The Ultimate Australian Travel Bucket List
Here’s our take on the best things to do and see in Australia. Some are well-known and already major tourist attractions and others less known and yet to be discovered. But be assured, all are worth the effort.
See our New Zealand Bucket List here
Drive around Australia
The Big Lap, as its known, is the ultimate driving journey that’s in the bucket list of almost every Australian. A trip worth doing and especially “do-able” if you want to locum along the way.
New South Wales
See a performance at the Opera House
Where: East Circular Quay, on Sydney Harbour
If you want to experience the iconic and world famous Sydney Opera House the way it was intended, then make sure you see a performance. As well as opera, there’s a steady schedule of theatre, music, dance, talks and contemporary performance.
See in the New Year on Sydney Harbour
Where: Sydney Harbour
Party Sydney style and see the New Year in as the most expensive fireworks display in the world transforms the Sydney Harbour Bridge into a psychedelic display of colour.
Get a slice of the 50s in the Outback
Where: Patton St, Broken Hill, 1160km west of Sydney,509km northeast of Adelaide
If you’ve got a hankering for milkshakes made with real milk and syrups served in an authentic 1950’s style milk bar, then Bells Milk Bar in Broken Hill is for you.
The town that’s its own art gallery
Where: Kurri Kurri, Hunter Valley wine region, 145km north of Sydney. Kurri Kurri’s city walls are a masterpiece in themselves, covered in murals painted by Australian and local artists. These unique artworks depict the town’s history and culture, bringing the town to life.
Rent your own cave
Where: Upper Blue Mountains or
www.rentacave.comRent a cave, enjoy dinner sumptuously prepared over a camp fire and awake to the sounds of thousands of birds and the sight of a million-year-old sandstone cathedral over your head.
Bowral - So close yet a world away
Where: 115km south of Sydney in the Wingecarribee Shire
This charming little township in the NSW Southern Highlands, famous for being the town where the great Don Bradman spent his formative years, teems with cafes, restaurants, art galleries, wineries and boutiques. Bowral is also Australia’s best-known Book Town, part of a growing international collection of rural outposts with high concentrations of booksellers and bookworms.
Be the first in Australia to see the sunrise
Where: Cape Byron Lighthouse, Cape Byron Headland Reserve, 770km north of Sydney, 165km south of Brisbane.
Located at the most eastern tip of Australia, the lighthouse at Cape Byron is the perfect spot to watch the sunrise. Then head down to enjoy the bohemian delights and laidback ambience of Byron Bay; considered a “must visit” for travellers.
Get a little bit country in Tamworth
Where: Tamworth, 400km north of Sydney.
Famous for being the Australian Country Music Capital, Tamworth’s Country Music Festival attracts 50,000 every January. It’s also the National Equine Capital of Australia and home to the Australian Equine and Livestock Events Centre (the biggest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere).
Sail the Postman's Run up the Hawkesbury
Where: Brooklyn, Hawkesbury River, NSW
Join Australia’s last remaining riverboat postman as he cruises along the Hawkesbury River delivering post to isolated communities living along its many waterways, inlets and lagoons. This is a great way to experience the charms of yesteryear and see the stunning scenery.
Take an underground tour of Sydney
Where: Beneath the very streets of Sydney or
www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/waterexhibitionSee Sydney like you’ve never seen it before; from below. Sydney has an amazing network of underground grain silos, tunnels and fortifications built by convicts all waiting to be explored. Tours only take place twice a year and because of increasing demands a ballot system is used to give out the tickets.
Stay the night in a lighthouse
Where: 12km offshore east of Narooma -
www.conservationvolunteers.com.auVisit beautiful Montague Island and stay the night in the heritage lighthouse that has been beautifully restored as a guesthouse. You can also assist in ongoing seabird habitat and penguin research projects, making this the perfect romantic eco-adventure.
Wife carrying championship at Singelton
Where: Singleton’s Integra Countryfest, 182km northwest of Sydney
Now a regular part of Singleton’s annual Integra Countryfest, simply throw any women that’s available (she doesn’t have to be your wife) over your shoulder and run as fast as your legs will carry you through a 200m long obstacle course. If you win, you score a trip to the World Title in Finland.
The Ultimate Spookfest
Where: Monte Cristo Homestead, Junee, NSW
Take a night-time tour around Monte Cristo Homestead or stay the night if you dare at Australia’s most haunted house. Guaranteed to send shivers down your spine!
Victoria
Rejuvenate in Victoria's Spa Country
Where: Macedon Ranges,115km north-west of Melbourne
Daylesford and Hepburn Springs are famous for their rejuvenating natural spring water. Enjoy Australia’s most relaxing holiday destination at the historic Hepburn Bathhouse and Spa.
Get lost among the roses at Ashcombe Maze and Water Gardens
Where: Mornington Peninsula or
www.ashcombemaze.com.au Get lost inside the world’s oldest circular rose maze. A garden lovers’ dream with 1200 rose bushes specially chosen for their colours and scents for the ultimate sensory overload.
See something big at the MCG
Where: Brunton Avenue, Richmond
The ultimate sports ground for the ultimate sports fan. Doesn’t matter what you see, just make sure you get there.
Grab a seat at the Australian Open
Where: Melbourne and Olympic Parks
See the world’s best tennis players at the first Grand Slam of the tennis year.
Fall in love with the little penguins On Phillip Island
Where: Phillip Island
They spend their days at sea and then return at night to their burrows on shore. Watch as one by one, the penguins pop up in the surf and huddle together in small groups before making the break across the exposed beach to the safety of the dunes.
Scout about Melbourne's Laneways
Where: CBD
Jammed with restaurants, bars, clubs, hole-in-the-wall coffee joints, boutiques, arcades and street art, Melbourne’s laneways offer days of wonderful wandering.
Visit Echuca; man’s territory
Where: 236km north of Melbourne.
Home to the National Holden Motor Museum and The Great Aussie Beer Shed and known as the paddle steamer capital of Australia, Echuca is the place for boys who like big toys. Plenty of heritage buildings, modern shops, hotels and eateries for the girls too.
Boogie-woogie on the Blues Train
Where: Queenscliff or
www.thebluestrain.com.auFor a totally unique experience, dance, eat and drink as you clickety clack your way through the Bellamarine Peninsula on a vintage steam train. With four top blues acts and enough food and wine to run a small music festival, you’ll be ready to boogie.
Queensland
All things creepy crawly
Where: Kuranda (25km northwest of Cairns) or
www.tarantula.com.au Now you can experience Australia’s venomous side in safety. Venom Zoo lets you get up close and personal not only with Australia’s top five venomous snakes but also tarantulas, scorpions, centipedes, insects and reptiles.
See the world at 300m per second
Where: Rockhampton Airport, QLD or
www.migjet.comEver watched Top Gun and wondered what it would be like to take the highway to the danger zone. Now you can take a ride on a MiG 15. With a wingspan of only 10m and top speed of 1170km/h, you’ll feel like you’re strapped to a missile.
Dive the Great Barrier Reef
Where: In the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland.
This world heritage site is the world’s largest reef system, longer than the Great Wall of China, and it can be seen from space. You’ll spot dugongs, green turtles, dolphins, reef sharks, more than 1500 species of fish and 4000 types of mollusks. This is an absolute “must do.”
Go jungle surfing At Cape Tribulation
Where: 25km north of Mossman, Qld
Zip through the tree canopy of the Daintree Rainforest by flying fox. Five tree platforms linked by a zip line hovering up to 19m above the ground give tree surfers a great view of the 120-million year old forest and the Great Barrier Reef beyond.
Walk through the treetops in Lamington National Park
Where: McPherson Range, 110km south of Brisbane.
Walk 15m above ground on a series of suspension bridges through the forest canopy at O’Reilly’s Tree Top Walk. The 180m long walk takes you past ferns and enormous strangler figs with Mount Tamborine as a backdrop.
Visit one of the World's Oldest Art Galleries
Where: Carnarvon National Park, 593km northwest of Brisbane
Hike a 5.4km track through magnificent flora and fauna to reach the ancient art galleries of Carnarvon Gorge. Witness the hundreds of handprints and marvel at the ochre and ash stencils and engravings that depict aspects of the aboriginal lifestyle.
Spot the whales at Hervey Bay
Where: 320km north of Brisbane.
Whales love Hervey Bay and from July to November, often spend up to two weeks at a time in Hervey Bay playing in the shallow waters. Just off Hervey Bay lies Fraser Island, a world heritage reserve and the world’s largest sand island.
Get loosa at Noosa
Where: 160km north of Brisbane.
An idyllic holiday escape and cosmopolitan town full of restaurants, designer stores, pubs, clubs, pretty beaches, rivers and hinterland. And unlike the Gold Coast, there’s a distinct lack of high rises competing for the best view of the beach.
An untouched world - Seventeen Seventy
Where: 130km southeast of Gladstone, 130km northwest of Bundaberg This yet to be discovered town, Seventeen Seventy is surrounded by four national parks, is a stepping off point to the Great Barrier Reef and is Queensland’s northernmost surfing beach.
South Australia
Be a postman for a day
Where: Coober Pedy 9am Monday and Thursday or
www.desertdiversity.comTake the world's biggest mail run in outback SA; a 620km round trip in all. This is not your ordinary bus trip and with the bus holding a maximum of 13 people, demand for places is high.
See the Spectacular Flinders Ranges
Where: Approx 200km north-west of Adelaide
The Flinders Ranges represent the essence of outback Australia. From Wilpena Pound, an enormous circle of rock walls, ancient rock art in the Yourambulla Caves, the Aboriginal Dreaming Trail, fantastic cycling and walking tracks to the great food and wine trails, the Flinders Ranges are a “must see” destination.
Cross the Country by Train
Where: Between Adelaide and Darwin on the Ghan or between Sydney and Perth on the Indian Pacific.
Australia is the only continent in the world that can be crossed coast to coast on a single train, so don’t let the opportunity pass you by. The Ghan goes from Adelaide to Darwin over three days via the Adelaide Plains, Flinders Ranges, Red Centre and Top End. The Indian Pacific starts from Sydney (on the Pacific Ocean) and taking them to Perth (on the Indian Ocean) via Adelaide and vice versa.
Get a taste of Europe in the Barossa
Where: 70km north-east of Adelaide, SA.
The original settlers from Britain, Prussia and Silesia (now Poland) brought vines from their homelands and established Australia’s most internationally recognised wine region. Head here in April for the Barossa Vintage Festival.
Make your own legendary Penfolds wine
Where: Penfolds Barossa Valley Cellar Door or
www.penfolds.com.au While you are in the Barossa Valley, enjoy Australia’s first “Make Your Own Blend” experience at Penfolds vineyard. Tour the winery and then make your own legendary bottle of wine to take home.
Germanic Hahndorf
Where: 26km southeast of Adelaide.
Hahndorf delivers a rich palate of cultural, intellectual and artistic heritage and is a foodies haven. A wonderful blend of dreamy Germanic settlement and early colonial Australia.
Live underground in the Opal Capital of the world
Where: Coober Pedy, 846km northwest of Adelaide, 690km south of Alice Springs. Experience the weird and wonderful place that is Coober Pedy where four out of five residents live underground. As the Opal Capital of the world, the wealth created through mining has allowed residents to build luxurious underground dwellings complete with swimming pools. Coober Pedy is also known for its stark landscape and great dining experiences.
Western Australia
Swim with the whale sharks on Ningaloo Reef
Where: Just off the coast of Exmouth, about 1200km north of Perth, WA. For a once in a lifetime experience, swim with these gentle, gargantuan creatures as they hang out at Ningaloo Reef from April to July each year.
Stride among the City of Gnomes
Where: Gnomesville, Southwest WA, 15min drive from Bunbury, near Dardanup. What started as a couple of gnomes plonked on to a roundabout has grown into a sprawling community of more than 1000 (and still growing) roadside gnomes. Feel free to add to the collection with a gnome of your own.
Be cast onto a salt lake
Where: Lake Ballard, 55km west of Menzies.
Menzies is 726km east of Perth and 132km north of Kalgoorlie or
www.menzies.wa.gov.au 51 amazing life size sculptures by artist Antony Gormley stand at intervals across the blank canvas of the million-year-old salt Lake Ballard creating an eerie installation.
Take a vow in New Norcia
Where: 132km north of Perth.
Spanish-influenced New Norcia is the only monastic town in Australia and is a bona fide architectural marvel with 27 of 65 buildings classified by the National Trust. Settled by Benedictine monks in 1847, the monks still own and operate the grain and sheep farm. Around 70,000 people visit annually, all of whom are invited to join the monks for one of their daily prayer sessions.
The beautiful coastline of Esperance
Where: Approx. 740km southeast of Perth.
Considered the most beautiful coastline in Australia, Esperance is a vision of brilliant aquamarine water and blindingly white sand. Head along the Esperance Great Ocean Drive; a 38km loop that takes in the best landscapes and vistas.
The wonderful Margaret River
Where: Approx. 275km south of Perth along the coast.
The unofficial capital of WA’s southwest featuring great wine, great food, great beaches, great surf, great golf and a great laidback rural lifestyle.
Sailing away in Fremantle
Where: 19km southwest of Perth
This marine port with its strong artistic and bohemian vibe is the perfect spot for a bit of alfresco dining while you watch the sunset over the ocean.
Tasmania
Hire a campervan and drive around Tassie
If driving around Australia seems too big, then Tasmania can be explored in a ten-day loop, Travel at your own pace and check out Hobart, Bruny Island, the East Coast, Launceston, Cradle Mountain and Strahan.
Be at the finish line of the Sydney Harbour Yacht Race
Where: Castray Esplanade, Derwent River
Get to the finish line before the yachts do and catch the end of this incredible endurance race.
Crayfish lovers unite at Stanley
Where: 223km northwest of Launceston.
Quaint, quirky, inviting and chock full of heritage buildings, you’ll love this little gem of a fishing village where the local staple is crayfish washed down with crab.
Experience Australia's most beautiful beach, Wineglass Bay
Where: 125km north-east of Hobart
Voted by the UK’s Condé Nast Traveller magazine as one of the top ten beaches in the world, Wineglass Bay’s white sand, pink granite rocky shores and turquoise waters are simply stunning.
Hop on Tasmania’s newest ride
Where: Strahan or
www.puretasmania.comVisit the land of Piners and Miners by rail car, 4WD and on foot; a one-of-a-kind historic trip into a truly untouched region of the Tasmanian World Heritage Area.
Outback & beyond
Join a camel train along Cable Beach
Where: Broome, the Kimberley, WA
Ride camel back along the sands and get swept up in the breathtaking beauty of a Cable Beach sunset.
Complete the Uluru Base Walk
Where: 460km south-west of Alice Springs, NT.
Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) is a sacred part of Aboriginal creation mythology. Join the traditional owners of Uluru, the Anangu community as you walk around the base of one of the great wonders of the world.
The ultimate pub crawl with wings
Where: Banksia Adventures -
www.banksia-adventures.com.au Hop in a plane for a four-day journey to see the great outback pubs of Australia. Pass through 3 states and see the Flinders Ranges, Wilpena Pound, Lake Torrens and the opal mining area of Andamooka, William Creek (and its famous pub), Birdsville (and its famous pub) and heaps more.
The Birdsville Races
Where: Birdsville; Brisbane is 1800km to the east, Adelaide about 1500km to the south.
Every September, Birdsville’s population leaps from 150 to more than 6000 as people stream in for the famous Birdsville Races. Watch horses race around a clay track with dust exploding all around in this outback version of the Melbourne Cup.
Go on holiday and save hundreds of lives
Where: Camp Chivaree, 200km south of the tip of Australia or
www.capeyorkturtlerescue.comHoliday on a beautiful, tropical beach and save sea turtles threatened with extinction. Working with the local Aboriginal community, rangers and scientists, you’ll get to carry the precious bundles of newly hatched sea turtles to the sea in the hope that they will be the one-in-a-thousand that makes it through the next 30 years to breed.
Go to sea in a tinnie at the Beer Can Regatta
Where: Mindil Beach, NT around 1.5km north of the Darwin town centre. Each July join the locals and race boats made of nothing but beer cans along the shores of Darwin’s Mindil Beach.
Opera outback style at Undara every October.
Where: Undara Experience, 275km west of Cairns -
www.undara.com.au The Undara Experience is a mesmerizing mix of opera, food and wine under the stars set alongside the prehistoric wonder of the Undara Lava Tubes
Drink the world’s most expensive coffee
Where: The Hervey’s Range Heritage Tea Rooms, 30min out of Townsville or
www.heritagetearooms.com.auThis is the only café in Australia that sells Kopi Luwak; coffee beans harvested in Indonesia from the poo of the Common Palm Civet, or Luwak, a catlike animal that eats the ripe coffee cherries but can’t digest the beans. The process of passing through the Luwak’s digestive system apparently results in a sensational brew that sells for $50 a cup.
Take tea with the ladies
Where: Bathurst and Melville Islands, 80km north of Darwin in the Arafura Sea.
The Morning Tea Ladies of the Tiwi people have held their morning tea sessions for many generations, sharing their culture, language, artwork and music with visitors. But you better be quick, as the ladies are not training any further generations and with no younger women to carry on the stories, time is running out.