Welcome to Australia
Australia is the unexpected: a place where the world’s oldest cultures share vast ochre plains, stylish laneways and unimaginably blue waters with successive waves of new arrivals from across the globe.
Most Australians live along the coast, and most of these folks live in cities. It follows that urban life here is a lot of fun! Sydney is the glamorous poster child with world-class beaches and a glorious harbour, but Australia’s other cities bring much to the table.
Australia’s landscapes are just as diverse, from lush tropical and temperate rainforests to the remote rocky outcrops of Uluru, Kakadu and the Kimberley. To understand many of these places means walking in the footsteps of the First Peoples on earth. Whether you’re tracing outlines of rock art more than 20,000 years old in Kakadu National Park, floating in the azure waters of Rottnest Island or admiring the iconic sights of Sydney Harbour, where the Eora Nation traded for centuries: you are on Indigenous land.
Beset with islands and deserted shores, Australia’s coastline is wild and wonderful. Animating these splendid places is wildlife like nowhere else on the planet: kangaroos, crocodiles, wombats, wallabies, platypus, crocodiles, dingoes and 700-plus bird species.
When it comes to food, Australia plates up a multicultural fusion of European techniques and fresh Pacific-rim ingredients – aka ‘Mod Oz’ (Modern Australian). Seafood plays a starring role, though you’ll always find beef, lamb and chicken at Aussie barbecues. To wash all it down, Australian beers, wines and whiskies are world-beaters.
