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| This page shows my personal down-under view of the country and continent of Australia. | |
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| I first visited Australia in 1975. I hitchhiked through the eastern cities from Adelaide all the way to Cairns. | |
| In 1983 I returned via a flight from Bali to Darwin. I then travelled overland to Brisbane and Sydney. I was in love and I promised to return. | |
| A year later I did return and vowed to stay; but sometimes provides heartbreak and I did not stay. I did gain a good appreciation of life down-under. It is now more than twenty years since my last visit. | |
Australia is famous for its exotic animals My favourite is the Kookabura bird. What a lovely plaintive sound! The other animal pictures are from nature sanctuaries or zoos. But the lizard was seen wandering through a car park near Brisbane. 
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Canberra is the Australian Federal Capital. It is in its own ACT or Australian Capital Territory. 
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Here is some back country scenery. There are a lot of lonesome highways.
Australia has vast spaces but most people live in the great cities. 
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| I have never visited Uluru / Ayers Rock. From what I can tell it
is just that: a really BIG ROCK! Do you really want to fly around the world
just to see not a mountain, not even a great hill but a BIG ROCK? Ayers is also
far from almost everywhere. From Adelaide -- the nearest city -- it will
take several days of your time and several hundred dollars to see the BIG ROCK.
If you come from a place without a lot of rocks, boulders or hills then I heartily suggest making this trip. According the Wikipedia the first European visitor described it as "the remarkable pebble". |
This blue whale is seen at the University of Adelaide. 
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| I have visited the Great Barrier Reef. The surprising problem there is that it is generally covered with water! If you took a rather expensive charter plane flight down the Queensland coast I imagine that this would be an awe inspiring sight. I found though, that if you stand on a sea covered reef that stretches for hundreds of kilometres in Australia or one that stretches for a few square meters in Fiji you will notice little difference. |
| Fiji is cheaper, easier to get travel to from North America and there are many more varieties of fish. |
| As much as I value my time in Australia -- and as much as I would like to re-visit some old friends -- I have often thought that it is a better country to live in than to travel in. The politics are interesting but rarely violent. The food is decent but a bit bland and expensive. The weather is lovely and the standard of living is excellent. The stress level is low. Most people value their leisure time more than their career time. But a North American or European tourist seeking a stimulating, thrilling and cheap vacation might do better to look elsewhere. Transportation and accommodation prices tend towards the high side and distances are vast. |
| I am always surprised to meet Americans that have visited Uluru but not Utah, Canadians that have visited Sydney but not Vancouver and Brits that have visited Tasmania but not northern Scotland. |