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Good Weekend's Australian idylls: our special summer destinations
With international travel off the books for now, Good Weekend writers reflect on their favourite holidays of yesteryear.
Perth’s Cottesloe Beach.Credit: Getty Images
On Western Australia's beaches, it pays to be alert and alarmed
Poisonous snakes. Deadly jellyfish. Sharks, obviously. Growing up in Western Australia, you keep your eyes peeled when beachside – but who’d have it any other way? By Amanda Hooton
The rainforest almost kisses the Barrier Reef at Cape Tribulation.
The bliss of standing still in the big green of Cape Tribulation – and just looking
The Daintree’s dreamlike ancient wilderness takes "forest bathing" into a whole new realm. By Melissa Fyfe
Gabo Island, a windswept outpost. Its lighthouse, now fully automated, is the second tallest in Australia. Credit: Parks Victoria
Seabirds, salt-spray and shipwrecks: Gabo Island casts its spell
The wildness was exhilarating, as was the fact that, apart from the caretaker, we were quite alone, with an entire island to ourselves. By Jane Cadzow
Crescent Head:"You see wave after wave, peeling away, lacquered by the low sun. And suspended over the hills beyond, downy drifts of mist."Credit: Dallas Kilponen
Just swell: catching the perfect break, decades on, at Crescent Head
This northern NSW town was a grimy grommet’s fantasy surf holiday destination. Decades on, he’s still living the dream – now with wife and daughters. By Tim Elliott
"All I could think of when we landed in Lord Howe Island was Tahiti, or an imagined vision of it – the prototypical Pacific island, with a peak at one end just undulating enough to entertain the eye."Credit: tom-archer.com
'Her eyes sparkled when she talked about it': the magic of Lord Howe Island blessed me, too
An island of preposterous beauty casts its incredible spell as two friends walk and talk upon it, discovering along the way the perfect place to reconnect. By Amelia Lester
Many sections of the Franklin are so treacherous they must be bypassed for safety.Credit: James Brickwood
Rafting the Franklin, you’re hemmed into another world
Traversing down the torrid Tasmanian river on a raft is a lesson in scale, scope and the interplay of life. By Konrad Marshall
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