Frommer's Australia from $50 a Day 13th Edition - To Parent Directory

THE REGIONS IN BRIEF 23
Kimberley, is a million-acre cattle station,
El Questro, where you can camp
in safari tents, fish for barramundi, hike
through the bush to Aboriginal rock
art, take all kinds of active tours from
horseback riding to 4WD jaunts, and
dine every night on terrific modern Oz
cuisine. From Kununurra you can hike
into the beehive-shaped rock formation
of the Bungle Bungles, cruise on the
croc-infested Ord River, and tour the
world’s biggest diamond mine.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA Stretched
between Western Australia and Victoria
is the nation’s breadbasket, South
Australia. The capital, Adelaide, is a
stately place known for its conservatism,
parks, and churches, and is an
ideal base for exploring Australia’s
illustrious wine region, the Barossa
Valley. Big labels like Penfolds, Seppelts,
and Wolf Blass are here, but take
time to sniff out the many smaller but
no less outstanding vineyards. And it’s
less than an hour from the city!
Bring your binoculars for the massive
water bird sanctuary, the Coorong.
Stay in an underground hotel in the
offbeat opal-mining town of Coober
Pedy (it’s too hot above ground), or
order a ’roo-burger at the historic
Prairie Hotel in the craggy, ancient
lands of the Flinders Ranges in the
South Australian Outback.
The greatest of South Australia’s
attractions (apart from wine, of
course!) is Kangaroo Island, the best
place in Australia to see native animals.
In a day you can spot wallabies,
kangaroos, koalas, oodles of birds
from black swans to kookaburras,
echidnas, and penguins. The beach
teems with sea lions.
VICTORIA Australia’s secondlargest
city, Melbourne, is the capital
of Victoria. Melbourne is more stately
and “Old World” than Sydney, and
offers an exciting mix of ethnicity and
the country’s best fashion shopping.
Nearby Phillip Island is famous for its
Penguin Parade, where hundreds of
tiny penguins dash up the beach to
their burrows at dusk; and, the historic
gold-mining city of Ballarat is
not far away. Victoria is also the site of
one of Australia’s great road trips, the
Great Ocean Road, which stretches
for 106km (66 miles) along the southern
coast, where the eroded rock towers
named the Twelve Apostles stand
tall in the sea. Then there’s the inland
“high country,” The Man from Snowy
River’s stomping ground.
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRI-
TORY (ACT) Surrounded entirely
by New South Wales is the Australian
Capital Territory. The ACT is made
up of bushland and the nation’s capital,
Canberra, a planned city similar in
architectural concept to Washington,
D.C. Many Australians consider the
capital boring, but Canberra will surprise
you. It has some of the country’s
best museums and great restaurants,
so don’t automatically exclude it from
your itinerary.
TASMANIA Last stop before Antarctica
is the island state of Tasmania. Visit
the Apple Isle for its beautiful national
parks, stretches of alpine wilderness and
gloomy forests, fruit and lavender
farms, the world’s best trout fishing, and
an exquisitely slow pace of life rarely
experienced anywhere else. If you’re up
to it, you could tackle the Overland
Track, an 85km (53-mile) hiking trail
between Cradle Mountain and Lake St.
Clair that passes through highland
moors, dense rainforests, and several
mountains. A more leisurely option is a
visit to the picturesque stone ruins of
Port Arthur, Australia’s version of
Devil’s Island, where thousands of convicts
brought in to settle the new British
colony were imprisoned and died. All of
Tasmania is spectacular, but you haven’t
seen anything until you’ve experienced
Freycinet National Park, with its pink
granite outcrops set against an emeraldgreen
sea.