It's either the world's largest island or its smallest
continent.
Australia is the size of the United States with a population
not much bigger than Greater New York City. A land of
empty space. And yet
the most urbanized country in the world. 80% of its
inhabitants live in cities.
This is a country for adventure.
From the outback, we all know is Australia.
To the great coral reefs that every diver wants to visit.
There's nothing like Australia.
Australian adventures take place in a stunning landscape.
Where mountain waterfalls roar to the sea.
Through forests still haunted by people of an ancient race.
From the sophistication of downtown Brisbane.
To the high rise resorts of the popular Gold Coast.
Travelers can relax on deserted islands.
Or explore the frontier of the vast Australian outback.
Australia is a country looking for adventure.
Almost anywhere.
Australia lies deep in the South Pacific below Indonesia, the
Philippines, and New Guinea. Divided into 5
large regions. There's no better place for adventure than Queensland
and no better way to start than in the world's number one diving
location on the Great Barrier Reef.
The Great Barrier Reef divides the dark waters of the ocean from the turquoise
waters of the lagoon for a distance of more than 1200 miles.
It's the longest coral reef in the world.
Divers discover an unbelievable world brightly
colored, enchanted, protected by mountains of
coral.
The coral reef was built piece by piece over thousands of years
by minuscule animals called coral polyps.
They make skeletons around themselves, then abandon them and move on,
leaving coral.
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure in the world.
It's half the size of Texas.
At the far south end of the reef there's another geographical record, the
biggest sand island in the world. The
erosion of the coastal mountains dumped millions of square yards of sand
into streams which carried them to the sea.
Unusual coastal currents consolidated the sand into low islands.
The wind took care of the rest, throwing up impressive sand dunes.
Frasier Island at 76 miles long and 12 miles wide,
is the largest sand island in the world.
This natural phenomenon is conserved in a park that includes the
entire island. They're neither asphalt roads
nor settlements on the island. Visitors have that rare opportunity to be
in utter wilderness to discover plants and animals that exist nowhere
else in the world. Fortunately, none are
dangerous. Even poisonous insects are unknown on
Frasier. The gentle romantic visions that lull visitors can
be enjoyed in complete safety. You can wander through the forest of
Sainay where trees reach 230 ft or wade
through some of the 200 freshwater lakes, so limpid and
clear they take on shades of color that seem unreal.
Cairns, 1000 miles by air from the capital of Brisbane where
most travelers to Queensland arrive, is a good base of operations for
exploring the Great Barrier Reef. Innumerable
islands along the reef are made entirely of coral, small pink
pearls covered with palm trees. Green Island is one of the most
beautiful and it's easy to reach by ferry from Cairns.
Some come for the day to swim or cruise the coral in glass
bottom boats.
It's possible to stay overnight in the island's only resort, but book
reservations well in advance. The Green Island Resort has
limited space.
Hinchinbrook Island is further from Cairns. It's a large island with a
mountain that rises almost 4000 ft above the sea.
No one ever settled here.
Even today there are no roads on Hitchinbrook, only winding
paths clear through the jungle and a few small bungalows set in the
trees.
The town of Cannes offers many diversions from the coral reefs.
This medium sized city acts like a metropolis for the surrounding small
towns.
Cairns is a town for adventure. Flying on an old propeller driven
biplane is one way to get a taste of it.
This tiger flying over the skies of Cairns is available for people who want to
experience the thrill of acrobatic flying and feel like an aviation
pioneer barnstorming. For more
courageous travelers who want to experience the thrill of flying through the air
without an airplane can visit Hackett and Henry Van Ash, two
world-famous bungee jumpers. Their
jumping tower is 144 ft high.
Cairns is the bungee jumping capital of the world.
15,000 jumpers come each year.
Cairns is also a mecca for fishermen. Every day dozens of
ocean-going boats leave the city's port carrying fishermen out looking for
marlin. In 1966, a fisherman caught a marlin
that weighed a full 1000 pounds.
A short flight from Cairnes will provide spectacular views of the Great
Barrier Reef and bring you to Cooktown, the historic
English settlement. Gold was discovered
here in the 19th century and Cooktown was a boom town.
It was founded by English Captain James Cook, who landed here in
1770 to repair his ship.
Captain Cook had run his ship Endeavor aground on the Great Barrier
Reef, bumping unexpectedly into a unique world.
The coral reefs in the Australian rainforest meet where he landed.
The English captain had no idea he was visiting the most
ancient continent on Earth. He was mystified by the
Aborigine people. They seemed stunningly primitive to him,
and yet they were descendants of one of the earth's most ancient
continuous civilizations.
Today travelers wanting to experience Aborigine culture use
Cooktown as a starting point for a visit to the Outback. That's
an Australian word for the largely uninhabited parts of
Australia away from cities. Much of Australia's outback
remains as wild as when Cook discovered it.
Travel by road takes time. With enough money you can fly,
but many people drive. Australians have no problem
traveling long distances.
Laura isn't that far from Cooktown, 60 miles or so,
but it's an outback experience. With only 100
inhabitants, a mechanic, a general
store, a post office.
A gas station And of course a pub,
a fixture of every outback community in Australia.
No geographical or political border is evident, but the
boundary between city life and the wild frontier is clear enough.
On the last weekend in June, the streets of Lara fill up with Aborigines and
onlookers for the annual Aborigine dance festival.
Thousands of natives from all over Australia gather here once a year.
The Aborigines come to Laura because it's near the Queenum caves.
The caves contain ancient paintings that have attracted archaeologists and
scholars from around the world. They predate any cave
painting in Europe or the Middle East. They were drawn
13,200 years before the birth of Christ.
The drawings are also incredibly extensive. One
cave painting covers almost 100 ft of cave wall. It
contains 400 different figures. You're suddenly
immersed in the first drawings of a culture that still lives
around you. They've occupied the same island successfully
for at least 15,000 years.
This monumental accomplishment was not based on conquering nature for
material progress, but on worshiping nature. The Aborigines
say they communicate with the flowers and animals of the earth through
telepathy. These paintings are a mysterious and
fascinating account of this interaction.
The Daintree Forest is unchanged since dinosaurs roam the
earth. It may be the oldest forest in the whole world.
13 of the 19 most ancient floral species still survive
here. It is not a
place where most travelers go hiking. The Daintree River is
infested with crocodiles.
Their ferocity has helped protect Daintree Forest from Europeans.
It seemed too treacherous and impenetrable.
The best way to see the forest is by boat up the Daintree River. It's
safe and stunningly beautiful.
Aborigines seem able to live comfortably in Daintree Forest
despite its dangers. They say they can communicate with
other living things, that they remain safe by earning the
respect of plants and animals. Skeptics call their
way of living primitive, but it may be too far
advanced for us to recognize.
Aboriginess basic legend is about the dream time, the
mythological era when the world was created. For
aborigines, the earth was desolate in the beginning. Then
from its depths emerged the ancestors, noble
wandering giants who brought together a human, animal, and
vegetable nature. While they wandered around singing,
the ancestors molded the landscape and created every
living being.
Nowadays, the place that best recalls the ancient brotherhood called Dream
Time is Daintree Forest, now protected as a natural park.
Back in Cairns, travelers interested in Australia's Aborigines
know that it's essential to visit Kuranda, the best place in Australia to
find Aborigine crafts.
If the crowd gets too intense, wander around the residential areas.
The lightness of the wooden houses and Bougainvilleas is echoed by hundreds of
butterflies in flight.
The most important Aborigine theater in Australia is based here in Kuranda.
It's dedicated to the forest orchabukai in the native language.
The actors perform mainly using dance and music. The aborigines
did not develop a written language.
Rights, nomadism, hunting, life interconnected with
nature. These are the themes the actors reaffirm.
They adopt modern forms of theater because they are people of these
times.
They seek cultural exchanges with others, but they have not
renounced their roots.
One spectacular way to travel between Kuranda and the coast is by
train. The Kuranda Scenic Railway winds through 15
tunnels and around 100 curves in 20 miles.
The train cuts through valleys and crosses suspension bridges and burrows
through ferns. It reveals otherwise untouched corners
of the forest. Visitors get a unique view
looking out the windows into a natural paradox.
Take the train one way between Kuranda and the coast and the
world's longest gondola on the way back.
The cabin may be coupled to pylons set into the ground, but
the car is skimming over the jungle canopy of a virgin
rainforest.
Back in Cannes, frazzled travelers can relax, wandering
through the 10,000 flowers of Fletcher Botanical Gardens.
Cannes also has spectacular beaches.
Australia's unique animal kingdom is cherished in Queensland.
Just a few miles from Cairns, the Wild World Australia Park is
a veritable Noah's Ark. You'll find all the species of
this land living in an open environment.
They're tender animals such as the koala.
As well as frightening creatures including the saltwater
crocodiles that are up to 23 ft long. In the
wild, they constitute a real danger for humans, and they are
often killed.
Wild world prides itself on creatures that slither along the
ground like pythons.
And on animals that hop, like the Wallabies who greet
visitors in an amicable way.
The cassowary, a typical local bird, can grow to almost
6 ft tall with a hard pointed horn on its
head. It can move quickly into the depths of the forest without injuring
itself. Many travelers find
Brisbane, or Brissy as it's known, a welcome change after the
wilderness of the frontier and the beauty of the Barrier Reef.
It's Australia's third largest city with 1 million inhabitants.
Brissy was founded as a maximum prison colony for the most
notorious convicts of Australia's vast immigrant penal system.
Brisbane was built on a river, one of the most ancient in the world.
When copper was discovered in the 19th century, the small seaport became a
trade and commercial center.
Brisbane was General MacArthur's base after World War II.
Once provincial, today the city center is a modern complex of
glass and concrete skyscrapers.
Lifestyles run the gamut from industrious corporate executives rushing around
commercial centers to reminders of the leisurely life of the
subtropics.
A third of Australia's new immigrants are Asian. The
country sees itself increasingly in an Asian context.
The end of a restrictive immigration policy in 1973
introduced many new people and cultures to this island nation.
Queensland's cuisine is as young as the country. South Pacific
tastes are the most important influences today, and that's appropriate.
Most of the ingredients are taken from the South Pacific Ocean, in
particular from the Great Barrier Reef.
Travelers can enjoy garlic chili and ginger prawns.
Steamed crab A dish called
the Red Emperor with wild mushroom sauce.
And a dessert called nutkitafe.
All of this accompanied by excellent Australian wines,
many easily affordable, and the party doesn't have to
end after dinner.
Travelers can enjoy the fabulous breezy nightlife.
South of Brisbane, the famous Gold Coast, this is where
Brisbane goes to the beach. It's upscale and popular.
Skyscrapers rise out of the narrow strips of sand. Captain
Cook and the early settlers could never have imagined that this remote
land would become so popular.
When Europeans first arrived, they found Australia's coasts
uninhabitable, dangerous animals abounded.
Native people were viewed as primitive and unfriendly.
Today, the land remains largely untamed, the
mysteries of the forest unanswered, and people have come
to believe that Australia's natives possess an ancient
wisdom.
Against this rich background, travelers will have no problem
finding a good time. In the outback or
lunging off a bungee platform.
Looking for thrills Or the
serenity of ancient forests.