Where to see in Australia

[blindswelledrat]

Im planning a family holiday in a year or so to Australia and want to pick peoples brains.
We have been a couple of times before and have seen Sydney, Melbourne, Barrier Reef etc but non of the rest of the country.
What is worth doing?
Particularly fancied some kind of winnebego road trip type thing.
ANy suggestions?
Also fancied Ayer rock but it seems in the middle of nowhere. Might we just as well fly in and out in a day?

[hornetrider]

Briefly;

Best things we did in Oz:

4 day boat trip round the Whitsundays
Skydive Airlie Beach
Fraser Island 4x4
Liveaboard diving out of Cairns
Tandem bike round the vineyards of Hunter Valley - simple but awesome
Great Ocean Road trip
Croc Park somewhere north of Cairns is good for a day (not Steve Irwins commercial gaff)
Wine trip into the Barossa

Underwhelmed with:
Sydney
Melbourne
Tasmania
Most of the East Coast which wasn't the above

Didn't bother with so can't comment on:
Perth
Northern Territory

Have you done NZ? Far better.

[blindswelledrat]

Ive been to a lot of that HR (including that crocodile park. It was st but we loved it too)
Im not thinking of day trips and specific things to do, but more other parts of Australia we haven't seen.
eg: Is there much in the north and west coasts?
How do you get to ayers rock

[hornetrider]

blindswelledrat said:

How do you get to ayers rock

You fly in, then fly out.

We motorhomed it down from Cairns to Sydney - Pacific Coast Highway is completely inappropriately named - complete waste of time for the most part. No view apart from days of endless 10ft high sugar cane plantations each side of the road, and a large detour to get to the coast

NZ is far better for a motorhome trip imo.

[C0ffin D0dger]

Regarding Ayers Rock we did a nice three day excursion from Alice Springs that was fun. Involved staying in tents so may not be your thing. The guide really made it for us, proper Aussie bloke with a good, if slightly sick, sense of humour

Can't remember the exact agenda but we visited the Olgas, watched the sun set and rise over Ayers Rock, walked round it, stayed the night on a cattle station where you could have helicopter rides, quad bike trek etc., and finally visited Kings Canyon. In amongst all that where campfires, campfire food and plenty of beer drank.

Alice Springs itself isn't much, we spent the night there before the tour and the night when we got back, met up with the tour group post tour for dinner and more beer. Flew out the next day somewhat hungover

[fido]

I've just come back from Perth (stayed with a friend who is working out there). Really enjoyed hanging out in their version of Albertopolis (South Kensington) and visiting beach, vineyards (Swan Valley) and wildlife parks during the daytime.

[Cheib]

I'd deffo agree on the Whitsunday's and in particular you really need to go and visit Whitehaven Beach....preferably from the air, it's absolutely incredible. In fact you also need to see GBR from the air if you haven't, gives you a whole new perspective.

Kakadu in the Northern Territories is supposed to be incredible....not sure what time of year you can go there though

[Kenty]

We are off to Tasmania next year as part of a 6 week trip, from our research it looks fantastic.

[Edmundo2]

If you plan to do any of the west then deffo head to broome for a couple of days. Not loads going on but evenings down at cable beach club are great. Never seen sunsets like it and really relaxing spot.

[Edmundo2]

If you plan to do any of the west then deffo head to broome for a couple of days. Not loads going on but evenings down at cable beach club are great. Never seen sunsets like it and really relaxing spot.

[ViperDave]

There are lots and lots of little things all over the place, many of them not worth the effort on their own but collectively as a mega road trip will give you memories for a long time. in 2000, we started in Perth, drive up to broom, across to Darwin, down the middle and across to Melbourne and Sidney before heading up the right coast to cairns, 10,000 miles six weeks. A few years back we did Sydney, flew to Ayers, drove to Alice then the gharn to Darwin and then drove across to bromme half on the GNH and the other half on the Gibb river road.

Perth to broome

Pinnacles
kalbari np
monkey mia, dolphins, stromatolites, shell beach
nigaloo reef
a pink lake somewhere
lots of dead roos, swarm of locusts not a lot of cars
fking big bug splat on the windscreen obscuring 50%, another stuck in rad

broome to darwin

stairway to the moon, (mud flats at full moon in broome)
sunset cable beach
horizontal waterfals, cape leveque (flight seeing from broome)
Gibb river road - long straight
Tunnel creek
geke gorge
china wall halls creek
bungle bungles, lake argyle, argyle diamond mine (heli/air tour from kununara)
some interesting trees, rocks/cliffs etc
Cracked windscreen after hitting a bird
katherine gorge
Our own dead roo, no damage to 4x4 with roo bar fortunately
litchfield NP (waterfalls termite mounds)
Kakadu (crocks, birds, boat trip, waterfalls if you make the effort, under water in wet season)

Darwin - Adelaide
Kakadu, litchfield, Katherine
The Gharn
mataranka (singing termite mound, hot pools)
an outback roadhouse as the only place to sleep in a bed
Devils marbles
swarm of butterflies, many stuck in wipers, ran out of washer fluid
more dead roos
Alice springs, not a lot
merinee loop, finke gorge, Stanly chasm used to be dirt rd, sealed now i think
kings canyon
ayres rock, oglas
cooberpede (opal mines, live underground, fk all in all directions)

Adelaide to Melbourne

Mt Gambia (its a lake!)
GOR
crappy driving

everyone knows about the rest from here to Sydney and up the pacific coast

ps sorry some places are likely spelt wrong

Edited by ViperDave on Thursday 18th September 22:32

Edited by ViperDave on Thursday 18th September 22:34

[durbster]

Good list, ViperDave. We did a lot of that too

How long are you planning on going for? That will dictate your route to a large extent. There's likely to be a lot of long drives which I enjoy, but we had two years so weren't in a particular hurry.

The drive from Perth to Darwin via Broome would be brilliant fun and very different to the more commonly travelled paths. You'd be starting somewhere civilised, getting gradually more wild until you get the full Crocodile Dundee in Darwin

Uluru is cool but if time is short I don't think it's good enough to sacrifice a chunk of time out of your trip for.