Far North Queensland
The northeast corner of the continent, from Cairns north into Australia’s last great! frontier, is nothing short of heaven for backpackers and outdoor adventurers. The Great Barrier Reef snakes close to shore here, luring divers with shorter boat trips and longer visits to the spectacular corals of the reef. The reefs biological diversity is complemented by that of the vast swaths of tropical rainforest, pressed up close to the Coral Sea by the craggy mountains of the Great Dividing Range.
As with most places in Australia, it wasn’t nature but the promise of gold that first brought European settlement here, as a steady stream of prospectors advanced from Townsville to the then-tiny villages of Cairns and Port Douglas. The legacy of the gold rush lives on in Cooktown, Queensland’s northernmost outpost. For the most part, divers have displaced miners in recent decades, and Cairns now caters to travelers with city comforts. Still, the more remote parts of this land remain untamed wilderness. The Captain Cook Highway, named after the premier European explorer of these lands, leads modern-day trailblazers north into the rainforest, which becomes impenetrably dense around Cape Tribulation. Wilder yet is the Cape York peninsula, starting beyond Cooktown and stretching all the way to the Torres Strait, which separates the Gulf of Carpentaria from the Coral Sea and Australia from Papua New Guinea. On Cape York, only the most rugged of tracks allow humans to venture into the ordinal landscape of hungry crocs and unforgiving bush.
Related Travel Information
North Coast of Queensland
The northern Queensland coast sits at the junction of the tropical far north, the rugged frontier of the outback, and the civilized cities of the southern coastline. Waving fields and smoking mills represent the region's greatest industry, sugar cane. Towns-ville, Queensland's second largest city, is the economic and residential center of the area. Off its shores, Magnetic Island offers solitude and koalas in the wild. Between here and Mission Beach, white beaches glow next to crystalline water, across which the Great Barrier Reef beckons. The miles inland hide swaths of rainforest populated by birds, bugs, and bouncing
Queensland
If the variety of the continent's attractions could be condensed into one state, the result would look something like Queensland, Australia's all-you-can-eat traveler's smorgasbord. Part rocky, part schlocky, part green, part marine, Queensland is the holiday of choice of Aussies themselves. It's the Pacific Coast that sucks most visitors in like an undertow: the endless surf beaches in the south, the Barrier Reef in the north, and the islands all along propel wave, dive, and sun enthusiasts toward the sea. For many, though, the coast is just surface skin, and the real pudding lies within—in the rainforest-drenched far north and
Central and Western Queensland
Queensland's interior has little of the charm of South Australia's and Northern Territory's outback, but it is in many ways more authentic. The land is unforgiving, water is scarce, and constant threats such as rabbit overpopulation and locusts have hardened farmers. There are no "cowboys" here: the correct title for a greenhorn is "jack-eroo" (or "jilleroo," as the case may be). From the third year, workers are called stationhands, and the name "jackeroo" becomes a hard strike against pride. While outback towns can be unkind to outsiders, the people living here maintain an ethic of trust. Folks
Brisbane
If it weren't for Brisbane's tall office buildings and sleek commuter ferries, you might expect to see cows grazing on the city's carefully manicured lawns. Although Bris¬bane (pop. 1-1.5 million, according to varied estimates) is the capital of Queensland and Australia's third largest city, its recent growth has not obliterated its deliciously relaxed country-town feel, and the city seems like a ruddy-cheeked farmboy who's suddenly outgrown his britches. Originally a penal colony for recidivists, Brisbane today is neither glamorous nor industrial, but it's practical, clean, and full of energy.
Brisbane Highlights
- Relaxing anywhere in the tranquil South Bank Parklands
- An eating
North Coast
Often called the Holiday Coast by Sydney-siders, this sand-strewn fantasyland of the northern NSW coast caters equally to leisurely backpackers, die-hard surfers, and hordes of families. Newcastle and Port Macquarie, with urban shores only a day from Sydney, draw holiday-makers itching to sunbathe, water-ski, or wet their surfboards At the other end of the spectrum, inland eco-activist centers Lismore and Bellingen thrive on highly productive agricultural land punctuated by scenic national parks and fast-flowing rivers. With virtual cult status, Byron Bay synthesizes these two distinct flavors and seems to have a magnetic pull for all kinds of travelers, luring
