Sights in Australia
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Melbourne Cricket Ground
It's one of the world's great sporting venues, and for many Australians the 'G' is considered hallowed ground. In 1858 the first game of Aussie Rules football was played where the MCG and its car parks now stand, and in 1877 it was the venue for the first Test cricket match between Australia and England. The MCG was also the central stadium for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The William Barak Bridge links it to the CBD. MCG membership is a badge of honour for Melburnians of a particular class. It involves having two members propose and second your nomination and a wait of around 20 years.
If you want to make a pilgrimage, tours take you…
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Sydney Opera House
Overcome with admiration for the Sydney Opera House, notable architect Louis Kahn said, ‘The sun did not know how beautiful its light was until it was reflected off this building.’ Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s competition-winning 1956 design is Australia’s most recognisable icon. It’s mused to have drawn inspiration from orange segments, palm fronds and Maya temples, and has been poetically likened to a typewriter stuffed with scallop shells and the sexual congress of turtles. While viewed from any angle it’s architecturally orgasmic, the ferry view approaching Circular Quay is hard to beat.
The predicted four-year construction started in 1959. After a…
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Sydney Harbour Bridge
Whether they’re driving over it, climbing up it, rollerblading across it or sailing under it, Sydneysiders adore their bridge and swarm around it like ants on ice cream. Dubbed the ‘old coathanger’, it’s a spookily big object – moving around town you’ll catch sight of it in the corner of your eye and get a fright! Perhaps Sydney poet Kenneth Slessor said it best: ‘Day and night, the bridge trembles and echoes like a living thing.’
Vital statistics: 134m high, 502m long, 49m wide and 53,000 tonnes. The massive bridge links the CBD with North Sydney, crossing the harbour at one of its narrowest points. The two halves of chief engineer JJC Bradfield’s mighty…
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Great Ocean Road
This is one of the world's most spectacular coastal drives, especially between Anglesea and Apollo Bay. Contrasting the fabulous surfer-style beaches is the lush green of the Otway Ranges, the dramatic limestone cliffs of Port Campbell and the pretty and fashionable town of Lorne.
The incredible Great Ocean Road (B100) cuts its breathtaking path from Torquay to Warrnambool, every fresh twist and turn inspiring passengers to exclaim 'Oh!', and frustrated drivers to say, 'What? What's it look like?'. The stunning stretch of road attracts seven million snap-happy visitors annually and is one of the world's most spectacular coastal drives, especially between Anglesea and…
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Central Market
Satisfy both obvious and obscure culinary cravings at the 250-odd stalls in Adelaide’s superb Central Market. A gluten-free snag from the Gourmet Sausage Shop, a sliver of English stilton from the Smelly Cheese Shop, a tub of blueberry yoghurt from the Yoghurt Shop – you name it, it’s all here. Good luck making it out without eating anything.
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Flinders Street Station
Melbourne’s first railway station, Flinders Street was built in 1854. Two railway workers won the design tender. This might explain why the station contained such fabulous facilities for railway workers, now, sadly, in disrepair. In its heyday the building buzzed with a concert hall, a library, a crèche, meeting rooms, even a ballroom. Stretching along the Yarra for a block, the station is a city landmark. You’d be hard pressed to find a Melburnian who hasn’t uttered ‘meet me under the clocks’ at one time. On any weekday, well over 100, 000 people weave through the station’s underpasses, escalators, stairs and platforms. The grand old dame’s underground tendrils…
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Aquabumps Gallery
Photographer/surfer Eugene Tan has been snapping photos of Sydney’s sunrises, surf and sand for 10 years and his colourful prints hang in this cool space, a splash from Bondi Beach.
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Paronella Park
Mena Creek’s main claim to fame is the unusual Paronella Park, which features the ruins of a Spanish castle hand-built in the 1930s. Floods, fire and moist tropics have rendered these mossy remains almost medieval. Entry includes free camping in the adjacent caravan park and a night tour at 6.20pm and/or 8.30pm.
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Federation Square
Striking Federation Square has become the place to celebrate, protest or party. Occupying a prominent city block, the 'square' is far from square. Its undulating forecourt of Kimberley stone echoes the town squares of Europe. Here you'll find the subterranean Melbourne Visitor Centre.
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Abbotsford Convent
The convent, which dates back to 1861, is spread over nearly 7 hectares of riverside land just 4km from the CBD. The nuns are long gone – no-one is going to ask you if you've been to Mass lately – and there's now a rambling collection of creative studios and community offices. The Convent Bakery supplies impromptu picnic provisions, or Steve at the 1950s-style (no soy, no skinny, just what's on the menu) bar Handsome Steve's House of Refreshment will mix you up a Campari soda to sip on the balcony while you're overlooking the ecclesiastic architecture and listening to the footy on the radio. There's a Slow Food Marketevery fourth Saturday, and Shirt and Skirt Market…
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Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria Australia
This houses the NGV's extensive collection of Australian paintings, decorative arts, photography, prints, drawings, sculpture, fashion, textiles and jewellery.
The gallery's Indigenous collection dominates the ground floor and seeks to challenge ideas of the 'authentic'. Upstairs there are permanent displays of colonial paintings and drawings by 19th-century Aboriginal artists. There's also the work of Heidelberg School impressionists and an extensive collection of the work of the modernist 'Angry Penguins', including Sir Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Joy Hester and Albert Tucker.
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Queen Victoria Market
This site has been the market for more than 130 years, prior to which it was a burial ground. This is where Melburnians shop for fresh produce including organics and Asian specialities. There's a deli, meat and fish hall as well as a fast food and restaurant zone. On Wednesday evenings from mid-November to the end of February, a night market with hawker-style food stalls, bars and music takes over.
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Port Arthur
Port Arthur is the name of the small settlement in which the well-preserved Port Arthur Historic Site is situated. In 1830, Governor Arthur chose the Tasman Peninsula as the place where prisoners who had committed further crimes in the colony would be confined in an allegedly 'escape-proof' natural prison. The town is also the site of the tragic April 1996 massacre in which a lone gunman opened fire on visitors and staff, killing 35 people.
Between 1830 and 1877, about 12,500 convicts served sentences at Port Arthur and for many it was a living hell, though convicts who behaved well often lived in better conditions than those they'd experienced back home.
The penal…
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Aquarium of Western Australia
AQWA offers the chance to enjoy the state's underwater treasures without getting wet…or eaten, stung or poisoned. You can wander through a 98m underwater tunnel as gargantuan stingrays, turtles, fish and sharks stealthily glide over the top of you. The daring can snorkel or dive with the sharks; book in advance ($159 with your own gear; hire snorkel/dive gear $20/40; 1pm and 3pm). To get here on weekdays, take the Joondalup train to Warwick station and then transfer to bus 423. By car, take the Mitchell Fwy north and exit at Hepburn Ave, or take the coastal road north from Scarborough Beach. AQWA is by the water at Hillarys Boat Harbour.
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Lake McKenzie
Lake McKenzie is a 'perched' lake, formed by water accumulating on top of a thin impermeable layer of decaying twigs and leaves. Here you can exfoliate your skin with the mineral sand and soften your hair in the clear water. Lake McKenzie is possibly the most spectacular of Fraser Island's lakes, but Lake Birrabeen is also amazing, and usually less crowded.
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Australian Fossil & Mineral Museum
See Tyrannosaurus rex, Australia's only complete skeleton. You'll also see the internationally renowned Somerville Collection and over 6000 fossils from every period of the earth's history. It's fantastic.
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Fawkner Park
This huge expanse of green is loved and used by the area’s sport folk and lapdogs alike. Walkways lined with elms, oaks and Moreton Bay fig trees provide structure to the otherwise open fields. Barbecues and charming little pavilions are available for public use.
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Lake Birrabeen
Lake Birrabeen is a stunning 'perched' lake, formed by water accumulating on top of a thin impermeable layer of decaying twigs and leaves. A lovely option when Lake McKenzie is too crowded.
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Zebra Rock Gallery
Zebra Rock Gallery, on the Ord River about 15km from Kununurra, produces jewellery and sculptures from the unique zebra rock found around Argyle Downs Station.
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The Pinnacles
These coloured sand cliffs are a photographer's delight.
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St Kilda Foreshore
There are palm-fringed promenades, a parkland strand and a long stretch of sand. Still, don't expect Bondi or Noosa. St Kilda's seaside appeal is more Brighton, England than Baywatch, despite 20-odd years of glitzy development. And that's the way Melburnians like it; a certain depth of character and an all-weather charm, with wild days on the bay providing for spectacular cloudscapes and terse little waves, as well as the more predictable sparkling blue of summer.
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Collins Street
The top end of Collins St (aka the 'Paris end') is lined with plane trees, grand buildings and luxe boutiques, giving it its moniker. The Block Arcade, which runs between Collins and Elizabeth Sts, was built in 1891 and features etched-glass ceilings and mosaic floors. Doing 'the Block' (walking around the block) was a popular pastime in 19th-century Melbourne, as it was the place to shop and be seen.
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Botany Bay National Park
The 458-hectare national park straddles the heads of Botany Bay, 15km south of Sydney Harbour. Captain Cook landed here in 1770, naming the bay after the botanical specimens his naturalist Joseph Banks found here. Banks suggested it would be a good place to incarcerate a few crims, but when the First Fleet arrived in summer 18 years later, they weren’t inclined to agree; the scorched vegetation and limited water supplies were a far cry from Banks’ wintry paradise. They soon relocated to Sydney Harbour. Cook’s monument-marked landing place is on the southern side of the park in trailer-trashy Kurnell. The Discovery Centre conveys the impact of European arrival, and…
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Uluru (Ayers Rock)
Nothing in Australia is as readily identifiable as Uluru. No matter how many times you've seen it in postcards, nothing prepares you for the hulk on the horizon - so solitary and prodigious. Uluru is 3.6km long and rises a towering 348m from the surrounding sandy scrubland (867m above sea level). If that's not impressive enough, it's believed that two-thirds of the rock lies beneath the sand.
Sacred sites are located around the base of Uluru; entry to and knowledge of the particular significance of these areas is restricted by Anangu law. The landscape of Uluru changes dramatically with the shifting light and seasons. If your first sight of Uluru is during the afternoon,…
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Tower Hill Reserve Visitors Centre
Tower Hill, 15km west of Warrnambool, is a vast caldera born in a volcanic eruption 30, 000 years ago. Aboriginal artefacts unearthed in the volcanic ash show that indigenous people lived in the area at the time. It’s jointly administered by the Worn Gundidj Aboriginal Cooperative, which operates the visitors centre with Parks Victoria. There are excellent day walks, including the steep 30-minute Peak Climb with spectacular 360-degree views. There’s a fascinating painting in the Warrnambool Art Gallery by Eugene von Guérard of Tower Hill painted in 1855. After a century of deforestation and environmental degradation, this incredibly detailed painting was used to…
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