sport
Sport in Australia is inescapable, from the dawn jogger puffing past your window to the football crowds celebrating late into the night with shouting, songs and car horns. In a country so beautiful, and with a climate so benign, you’ll be tempted to join the sporting crowds, either playing games yourself or watching the professionals. Under the dependable sun, everything is possible, from skiing – on water or snow – to surfing to sailing.
Spectator sports are also a passion. You can measure their impact by the newspapers, with their comprehensive sports sections, and by the amount of live sports coverage and results on television and radio. If Australians are not playing a game or watching it, they’re most likely betting on the result, or at least arguing about it.
In what other country could a racehorse be as revered as is Phar Lap, winner of the 1930 Melbourne Cup? When he died, after a heroic victory in the United States, flags flew at half-mast in Sydney. Today Phar Lap’s body is the star attraction in Melbourne Museum, and his mighty heart is preserved at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. The Melbourne Cup race itself brings the nation to a temporary halt as everyone tunes in to listen.
Future generation of athletes
Dreamstime
Sporting tastes have changed over time. More than a century ago, a guidebook gloomily reported that very little hunting was available around Sydney, except when ‘occasionally parties are made up for rabbit, wallaby or kangaroo shooting’. In 1903 the first car race was run in Australia. Three years later surf bathing in the daytime became legal in Sydney, and waterskiing caught on in 1936. Australia won the Davis Cup in 1939. When Melbourne hosted the Olympic Games in 1956, Australian athletes seized 35 of the medals. The world was becoming aware of Australia as one of the foremost sporting powers, a nation of aggressive competitors who could become champions in fields as varied as tennis and swimming, cricket and golf, athletics and rugby.
In 1983, joyous delirium swept the nation when the yacht Australia II captured the America’s Cup. In 2000, at the Sydney Olympics, Australia came fourth in the medal tally (after the US, Russia and China), and at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games athletes collected a record number of medals. Australia’s achievements in out-performing countries like Germany, France, Britain and Japan is even more remarkable considering its population – just over 20 million.
The flipside to such success is that, when it doesn’t go to plan, the nation barely seems able to cope. After boxing above their weight in the 2006 Soccer World Cup in Germany, the team’s early exit in South Africa four years later hit hard, and the lacklustre performance of the swimming team in the 2012 London Olympics led to much collective wringing of hands and airing of dirty Speedos in public.
Watersports
Australia’s endless coastline provides enough beaches, coves and ports to keep the nation in the water all year round. If that isn’t enough, there are lakes, rivers and swimming pools, both Olympic-size and backyard versions. Watersports of every variety are here for the taking.
Swimming in the Indian Ocean, the Tasman Sea, or the Coral Sea is memory-building material, but the surf can be as dangerous as it is invigorating. Most popular beaches have flags showing where it’s safe to swim. Beware of undertows and rip tides, and always obey lifeguard’s instructions. Sharks are a (very remote) risk in some areas, with occasional attacks on bathers and surfers. If a shark alert is sounded, get out of the water. Also avoid swimming in murky water, with dogs or close to outflows (river mouths and stormwater pipes).
In spite of their mild-sounding name, box jellyfish are a serious seasonal danger in the tropical north, as are tiny but extremely venomous irukandji; elsewhere there may be Portuguese men-of-war, sea snakes or other silent menaces. Check locally before you get in. Most importantly, before you stretch out on the beach, make sure you protect yourself from the sun, which is more powerful than you think with a high UV factor. Light complexions are particularly vulnerable to quick, painful sunburn and worse.
Snorkelling brings you into intimate contact with a brilliant new world full of multicoloured fish and coral. The sport requires a minimum of equipment – a mask and snorkel and, optionally, flippers. Practically anyone can learn how to snorkel in a matter of minutes. Take your own gear, especially when visiting resorts, where they charge a fortune to rent very basic equipment.
Snorkelling amid the colourful fish of the Great Barrier Reef
Pro Dive Cairns
Scuba diving with an air tank is the advanced version of snorkelling. The best place in Australia for scuba outings – arguably the best place in the world – is the coral wonderland of the Great Barrier Reef. Many of the resort islands are equipped for all the needs of divers, though you may wish to bring your own snorkel, mask and fins. Many companies offer scuba instruction starting in the swimming pool or a quiet cove, and leading up to an Open Water Certificate. Elsewhere along Australia’s coasts, scuba divers devote themselves to exploring submerged wrecks and kelp forests.
Lifesaving
The world’s first surf lifesaving club was set up at Bondi Beach in 1906. The first surfboard riders took to the water in 1915.
Surfing is a popular pastime along Australia’s coasts
Steven Greaves/APA Publications
Surfing was first documented by Captain Cook, who came across it in Hawaii. He wrote: ‘The boldness and address with which we saw them perform these difficult and dangerous manoeuvres was altogether astonishing...’ It was nearly two centuries before the first world championships were to be held in Sydney. Two of the best-known beaches to learn the craft are Sydney’s Bondi and Manly, but there are many other fine locations up and down the coast of New South Wales. Although Queensland’s Surfers Paradise may be just that, many beginners prefer the rollers further north at Noosa. Victoria’s most popular surfing area is around Torquay, gateway to the famous waves of Bells Beach. On the west coast, easily accessible world-class surfing beaches close to Perth include those around Bunbury and Margaret River.
Boating. Visiting yachts and their crews will always get a warm Aussie-style welcome. At popular resorts, for instance along the Gold Coast or the Great Barrier Reef, yachts and powerboats can be chartered, with or without a professional skipper. Inland, you can command a sailing boat or a houseboat on the relaxing Murray River. Or you might just want to settle for an hour’s rental of a pedal boat.
Fishing. In most states you’ll need a licence to fish on inland or coastal waters. Outstanding trout fishing is found in Tasmania, Victoria and the Snowy Mountains. Seasons and bag limits vary from state to state. As for game fishing, the challenge of the giant black marlin is best met off the northern coast of Queensland. If your catch weighs less than half a tonne, it’s polite to throw the little fellow back. Or settle for tuna, mackerel or sailfish. Good deep-sea fishing is also found off the coast of Western Australia, especially at Geraldton, and in the Spencer Gulf, near Adelaide. In the tropical northern rivers, a coveted game fish is the barramundi – a great fighter prized for its delicate flesh.
Sports Ashore
Golf. The landscaping may be foreign, the climate may be a better year-round bet than you’re accustomed to, but the game’s the same. Melbourne considers itself the nation’s golfing capital, with championship courses such as Victoria and the Royal Melbourne. All the cities have golf clubs; they often operate under exchange agreements with clubs overseas, or you may have to be introduced by a local member. With no formality at all you can rent a set of clubs and play at one of the public courses to be found in all the sizeable towns. Golf is also a popular spectator sport in Australia. The Australian Open (www.australianopengolf.com.au) takes place in November.
Tennis. Having produced so many top tennis champions, Australia takes the game seriously. You’ll find good courts available in most towns and resorts; some rent rackets and shoes. If you’re just watching, then join the crowd. The world’s top tennis stars usually tour Australia in December and January. Melbourne Park hosts the Australian Open (www.ausopen.com), one of the tennis world’s four Grand Slam tournaments, in January every year.
Bushwalking (hiking). All over Australia there are numerous national parks boasting excellent walking tracks suitable for a wide range of abilities. If you are thinking of doing a long walk, make sure you have a map and compass, good footwear, and adequate clothing and provisions (especially water). Always consult local park offices for advice and up-to-date condition reports (for inclement weather and bushfire danger especially), and inform someone of your plans and expected return.
Snow Sports. The white season in the Australian Alps usually lasts from June to September. The best of the ski resorts in the Snowy Mountains, straddling the border of News South Wales and Victoria, include Thredbo Village, Perisher Valley and Smiggin Holes (NSW) and Mt Buller, Falls Creek, Mt Hotham and Mt Baw Baw (Victoria).
Football and Rugby
In Australia the subject of football is so vast and complex – for a start, four different codes are played – that the stranger is likely to be left gasping on the sidelines. But since the country is crazy about it, at least a few definitions may be useful. Incidentally, whatever type of football is being discussed, the fans are likely to call it ‘footy’.
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‘Aussie Rules’
‘Aussie Rules’ was first played by Victoria gold miners in the 1850s, and the Melbourne Football Club was founded in 1858 – but the game’s official rules were not established until 1866.
Australian Rules Football (‘Aussie Rules’) was first introduced in Melbourne in 1858, and although the Australian Football League (AFL) now includes teams in most major cities, the sport is passionately supported in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania, and finds its most fanatical following in and around Melbourne. It is estimated that every winter Saturday in the city, one person in 16 attends an AFL game, and thousands more follow the saturation TV coverage. The Grand Final, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in September, is one of the world’s great sporting experiences, rivalling an English FA Cup Final or an American Super Bowl for colour, passion and atmosphere.
The sport, played by 18-aside teams on a cricket oval and combining elements of rugby, Gaelic football and soccer, is characterised by athleticism and bravery. Matches are divided into 25-minute quarters, but the clock stops when the ball isn’t in play, and games can last hours.
Rugby League started as a 13-man alternative to Rugby Union, and is played today nationally through the National Rugby League (NRL) competition, although the sport’s heartlands are Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra. It’s a roughhouse game, physical rather than cerebral, based on an uncompromising masochistic style of defence that prompted one American football coach to observe: ‘Our guys could never stand up to that sort of constant punishment.’ League attendances are nothing like as large as those of the AFL, but the Sydney clubs – such as St George Illawarra Dragons, Penrith Panthers, Manly Sea Eagles and Parramatta Eels – keep their star players fabulously well paid through TV rights deals and revenue from their licensed clubs. The national side, the Kangaroos, regularly hop through tours of France and Great Britain unbeaten.
Rugby Union, the 15-aside, formerly amateur version of the game, is fast, rough and engrossing to the fans. Compared with Rugby League, the game traditionally had a ‘silvertail’ (upper-crust) image based partly on its strength in the universities and private schools. Now that Union is fully professional, the gentlemanly spirit is less in evidence, but the pro game is far more skilful and fluid. Since 1995, teams representing Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory have competed every winter in the Super 12 tournament, against sides from New Zealand and South Africa. The Australian national team, the Wallabies, regularly competes in the Six Nations and Tri-Nations, as well as the World Cup, which it has won twice.
Australian Champions
Australia has bred many world-class winners. Below are some of the pre-eminent sporting personalities of the 20th and 21st centuries:
Athletics
Herb Elliott
Ron Clarke
Robert DeCastella
Cathy Freeman
Motor racing
Jack Brabham
Alan Jones
Mark Webber
Cricket
Don Bradman
Greg Chappell
Dennis Lillee
Ricky Ponting
Shane Warne
Golf
Peter Thompson
Greg Norman
Stuart Appleby
Ian Baker-Finch
Wayne Grady
Swimming
Dawn Fraser
Samantha Riley
Kieren Perkins
Grant Hackett
Ian Thorpe
Michael Klim
Susan O’Neill
Tennis
Evonne Goolagong
Margaret Court
Rod Laver
Pat Cash
Pat Rafter
Lleyton Hewitt
The ‘Woodies’ (Mark Woodforde, Todd Woodbridge)
Soccer is the oldest of the country’s football games but, compared with the three other species, is the poor relation. It kicked off in the 19th century among earnest British migrants, more or less stagnated until after World War II, then was revitalised by the arrival of immigrants from southern Europe. Today most clubs in the A-League are dominated by players from the Italian, Greek, Croatian, Slavic, Maltese, Dutch and Macedonian communities. The Australian national team is called the Socceroos; after a brief appearance in West Germany in 1974, they had a long absence from the world stage before qualifying for the last three World Cups (2006, 2010 and 2014).
MCC in Melbourne
Virginia Star/Apa Publications
Other Spectator Sports
Cricket has been played in Australia since the early days of the penal colony. The climate is perfect for the traditional five-day test format, and the Ashes contest against the old foe, England, is one of the most hotly fought rivalries in world sport and a fantastic spectacle (especially the Boxing Day test in Melbourne’s MCG). It’s loaded with symbolism ever since a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper after Australia beat England at The Oval in 1882, stated that English cricket had died, and ‘the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia’. Throughout the 90s and early 2000s the Australian team boasted such a wealth of talent that English cricket was repeatedly put to death, but the retirement of several key players saw them lose their mojo and three consecutive Ashes series between 2009–13. Judging by the 2013–14 series, however, where they trounced a fragile England side, a new day has dawned.
Cricket has a loyal following
Dreamstime
The cricket season extends from October to the end of March, with matches played at interstate level (the Sheffield Shield), down through district ranks to the junior and social levels. The one-day game is popular too.
Birdsville Races
Every September in the remote Queensland Outback town of Birdsville, the Birdsville Picnic Races (www.birdsvilleraces.com) attract enormous crowds. The population of Birdsville leaps from 30 to 3,000 overnight, with many spectators arriving by light planes from all over Australia.
Horseracing. Practically every Australian town has a racecourse, and betting on horses (or anything else), is as Australian as ice-cold beer. The biggest race of the turf season is the Melbourne Cup, a two-mile classic that is followed so obsessively that the day it’s run – the first Tuesday in November – is a public holiday in Victoria. Even the process of government is suspended so that the nation’s decision-makers in Canberra can watch the live telecast. Trotting (harness racing) and greyhound racing are also popular betting-based spectacles that draw crowds of punters.
Motor racing. The biggest race on the calendar is the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne, but fans of V8s should check out the race at Bathurst, west of Sydney, every October. Phillip Island hosts the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix and World Superbike Championships.
ENTERTAINMENT
Australia hosts the planet’s best performers when they tour, and produces more than its share of world-class acts. Open any major city newspaper for advertised performances of chamber music, opera, avant-garde plays, Aboriginal dance, comedy, cabaret, Shakespearean classics, rock concerts, Broadway hits, ballet, art shows and touring exhibitions from the top galleries of Europe and North America.
Australia’s two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, present the greatest number of cultural events, but Adelaide stages the most extensive and exciting arts event – the Adelaide Festival (www.adelaidefestival.com.au) – held biennially on even-numbered years. Look out too for the annual Adelaide Fringe Festival (www.adelaidefringe.com.au).
Melbourne is famous for its vibrant live music and comedy scene, but Sydney, Brisbane and Perth all have good venues too. In some smaller towns, odd events such as cane-toad racing, thong throwing (an open-toed sandal is hurled as far as possible) and brick-throwing draw the crowds. In coastal towns and cities, summer surf carnivals are another favourite – a chance for lifeguards to show off their skills, as well as a celebration of Australian beach culture.
Bangarra Dance Theatre blends Aboriginal and Western styles
Corbis
On Stage
Theatre has been going strong in Australia for a couple of centuries. In 1789, scarcely a year after New South Wales was founded, a troupe of convicts in Sydney put on a Restoration comedy (The Recruiting Officer) by George Farquhar as part of the celebrations for the birthday of King George III. The Theatre Royal, built in Hobart in 1834, is Australia’s oldest. Sir Laurence Olivier described it as ‘the best little theatre in the world’. Drama today is at its liveliest in Sydney and Melbourne but you can enjoy performances in most cities.
Opera has attracted keen audiences down under since the days of Dame Nellie Melba. In more recent times, the coloratura brilliance of Dame Joan Sutherland spread her fame around the world. Grand opera in the Sydney Opera House is a gala occasion; but opera-goers in other cities may enjoy better acoustics and atmosphere in their newer theatres.
Ballet and dance. The country’s leading classical dance company, the Australian Ballet, founded in 1962, is based in Melbourne but performs in Sydney as well. Leading modern dance troupes include the Sydney Dance Company, the Australian Dance Theatre and the Bangarra Dance Theatre.
The Australian music scene is both vibrant and varied
Virginia Star/Apa Publications
Music
Every state and territory in Australia has its own symphony orchestra; many maintain youth and chamber orchestras as well. An influential promoter of serious music, Musica Viva (www.musicaviva.com.au) presents thousands of concerts each year across the country. Sydney holds free – and hugely popular – open-air opera and classical concerts each year in the Domain as part of the Sydney Festival (www.sydneyfestival.org.au).
Jazz clubs exist in all the big cities, where you might hear a visiting celebrity or an up-and-coming local band. Plenty of pubs feature jazz, but usually at weekends only. Both indoor and outdoor jazz concerts are also advertised.
Other music – pop, rock, folk or rap – can reveal something of a nation’s soul. Aussie options range from bearded troubadours dishing out bush ballads in Outback saloons to hard-hitting metal bands. Contemporary groups and individuals such as Courtney Barnett, Nick Cave and the Badseeds, The Living End and The Vines follow in the wake of past notables like the Seekers, the Bee Gees, Men at Work, INXS, Midnight Oil, AC/DC and Cold Chisel.
Nightlife
The scale and sophistication of an evening’s entertainment depends on the size of the town. You won’t find Jennifer Lopez or Sir Elton John performing in Burrumbuttock, New South Wales, but nightlife in Australia’s smaller towns and remoter areas can still be a load of fun, as anyone who has attended an Outback bush dance or seen the Australian movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert will know.
In larger centres and cities, nightlife venues, acts and attractions are listed in guides published in the daily newspapers, usually on Thursdays or Fridays. Posters slapped on walls and telegraph poles proclaim dance parties, gigs, plays and concerts.
Cinema
Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Mel Gibson, Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe are probably Australia’s best-known contemporary film stars. Other cinematic high fliers include Naomi Watts, Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, David Gulpilil, Sam Worthington, Bryan Brown, Deborah Mailman, Guy Pearce, Eric Bana and the great swashbuckler Errol Flynn, who hailed from Tasmania.
Founded at the end of the 19th century, the Australian film industry took a great leap forward in the 1970s and has never really looked back. Films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, My Brilliant Career, Breaker Morant, the Mad Max series and Crocodile Dundee – as well as the more off-beat Strictly Ballroom, Muriel’s Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – have given audiences around the world a glimpse of Australia’s scenery and insight into the national character. More recently Rabbit-Proof Fence, Ten Canoes, Wolf Creek, Chopper, Happy Feet, Australia, and The Sapphires have also excelled. The gritty, 2010 crime-family drama Animal Kingdom attracted an Oscar nomination for screen veteran Jackie Weaver.
Multi-screen cinema complexes are popular in town centres as well as suburbs. Big cities also have specialised cinemas showing art films, foreign films and revivals. Film festivals are held annually in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, showcasing both Australian-made movies and the best new films selected from international film festivals. Tropfest (www.tropfest.com), held annually at venues around the country, is the world’s biggest short film festival.
Shopping in Sydney’s ornate Queen Victoria Building
Glyn Genin/Apa Publications
SHOPPING
In most cities, the browsers and window-shoppers congregate along the pedestrian malls. Department-store chains David Jones and Myer provide a dependable cross-section of what’s available. Downtown arcades and courts have smaller boutiques handling everything from high fashion to silly souvenirs.
In Sydney the Queen Victoria Building by Town Hall station is a great place to browse. In Melbourne the main shopping streets are Collins and Bourke, along with Bourke Street Mall, but the city’s reputation as a shopping mecca owes plenty to the boutiques of South Yarra, Prahran and Brunswick, and the factory outlets of Richmond and beyond. Rundle Mall is the essence of shopping in Adelaide, and traffic-free Hay Street Mall is Perth’s equivalent.
The state capitals are home to general markets, where stall-holders sell everything from clothing, jewellery and craftware to paintings, antiques and books. They are usually staged at weekends. Examples include Sydney’s Paddington, Melbourne’s Queen Victoria, Hobart’s Salamanca and Darwin’s Mindil Beach Sunset Markets – each with its own distinctive goods and atmosphere. If you are visiting country towns, keep an eye out for notices advertising markets. These can be great places to absorb local atmosphere, find unusual offerings, and, perhaps, pick up a bargain.
Shopping hours usually run Monday to Friday from 8.30 or 9am to 5 or 5.30pm, and to 5pm on Saturdays in major towns and cities. One night a week, either Thursday or Friday depending on the city, stores stay open until 9pm or thereabouts. In larger cities, tourist needs are catered for on Sundays as well.
While shopping, keep in mind that overseas visitors are allowed to claim back the 10 percent GST (goods and services tax) added to all purchases (for more information, click here).
Elaborately painted didgeridoos for sale in Cairns
Peter Stuckings/Apa Publications
Aboriginal Arts and Crafts
The best places to find authentic boomerangs, didgeridoos and works of art are the Northern Territory and North Queensland, but you can find Aboriginal products in speciality stores all over the country. Outback artists produce traditional paintings on bark, the subjects and style recalling the prehistoric rock paintings featuring kangaroos, emus, crocodiles, snakes, fish and impressions of tribal ceremonies. Other indigenous painters use modern materials to produce canvases in a style that looks uncannily like some abstract-expressionist work, yet recounting Dreamtime legends and rituals. Though the themes are old, the economics are contemporary: the price tags on paintings may go into four or even five figures.
Fine workmanship is also seen on some of the painted wood sculptures of animals and birds. You’ll see large, brightly decorated didgeridoos – wind instruments made from tree trunks hollowed out by obliging termites. Slightly easier to transport are clap-sticks for percussion accompaniment. Some Aboriginal craftsmen also produce decorated wooden shields and, rather inevitably, boomerangs. Baskets and tablemats woven from pandanus leaves are perhaps easier to carry home.
A word of warning: fakes and kitsch are sometimes represented as Aboriginal art by unscrupulous traders. To help identify genuine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, cultural products and services, Aboriginal communities have developed the Label of Authenticity, which employs the Aboriginal colours black, red and yellow and is protected by law.
Museum shops
Australia’s major museums all have gift shops, and many of them sell specially commissioned items, such as reproduction artworks or Aboriginal artefacts, that cannot be bought elsewhere.
Art and Antiques
Paintings and prints by contemporary Australian artists are on show in commercial galleries in many areas, but the biggest concentration is in the big cities. Sydney galleries are clustered in the central shopping district and in Paddington. In Melbourne visit the City, Toorak Road and High Street, Armadale. They’ll handle the packing, insurance and shipping details for you.
Antiques include some worthy colonial pieces: furniture, clocks, jewellery, porcelain, silverware, glassware and maps. Some dealers specialise in non-Australian antiques, for instance Chinese ceramics or Japanese screens. In Sydney, the Woollahra district is full of antiques shops. Melbourne’s antiques centre is High Street, Armadale.
Huon pine, a slow-growing conifer unique to Tasmania, has long attracted the attention of wood-carvers. The timber, which is heavy, fine-grained and perfumed, is carved into furniture, salad bowls, egg-cups, candlesticks and even hair-curlers – be sure to buy from a reputable source, however, as 85 percent of Huon Pine is protected in Tasmania’s National Forest, and only wood sourced from the remaining 15 percent should be sold.
Fashion in Melbourne
Virginia Star/Apa Publications
Clothing
The fashion season just ending in Australia is always about to begin north of the equator – so Australian end-of-season sales can deliver excellent bargains that are instantly wearable upon your return home. ‘Wearable art’ in swimwear, fashion garments, fabrics and souvenirs proliferates. Names to look for include Ken Done, Leona Edmiston, Balarinji Australia, Country Road, Covers, Trent Nathan, Saba, Lisa Ho, Hussy, Studibaker Hawk, Perri Cutten, Von Troska, Alannah Hill, Trelise Cooper, Scanlan & Theodore, Morrissey, Collette Dinnigan, Zimmerman Wear and Carla Zampatti.
A distinct style of Outback clothing has evolved from rural Australia, the area collectively known as ‘The Bush’. Driza-bone oilskin raincoats, Akubra hats (wide-brimmed hats usually made of felt) and the R.M. Williams range of bush wear (including boots and moleskin trousers) are good examples. Consider buying a pair of Blundstone boots, designed in Tasmania and renowned for their durability.
Sheepskin. In a country where sheep outnumber people by seven to one, sheep products are put to good use. Their hides are manufactured into a wide range of items. If it isn’t too hot to think about it, you can choose from sheepskin boots, hats, coats, rugs and novelty items.
Woollen goods. It’s those sheep again. Look for high-quality sweaters, scarves and shawls, and tapestries, too. You can also buy hand-spun wool. Australian merino sheep produce fine fleece ideally suited for spinning. All kinds of knitwear, from vivid children’s clothing to Jumbuk brand greasy wool sweaters (which retain their natural water resistance) are available.
Precious Stones
Australia is the source of about 95 percent of the world’s opals. ‘White’ opals are mined from the fields of Andamooka and Coober Pedy in South Australia, where inhabitants live underground to escape searing summer heat. ‘Boulder’ opals – bright and vibrant – come from Quilpie in Queensland, while the precious ‘black’ opal (actually more blue than black) is mined at Lightning Ridge and White Cliffs in New South Wales. Opals, considered among Australia’s best buys, are sold unset or as finished jewellery. Larger jewellery shops can arrange duty-free purchase for foreign visitors, but you may have to pay duty when you arrive home.
After opals, sapphires are Australia’s most-mined gemstones. A sapphire is exactly the same stone as a ruby – the only difference is the name and the colour. Creative Australian jewellers work wonders with sapphires.
Australia is one of the world’s largest diamond sources. The Kimberley is famed for its ‘pink’ diamonds, sometimes marketed under the description ‘champagne’. Hues range from lightly flushed to deep red.
Souvenirs in Brisbane
Peter Stuckings/Apa Publications
Souvenirs
Souvenirs, whether ingenious or hackneyed, indigenous or imported, pop up everywhere you travel: in cities, resorts and at roadside stands. Tourists seem unable to resist miniature kangaroos, koalas and, in Tasmania, almost-lovable Tassie devil dolls.
Boomerangs and beer can–holders head the very long list of less artistic souvenirs, followed by saucy T-shirts. In Sydney, you’ll find them cheap at Paddy’s Market. In Melbourne, try Queen Victoria Market.
Kangaroo-skin souvenirs include toy kangaroos and koalas, wallets, purses, coin bags and keycases, and other such products – some of them quite trite. The cheapest of them, often wrapped in patriotic Australian packaging, are imported.