11.4.9 Australia from south to north [JO]
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This article is from the soc.culture.australian FAQ, by Stephen Wales with numerous contributions by others.
11.4.9 Australia from south to north [JO]
This gives some comments on travel in Australia.
I have some definite biases and will admit them as appropriate.
Also, I am assuming that the reader has an atlas with maps of
Australia and New Zealand.
My biases:
- I don't like large cities, deserts or rainforests.
- I do like small cities, mountains, beaches and seacoasts.
- I think that the US and Canada have some of the most beautiful
scenery and interesting cities in the world. Australia needs your
money and I would love to meet you but honesty compels me to say you
should see the US and Canada first.
I have never seen Adelaide or Western Australia so make no comments.
Also note that Australia is large. You will need to fly unless you
like long train or bus trips. Don't plan on intercity driving. The
roads are poor and there is nothing like the US interstate highway
system.
Hobart in Tasmania is a small but very nice city. It has a beautiful
harbour, steep hills and some very good seafood restaurants and a
colony of artists and craft workers. (San Francisco in miniature). It
is a popular tourist area for Australians but most overseas visitors
miss it. Tasmania itself is popular with Australians because it is
very different from the mainland. Cooler and wetter, greener and has
more trees and some heavily forested low mountains. People from the
eastern or northwest US would probably not see much point in visiting
it. If you are from the plains or southwest US than it will be
different from home.
Melbourne - Sydney and Melbourne have a long standing feud (like San
Franciso and Los Angeles). Its a nice city if you like cities of 3
1/2 million. It does have a beautiful art gallery with a good
collection, some lovely parks, and a number of wildlife preserves
nearby in the Dandenong mountains. It also has a good public
transport system of trams (streetcars) which are fun to ride. There
are a lot of good restaurants and I think there is an "Eating Out in
Melbourne" guide book which is supposed to be reliable. Eating in the
major hotels is a recipe for bankruptcy. (Just like the US.)
Sydney - Its slightly bigger than Melbourne, suffers from a horrible
urban sprawl, driving is terrible (no freeways) but there is good bus
and train service. The harbour and Opera House are just as beautiful
as you have heard. There are harbour ferries which are fun to ride.
The ferry service has several guided tours of the harbour which are
relatively inexpensive and worth the time. The Opera House also has
guided tours. There is an historical area near the harbour called "The
Rocks" which is fun to wander through. Note that down here anything
older than 100 years is "historical. My unimaginative but practical
suggestion is that the best way to see Sydney is to take one of the
bus tours like Grayline. They all go to the same places . There is a
public zoo (Taronga Park) which can be reached by ferry. That is the
easy way to see koalas and kangaroos. There is also a "Koala Park"
that I've never been to. I think its included in many of the sight
seeing tours. Sydney also has an "Eating Out" guide and plenty of
good restaurants of all nationalities. It lacks chains such as
Denny's or Sizzlers but the take away snack bar food is fairly good.
Not gourmet but they won't poison you.
Outside Sydney, the major tourist area is the Blue Mountains. They
are not high (1500 meters/5000 feet) but are scenic. If you like
caves, try the Jenolan caves near Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.
There are coach tours from Sydney to the Blue Mountains and the caves.
Alternatively, take a train to Katoomba (2 hours, $8) and than catch
one of the coach tours there. I believe the railroad organises this.
You might want to stay one or two nights. There are plenty of good
motels. I can also recommend the train trip to Wollongong as very
scenic but then I am biased since I live there!
The Whitsunday Islands: Now we jump 1500 km to central Queensland.
The Whitsunday Islands are a group of small, semi-tropical islands at
about 20S latitude. You may be able to find the largest (Whitsunday
Island of course) in an atlas. The nearest towns are Bowen and
Proserpine. Two islands, Hamilton and Hayman, have been developed as
international standard resorts at international standard prices. A
number of other islands have "family style" resorts aimed at the
ordinary Australian. Hamilton Island has an airport. You can fly
directly to it and take a boat to the other islands. All the other
islands have check in counters at the Hamilton Island airport.
South Molle was run by Ansett Airlines. Their lease expires in June
'94 and they are not renewing it. So far, I have not heard whether it
is closing down or someone else is taking over. Radisson Long Island
Resort was targeted at the 18 - 35 age range. It has just been
purchased by another company. The new owners say it will cater to all
ages. I don't know if they plan to redevelop or whatever [JO].
South Molle is remaining open - it is under new management. [JO]
The islands are inside the Great Barrier Reef. All the resorts
provide high speed catamaran trips to the outer reef (about 2 hours
to get there). There you can snorkle, take glass bottom boat trips or
take a ride in a "submarine". These don't submerge. You sit inside
the underwater hull and look out through big windows. The Whitsunday
Island region is world famous for scuba diving and sailing. There are
dive boat operators for qualified scuba divers. The island resorts
also have dive courses. Yachts can be rented for bareboat cruising and
there are tour operators who take people on 5 to 7 day cruises of the
islands using 45 to 55 foot yachts . You sail in the daytime and camp
on the beaches with tents, sleeping bags and air mattresses at night.
The operator provides the camping gear, crew and cook. This is a bit
of "pot luck" since you will be with strangers and the boat might have
6 passengers or 18. The cooking is also "pot luck" because the cook
will probably be a young woman who is touring Australia and has signed
on for only one trip. With luck, she may know how to cook! I did
this once and liked it. For details, ask your travel agent for
brochures on the Queensland Islands, Whitsunday Islands or Northern
Queensland.
Cairns and Cape York: Now jump another 1000 km north. Cairns is in
the tropics at about 9S latitude and is also inside the Great Barrier
Reef. It has access to the reef and the rainforest of Cape York.
When I went there it was small and very lovely. There are no beaches
in Cairns but some beautiful tropical beaches to the north of it and
around Port Douglas (an hour drive to the north). Since I was there,
it has been developed as an international tourist resort (mostly for
Japanese). I don't know what the town is like now but the reef and
rain forest are still there. Cairns is an international airport with
flights to Japan, New Zealand and the US. You could go skiing in NZ
in August and than fly to Cairns for swimming and sunning on the reef.
Warning: Don't go to Cairns or the Whitsunday Islands between December
and March. That's the cyclone (hurricane) season.
The Outback: I've never been there and have no interest in it.
However, if you want desert, kangaroos, or dingos than Alice Springs
and Uluru (Ayers Rock) are supposed to be very good. There is also a
tropical park called Kakadu in the Darwin area. It's reported to have
lots of crocodiles and birdlife and be very interesting if that's your
thing. Watch the weather. The rainy season is said to be awful -
roughly November to March.
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