August - October 2023

Australian Traveller

The most trusted guide to travelling this great country

Australian Traveller2 min read
Editor’s Letter
SPRING IS ON THE HORIZON and this issue is all about waking up and tuning in. Not hitting snooze, but the reset button instead, and getting out there to experience Australia in all its sensory glory: from its coastal walking trails to its outback wil
Australian Traveller1 min read
Online
Skip the long lines and hunker down with a cocktail among quirky decor and moody lighting at these 15 hidden bars in Sydney. If you can find their entrances. If you love the freedom that comes with taking your kit off in summer, these nude beaches ac
Australian Traveller1 min read
Murray Moments
Find your equilibrium at Lost & Found, a dreamy new stay in Barham in the Murray River region. The owners of the contemporary homestead on a working avocado farm have planted the seed: this is both a place to retreat to or venture out from. Turn to p
Australian Traveller1 min read
Australian Traveller
CONTENT Head of content KATIE CARLIN Editor IMOGEN EVESON Writers & producers EMILY MURPHY, ELIZABETH WHITEHEAD Native content editor KASSIA BYRNES Editorial assistant TAYLAH DARNELL Digital content producer CATHLYN MAE BOTOR
Australian Traveller4 min read
WINE & DINE
Dolly is the swanky new subterranean bar in the basement of Le Méridien Melbourne. The speakeasy-style bar with a moody 1930s backdrop pays homage to the golden age of cinema and the dolly zoom camera technique pioneered during the filming of Vertigo
Australian Traveller5 min read
Travel Buzz
It’s not every day that Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre floods. In fact, this South Australian lake only fills entirely once every 25 years. That time is now. The floodwater that drenched north-west Queensland in May has moved south towards the inland salt pan
Australian Traveller2 min read
Pillow Talk
Sydneysiders dreaming of a spring staycay should put the Manly Pacific – MGallery on their radar. The iconic hotel, which first opened in the early 1900s, was redesigned as part of a $30 million collaboration with Coco Republic as an elegant ode to t
Australian Traveller2 min read
High Spirits
Not many Australian distillers have access to peat as a resource. Which is why Furneaux Distillery Co. located on an island off an island off an island is kicking goals with spirit boffins. The peat-smoked barley gives the small-batch whisky produced
Australian Traveller3 min read
In Bloom
IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE that you could squeeze any more natural beauty into the Dandenong Ranges. That was until the lush mountainous region, just 35 kilometres east of Melbourne, was gifted a new garden. Technically, the garden is a replica – its origi
Australian Traveller1 min read
Coming Up Roses
Edith Rewa Barrett is an artist translating the unique plantscape of Australian botanicals into wearable designs. Her brand, Edith Rewa, is known for its silk scarves that capture the idiosyncrasies of Australia’s native flora. “I find endless inspir
Australian Traveller4 min read
Retreating For Yourself
I’M NOT MY MOST-WELL SELF when I check into Gaia Retreat & Spa in the Byron Bay hinterland. An immune system waging a prolonged conflict with itself persists, despite my assurances we’re actually on the same side. The squeeze from full-time parenting
Australian Traveller1 min read
Barefoot Luxury
Holiday parks and select resorts around Australia are giving us luxe for less, with everything from evocative art to flax linens and festoon lights elevating the offering. By using good design to lean into the location, properties such as Discovery R
Australian Traveller1 min read
On The Scent
Meditate on the earthy citrus profile of ERÉMIA fragrance, $220; aesop.com Suspended above the city in a pocket of calm, Sofitel SPA Darling Harbour (sofitelsydneydarlingharbour.com.au) is a luxe new hotel spa that visitors and Sydneysiders alike can
Australian Traveller2 min read
Onwards And Upwards
IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE SYDNEY without its iconic arch spanning the harbour. It’s even harder to imagine that same landscape hundreds or thousands of years ago, but I do exactly that atop this beloved landmark on an Indigenous-led bridge climb. The Burr
Australian Traveller3 min read
Sweet Spot
I NEVER ORDER THE TIRAMISU. If fellow diners order one, I’ll dig a spoon in to appraise its worthiness. But I rarely have anything agreeable to say. And, you know what your mother says about not having anything nice to say. Hence why the tiramisu is
Australian Traveller2 min read
Urban Oasis
FOR A LONG TIME, VISITORS were hard-pressed to find top-quality hotels at the Southern Cross Station end of Melbourne’s CBD. Thankfully, this busy pocket of town has recently experienced a wave of new hotel openings, with the Dorsett Melbourne one of
Australian Traveller6 min read
New Ground
NEVER DID WE EVER THINK we’d see a four-poster bed in a caravan park. And yet here we are, gazing with bewildered awe at white draping billowed by split system air conditioning, with views of a wooden deck sparkling with strung globes. There’s also a
Australian Traveller4 min read
Werribee, VIC
AFTER BEING OVERLOOKED for so long, Melbourne’s unassuming western suburbs are finally stepping into the spotlight. Just half an hour from the city centre, Werribee was once mostly known for its market gardens, water treatment plant and open range zo
Australian Traveller5 min read
Good Vibrations
NOTHING WILL SHAKE OFF the stultifying mundanity of a flight delay – five hours, one cup of consolation coffee and a complimentary pack of desultory mini biscuits later – quite like hearing Damien Tscharke describe the esoteric principles of biodynam
Australian Traveller4 min read
Falling Fast
I’VE NEVER BEEN IN A SEAPLANE BEFORE. Watching our pilot from my spot on this 17-seater aircraft as she fiddles with dials and knobs I don’t understand is almost as much of a thrill as the red dirt vistas of the Buccaneer Archipelago outside my windo
Australian Traveller4 min read
A Quantum Of Queensland
LIKE MOST LONG WEEKENDS AWAY, ours starts with an early Friday afternoon knock-off, but instead of battling the afternoon traffic on the freeway, we head to the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal. We’re setting sail on a four-night round-trip wee
Australian Traveller5 min read
The Gourmet Guide To Spring
The forecast is SUNNY this spring with VIBRANT wining and DINING experiences that shrug off the grey of winter and make the most of the SEASON, writes Carla Grossetti. HAZELHURST CAFE (pictured above) screams spring, with bunches of blooms, pots of u
Australian Traveller3 min read
How to Drink Australian
YOU SAY THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A MORE EXCITING TIME TO DRINK AUSTRALIAN WINE. WHY SO? Australia is at a magic moment in terms of a confluence of tradition and innovation. Many wineries are now in their second or third generation (or longer), with a gre
Australian Traveller1 min read
Call Of The Wild
With spring comes rejuvenation. Change. Awakening. Excitement. Turn these feelings into action by getting up and getting out to new places. Like Arkaba in South Australia, which promises to enliven your soul with its sweeping wilderness and indelibl
Australian Traveller7 min read
Rewild Your Spirit
A LAYER OF OCHRE-COLOURED DUST has already settled on my hiking boots. We have only been walking for what feels like an hour, following the beaten track that meanders into Wilpena Pound/Ikara in the shade of lofty river red gums. We leave behind two
Australian Traveller8 min read
Access All Areas
WHEN MY SON BRAEDEN was born with a disability, which would see him become a wheelchair user and need help with all his daily living needs, I wondered how our dream of travelling the world could become a reality. The lack of information and represent
Australian Traveller7 min read
With The Seasons
UNLIKE A HUMAN FACE, it’s difficult to tell the age of a landscape from its appearance. Yet in Kakadu National Park, you can feel it. There’s an ancient energy here, a primordial essence that imbues the earth and runs deep through the marrow of the l
Australian Traveller7 min read
Treading Softly
“ONCE A TRIP SOMEONE WILL SAY to me, you can’t call this a job!” Elise Parker laughs as we journey towards the starting point for today’s hike. As a guide and driver, Elise is attuned to the envy her guests feel, having pressed pause on their busy li
Australian Traveller7 min read
Field Trip
ARTIST DELVENE COCKATOO-COLLINS is walking slowly, eyes to the ground, on the beach on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island). She stops to pick up a piece of pockmarked driftwood and tug at a tuft of tawalpin (beach hibiscus), which she uses to make
Australian Traveller1 min read
Spirited Away
Oranges are not the only fruit used to flavour gin. Orange peel will be one of many fresh botanicals employed to enrich the popular tipple when it’s celebrated at the Botanica Spirits & Food Festival at Canberra’s Australian National Botanic Gardens.
Australian Traveller2 min read
Nina Karnikowski
AS A CHILD, OUR FAMILY HOLIDAYS WERE ALWAYS TO… Places we could get to in our old silver station wagon: Barrington Tops, Byron Bay, the Gold Coast, Noosa. Windows down, a street directory open across the dashboard. We’d listen to the same two cassett
Australian Traveller4 min read
Taking Flight
VENTURING INTO THE ANCIENT Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is something you will never forget. Sacred to the Anangu people, Uluru holds secrets to many Anangu creation stories, or Tjukurpa (pronounced ‘chook-orr-pa’). Tjukurpa is the foundation of Ana
Australian Traveller3 min read
What’s On
Step into post-revolution Mexico at the Art Gallery of South Australia to discover a dramatic fusion of artworks by trailblazing creatives and lovers Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Featuring more than 150 works – from paintings to photographs – the ex
Australian Traveller1 min read
Come With Us...
RAISE A GLASS for Australian Traveller’ s extra-special 100th issue, which will come to life as a celebration of Australia, of the spirit of Australian travel and of you, our readers: the true Australian travellers. To mark this milestone, we’ll eat
Australian Traveller1 min read
Wish You Were Here
THE NGV EXHIBITION Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi (until 8 October) is a case study in colour. Bonnard is one of the 20th century’s most beloved painters, a master of the palette whose use of pigment serves as a mediator of emotion. From t

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