World Heritage Fraser Island/Australia

World Heritage-listed Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island and is a mecca for four-wheel-driving enthusiasts from across the globe. Seventy-Five Mile Beach is a gazetted highway that runs up the surf side of the island and provides access to the townships of Eurong, Dilli Village, Happy Valley, Orchid Beach and Cathedral Beach.

More than 1500km of sand tracks crisscross the island taking you to some of the best natural attractions Australia has to offer including Lake McKenzie – a fresh water lake perched high in the sand dunes.  We urge visitors to spend a few days exploring the beautiful freshwater lakes and creeks, ancient rainforests, massive sand blows and coloured sands.

Seventy-Five Mile Beach also provides some of the best beach fishing.  But don’t take our word for it…

• TNT Australia Magazine has compiled their top Aussie islands – including Fraser Island at the top of the list – in the May 6-19 issue of their popular travel magazine. (May 2013).
• Fraser Island, jutting off the east coast of Queensland, has been voted number 1 in UK newspaper The Telegraph’s travel section poll on Favourite Australian Island Escapes (April 2013).
• Fraser Island’s 75 Mile Beach is one of the ten best in Australia according to a new book – 101 Best Australian Beaches (November 2012). The author’s picked Fraser’s popular eastern beach as one of their ‘favourites’ writing: “This long beach on Queensland’s Fraser Island boasts ancient coloured dunes, bubbling freshwater springs, pristine lakes, and rainforest filled with wildlife. An astonishing 354 species of birds have been seen on the island, while the surrounding waters are home to dolphins, whales, dugongs, turtles and huge rays.”
• TNT Magazine has just named Fraser Island in their ‘sexy’ Top Ten Australian Islands (October 2012).
• American travel website CNNGo has named Hervey Bay as the World’s ‘Best Humpback Whale Watching’ destination. (September 2012).
• National Geographic has recently named Fraser Island as one of the World’s Best Beaches saying “World Heritage-listed Fraser was an “ecologist’s dream”. The Queensland sand island was the only Australian location to make the 2012 list. (June 2012).
• Australian Geographic listed Hervey Bay in the top ten places to Whale Watch in Australia and The Courier Mail named Fraser Island as one of the top ten best getaway drives in South East Queensland (June 2012).
• The Daily Times (UK) named Fraser Island’s eastern beach in their list of the world’s STRANGEST beaches… rainforest growing in sand; swimming in fresh water on an ocean beach; it’s a gazetted highway; it’s a landing strip for planes… we call that pretty awesome! (June 2012).
• Lonely Planet named Fraser Island in their Top Five Treasured Australian Islands (May 2012).
• Discovery’s Travel Channel has previously listed Fraser Island as the World’s Best Beach chosen through consultation with Travel Channel and experts from the US’ leading travel publications including Islands and Travel & Leisure magazines.
• Australian Traveller Magazine rated Fraser Island at number 9 in the list of 100 things to do before you die.
• American business magazine Forbes listed Fraser one of the World’s Sexiest Islands, and the only Australian island to make the list. The list says Fraser Island’s “enormous sand dunes provide plenty of space and privacy for frolicking on the beach” and it names Kingfisher Bay Resort as the place to stay.
• PLUS in 2006 Conde Nast Traveller readers voted Fraser Island into the Top 10 Pacific Islands and previously have voted it to be one of the World’s Top 10 Tropical Islands for three years running.

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in Australia

Uluru is recognised as “Australia’s most natural icon” and has become a focal point for Australia and the world’s acknowledgement of Australian indigenous culture. The sandstone monolith stands 348 metres (1,142 ft) high with most of its bulk below the ground. To Anangu (local indigenous people), Uluru is a place name and this “Rock” has a number of different landmarks where many ancestral beings have interacted with the landscape and/or each other, some even believed to still reside here. Kata Tjuta, meaning ‘many heads’, is a sacred place relating to knowledge that is considered very powerful and dangerous, only suitable for initiated men. It is made up of a group of 36 conglomerate rock domes that date back 500 million years.

Anangu are the traditional Aboriginal owners of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. believe that their culture was created at the beginning of time by ancestral beings. Uluru and Kata Tjuta provide physical evidence of feats performed during the creation period. They often lead walking tours to inform visitors about the local flora and fauna, bush foods and the Aboriginal Dreamtime stories of the area.

The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act was passed in 1976, meaning that after many years Aboriginal law and land rights were finally recognised in Australian law. Nine years later on 26 October 1985 the traditional owners were presented with the freehold title deeds for the park, who, in turn, leased the land back to the Australian Government through the Director of National Parks (formerly the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service) for 99 years.

The Director is assisted by Parks Australia, a division of the Australian Department of the Environment and Energy. Since hand-back, Anangu and Parks Australia staff have worked together to manage the park. This process of working together is known as ‘joint management’.

History of uluru

Uluru and Kata Tjuta were formed about 350 million years ago during the Alice Springs Orogeny.

The Anangu have connected to the area for thousands of years and some records suggested that they may have lived there for more than 10,000 years.

Europeans came to the western desert area of Australia in the 1870s. Uluru and Kata Tjuta were first mapped by Europeans during the expeditionary period made possible by the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line in 1872.

In separate expeditions, William Ernest Powell Giles and William Christie Gosse were the first European explorers to this area. In 1872 while exploring the area, Ernest Giles sighted Kata Tjuta from near Kings Canyon and called it Mount Olga, while the following year Gosse saw Uluru and named it Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, the Chief Secretary of South Australia. Further explorations followed with the aim of establishing the possibilities of the area for pastoralism.

In the late 19th century, pastoralists attempted to re-establish themselves in areas adjoining the South-Western/Petermann Reserve and interaction between Anangu and white people became more frequent and more violent. Due to the effects of grazing and droughts, bush food stores were depleted. Competition for these resources created conflict between pastoralists and Anangu. As a result, police patrols became more frequent.

Aboriginal rock art at Uluru

Between 1918 and 1921 large adjoining areas of South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory were declared as Aboriginal reserves, as sanctuaries for a nomadic people who had virtually no contact with white people. In 1920, part of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park was declared an Aboriginal Reserve (commonly known as the South-Western or Petermann Reserve) by the Australian Government under the Aboriginals Ordinance 1918.

During the Depression in the 1930s, the Anangu became involved in dingo scalping with “doggers” who introduced Anangu to European foods and ways. The first tourists visited the Uluru area in 1936.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park/Australia

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. It is a vast multiple-use Marine Park which supports a wide range of uses, including commercial marine tourism, fishing, ports and shipping, recreation, scientific research and Indigenous traditional use.

Fishing and the removal of artefacts or wildlife (fish, coral, seashells, etc.) is strictly regulated, and commercial shipping traffic must stick to certain specific defined shipping routes that avoid the most sensitive areas of the park. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest and best known coral reef ecosystem in the world.

Its reefs, almost 3000 in total, represent about 10 per cent of all the coral reef areas in the world. It supports an amazing variety of biodiversity, providing a home to thousands of coral and other invertebrate species, bony fish, sharks, rays, marine mammals, marine turtles, sea snakes, as well as algae and other marine plants.

Here are some interesting and fun facts about the Great Barrier Reef:

• The Great Barrier Reef as we know it today, began to form over 2 million years ago and is constantly changing in size and structure
• There are over 900 islands within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
• The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority or GBRMPA, is responsible for the well-being and protection of the reef
• It is the largest reef system in the world
• Over 2,000 species of animals call the reef home, including over 1,500 species of fish, over 200 species of birds, 6 species of sea turtles and over 30 species of whales and dolphins
• The Great Barrier Reef stretches over 2,300 kilometres down the East Coast of Australia
• It covers 344,400 km2
• Reefs only contribute about 7% to the entirety of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, with islands, cays, mangroves, sand, algal and sponge gardens and seagrass making up the rest
• There are 600 types of soft and hard corals that make up the reef
• It is said that 10% of the world’s fish population is found on the reef
• The Great Barrier Reef is located in the Coral Sea
• Around 2 million people visit the Great Barrier Reef every year
• The Great Barrier Reef was named a UNESCO World Heritage listed area in 1981
• The Reef covers an area from the Torres Strait to Bundaberg, in Northern Queensland
• Google offers an ‘underwater street view’ of the Great Barrier Reef where you can virtually swim around the reefs for a first-hand point of view

The Great Barrier Reef continues to thrive and grow every day, teaching us amazing things about its diverse ecosystem and local inhabitants. It is one of the most beautiful and astonishing places in the world and a national icon of Australia. As a source of national pride, it continues to be protected and cared for by its protectors, in hopes that it will be around for many, many generations to come.

Opera House in Australia

A masterpiece of human creativity, the Sydney Opera House welcomes millions of visitors from all over the world every year. Unfortunately, due to current government restrictions the iconic venue has been forced to close its doors. Instead, a new digital program called From our House to Yours has launched to inspire, educate and entertain.

Digital Season

The program will include full-length performances and talks, never-before-seen footage, podcasts, long-form articles and behind-the-scenes content. It’s designed to bring people together, regardless of where they are. Content will be available free on-demand from the Sydney Opera House website.

In addition, exclusive new content will be released nightly at 6pm from Wednesday to Saturday. It will include performances from artists like Missy Higgins and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, talks from The Writers Room and All About Women, and readings from authors such as David Walliams.

Sydney Opera House is set on beautiful Sydney Harbour and features world-class performances of opera, ballet, classical and modern music, contemporary dance, theatre and more.

Things to do

Opened in 1973, the Sydney Opera House hosts more than 1,600 performances a year in its concert halls and theatres, from opera to comedy shows. Even the famous sails become a brilliant canvas for incredible digital lightshows such as Vivid Sydney, the biggest festival of light, music and ideas in the world, held in May and June.

One of the sails is illuminated daily at sunset, 7pm, 8pm and 9pm with the work of Aboriginal artists in the Badu Gili exhibition. You can also walk around the Opera House forecourt, day or night, and marvel at the unique building, which uses seawater from the harbour to power both the cooling and heating.

Enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at the UNESCO World Heritage-listed building on daily guided tours, available in English, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. You’ll peek behind the curtains and uncover the fascinating stories of Australia’s most celebrated performing arts centre.

Interesting facts of opera House in Australia

• ydney Opera House sits on Bennelong Point. Bennelong Point was named after Woollarawarre Bennelong, a senior Eora man at the time of the arrival of British colonisers in Australia in 1788.
• The original cost estimate to build Sydney Opera House was $7 million. The final cost was $102 million and it was largely paid for by a State Lottery.
• 233 designs were submitted for the Opera House international design competition held in 1956. Jørn Utzon from Denmark was announced the winner, receiving ₤5000 for his design.
• Construction was expected to take four years. It took 14 years. Work commenced in 1959 and involved 10,000 construction workers.
• Paul Robeson was the first person to perform at Sydney Opera House. In 1960, he climbed the scaffolding and sang Ol’ Man River to the construction workers as they ate lunch.
• Sydney Opera House was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2007 
• There are more than 1 million roof tiles covering approximately 1.62 hectares sitting over the structure. They were made in Sweden.
• Seven A380s could sit wing-to-wing on the site.
• Sydney Opera House was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20th October, 1973. She has since visited four times, most recently in 2006.
• When the Sydney Symphony Orchestra is on stage in the Concert Hall, the temperature must be 22.5 degrees to ensure the instruments stay in tune. Temperature and humidity are critical to musical instruments.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger (former actor and Governor of California) won his final Mr Olympia body building title in 1980 in the Concert Hall.
• A net was installed above the orchestra pit in the Joan Sutherland Theatre during the 1980s following an incident during the opera Boris Godunov. The opera featured live chickens and one bird walked off the stage and landed on top of a cellist.
• More than 10.9 million people visit the Opera House every year.
• Sydney Opera House is cooled using seawater taken directly from the harbour. The system circulates cold water from the harbour through 35 kilometres of pipes to power both the heating and air conditioning in the building.
• Each year, Lunar New Year is celebrated at the Opera House with sails lit in red, Lunar Lanterns and Mandarin tours. In 2019, some 25,000 people celebrated with us.