Australia is roughly the size of the continental United States with a population of 26 million concentrated in a handful of coastal cities. The interior — the Red Centre, the Kimberley, Cape York — is vast and wild in a way that has no real comparison in any other developed country. I've been twice and both times left feeling I'd barely started. These are the five things I'd choose from everything the country offers.
The Kimberley by boat — the most remote coastal wilderness on earth
The Kimberley, in Western Australia's northwest, is Devonian reef gorges, Aboriginal rock art, and tidal rivers with saltwater crocodiles. Accessible by expedition ship from Broome between April and September — a week along a coastline European ships didn't map until the 1820s. The horizontal waterfalls in Talbot Bay — water pouring through sandstone gaps at 10 knots — are one of the stranger natural phenomena I've seen anywhere. Montgomery Reef rises from the ocean as the tide drops, like watching a landscape appear from the sea. For wilderness density, the only thing I can compare it to is Antarctica.
Uluru at dawn — wait for the light to change on the rock
Uluru, the sandstone monolith in the Red Centre, changes color continuously as the light changes — from dark brown to orange to brilliant red to purple at different times of day. The dawn viewing is better than the sunset: the rock emerges from the darkness slowly, the colors intensifying as the sun rises, and by the time the tour buses from Yulara arrive, you've had the full experience. The circumference walk — 10.6 kilometers around the base — gives you the full scale of the thing, which photographs consistently fail to convey. Uluru is sacred to the Anangu people; climbing it has been prohibited since 2019 and the walk around the base is the right way to experience it.
Great Barrier Reef from a liveaboard — three days on the water
The Great Barrier Reef is 2,300 kilometers long and has more coral species than the entire Atlantic Ocean. A day trip from Cairns gets you the inner reef — accessible, heavily dived. A three-day liveaboard gives you the deep reef walls, the larger pelagics (sharks, rays, barracuda), and sites day trips never reach. The Cod Hole and Ribbon Reefs, liveaboard only, are in a different league — the potato cod at the Cod Hole are 1.5 meters long and have been hand-fed by dive guides for decades. Liveaboards are expensive; they're also a completely different thing from any other way of seeing the reef.
Sydney Harbour by ferry — a city designed to be seen from the water
Sydney Harbour is one of the finest natural harbors in the world, and the city built around it treats the water as its central public space in a way that few cities manage. The Manly Ferry — a 30-minute public ferry from Circular Quay to Manly Beach — passes the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, and historic finger wharves, and costs A$7. Take it in the early morning going out and the late afternoon coming back, with the light on the water and the bridge above you. The Sydney Harbour National Park, accessible by foot from several ferry wharves, has walking trails through coastal scrub with views that most visitors never find.
Kangaroo Island — best wildlife, most accessible
Kangaroo Island, off the South Australian coast — 45-minute ferry from Cape Jervis — has the best concentration of accessible wildlife in Australia. The western end (Flinders Chase National Park) has sea lion colonies at Seal Bay, fur seals at Admiral's Arch, and the Remarkable Rocks — enormous spherical granite boulders sitting on a dome above the Southern Ocean. Koalas sleep in the gum trees along the roads. Echidnas cross the paths. Cape Barren geese graze on the farms. After the 2019-20 bushfires that burned nearly half the island, the recovery has been remarkable. Best version of Australian wildlife you can see without a boat or plane.
Australia rewards specificity. Choose your region, give it time, and resist the urge to cover the entire country in two weeks — the distances defeat you. East coast plus either the Red Centre or the Kimberley is a complete trip. Save the rest for next time. There will be a next time.
Written by
Eric
Co-founder of Memorable Travel & Adventures. Eric has personally traveled to over 50 countries across six continents. He plans trips to all of them.
