltanker disaster site but all this is done to propagate new corals to ensure the survival of the Great Barrier Reef. If you find yourself in North Queensland around this time you can witness this spectacular event as many of the reef tour operators run extra night trips.
The Great Barrier Reef was the first Australian site to be placed on UNESCO's World Heritage list, now there are 15 Australian sites. More info...

Mareeba Wetlands

2000 hectares of land near the town of Mareeba in north Queensland that the locals used to refer to as 'mongrel scrub' has been turned into a 'mini-Kakadu' with lotus covered lagoons by conservationist Tim Nevard. The land had been earmarked for sugarcane but after it was found unsuitable for this Tim managed to convince the authorities to turn it into a wetland reserve by running the overflow from the Mareeba-Dimbulah sugarcane area into it. This idea was raised in 1994 and ten years later the reserve is filled with brolga and sarus cranes, jabirus, jacanas, magpie geese, ducks, ibis, egrets, eagles and plans are underway to introduce freshwater crocodiles to complete the eco system. The reserve is within an hours drive from Cairns. More info....

New South Wales

Blue Mountains

 
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Australia's most recent World Heritage area is the Blue Mountains National Park in which you will find steep canyons, waterfalls and gum forests.

Nimbin

Hippie haven on the New South Wales / Quensland border where the clock stopped ticking in the seventies and the streets are filled with VW Kombis, people in brightly colored clothing offering marijuana for sale, cafes selling space cake etc. Once a year the Annual Nimbin "Let It Grow!" Mardi Grass is held in May, together with the Hemp Olympics and the Nimbin Cannabis Cup.
The now-legendary HEMP Olympix comprises pothead contests around joint rolling, bong throwing and, for the more physically-minded, a Growers Ironperson competition. For this contestants pit themselves against the odds in outlandish tests of strength such as crawling through lantana tunnels dragging large bags of fertiliser.
Based (very loosely) on the Amsterdam event of the same name, the Nimbin Cannabis Cup is a nice mellow wrap-up to the heightened chaos of the previous few days. A rather broad selection of the best local buds is tasted, toked and tested by a smattering of card-carrying "expert" judges, eventually choosing a winner. If you don't make it as a judge however it doesn't really matter. Just like in Amsterdam, there's so much good pot everywhere that anyone that does make it to judge status is usually too stoned to tell anyway.
After the february 7 2004 Queensland State elections a woman claimed she was having group sex with 30 men in Nimbin and could not get to a polling booth in Queensland on time to vote . Electoral commissioner Bob Longland said this was the all-time best excuse. ( In Australia it is compulsory to vote and if you don't show up they will fine you).

Victoria

Brunos's Art Sculpture Garden in Marysville

Bruno Torfs was born in South America but moved to Europe and then on to Australia where he set up home in Marysville.
He found the luscious sub-alpine forests here the perfect place to build a sculpture garden, originally it opened with only 15 sculptures but it expanded in to more than 200 and Bruno is still making regular additions.
The unique experience of the garden and its wondrous inhabitants attract many visitors each year. Bruno and the family still live there and always take great pleasure in being able to share their magnificent art treasure with all that come.
Unfortunately in the 2009 bushfires the forest and many sculptures were destroyed but many of Bruno's friends got together to help restore the gardens and the gardens have been re-opened. More info on his website.

Great Ocean Road

 
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An extremely popular scenic drive to the south west of Melbourne that stretches for 300 km. and includes beaches, patches of rainforest, sweeping views to a rugged rocky coastline with steep cliffs and impressive 100 metre high rock formations like the Twelve Apostles ( though there are no longer twelve as from time to time one falls over and there are now eight left) . This place hit the national news headlines when a rock formation known as London Bridge suddenly collapsed. For many years day trippers had walked out along this natural bridge to the big rock at the end but after sitting there for possible millions of years the bridge spontaneously collapsed in January 1990 leaving two people stranded on the rock who had to wait several hours for a helicipter to arrive to ferry them back to the mainland. There is an urban myth that these two people were not actually a couple but both cheating on their repective partners and then got caught out getting their faces on national television but we do not know if this holds truth or not. More info...

Northern Territory

 
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Ayers Rock (Uluru)

Photo by Rob Lapaer of Rainforest Hideaway B&B, Cape Tribulation, N.Qld.

Giant rock ( referred to by many Aussies as 'the rock') in the middle of Australia that has significant meaning to Aborigines, they nowadays own the rock again after the government handed it over to them in he 1980s on the condition they lease it back to National Parks.
William Gosse was the first white man to spot and climb the rock and named it after a former South Australia premier Sir Henry Ayers, Aborigines refer to it as Uluru.
Geologists refer to this rock as both a monolith ( it is the largest monolith in the world measuring 3.1km. in length) and a monadnock (isolated rock sticking out above surrounding country).
After the invention of political correctness in the 1990s word got out in the media around the world that it greatly upset the local Aboriginal owners if people took souvenir rocks from this place, leading to people all around the world sending heavy parcels returning their souvenir rocks and filling the Uluru National Parks office.
More than 300 000 people a year visit the rock and busloads of people descend on this place for sunrise and sunset when cameras click away and the champagne flows (if you didn't book on the cheapest tour that is). Nowadays many people opt not to climb the rock as the local Aboriginal owners do not approve of it but many others still do. It is quite an effort and quite a few people have died from heart attacks here or rolled down the steep slope, especially before the chain on poles was put in. The chance of having a heart attack here is three times as high as elsewhere in Australia. Sometimes the rock is closed to climbers when the temperatures go too high or when it rains. I was there myself one time just after some rare rains and on the top of the rock there were pools of water and would you believe it, there were things swimming around in there! Some little shield shrimp about a centimetre in length and some other fish looking things a few millimetres in length. Amazing how things come to life in a dry place like this when it probably hasn't seen any water for at least a year! More info...

Coober Pedy

Opal mining town 846 km north of Adelaide where the temperature can rise to 50°C in summer and about 80 per cent of the population of 4000 people live underground. Besides opal mines the town has underground motels, an underground church, a golf course without a single blade of grass and an old excentric ex-croc hunter named Crocodile Harry whose cave is open to the public for a small entry fee.

Dummiddulloffakkinoware

Photo by Rob Lapaer of Rainforest Hideaway B&B, Cape Tribulation, N.Qld.

This place is located halfway between the Stuart Highway and Cape Crawford's Heartbreak Hotel on the southern side of the road, I have lost the exact location of this sign but if you find it please let us know!

Kakadu

Kakadu is Australia's largest National Park and you need several days to see it properly, though this can be hard work as temperatures are often high and due to the presence of crocodiles swimming is not real safe in a lot of places. Its uniqueness as an eco-system and the presence of Aboriginal rock paintings have led to UNESCO adding to the list of World Heritage Sites, though they have been around to check up whether to remove it when controversy over the Ranger and Jabiluka uranium mines ( situated in the heart of the park) hit the news in the 1990s. More info...

Tasmania

Cradle Mountain

One of the top bushwalks in the world, you can spend three days to a week to cross this National Park on foot, staying overnight in huts and be treated to spectacular scenery all the way.

Tasmania's Wilderness

Tasmania might look like a small island on the map but 1.38 million hectares of it is World Heritage area containing temperate rainforest and alpine vegetation that provide habitats for many rare and endangered species of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world .

Western Australia

Hutt River Province

Between Kalbarri and Port Gregory in Western Australia lies the infamous 39 square mile Hutt River Province where Prince Leonard has seceded from Australia and Western Australia in 1970, renamed his wheat farm the Hutt River Province, declared himself Prince Leonard and his wife Princess Shirley of Hutt , and has started printing his own stamps. Though there is no welcome sign at the gate you can go in and visit the prince and princess. Send us a photo too. It may be a bit hard to find but the Geraldton tourist info will give you a map when you go in to get your visa for Hutt River Province. You can get your passport stamped on entry.

This is the story behind this independent country;

The government of Australia was worried about a huge wheat surplus in 1969 and imposed quotas on all the WA wheat growers. Mr Leonard Casley was only permitted to sell a small percentage of the 1,500 acres wheat he planted and stood to lose heaps of money. When his appeals for a higher quota kept being knocked back, he started a bit of legal investigation. An ancient English law he found says that if your livelihood is threatened by the state, you are entitled to ‘secede’ your land from the state. Though he had no legal experience or training turned his farm into an independent country and himself into HRH Prince Leonard. As residents of an independent country, none of the 30 or so people who live in Hutt River Province pay taxes to the government of Australia and none receive any benefits from it. There were still more disagreements between Hutt River Province and Canberra and in 1997 Hutt River Province actually declared war on Australia.

Nullarbor

Photo by Rob Lapaer of Rainforest Hideaway B&B, Cape Tribulation, N.Qld.

The Nullarbor has an undeserved reputation for being a very boring drive while there are actually very interesting places to explore. Nothing will ever give you the feeling of standing at the end of the world as much as this place; having the whole huge continent behind you and nothing but ocean and Antrarctica in front of you. In some places it is only a few hundred metres from the highway to the cliffs.

Windjana Gorge

Located a very long way from the ocean in north Western Australia, the walls of this gorge are not made of rock but of coral ! Many years ago Australia used to have a lot of its surface covered by inland sea and this is a reminder of that.

South Australia

Kangaroo Island, South Australia

Kangaroo island has an abundance of wildlife and is located close to the tip of South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula where koalas, sea lions, penguins, and of course, kangaroos, live in a protected natural environment.

Canberra

Canberra is only a small place and not overly endowed with natural attractions, the only thing I could think of to add to this section was a photo of Parliament House as there are some pretty amazing Australian politicians hiding in here.
More info on Canberra...

Do you know of some amazing Australian place? Then contact us!

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