Australia’s amazing
natural wonders
In part two of this special feature, David Whitley celebrates more incredible places to visit in the great outdoors Down Under
Geological wonders
See the 12 Apostles from above
From the beach at Loch Ard Gorge, the 95ft sandstone cliffs curve around the water like pincers. Beyond this small protected idyll the salty Southern Ocean lashes the shore, eroding rocks and cliffs into a series of strange shapes. Each, it seems, has its own story.At Loch Ard Gorge, that story is of two teenagers, washed ashore as the only survivors of a tragic shipwreck. At London Arch, further down the coast in Port Campbell National Park, it’s the exaggerated tale of two lovers left stranded as part of the land bridge fell into the sea.
The most famous sight in the park is the 12 Apostles, a series of tall, precarious rock stacks bravely withstanding the ferocious swells. They’re a staple of the Great Ocean Road, Victoria’s classic drive that combines surf beaches, wildlife and waterfalls. But from a helicopter, it becomes clear that the 12 Apostles are even more impressive when put in the context of the coastline. The 12 Apostles Helicopters flight whirrs up the coast, and it’s hit after hit of awe-inspiring gargantuan rocks. The Apostles are not the only stars – they are part of a redoubtable ensemble.
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At 7,310ft, Mt Kosciuszko in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales is the highest mountain on the Australian continent – and no specialist climbing skills are required to reach the summit. After taking the chairlift from ski resort Thredbo, it’s a moderately challenging eight-mile return walk through the Kosciuszko National Park to the top.
Scale Australia’s highest mountain
See the 12 Apostles from above
Scale Australia’s highest mountain
Walk through giant domes
The world’s oldest cave system
Admire giant organ pipes
Welcome the night at the Pinnacles
Discover coastal caves and white-sand beaches
Enter Wilpena Pound
Scale the sandblow
Often overshadowed by its neighbour Uluru, Kata Tjuta is made up of 36 enormous domes, jutting out of the Northern Territory's red outback. The tallest of them is 3,497ft high, but they’re even more impressive up close while walking through. The three-to-four-hour Valley of the Winds walk threads through these wind-weathered giants, taking in top lookouts on the way.
Walk through giant domes
The lava plains of Undara Volcanic National Park in north Queensland were created by the eruption of the Undara Volcano, 190,000 years ago. The eruption’s aftermath also created a system of lava tubes, caused by the lava pushing through as the top of the flow cooled. Join a tour run by Discovery Resorts Undara to experience this amazing underworld. Keep an eye out for the 40,000-strong bat colony.
The world’s oldest cave system
Rising nearly 1,000ft above the pounding ocean, the dolerite columns of Cape Hauy look like the pipes of the world’s biggest organ. The 5.9-mile return track to get there takes in woodland, wildflowers and coastal views within Tasmania’s Tasman National Park. More ambitious walkers can drop by the colossal columns on the 30-mile, four-day walk along the Three Capes Track.
Admire giant organ pipes
Formed over millions of years, the jagged limestone columns of the Pinnacles rise up in their hundreds through the moon-like desert sands of Western Australia’s Nambung National Park. It’s an otherworldly site that seems to glow come sunset. Join an Australian Pinnacle Tour to witness the colours change before giving way to perfect stargazing conditions under an awe-inspiring night sky bejewelled with a universe of stars.
Welcome the night at the Pinnacles
Australia’s smallest mainland territory – the 26.2 square mile Jervis Bay Territory some three and a half hours south of Sydney – is almost entirely covered by Booderee National Park. You’ll find kangaroos almost everywhere and an astonishing collection of white sand beaches where dolphins play just offshore. If picking just one, aim for Caves Beach, where you can venture into caves cut from the cliffs after playing in the surf.
Discover coastal caves and white-sand beaches
It’s the abrupt rise from the surrounding plain that makes Wilpena Pound, a natural bowl-like amphitheatre in South Australia’s Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park so special. Several walking trails head inside the Pound, with the 4.3-mile Wangara Lookout Hike bringing fabulous panoramic views.
Enter Wilpena Pound
The Carlo Sandblow walk in the Great Sandy National Park goes from earthly forests to strange moonscape very quickly. Over centuries, the prevailing winds have created a mountain-like accumulation of sand along Queensland’s coast. The views from the top, taking in K’gari, the coloured sands of Rainbow Beach, and Double Island Point, strike awe. The birds of prey soaring overhead seem to agree.
Scale the sandblow
The Yaburrara people of the Pilbara region in Western Australia believe that Nganjarli-Murujuga National Park is home to the highest concentration of rock art in the world. The petroglyphs on the Burrup Peninsula and Dampier Archipelago have been dated back to before the Ice Age ended – more than 40,000 years ago. Ngurrangga Tours takes visitors to explore this open-air treasure chest.
Be wowed by ancient petroglyphs
Wintjiri Wiru is a spectacular new light and sound experience which includes beautiful sunset views of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. It’s as much about storytelling as it is technology. More than 1,100 drones are choreographed alongside lasers and projections to paint extraordinary pictures across the desert night sky. This Red Centre light show has been put together with the Anangu people, and it tells their ancestral Mala story.
See drones light up the desert
Dreamtime Dive and Snorkel’s Great Barrier Reef day tours from Cairns go to two prime Outer Reef sites, with marine biologists and cultural guides. Between snorkelling sessions, Indigenous sea rangers share stories that are tens of thousands of years old, including the reef’s creation story, as well as song, dance and music using clap sticks, fire poles and didgeridoos.
Experience the Reef with traditional owners
The five Aboriginal rock art sites open to the public in Victoria’s Grampians (Gariwerd) National Park are just a sample. There are more than 200 across the region, painted onto caves and telling creation stories. The Billimina Rock Art site in the Wartook Valley can be treated as a taster. Here, there are 55 human figures illustrating the rock overhang, along with images of kangaroo and emu tracks.
Tune in to rock art
Next to the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park in the northern Flinders Ranges, the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary is a stargazer’s dream. This South Australian outback escape has been declared an International Dark Sky Sanctuary, and Arkaroola’s Under The Stars experience provides astronomy binoculars, special robotic chairs and an expert guide.
Stargaze in the outback
Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory offers numerous Aboriginal cultural experiences, including rock-art sites and guided tours. But during the Taste of Kakadu festival – running between May 24 and 26 in 2024 – the park celebrates native bush foods, with a series of special tasting events. The Kakadu plum – the world’s richest source of Vitamin C – is just the start of it.
Discover bush food
The Honeysuckle Campground in the Australian Capital Territory’s Namadgi National Park is a handy spot for accessing the park’s mountain walking trails. The 404-mile Australian Alps walking trail also passes through. But check out the building remains while there – this was formerly the Honeysuckle Creek Space Tracking Station, which received the transmission of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon.
Camp in a space tracking station
The Victoria Settlement is an unexpected aside in Venture North’s five-day adventure to the peninsula. Getting there involves crossing Kakadu National Park and the permit-only Arnhem Land. On the way, there is ancient rock art, crocodile-spotting and walking to sandstone escarpment lookouts. Once there, there are fishing trips, mud-crabbing adventures and buffalo encounters in the Ramsar-listed wetlands. The stay, in an exclusive coastal camp on Port Essington, is a lot more comfortable than it would have been for those unfortunate British settlers.
“There were times when every single person bar one was in the hospital,” says Venture North guide Dave McMahon. “They would have to wake a malaria-stricken surgeon and ask how to cut off someone’s arm.”
These days, the remains of the sturdy houses designed to withstand British winters rather than Top End wet seasons are being slowly reclaimed by the bush of Garig Gunak Barlu National Park.
In 1838, the British tried to build a settlement on the Northern Territory’s remote Cobourg Peninsula, but disease, supply ships not turning up and a cyclone made it a short-lived and devastating 11-year experiment. Indeed, it’s fair to say that the Victoria Settlement was an absolute disaster.
Discover the Northern Territory’s Lost City
Discover the Northern Territory’s Lost City
Camp in a
space tracking station
Discover bush food
Stargaze in the outback
Tune in to rock art
Experience the Reef with traditional owners
See drones light up the desert
Be wowed by ancient petroglyphs
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Cultural wonders
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Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island is regularly cited as one of the greatest beaches on Earth. The view of the nearby Hill Inlet, all weaving sandbars cutting through turquoise sea, is equally impressive. Both are staples of Whitsunday Islands day tours from Airlie Beach. But two day/two night sailing adventures through the archipelago show off lesser-visited alternatives, stopping for reef snorkelling and enjoying beers on deck at sunset.
Sail around the Whitsundays
For the most part, Karijini National Park is archetypal Western Australian outback – chunky sandstone gorges and sunbaked red rocks. But then you emerge at Fern Pool, a tropical oasis, fed by a natural spring, surrounded by ferns and backed by an elegant waterfall. Swims rarely get more tempting.
Swim in Fern Pool
A series of 13 gorges runs through Nitmiluk National Park near Katherine in the Northern Territory, and the Nabilil Dreaming Sunset Dinner Tour passes through two of them. The differences from the daytime cruises are the sunset changing the colours of the gorge walls and the three-course dinner served aboard the Nitmiluk Tours vessel.
Dine afloat in Nitmiluk Gorge
The 115-mile Waterfall Way between Coffs Harbour and Armidale in New South Wales is, unsurprisingly, lined by multiple waterfalls. Many of these are in the World Heritage-listed Gondwana rainforest of Dorrigo National Park, the world’s most extensive subtropical rainforest. From the Dorrigo Rainforest Centre, several walking tracks head out towards different plunging waterfalls, while the Skywalk Lookout brings elevated views down the Bellinger Valley towards the coast.
Drive the Waterfall Way
From July to November, the Great Sandy Marine Park in Queensland is a place for humpback whales to rest and nurse their young calves. This makes it one of the most reliable sites for whale-watching on earth. From Hervey Bay, whale-watching cruises head out to the shallow bays and warm seas of the marine park, with passengers in awe of the mother whales swimming alongside their youngsters.
Enter the whale nursery
The waves at Johanna Beach roll in high, making for near-perfect beach breaks. Among Australia’s surfers, this beach just off Victoria’s Great Ocean Road in Great Otway National Park has a heavenly reputation. It is, however, for experienced surfers only. Novices are better off taking lessons with Go Ride A Wave in Lorne, a hip beach town just in front of the national park’s waterfall-strewn forests.
Surf at Johanna Beach
Sure, the photo-perfect sweep of Wineglass Bay is the headline act on the four-and-a-half hour cruise around Tasmania’s Freycinet National Park. But that’s not all you can look forward to on yourvoyage around the coastline. Wineglass Bay Cruises fits in little penguins at Schouten Island, the pink peaks of the Hazards, sea caves, blowholes and looming granite cliffs.
Cruise to Wineglass Bay
Some stops are scheduled, though. On the Younghusband Peninsula, a short walk across the dunes reveals emu tracks. Then, on the opposite side of the peninsula, there is Australia’s longest beach. In the wet sand, you can shift feet side to side, feeling for cockles just below the surface. Keep hold with your toes and the lapping ocean washes the surrounding sand away.
On the Coorong, the slowness of the leisurely paddle is part of the appeal. The sun beats down, sandpipers stroll along the flats, and pelicans go from comical on land to powerfully graceful in the air. Canoe the Coorong’s kayaking tours through South Australia’s Coorong National Park are active yet blissful. The paddling can always stop to watch gulls diving down for fish, or to admire the way the sun twinkles on the water. Guide Brenton Carle casts a fishing line from the kayak along the way, with the freshly caught mulloway later cooked up with samphire plucked from the dunes.
The Coorong is a lagoon system protected by two long peninsulas in South Australia. The gap between them is where the 1,558-mile Murray River finally meets the ocean.
Paddle to the end of the Murray
Paddle to the end of the Murray
Cruise to Wineglass Bay
Surf at Johanna Beach
Enter the whale nursery
Drive the Waterfall Way
Dine afloat in Nitmiluk Gorge
Swim in Fern Pool
Sail around the Whitsundays
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Water wonders
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The 12 Apostles, Victoria | CREDIT: Tourism Australia
The 12 Apostles, Victoria | CREDIT: Visit Victoria
Mount Kosciuszko, New South Wales | CREDIT: Tourism Australia
Kata Tjuta, Northern Territory | CREDIT: Tourism Australia
Undara Volcanic National Park, Queensland | CREDIT: Tourism and Events Queensland
Three Capes Track, Tasmania | CREDIT: Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service
The Pinnacles, Western Australia | CREDIT: Grahame Kelaher
Murrays Beach Sea Cave, Jervis Bay | CREDIT: Jordan Robins
Wilpena Pound, South Australia | CREDIT: South Australian Tourism Commission, Adam Bruzzone
Rainbow Beach, Queensland | CREDIT: Tourism and Events Queensland
Victoria Settlement, Northern Territory | CREDIT: Tourism NT, James Fisher
Victoria Settlement, Northern Territory | CREDIT: Tourism NT, James Fisher
Victoria Settlement, Northern Territory | CREDIT: Tourism NT, James Fisher
Namadgi National Park, Australian Capital Territory | CREDIT: We Are Explorers for Visit Canberra
Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory | CREDIT: Tourism NT, Helen Orr
Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, South Australia | CREDIT: South Australian Tourism Commission
Hollow Mountain, Grampians National Park, Victoria | CREDIT: Visit Victoria
Dreamtime Great Barrier Reef tours, Queensland | CREDIT: Tourism and Events Queensland
Wintjiri Wiru, Northern Territory
Nganjarli-Murujuga National Park, Western Australia | CREDIT: Tourism Western Australia
Murray River, South Australia | CREDIT: South Australian Tourism Commission
Coorong National Park, South Australia | CREDIT: South Australian Tourism Commission
Murray River, South Australia | CREDIT: South Australian Tourism
Wineglass Bay, Tasmania | CREDIT: Courtesy of Wineglass Bay Cruises
Lorne Beach, Victoria | CREDIT: Tourism Australia
Great Sandy Marine Park, Queensland | CREDIT: Tourism and Events Queensland
Dorrigo National Park, New South Wales | CREDIT: Destination NSW
Nitmiluk National Park, Northern Territory | CREDIT: Tourism Australia
Fern Pool, Karijini National Park, Western Australia | CREDIT: Tourism Western Australia
Whitsunday Island, Queensland | CREDIT: Tourism and Events Queensland
Header image: The Cockburn Ranges, Western Australia | CREDIT: Tourism Australia
Image: Bungle Bungle Range, Western Australia | CREDIT: Western Australia
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