Eli Orzessek has some top tips for those driving one of Australia's most famous routes.

If you're after an Aussie Outback experience, plan your visit across the ditch to coincide with one of these fascinating festivals.

They may be lacking in numbers but the colourful characters of the hinterland more than make up for it with bold names and big personalities, writes Tim Roxborogh.

A special little Aussie hotel has been lapping up all kinds of praise, writes Melissa Hoyer.

An official Unesco City of Literature, Melbourne is also home to 'The Best Bookshop in the World'. In the run-up to its Writers' Festival in August, Dani Wright seeks out the city's best bookish spots.

I wish they were here, too. It's fun on my own, but the Gold Coast is always a great destination with family or friends.

As the name suggests, this five-star hotel is slap-bang in the middle of Brissy, and connected to Central Station.

You're on the Gold Coast, enjoying the sun, surf and nightlife.

In both New Zealand and Australia, we pride ourselves on our "big things" - whether it's a carrot in Ohakune or a banana in Coff's Harbour.

Why aren't there any boomerangs on the Tiwi Islands? Because they never came back, our guide Thaddeus deadpans.

There are swathes of blackened trunks and spindly ghosts of trees, killed when the sap boiled from the heat of bushfires.

Artists take centre stage in Sydney's 20th Biennale, finds Eli Orzessek.

There is a spot at the highest point of Hamilton Island where time stands still.

The divide between Melbourne and Sydney is a bit like that of Wellington and Auckland.

Queensland's party island has a new lease on life and now provides a back-to-basics outdoors experience, finds Eli Orzessek.

Located about 45 minutes outside Tasmania's capital of Hobart, Bonorong is the anti-zoo.

Corazon Miller visits Fraser Island, a World Heritage Site that's been crowned the world's largest sand island.

I may have been slightly judgmental when I turned up for a standup paddleboarding lesson and discovered my instructor was a teenager.

A wildlife sanctuary on a plateau above Cairns teems with a colourful array of warblers, waders and raptors.

North of Adelaide, the Stuart Highway undulates through a bucolic landscape of cereal fields, sheep farms and vineyards.

The hit TV show Thunderbirds could have been set in Cairns. Any one of the surrounding mountains could double as International Rescue's hideout.

Queensland's Outback works to a very specific weather pattern and it's nothing so ho-hum as four seasons a year.

It's not all up, up and away in a hot air balloon, discovers Shandelle Battersby.

There's no better way to see Lamington National Park than from its canopy of flowering and fruiting trees.

Wander, linger, look out - just some of the reasons Pamela Wade feels free as a bird taking the overnight train from Brisbane.

Pamela Wade meets some cute Kiwi expats on an island near Perth.

Take a walk on the wild side without having to go all the way to Africa, says Lynette Eyb.

Overlooked Perth offers Anna King Shahab more dining options than she can possibly hope to sample at once.

An unexpected visitor sends Ewan McDonald scurrying for his life.

Graham Reid has an unexpectedly rewarding time in Newcastle, NSW.