The Australian Outback’s stunning landscapes are sure to inspire you.  Enjoy the breathtaking view of Uluru or Ayers Rock.  The famous landmark made of sandstone rock is about 280 miles south west of Alice Springs.  The area is home to many springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient Aboriginal painings.

When vacatioing in Australia and visiting Ayers Rock make sure to take in the sunset where the formation will briefly glow red - truly a remarkable sight!

Nothing sums up the sheer enormity of Australia like the Outback, a sun-scorched expanse that dwarfs even the American plains.  On its lonely highways, cars pass so rarely that drivers will always salute each another with a laconic finger raised from the wheel.

Today, the Red Center’s main urban center is Alice Springs – a former telegraph outpost that has expanded into a vibrant city, where crusty characters with names like Stumpy, Wooky and Trots mingle happily in the pubs along with tourists as they enjoy their barbecues and beer.  Even the jillaroos (female versions of jackaroos – cattle ranch workers) are perched on the bar stools drinking rum-and-coke from pint-sized mugs.  But in order to experience the harsh Outback of myth, you have to leave the town limits in a 4WD vehicle.  Beyond Alice lie wide dirt roads with corrugations that shake the fillings out of teeth.  The rust-colored horizon seems to loom then dissolve, while mini-tornadoes called willie-willies sail through the haunted scrub.  These long, straight roads pass by formations that seem almost like hallucinogenic visions: tea-brown rivers glimmering in the distance, cliffs that turn blood red in the sunset, meteor craters blasted 145 million years ago, natural galleries of Aboriginal art.  At night, the crystal clear sky bursts with brilliant southern stars.  (It’s not uncommon to see three shooting stars at once).  And hidden in the remotest valleys are lush oases of 75-foot-tall livistona mariae palms, full of marsupials, fish and exotic bird life.

It’s no wonder the first British explorers who staggered into these secret groves thought they were dreaming.

Aussies may celebrate the foundation of their country every January 26th with sophisticated fireworks displays and picnics, but the actual event was an more dubious and chaotic affair.  On that day in 1788, some 700 shady characters from Britain’s most miserable slums were offloaded from eleven reeking transport ships – today honored as the “the First Fleet” – onto the shores of Sydney Cove.

Unlike other new immigrant societies, the pioneer settlers of Australia happened to be petty criminals and their guards, and they had been sent to a virtually unknown land: the east coast of Australia had only been visited by a single European explorer beforehand, Captain James Cook, in 1770.  To the new arrivals, they may as well have been sent to colonize Mars.

After eight grueling months at sea, the prisoners landed dazed and confused on the hot, bush-fringed sands, watched in amazement by groups of Eora Aborigines circling about in their bark canoes.  The last to land were the female prisoners.  This was when the extreme emotions of the moment came to a head, as soldiers and felons alike contemplated the strange, hostile landscape that was to be their new home. 

The result was Australia’s first and wildest beach party.  Carried away by the women’s presence, the convicts and marines broke into the fleet’s rum supplies.  The debauch was not even dulled by a thunderstorm at dusk: Revelers roared back at the sky and broke into bawdy songs.  The next day, officers regained control and punished a few of the worst offenders.  But the bad behavior was largely forgotten as they tackled the job at hand: Creating a new world in the far south.

While most developed countries have scaled back their long-distance railway services, Australia in 2004 opened the final section of its most famous line, which cuts the country in two from north to south – “the Ghan.”  It was the fulfillment of decades of dreaming and hard work.  The idea of a north-south transcontinental line had first been mooted in the 1800s, but the formidable engineering difficulties of crossing deserts and tropical jungle delayed construction.  It was not until 1929 that the first 900 mile leg, from the coast of South Australia to Alice Springs in the scorched center was finally opened as “the Afghan Express,” with weekly passenger trains making the 24-hour journey.  (The odd name came from the hardy Afghan camel traders who in the 19th century provided the only long-distance transport link across the Red Center; it was soon shortened to the affectionate “Ghan”).

The Australian government had always intended to extend the railway line to Darwin in the sweltering savannahs of the Top End, but the staggering cost of a monsoon-proof line made the project seem like science fiction.  A start was made with U.S. help during World War Two.  But it wasn’t until the 21st century that the trans-continental extension was seriously tackled again – and after four years of back-breaking labor the inaugural transcontinental train, packed with politicians and journalists, left Adelaide on 1st February, 2004, to cover the 1800 mile distance in two days and two nights.  Today, train-lovers are lured by the Ghan as they are the Trans-Siberian or Orient Express, and reservations are booked out months in advance.

Melbourne is considered the most “English” of Australian cities – its stately architecture evokes the Victorian era, when it when it was one of the wealthiest ports in the British Empire, and its inhabitants are still known for their conservative style and buttoned-down habits.  Whether the image is true or not, Melbourne’s most elegant and Anglophile corner is certainly Fitzroy Gardens.  The 64 acres of sculpted greenery were laid out in the 1860s, when Melbourne was flush with funds from a gold rush in the nearby hills.  In an over-the-top burst of loyalty to Imperial Britain, the garden’s landscape was based on the pattern of the Union Jack flag – although most of the plants and flowers are most definitely Australian.

Today, you can stroll through the shaded promenades, visiting conservatoriums, a café-restaurant and a model Tudor village.  But perhaps the garden’s most appealing attraction is the actual 18th century cottage where Australia’s discoverer, Captain James Cook, spent his boyhood.  The building was transported piece by piece from the Yorkshire village of Great Ayton by a patriotic Melbourne businessman in 1934. Today, you can see the initials of Cook’s parents carved above the front door, then poke through the tiny rooms to find the very bed where James slept before heading off to sea in 1745, at the ripe age of 17, an apprentice on a merchant ship.   Many years later, the now-famous, middle-aged explorer returned to the house to spend a winter with his father in 1770-1, fresh from charting the east coast of Australia and confirming his place alongside Columbus as one of history’s great navigators.

Walk into any Australian restaurant these days and you’ll find woven into the menu any number of native ingredients – stir-fried kangaroo, emu prosciutto, crocodile burgers, even oddities such as “Anabaroo, Mango and Burrawong soup” (buffalo meat, mango and a native nut).

This ongoing fascination with “bush tucker” is a complete reversal of Australian culinary history.  In fact, the first British settlers in the 1790s nearly died of starvation by refusing to acknowledge native food sources.  Fresh from the slums of London and Manchester, they saw the Australian bush as a dry and barren world, and were dispirited when they failed to raise their home staples like turnips.

The dry expanse of the Outback was considered even less promising – a vision of hell, its needle-sharp spinifex housing ungodly animals like Thorny Devils (horned lizards) and deadly King Brown snakes.  But to the Aborigines, who had thrived in Australia for nearly 40,000 years, this landscape was a seasonal supermarket, providing bush plums, and figs, desert raisins, honey ants, edible reptiles and marsupials.  Flowers that caught the morning dew even provided water in the desert.  It only took 200 years, but urban Aussies are now eagerly learning from Aboriginal elders and experimenting with the subtle flavors of the bush.  Native ingredients are also healthy: Beyond the ubiquitous ‘roo meat (which is far leaner than beef and just as flavorful), look for jams and chutneys made of the green billyoat plum (which has 5000 times the vitamin C content of an orange), or even “green ant sorbet,” a delicious concoction of lime-tasting insects: the ants feast on native citrus and their slightly crunchy bodies explode with flavor.

Continuing our post from Thursday, here are 4 more Australian hot spots to make your Sydney, Australia vacation more memorable.

Café Hernandez
For a great cup of coffee any time of the day, head to this family-owned Potts Point café. It’s open 24-hours a day, seven days a week, and serves delightful Spanish treats.

Red Eye Records
This music store is the best place to pick up new music, rare records, and tickets to the hottest local shows.

Naturally Australian
Located at Circular Quay West, this shop offers the most tasteful Australian souvenirs. Here you can pick out a bowl, box, or piece of furniture carved from sassafras and other Australian woods.

Paddy’s Market
If you want to bring home inexpensive, kitschy souvenirs, this Chinatown market is the place. Kangaroo oven mitts and Opera House shot glasses abound.

We hope that these Sydney must-see sights will help you get more vacation from your vacation.  Make your trip even more unique and use our travel planning resources to help get your dream vacationn underway.

Combined with the adventurous Outback, the world-renowned Great Barrier Reef and the charm of the Aussie people, Australia is a travel destination that can’t be outdone.   On your travels to the land down under get off the beaten path on your Sydney, Australia vacation by visiting these must-see sites.

Justice & Police Museum
Starting as a colony for convicts, Sydney’s first residents were quite colorful. Journey back in time at this unusual museum for a real-life story of cops and robbers.

Brett Whiteley Studio
When renowned Australian artist Brett Whiteley died of a drug overdose in 1992, his wife turned his studio into a memorial, leaving everything just the way it was. Here, you can get inside the mind of this notorious artist as you stand in his workspace and bedroom.

Clovelly Beach
While the masses head to Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach, make a beeline to serene Clovelly Beach. Its calm waters are perfect for snorkeling or swimming laps. Waverley Cemetery, where poet Henry Lawson is buried, is also nearby.

Barefoot Bowling
Once considered a sport for Australia’s elderly, lawn bowling has made a comeback. Grab a beer, kick off your shoes, and join the trendy at Paddington Bowling Club for this quirky pastime.

Check back on Tuesday next week for Part #2 of our Sydney, Australia not-to-be-missed sights.  Start planning your Australia vacation today!

G’day mate. Prepare to travel to the land down under as we explore the 6th largest country in the world, Australia.

Join us over the next several weeks as we travel to a beach lover’s paradise and an adventure seeker’s dream.  We will vacation in the outback, tour beautiful gardens, dine on local delicacies, and uncover the must-see-sights of this great continent.

Get ready to dive into some of the world’s most recognized reefs, meet local wildlife and connect to the world’s oldest living culture.  Enjoy your time in the Bush!

Vacation in Sydney, Australia and tour Sydney Harbour.  On your sightseeing adventure see the Sydney Opera House, one of the 20th century’s most distinctive buildings.  The opera house is a multi-venue performing arts complex and was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list on June 28, 2007.  Aside from hosting many touring productions, the opera house is home to Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony.