Australia Attractions

Blue Mountains

In the thick of the Great Dividing Range, the Blue Mountains are a prime example of Australian bush, with gum trees and excellent bushwalking through deep gorges and up majestic peaks. The surreal blue haze that hangs over the region is a fine mist of volatile oil given off by eucalyptus trees.

Katoomba is a major tourist centre, and with its Art Nouveau and Art Deco guesthouses is a cheerful relic of another era. From Echo Point you can gawp at the Three Sisters, a rock formation named for three lasses who were petrified by a sorcerer to protect them from the advances of three sleazy men.

Cairns

Cairns shines with the carnival atmosphere of travellers all year round and the city is positively booming. In 2003 the foreshore was given a Hollywood makeover, with lagoons and the spanking Pier Marketplace, equipping Cairns to be a truly international tourist destination.

Aside from limitless accommodation and dining options, markets, culture, shopping and seaside atmosphere, Cairns' big drawcard is its access to the outer tentacles of the Great Barrier Reef. It's also a good base to discover Port Douglas, the Atherton Tableland, Cape Tribulation and beyond.

Perth

Perth is a vibrant and modern city sitting between the cerulean Indian Ocean and the ancient Darling Ranges. It claims to be the sunniest state capital in Australia, though more striking is its isolation from the rest of the country - Perth is over 4400km (2750mi) from Sydney by road.

It's true that the city centre's skyscrapers dominate a picturesque riverside location. But behind the towering edifices hide a handful of 19th-century buildings and facades, and some saving-grace patches of greenery. But these concerns fade in an instant when you glimpse the famous beaches.

Uluru

Uluru is the most famous icon of the Australian outback and a site of deep cultural significance to the Anangu Aboriginals. The 3.6km (2.2mi)-long rock rises a towering 348m (1141ft) from the pancake-flat surrounding scrub. It is especially impressive at dawn and sunset when the red rock spectacularly changes hue.

Broome

Langorously-paced Broome has a distinctly Asian flavour and cosmopolitan atmosphere, making it a consistently popular travellers' centre and a favoured spot for alternative lifestylers and urban burnouts. An upmarket tourism campaign has saved the town from a tacky downfall.

Broome's Asian feel is partly due to its history as a pearling centre and partly because it is twice as far away from Perth, the state capital, as it is from Indonesia. Nearby Cable Beach is now one of the most famous beaches in Australia...and justifiably so.

Melbourne

Melbourne is dubbed marvellous for a reason. Healthy hedonism masquerades as high art: Melburnians are equally passionate about football and ballet, fashion and restaurants. They are ravenous for music and hot for theatre. It's a smorgasbord of a city that you'll want to sink your teeth into.

A leafy bayside community on the 'upside-down' Yarra River, Melbourne is, by turns, cosmopolitan, suburban, cultivated, conservative and an avant-garde haven. Visitors come for its shopping, restaurants, nightlife and sporting calendar; most agree that it's one of the world's most liveable cities.

Canberra

Canberra is often described by Australians who haven't been there as a boring town, full of politicians, bureaucrats - and not much else. But those who go there find beautiful galleries and museums clustered around a lake and cupped in bushland.

One of only two capital cities in the world that have been built to a premeditated design, Canberra is rather eerily symmetrical. Placed about its nice, planned combinations of straight and curving streets are the old and new Parliament Houses, the National Gallery, and the National Museum.

Sydney

Sydney is Australia's oldest city, the economic powerhouse of the nation and the country's capital in everything but name. It's blessed with sun-drenched natural attractions, dizzy skyscrapers, delicious and daring restaurants, superb shopping and friendly folk.

Although it's come a long way from its convict beginnings, Sydney still has a rough and ready energy, and offers an invigorating blend of the old and the new, the raw and the refined. While high culture attracts some to the Opera House, gaudy nightlife attracts others to Kings Cross.

Flinders Ranges

Rising from the northern end of Spencer Gulf, in the east of South Australia, and running north for 800km (500mi), the Flinders Ranges are, to many, the epitome of outback Australia. It's a superb area for bushwalks, wildlife and taking in the ever-changing colours of the outback.

Darwin

The 'capital' of northern Australia is closer to Jakarta than it is to Sydney, and closer to Singapore than it is to Melbourne, so it should come as no surprise that it looks outward to Asia as much as it looks inland to the rest of Australia.

This proximity and familiarity with Australia's northern neighbours is reflected in the town's relaxed, cosmopolitan, tropical atmosphere. In a country that prides itself on its ethnic diversity, Darwin may be the most multicultural city of all.