Australia Travel

Australia is a place that almost everyone dreams to visit. One of the largest and safest countries in the world, and its backpacker friendly atmosphere make it a popular destination. I was used to visiting tropical rainforests in third world countries, so it was a strange thing to me to go to a rainforest and the next day be in a nice shopping mall. What I had always wanted to see the most in Australia was the great barrier reef, and the rainforests in the north eastern part of the country called Queensland which have some amazing Surfers Paradise hotels. My first stop was to Sydney which cold be one of the most beautiful and coloroful cities in Oceania. With my focus to get up north as fast as possible to spend as much time as I could diving and exploring the rainforests, I mistakenly only spent a few days Sydney, but when I return I'll make up for this. In 2011 I returned to Australia only to visit the city of Darwin in the North Territory. The next time I visit Australia, I hope to see Tasmania.

Australia Links	My first stop in Australia back in 2004 was to the big city of Sydney located on the southeast coast. This impressive place was one of the most friendliest and colorful cities I've ever visited. Sydney is often mistaken for the capital which is actually Canberra that is located about 4 hours away. On the left is a photo of a stunt show taking place in downtown Sydney. The great weather makes Sydney a good place to visit in all months of the year. Australia was one of my early trips when I hardly took any photos, I explored several parts of the city with a friend I met, going to various neighborhoods, museums, and other places of interest. The only other Sydney photos I have are two city icons, the harbor bridge and the famous opera house below.


	The easiest way to see wildlife in Australia is the zoo, which was one of the places I visited in Sydney. The above animals are an enchila on the left and the famous kangaroo on the right. Kangaroos are about as common in Australia as deer are in the US. You might see them crossing the street at night, or wandering across a golf course in the evening.

These three pictures show one of Australia's favorite animals, the Koala bear. Turns out these little guys aren't true bears, and in fact with only one exception in South America, bears don't live in the southern hemisphere at all. These koala bears are found in most parts of eastern Australia, and while they are known for being cute, they are also one of the laziest animals on earth. They spend up to 20 hours a day sleeping, and are usually found spotted in trees dozing off like in the two photos above. When they are on the move, Koalas are still generally slow moving animals and usually take their time with things instead of swinging through trees like monkeys. These characteristics make them easy to hunt, and in the early 20th century when trading Koala fur was popular, over a million were killed and they were almost hunted to extinction. Their numbers have since greatly rebounded but they still aren't considered to be fully recovered.

After visiting Sydney, I took a bus out to the blue mountains which were located west of the city, still in the same province of New South Wales. While hiking here, I and came across the cockatoo above which is common in pet stores, and the giant nest of some other bird on the left.

These four surrounding photos are also of Australia's blue mountains. Since these mountains begin only 50km west of Sydney, they offer easy access to anyone who enjoys hiking and wants to get out the city. The blue mountains also have the steepest railway in the world, which I also took but don't have any photos. Below is a famous site in the blue mountains, the three sisters. Several waterfalls, caves, and other natural formations make this a popular trek.


Far from Sydney in the 'top end' of Australia is the city of Darwin. In fact, Darwin isn't just far from Sydney, but is actually closer to more major cities in Indonesia and East Timor than cities in Australia. When I returned to Australia through Darwin, it had been 7 years since my first visit to the country, and I couldn't help but notice a few signifcant differences from my last trip. First off, I specifically remember paying $23 for my own private room in a hostel in Sydney, but on this trip I saw hostels that offered a room for $26 a night that is shared with 5 other people coming to a total profit of $156 per room! Since I was traveling with my girlfriend, we booked a hotel from the airport that cost nearly $100 a night but were told it was a 5 star resort. Knowing that Australia is an expensive country, I found it very hard to believe we had landed accomodation at a 5 star resort for under $100 a night. When we arrived to the hotel, we were greeted with a cold reception as if checking in was a burden to the staff. Upon entering the room, a stream of ants on any surface which may contain edibles could be found scouring the area. At that point I wondered if the woman who had booked our hotel while at the airport had said it was a 2.5 star and I had chosen to only here the 5. Despite how expensive I had found Sydney 7 years ago, it appeared that food and transportation prices had at least doubled for Darwin. An Australian explained that the city was so isolated from the rest of Australia that transporting goods here was a logistical problem and therefore made it the most expensive city in Australia. Not being a millionaire, I was bittersweet about staying less than a week here, otherwise I might have had to engage in criminal activities in order to afford meals and housing.

Even though Australia's most expensive city has existed for over a hundred years, it did not have a significant population until recently. As a matter of fact before World War II, Darwin had a population of only 2,000 people, roughly the size of my highschool! The upper left photo shows the original town hall, which has been replaced by the modern parliment building seen on the right. As Darwin is the capital of the state, its parliment building governs all of the Northern Territory and at the time of my visit was the newest parliment building reconstructed in Australia.

Immediately outside of the parliment building is Bicentennial Park, a nice park to walk through that is along the coast and features several monuments dedicated to explorers and battles that took place in Australia. The walk itself wasn't very long, and I was surprised how many exotic birds I came across. I remember the black and white magpie on the upper left from my first visit in Australia, so I know it's a very popular bird. The same could be said about these two birds below, or maybe I just got lucky.


Walking distance from Bicentennial Park are plenty of shops and restaurants, hotels and hostels. The photo on the left jokes about illegal activities takign place in one of the restaurants we ate at, while others get drinks during the hot day at another bar and restaurant. During the night there were lots of people out despite the city's small population.

The city's main mall is also in this same neighborhood with more cafes, restaurants and plenty of shopping. A lot of the stores had some high end art that ranged in prices from a few hundred dollars going into the thousands. The upper left is a beautiful vase I saw in one specialty shop, on the right is some art work created by an Aborgine, along with a certificate of authenticy for those who wish to take one home.

A sad problem in some Australian cities is poverty among native Aborigines. On my first trip to Australia I often saw many drunk Aborgines roaming the streets or begging for change. The women on the upper left were seen in a small park and seemed to be doing well. The man on the right however was no question about it drunk and was being helped by the police. I've not yet been to Aborgine territory so I'm not sure how well off or happy they are there, but it did seem that most of them in the city were below the poverty line. Although some might have hard lives, the Aborgines are very peaceful people and are very respectful and rarely disturb the peace.

For the Aborigines that need it there is the NAAJA, or North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency which " delivers high quality and culturally appropriate Aboriginal Legal Services to the Top End". Otherwise, according to a few Australians I talked to Germans are the ones who require the most help. A man I met from Fiji talked about how Germans were always getting in trouble in Australia and later at another shop another woman went on about how they felt the need to ignore warning signs and take unnecessary risks while visiting the country. While exploring the city, I came across an entertaining headline on the upper right that I photographed. Apparently some people entered an unsafe area and became surrounded by crocodiles until they were finally rescued by authorities.

Walking along a main street in Darwin I saw the some spray painted walls that I assumed were professinally done. They advertise some kind of organization in Darwin and on the right the popular Australian saying, "G'day Mate". A little further the spray painting seemed not so professional and maybe the results of some kids. Every day that I passed this there were two Australian homeless men living here that I failed to photograph.

These two photos above were actually from Bicentennial Park, but because they are in the same subject of the Oil Tunnels I visited in Darwin I thought I'd bring them up now. These memorials here were created to honor Australian prisoners of war who were taken by the Japanese resulting in hundreds of deaths. The memorial on the right mentions that up to 70% of the prisoners were killed from starving, poor treatment or directly from execution.

While the prisoners of war mentioned were mostly captured in Indonesia and other Pacific Islands, the mainland Australia was also attacked by the Japanese. The bombing of Darwin by the Japanese first occurred in February of 1942. Nearly 200 Japanese aircraft bombed the city which left about 250 dead Australians and severe damage to the city's infrastructre, including one of the Japanese main targets, their fuel tanks. Above are two photos I took showing the oil tanks ablaze on the left, and the bombing on their post office on the right. Japan continued to bomb Darwin over 60 times during the next year.

As a result of the attacks on the oil tanks, the city of Darwin decided to rebuild the tanks underground in order to protect them. The oil tanks were needed to fuel aircraft and ships that were fighting in the war, and losing Darwin as a fueling port would cause major complications for Australia's military. Work began almost immediately to build underground storage tanks. Because the work was all human powered using only shovels and picks, progress was slow and by the time the project was completed the war was actually over and the tanks were never really used. Above and below shows photos of the oil storage areas and the vast tunnels created over 50 years ago.


Something that shocked me about the northern territory was the domination on the coast that the crocodiles have. Normally I'd expect to arrive to a country and be told that some given animal had once lived here in the hundreds but is now endangered and rarely spotted. The story with Australian crocodiles in the Northern Territory is the exact opposite, the crocodiles own all the beaches in this state. There are no safe beaches in Darwin in which you could take a swim in the ocean. This isn't even the immediate Darwin area, but literally hundreds of miles from Darwin is just as dangerous. Above is a photo of the coast I took as my flight approached Darwin, on the right is a common warning sign.

As crocodiles exist all over the coast of the Northern Territory, you won't have any problem finding them. As a matter of fact, there is an area right in Darwin that has plenty of crocodiles for viewing, including some babies you can even hold. The crocodiles on the upper left are juveniles that were just being fed, on the upper right is a young crocodile showing its jumping skills as it leaps out of the water to bite on some meat. The most famous crocodile here is on the lower left, and this guy was actually the croc filmed in the original movie Crocodile Dundee. The lower right is a head shot of another large crocodile that was about 80 years old when I visited! All these photos are of the salt water crocodiles which are the largest and meanest in Australia. Australia's only other species is the fresh water crocs which also pose a major danger to people.


When it was time for me to get out of the city and go a little bit south of Darwin I went to rent a car. You might assume that driving inland would keep you safe and well away from the crocodiles, but instead there are new animal dangers to be found in the northern territory. When I rented the car I was advised not to drive at night because it was too dangerous. The car rental office explained to me that at night there were hundreds of wallabies running across the road, bison, and supposedly a lion. Renting a car in Australia and hitting a lion would surely be a first, but knowing that lions of course weren't native to Australia I asked where it came from. Lots of sightings of a lion where reported I was told, and the man simply shrugged his shoulders and said it probably ran away from a circus. I didn't come across the lion while driving, but wallabies were spotted.

Farther south of Darwin I eventually crossed this rail road which I imagine is the north-south transcontinental railway connecting Adelaide to Darwin. Construction started in the 1800s, and to my understanding the railway is still in use and also has passenger trains. No idea what the chance is or how often these trains hit wallabies or other animals on their long journeys.

This cemetery I came across is in Adelaide River and holds victims of World War II. The upper right graves are actually the victims of the Darwin Post office bombing and at first I was unsure why they were buried so far away from the city which is over 100km away. Later I found out there was a major military base here in Adelaide River, so of course the military ceremony was built on base. I forgot to mention that as I drove south from Darwin and got close to this area there were several dirt runways along the highway that were labeled as World War II air strips. Below are graves from two young men who were killed during the war, I'm unsure if they were victims of the Darwin bombings or if they were killed while fighting the Japanese in other countries.


This small town of Batchleor boasts a 'resort', a motel or two and general store with some places to eat. The town has less than 1,000 residents and while I passed through it I kind of felt like I was in the remote western regions of America. The 'resort' I saw was nothing but a tiny restaurant and motel, and I didn't even think it was anything more than that until I came across it online where it described itself. I suppose resorts in Australia are different than what most Americans and Europeans might expect. On the upper right is a large bar and restaurant, and despite it being only past lunch time there were several people drinking away at the bar.

Just outside of town is Litchenfield National Park. The forests here look the same as what I drove by after leaving Darwin. Grassy plains with trees that with occasional termite mounds. The forests here looked like they were once just a field that someone had abandoned and some small palms and trees only recently took over, but I imagine the hot weather here keeps large dense forests from taking over the land.

I've seen lots of gigantic termite mounds around Africa, but never anywhere else. The termite mounds in Australia rival the largest I've ever seen before, with many that tower around 2 meters or over 10 feet. These here are known as the magnetic termite mounds, due to the termite's ability to align them both in north and south directions. These above are some of the larger ones that I came across, one field I saw had dozens of them and almost looked like a graveyard from a distance.

This bird here I came across in the national park, but haven't yet figured out what it is. On the right is a rainbow that appeared as the sun was beginning to set.

Since the coast is dense with crocodiles, fresh water pools of water are the best place to swim in the North Territory. Despite being far from the coast though, crocs can still make their way here, especially during the wet season. The creek and water fall above had a nice pool with crystal clear water and lots of big fish that had no fear of people.


In the northeastern part of Australia is the tropical state of Queensland. While most of Australia is desert, actually about 80%, Queensland is full of lush rainforest, beautiful beaches with many that are crocodile free, and home to the great barrier reef. These photos above were taken from the beach that is part of an island known as fritzroy. Also in Queensland, I rode in a hot air balloon, went white water rafting, and of course swimming and hiking. There is a big range of outdoor activities to do here and plenty of places to stay.

The main reason why I visited Queensland was to see the great barrier reef. Even from the surface, you see some amazing colors of blue. I enjoyed scuba diving here so much, that I went out on a total of 5 dives on two different days. Above is a photo of the water surface, and on the right a random school of fish that passed me by. The mountains of coral and amazing colors here was something I had never seen before.

This was actually one of my first times diving, I had just gotten my diving license a year ago and had only used it one other time in Hawaii so far. I have yet to top the diving experience here, and don't ever really expect to! Something else that I haven't yet topped where the enormous fish I saw here, the one of the left was probably about 70lbs or so I'd guess. The gigantic fish on the right is the largest I've ever seen while diving. I think he was at least three times my size, and he got close enough that I could actually see his teeth!

Unfortunately you lose color quickly the deeper you go when you dive. You can make out the amazing blue on the coral to the left because it was somewhat close to the surface. The giant fish on the right was a little deeper, and the clams below probably under 30 or 40 feet.


	The great barrier reef expands for hundreds of miles along the north eastern coast of Australia. I imagine there are parts that are distinct from each other, and whenever I return to Australia I will definitely be making another stop here, hopefully with better camera equipment! The coral above, hundreds of fish on the upper right, and guys like the sea turtle here make this an amazing experience. Other wildlife I came across here were manta rays and a small eel. Fortunately I didn't swim face first into any poisonous jellyfish, but rumor is those guys hang out by the coast and aren't really a risk to the divers.


Scott from USA: Love your website! Found it Googling Afghanistan...your Australia blog has a spelling error - The rock formation in the Blue Mountains is "The Three Sisters"
	George: Thanks for your comment and the correction!

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