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Backpacking and travel Australia
A thousand miles from anywhere, Australia really is a world apart. Untouched by Westerners for thousands of years the land was only home to the peaceful Aboriginal tribes. In the past two hundred and fifty years though great cities have sprung up and the advent of air travel has thrown Australia open to the world, making it one of the most popular holiday destinations for people all over the globe.
Although prospectors rushed here in the 18th and 19th century, convinced that the Australian frontier hid as much gold as the Wild West of America, it is only relatively recently that the world has appreciated Australia's true resources of its great natural beauty. It is a vast expanse of golden coasts, snowy mountains, sandy deserts, blue lakes and clear seas.
No matter which part of the world you come from Australia can match it and still offer something different. Everybody knows the great sights and wonders of the country, the Great Barrier Reef, Ayers Rock and the sublime emptiness of the Outback but there is more besides. The beaches of the Gold Coast are echoed all the way around the country, as are the blue coastal waters that lap Queensland's coasts. Chasms almost as deep as the Grand Canyon and deserts as arid and crenellated as the Sahara can be found in the interior.
For those who don't fancy venturing into "the bush" the great cities of Australia rival anywhere in the world. Most people's gateway to the country Sydney is strikingly beautiful. The Old Quarter of The Rocks harks back to the early colonial years while the modernism of the Sydney Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Stadium Australia dwarf one's imagination. But if Sydney is Australia's San Francisco then Melbourne is the country's LA - a fashion conscious, dynamic city with great energy and vibrancy. Don't forget the country's other larger cities, Adelaide, Cairns, Darwin and Perth, each of which have their own charm and unique appeal.
But where Australia's magic really lies is when the comparisons to other places fail. 80 per cent of its flora and fauna is unique to the territory, and they're not all poisonous. The Aboriginal culture is a unique phenomenon, a centuries old theology that perfectly fits in with Australia's diversity and is perhaps the only thing that manages to encompass one of the world's most fascinating destinations.
Australia's division into six states and two territories is probably the best way to get a handle on the geography of this vast country. There's so much, though, that this can only be a broad generalisation at best. Basically, the most populated areas are on the East Coast and in the South.
The term "Outback" is flexible, but often means anything west of Queensland and NSW. Properly it refers to the very interior of the country.
The Australian Capital Territory
ACT is the Australian version of America's District of Columbia - an independent locale for the nation's capital, Canberra. Situated in the Southeast corner between the larger cities of Melbourne and Sydney, Canberra's a great city destination in its own right, especially for families, but it's rarely the sole reason that people travel to Australia.
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New South Wales
NSW is the country's most populated state, and is where many travellers begin their holidays. Sydney is the largest city, and the country's premier settlement , but like the rest of Australia, NSW has its fair share of rural and wild country. The SnowyMountains and the southern end of the Great Dividing Range are perfect sites for adventurous or sporty holidays and include world-class ski slopes. The coast, meanwhile, is a mix of developed and undeveloped regions of great natural beauty.
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Western Australia
WA is the largest and least densely populated state in Australia, with almost three-quarters of the region's inhabitants living in the capital, Perth. The climate is variable, ranging from merely Mediterranean in the south to tropical in the north. The landscape similarly changes from lush coastal areas to the harsh bleak beauty of the interior.
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Northern Territory
This is the Australia of legend - the Northern Territory is the heart of the Outback, containing Ayers Rock, Alice Springs and old mining towns. But there's also the region known as the 'Top End', a location of vast wetlands containing the multicultural city of Darwin.
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South Australia
SA is the driest state of Australia, but paradoxically it also has some of the best wine-growing areas of the country - notably the BarossaValley. The capital, Adelaide, is absolutely beautiful, a perfect mix of graciousness, urbanity and neatness.
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Queensland
The SunshineState of Australia is one of the most visited regions - with the beaches, the Barrier Reef (Cairns) and the Whitsunday Islands drawing tourists from all over the world. Away from the coast you'll find great variety, with the mountains of the Great Divide, vast forests and the Outback encroaching on various parts of the state's interior. Exploring Queensland is one of the most rewarding ways to get a taste for all Australia's variety in only a portion of the country.
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Victoria
In Australian terms, Victoria is tiny - yet it's the most densely populated and industrialised of Australia's regions. The capital is Melbourne, a modern and vibrant city that is rich in culture. The other main attractions are the Great Ocean Road, a stretch of highway along the coast renowned for its natural beauty. You should also visit the goldfields and the high country of the Grampians.
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Tasmania
The island of Tasmania makes up the last and the smallest of Australia's states, and is perhaps the least characteristically Australian of them all. The climate is much colder than the rest of the country, and the landscape greener, softer and altogether more European. Tasmania is slow, pristine, underpopulated and has a fascinating - and sometimes disturbing - history that is well worth exploring. Hobart is the capital.
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Transport
Travel around Australia is dominated by one over-riding feature of the country - its sheer size. Sydney to Perth for example is a journey of over 4000km (over 2550 miles). To break this down, that means three days by train or coach, or about four days in a car. Of course, it's only four hours by plane, which shows why air travel is by far the most popular form of long distance domestic transport.
Click here to check transport possibilities
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