Winter in Western Australia (WA) marks the start of wildflower season, when desert plains become showy, rolling seas of vibrant kangaroo paws, boronias and everlastings.
WA is known as one the most extensive and long-lasting wildflower displays in the world –boasting more than 12,000 varieties of bloom and blossom, with a season lasting from June until the summer months.
My local milk bar is out of this world – truly- it’s like stepping back into the 1950s…
Ever had the Bells experience in Broken Hill? It’s a true, authentic milk bar that has been kept totally in line with its 1950s design…
Australia’s looming football grand finals are whipping fanatics into a frenzy - but if you reckon we mainlanders are crazy about our favourite national sport, just wait till you get to the Tiwi Islands, 80 kilometres north of Darwin!
Australian Rules Football (that’s AFL for the uninitiated) attracts a following of almost cult proportions here - and with team names like the Pumarali Thunder and Lightning, Tapalinga Superstars, Imalu Tigers and Muluwurri Magpie Geese, who wouldn’t get excited?
What do wine buffs, surfers and the discerning Perth weekend crowd have in common? Largely their love of their own pristine backyard, the south- west region of Western Australia, stretching through wine country and tall forests all the way to Albany, with magical things to see and do along the way.
But now the rest of the world is waking up to the area, curious to see what all the fuss is about. For a start it makes sense to fly into Perth from Europe and Asia as the flight times from London, Frankfurt and Amsterdam are under 18 hours and just under five hours from Singapore. From here you can explore Perth and travel south to explore the fabulous coastline, the Margaret River Wine Region and beyond.
Far enough off the highway to be readily accessible, yet still with the air of a hideaway location, Yamba is a traditional Australian fishing/surfing town at ease with its own new cosmopolitan edge.
This is the point where the vast Clarence River system meets the Pacific Ocean, creating a coastal playground with enticing beaches and exciting activities, a place to appreciate the best of the Australian east coast. It is remarkable that Yamba hasn’t become more developed than it is – locals and visitors love it all the more for that and you will, too.
The winner of the Territory Government’s US Oprah sweepstakes competition has arrived in the Red Centre.
The sweepstake competition ran during January and February this year and invited entrants to submit a 25 word statement describing why they wanted to visit Australia’s outback.
While British royalty spanning decades (though perhaps not this one) have fled to Bath for the healing powers of the town’s famous mineral springs, when I want to ‘take in the waters’ I go to Semaphore, in South Australia.
Ever heard of it?
Well you should have, and here’s why...
Perhaps overshadowed by its neighbour, Port Adelaide, Semaphore is slowly reawakening from its salty, seafaring past to become the funky up-and-comer on Adelaide’s northern beaches.
It still has that unaffected feel of a suburb without an ego, but that’s exactly the beauty of it.
Every turn of the eye on the Esplanade has adventure in store…
From the carousel and fun park that opens in the warmer months, to the fabulous walking track parallel to the esplanade and the beach which will take the serious power walker all the way from Semaphore Park to Largs Bay, and the heavy duty docks of Adelaide’s shipping hub.
Spring is the post-harvest period in the Australian pearling industry. It is the beginning of a new cycle in the life of the Pinctada maxima (‘mother of pearl’) shell that have been fished from the wild specifically for cultivation of the Australian south sea pearl.
The pearling industry has attracted people from all over the world in search of a new life and new opportunity and this influx created the culturally diverse community of Broome. Each year in September, Broome celebrates its major festival, the Shinju Matsuri or Pearl Festival (pictured below). Originally a Japanese festival that occurred at the end of the diving season for the Pinctada maxima shell, it comprised a major week of feasting and celebrating to honour a successful collecting season and to farewell the spirits of those who may have lost their lives.
Korea’s top 24 travel bloggers are in Tropical North Queensland and are preparing to do what they do best!
The bloggers are exploring the region as part of a campaign coordinated by Tourism Queensland (TQ), Tourism Tropical North Queensland and Samsung Credit Card Korea.
Queensland Tourism, Manufacturing and Small Business Minister Jan Jarratt says their arrival follows a search by Samsung Credit Card Korea and TQ to find the country's top bloggers. "Korea is an important market for Queensland, with 71,000 Korean visitors heading to Queensland in the year ended March 2011," she says.
The pace of life in Tilpa flows with the floods of the Darling River – and there have been many of them.
In 1956, a ten-year-old Michael McInerney was flying home from boarding school, over an inland ocean of muddy river water, dotted with barely visible treetops. Leaving Bourke for Polocara, the pilot overshot the homestead, turned east again in search of Tilpa, and found himself somewhere above Louth (around 90 kilometres north) before identifying the tree line of the river, when Michael spotted the Tilpa pub from the air and was able to follow road lines north and, finally, homeward bound.
