Whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef, Tourism Western Australia
Have you always wanted to swim with the whale sharks, or see the sun set over Uluru? Or are you more interested in rattling up the hills of Flinders Ranges in a 4WD or tobogganing down the sand hills of Wentworth?
We want to celebrate the top places to explore in Australia, so we’re putting together an Australian travel bucket list with our partners at Places We Go. And your favourite places could make the list! Hop over to Places We Go to enter your top place to visit in Australia, and you’ll go into the running to win a 5-day trip to the Aussie destination of your choice.
Of course, the best (and the worst) thing about Australia is that it’s so big – there are so many spots that could make the bucket list. So to spark your travel imaginations, we here at Explore Australia have come up with our staff bucket list.
Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia
You might not be able to see it from space, but Ningaloo Reef has just as many things to entice visitors as the Great Barrier Reef – and one more. Ningaloo Reef is one of the places in the world you can swim with whale sharks. Don’t let the name confuse you. Whale sharks aren’t whales, but sharks. Luckily, they don’t eat people, just plankton and other varieties of small fish.
Unlike the Great Barrier Reef, the Ningaloo Reef is quite close to the coast. Tour operators will take you out to the reef, and when the sharks swim by, they’ll give you the cue to jump in. There are likely to be other fish species milling around, as well as the occasional other type of shark.
Of course, there’s more to Ningaloo Reef than swimming with whale sharks. But you’ll just have to go and find out for yourself.
Kangaroo Island, South Australia
You might think this island got its name by only being a hop away from the mainland. While Kangaroo Island is very accessible, at only a short ferry ride from the coast of South Australia, the island was named by Matthew Flinders (who named much of the coast) after its numerous kangaroos.
The island is wild by nature and also by history, as it was first colonised by escaped convicts and deserters. In a nation populated by wild characters, this island had some of the worst. Luckily, that’s no longer the case and Kangaroo Island is today a delightful holiday destination.
Yes, it is an obvious inclusion on the list, but for good reason! This monolith rises out of the plains of central Australia and has a presence that has to be felt to be believed. Around a 5-hour drive from Alice Springs, it’s worth camping overnight to see the sunrise and sunset over Uluru. If you’re lucky, you’ll be treated to a spectacular natural light show playing off the rock.
Cape Tribulation, so named by a frustrated Captain Cook, forms the coastal section of Daintree National Park. At 110km north of Cairns, Cape Trib is well and truly claimed by the north of Australia. Part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, the area has rivers and creeks, ancient species of animals and mountains covered with dense lowland rainforest that wouldn’t look out of place in an Indiana Jones movie.
The first Indiana Jones aspect of Cape Tribulation is that you need to cross a river to access it – although Indy might have preferred swinging across the river on a vine. Once you cross the river and wind your way through the rainforest, you’ll arrive at sandy beaches with incredible ocean views. It might not be the sort of treasure that Indy normally looks for, but it sure ain’t bad.
Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory
Don’t listen when people question whether you should Kaka-du or Kaka-don’t. You definitely should. The biggest national park in Australia, Kakadu has enough to please everyone in the family, whether you’re after towering waterfalls, ancient rock art, deadly animals, peaceful wetlands or secret swimming holes.
Great Barrier Reef, Queensland
While the Great Barrier Reef is so big you can see it from space, the delight is in the detail of the tropically coloured fish and coral. With big arguments raging over the environmental future of the reef, the time to see the reef is now.
Bungle Bungles, Western Australia
While tiger-striped rock cones might not be what you’d expect to see in what’s basically the middle of Australia, that’s part of what makes the Bungle Bungles so spectacular, and worthy of a place on everyone’s bucket lists.
Part of the World Heritage–listed Purnululu National Park, the park is on the border with the Northern Territory. Walk through the ancient rock formations to find hidden gorges, or go on a plane trip to appreciate the scale of the Bungle Bungles from above.
Western Australia has more than its fair share of strange sights, from the Bungle Bungles to Wave Rock. But potentially the strangest thing in the state is finding a Spanish town in the middle of the dry and dusty countryside. New Norcia is Australia’s only monastic town, and was built by Benedictine monks in the mid-nineteenth century.
Most days in the life of Lake Eyre are the same: dry and salty. The lake is at Australia’s lowest point, and is an intimidating expanse of salt lakes. But on the rare occasion the lake floods, it bursts into life and birds flock to the life-giving water. While we’d prefer to see the lake in its gentler wet season, the dry expanses are just as worth a look.
Enter your bucket list suggestions here.
