Things to do in Australia

The most recognised building in the country stands on Bennelong Point, where Sydney Harbour narrows beside Circular Quay. Three groups of interlocking vaulted shells roof two performance halls and a restaurant, raised on a platform ringed by terraces that double as public concourses. An international jury handed the commission to the Danish architect Jorn Utzon in 1957, and the centre was inaugurated in 1973. It joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007 as a work that redrew twentieth-century architecture.

Architect: Jorn Utzon

Style: Expressionist

Opened: 1973

Location: Bennelong Point, Circular Quay, Sydney, New South Wales

Access: Free to walk the forecourt and terraces; guided tours and performances are ticketed

The steel arch crossing the harbour between the business district and the North Shore opened in 1932, built by the British firm Dorman Long under John Bradfield of the New South Wales public works department. It measures 134 metres from the top of the arch down to the water and carries trains, cars, bicycles and walkers in parallel lanes. Australians call it the Coathanger. For a visitor it doubles as a viewing platform: the eastern footpath gives the classic angle over the Opera House, the Pylon Lookout climbs inside the south-east pylon, and a guided climb goes over the arch.

Style: Steel through arch

Opened: 1932

Location: Dawes Point to Milsons Point, Sydney, New South Wales

Access: Free to walk the footpath; the Pylon Lookout and the climb are ticketed

For most people landing in Sydney this is the first piece of Australian coast they stand on: a broad crescent between two sandstone headlands, seven kilometres east of the centre. Beginner surf schools cluster at the southern corner, where the saltwater pool of the Icebergs club is cut straight into the rocks. Red and yellow caps mark the patrolled zone. A cliff path leads south through Tamarama and Bronte to Coogee, roughly two hours of walking above the water, and the suburb behind the sand keeps the cafes and swimwear shops that made the name travel.

Location: Bondi, eastern suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales

Access: Free at any hour; the Icebergs pool and board hire are ticketed separately

The sandstone plateau west of Sydney breaks into cliffs and gorges, and the eucalypt haze over them gives the range its name. Its foothills start 50 kilometres from the city centre. The best-known view looks from Katoomba across the Jamison Valley to the Three Sisters, three weathered pillars named Meehni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo. Tracks drop from the clifftop into rainforest gullies and past waterfalls, and a cableway and a steep railway carry people down and back. UNESCO listed the Greater Blue Mountains Area in 2000.

Heritage: Greater Blue Mountains Area, UNESCO World Heritage since 2000

Location: Katoomba and the Jamison Valley, west of Sydney, New South Wales

Access: Open at all times; a vehicle fee applies only at Glenbrook, and the cableway and railway are ticketed

Returned soldiers built this 240-kilometre road along the south-eastern coast between 1919 and 1932 and dedicated it to those killed in the First World War, which makes it the largest war memorial in the world. It runs from Torquay to Allansford past surf breaks, river mouths and the Otway forest before the cliffs open out at Port Campbell National Park, where the limestone stacks known as the Twelve Apostles stand offshore. Boardwalks and lookouts reach the stacks and the nearby Loch Ard Gorge. The road is on the National Heritage List and most people take two days over it rather than one.

Opened: 1932

Heritage: Australian National Heritage List

Location: Torquay to Allansford, south-western Victoria

Access: Free public road; the coastal lookouts are open to walk

The largest coral reef system on the planet stretches more than 2,300 kilometres off the Queensland coast, built from over 2,900 separate reefs and scattered with some 900 islands. UNESCO listed it in 1981 for a variety that runs to 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 kinds of mollusc, along with dugongs and green turtles. There is no gate and no single entrance. Day boats and liveaboards leave Cairns, Port Douglas and Airlie Beach for snorkelling and diving, and scenic flights cross the outer reefs.

Area: Around 344,400 square kilometres

Heritage: UNESCO World Heritage since 1981

Location: Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland

Access: Reached by boat or scenic flight; operators charge for the trip

Seven kilometres of white silica sand line the eastern side of Whitsunday Island, backed by bush and edged by water that turns every shade of turquoise. There is no road to it. Boats, seaplanes and helicopters run out from Airlie Beach on the mainland and from Hamilton Island, and most day trips pair a few hours on the sand with the lookout over Hill Inlet at the northern end, where the outgoing tide drags sand and water into shifting patterns. The beach sits inside Whitsunday Islands National Park, so visitors carry their own shade, water and food.

Location: Whitsunday Island, Whitsunday Islands National Park, Queensland

Access: Reached by boat, seaplane or helicopter from Airlie Beach or Hamilton Island; operators charge for the transfer

Rainforest runs down to the sea about 105 kilometres north of Cairns, over the coast between the Daintree River and Cooktown. It forms part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland, the 450-kilometre band of forest UNESCO listed in 1988 for its plants and marsupials. A cable ferry run by the local council is the only vehicle crossing of the Daintree River, and beyond it the road climbs to Cape Tribulation, where the trees meet the beach. Mossman Gorge, south of the river, has boardwalks and walks led by Kuku Yalanji guides.

Heritage: Wet Tropics of Queensland, UNESCO World Heritage since 1988

Location: Between the Daintree River and Cooktown, far north Queensland

Access: Free to drive and walk; the river ferry, the Mossman Gorge shuttle and guided walks are ticketed

At 122 kilometres long this is the largest sand island in the world, lying about 250 kilometres north of Brisbane. Tall rainforest grows straight out of the sand, and half the perched freshwater dune lakes on earth sit inland from the beach; UNESCO listed the island in 1992 for that combination of shifting dunes, forest and water. It was known as Fraser Island through most of the twentieth century and now carries its earlier name again. Tracks are sand rather than bitumen, the ocean beach doubles as the main road, and the rusted hull of the Maheno lies half buried along it.

Heritage: UNESCO World Heritage since 1992

Location: Off the Queensland coast, about 250 km north of Brisbane

Access: Reached by vehicle barge or on a guided four-wheel-drive tour

The sandstone monolith rises from the desert 335 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs and shifts colour through the day, deepest red at dawn and dusk. It is sacred to the Anangu, the Pitjantjatjara people of this country, and springs, waterholes, caves and rock paintings ring its base. Climbing was never generally permitted under Tjukurpa, Anangu law and culture, and the climb closed permanently on 26 October 2019. What remains is the walk around the base, ranger-guided walks and the cultural centre inside the park, listed by UNESCO in 1987.

Heritage: Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, UNESCO World Heritage since 1987

Location: Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, southern Northern Territory

Access: A park pass valid for three days is required; the climb has been closed since 2019

Floodplains, sandstone escarpment and monsoon forest fill the park 171 kilometres south-east of Darwin. UNESCO listed it in 1981 on both natural and cultural criteria, and the rock shelters at Burrungkuy hold ochre paintings worked over thousands of years. The year splits into a wet and a dry rather than four seasons: waterfalls such as Jim Jim run hardest once the rains stop, while the unsealed tracks that reach them open later in the dry. Cruises on the Yellow Water billabong at Cooinda are the usual way to see saltwater crocodiles and the birds that gather on the floodplain.

Heritage: UNESCO World Heritage since 1981

Location: 171 km south-east of Darwin, Northern Territory

Access: A park pass valid for seven days is required

The dolerite peak stands above Dove Lake in the Tasmanian highlands, inside Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area since 1982. The circuit around the lake covers 5.7 kilometres in about two hours and passes the timber boatshed that appears in most photographs of the mountain, while the Overland Track to Lake St Clair starts here and runs for several days. Everyone parks at the visitor centre and takes the shuttle for the twenty-minute run down to Dove Lake, because private cars cannot enter while it runs.

Heritage: Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area since 1982

Location: Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, Central Highlands, Tasmania

Access: A parks pass and a shuttle bus ticket are both required