Australia

Holidays by Destination Australasia Australia Queensland 

Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation

Queensland House, 392-393 Strand, London WC2R 0LZ
tel: 020 7240 0525

Big coastal resorts, the Barrier Reef, and year-round heat ensure that Queensland gets plenty of tourism of all types. You just need to be sure that you pick something that suits you.

Brisbane

On the southerly part of the Queensland coast, the capital is Australia's fastest growing city. Lonely Planet sums it up as ‘think artificial beaches and tourist arcades' - but also with galleries and museums, and close to bush and wildlife. Southbank Precinct is the entertainment and cultural hub, there are Botanic Gardens, and Breaka Beach is the country's only inland beach, complete with board walk.

Cairns

Towards the north of the coast, the main centre in the part of the country which sees most UK visitors, because this is where you get to the Barrier Reef. The town itself is pleasant but more of a gateway than a draw in its own right given that it has no beaches of its own. Visitors often stay in Palm Cove, about 20 minutes' drive away or Port Douglas, around 60 minutes', where rainforest tumbles down to the lovely beaches.

Coast

The Barrier Reef is 1,300 miles long, from Cape York in the north to Bundaberg in the south, and is the largest structure made by living creatures on earth. Its diversity reflects its maturity with for example 400 types of coral, and 1,500 species of fish. It is also a habitat for whales (a breeding ground for humpbacks), dolphins, dugongs, turtles (a nesting area for the endangred green and loggerhead turtles) and sharks.
There are plenty of snorkelling and diving trips (most from Cairns, Townsville and Arlie Beach, but also for example from Mission Beach) usually lasting a day or more. With younger children a glass bottomed boat trip or a trip to an underwater viewing chamber might be preferable, or for those who want to try snorkelling made easy, look for a partially-submerged platform.

In 1997 an Environmental Management Charge was introduced by the government for visits made to the Great Barrier Reef, Certain cruise operators to the reef collect this locally, some require it on booking.

Note that those prone to seasickness may not enjoy the long trip out to the reef which covers rough sea and seasickness precautions would be wise.

There are more than 1,000 islands along the Queensland coast, in a variety of styles.
Among the northern Barrier Reef islands are Dunk covered in rain forest and offering a six-mile walking track around the island, and Lizard are probably the best known.

The Whitsundays is a group of 74 islands of which just eight are inhabited. All resorts can be reached from the mainland via Mackay, Shute Harbour or Airlie Beach, or via Hamilton Island's airport which is served from Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns, or from Mackay on the mainland. Hamilton (5kmx3.5km) is the largest inhabited Whitsunday Island, a major resort island with high rise buildings (Hamilton Island ) built in the ‘80s before environmental awareness kicked in. It was upgraded in 2000 and offers the widest range of accommodation in the islands including apartments, hotel and bungalows. There is a list of walking trails, graded in three levels, taking about an hour to complete. Alternatively you can rent a buggy.
Hayman Island is probably of the most luxurious in Australia, operating its own launch from Hamilton airport with a glass of champagne offered over the en route check in.

Heron Island right to the south, is on the reef itself. A wildlife sanctuary, you can walk round in no more than half an hour but tame fish and Moray Eels can be handfed, there are Noddy Terns, Silver Gulls, Reef herons, and from October to March giant green turtles come to lay eggs so in summer the beach is alive with hatchling turtles.

On the mainland Mission Beach 90 miles south of Cairns near Dunk and the closest mainland point from the reef, an hour away, offers long, white, undeveloped and uncrowded beaches, in a sequence of little townships along 12 miles of shore with dense rain forest ringed by canefields and banana plantations. It is home to is home to the rare cassowary, a flightless bird 6ft tall. It's something of a hippy, backpacker hang-out with activities like sailing, kayaking and on the Tully River to the south, white water rafting. There's also walking along the well marked rainforest trails where you might see giant tree frogs, goanna, electric blue butterflies, a striped possum or rat-kangaroo. The community is deeply divided over the chance to make a lot of money from development. However, as one of the wettest spots in Australia (13 feet of rain in the wet season), the developers might decide it isn't going to work.

Also on the mainland Airlie Beach Lagoon offers a large, safe swimming lagoon with shaded children's pool, and barbecue facilities.

Islands in the south of the state offer eco-tourism as their main draw. Moreton Island is a National Park with acres of natural bushland and sand dunes which are used for sand tobogganing. Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort (in a place which was once a whaling station) is extremely popular and doubles as a marine research centre. Tourists can stand up to their knees in the warm sea and feed wild bottlenose dolphins at dusk, though they must not be touched. In June to October there may also be whales as this is when they migrate down the east coast to Antarctic summer feeding.

Fraser Island . 250km north of Brisbane is the world's largest sand island, a natural refuge for dingoes and brumbies, wild horses of the Outback.

The Gold Coast south of Brisbane, centres on Surfers Paradise, a high rise resort area (at least on the beach front), covering 40km, complete with theme parks, and something of a Florida feel to it - flat and extending some distance inland. Theme parks include Warner Bros Movie World, Dreamworld, Sea World and Wet /n/ Wild. The climate is always good - between 21ºc in winter, 28ºc in summer - and there are plenty of activities from balloon flights, to river cruises, parasailing, water slides, fishing, water skiing, bungy juping and seaplane, Tiger Moth or helicopter flights.

The Sunshine Coast centred on Noosa (known for its waves), north of Brisbane, is more quiet and relaxed, with fewer people on the beaches, and less neon, largely catering to local tourism. Inland is an area of outstanding natural beauty including the Lamington National Park with bird watching and walking centres.

Scenery

North of Port Douglas there are a number of upmarket rainforest resorts around the Daintree river. The Daintree Rainforest is one of the planet's oldest ecosystems, home to orchids, giant butterflies and exotic birds and including primitive plants and endemic species like a tree kangaroo and around 430 species of birds.

Inland from Cairns is the vast Gulf Savannah region including the extraordinary Undara Lava Tubes and a little narrow gauge railway called the Gulflander with a weekly service.

The Atherton Tablelands are agricultural lands with small pockets of World Heritage listed rainforest, and volcanic lakes, an hour's drive west of Cairns with World Heritage listed rain forests, national parks, mountains, rivers, crater lakes, a waterfall circuit and small townships.

In Lamington National Park inland from the Gold Coast are about 500 waterfalls in the largest sub-tropical rainforest remaining in Australia with 160km of walking trails where possums come to share picnics and if lucky you might just see wallabies and small Queensland koalas.

The Glasshouse Mountains inland from the Sunshine Coast, are striking, isolated pinnacles.

Cultural and Tourist Attractions

In Western Queensland at least three townships have dinosaur museums full of fossils found locally.
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary near Brisbane of an Australian wildlife sanctuary with the largest colony of captive koalas in the world. It offers regular koala cuddlig and is also home to kangaroos, koalas, possums and wombats.
Attractions near Cairns include the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park and Australian Woolshed .
In the cooler Atherton Tablelands (see above) behind Cairns the village/small town of Kuranda is the spot tourists go, particularly for Wednesday, Friday and Sunday markets, with also a Noctarium with rainforest wildlife, and a Butterfly Sanctuary. The Scenic Rail toy trail climbs 300m through 15 tunnels via Barron Falls to reach the top, or there is the 7.5km Skyrail Rainforest Cableway (the world's longest gondola cableway ), 15 minutes north of Cairns, takes visitors over the canopy and into the rain forest.
Around the Gold Coast in particular, children may enjoy the sight of the giant models of a pinepapple, cow between Brisbane and the Sunshine coast.
Sapphire, Rubyvale and Emerald are the names of towns near the world's richest sapphire deposits, off the tourist trail attracting eccentrics rather than tourists. You can rent the gear to need and try your own hand at it, and even uncommercial gems can make attractive jewellery. Or just go for a walk after rain. The Miner's Heritage Walk-in Mine in Rubyvale offers half-hour tours for a hands on experience. Other commercial mines do not generally take children.
Aboriginal rock art is particularly notable at Laura's Quinkan Reserve on Cape York in the far north. Laura also hosts an Aboriginal dance festival every two years.