Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2023 - January 2024 i Australian Traveller

THE FIRST EDITION of Australian Traveller was published on 26 May 2005. The world looked a little different back then: Facebook was just one year old. Instagram still a twinkle in its creators’ eyes. And Sydney had five years earlier hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which helped put a vision of modern Australia on the map internationally. The idea for Australian Traveller came to co-founder Quentin Long like an epiphany as he flew over Broome’s Roebuck Bay 20 years ago and looked down at the otherworldly melange of colours the Kimberley is famed for: its pindan red, pinks and greens bleeding into the most vivid of turquoise. As he recounts during a journey back to where it all began on p170, it took travelling the world to make him…

Family IT WAS SERENDIPITOUS that our family holiday fell during the For Our Elders, National NAIDOC Week in 2023. Here we were, myself and my wife Lea, returning to Anangu Country after 30 years, with our two children and their spouses who now have three children each of their own. Three generations – six adults and six grandchildren, aged between four and 10 – celebrating a two-week safari through Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Mparntwe/Alice Springs, before setting out on a guided 4WD tour of Litchfield and Kakadu national parks. The journey would take us deep into West Arnhem Land to a campsite right on the edge of the Cobourg Peninsula – around 100 kilometres below the latitude of Cape York. As a journalist I’d snowmobiled with Inuit people in the…

Walk the walk AN IRIDESCENT BLUE BUTTERFLY floats by in the sun-dappled light on Wunyami (Green Island) as a small orchestra of birds shrill and squawk. We’re standing under a watercolour wash of green rainforest on a boardwalk with Indigenous guide Blake Cedar Kyuna, whose knowledge of the island takes precedence over all that I learned growing up in Gimuy/Cairns and visiting the island on countless school excursions. Blake, who was taught and raised by Gunggandji and Yidinji Elders, waits for a procession of daytrippers to stroll past before welcoming our intimate group to Wunyami as a sign of respect to his Elders and Ancestors. “Wunyami is known as a ‘Place of Spirits’. We need to be cleansed whenever we enter Country or are invited to take in ancient knowledge…

Reviews WHEN A FLAGSHIP restaurant launches in one of Canberra’s fanciest hotels, helmed by the city’s most esteemed chef, the weight of expectation is heavy. But after a few months of operating in burgeoning Barton, it seems Louis Dining at Hotel Realm is up to the task. With a career spanning 30 years, including 14 operating lauded and consistently double-hatted Canberra restaurant Aubergine, Ben Willis has taken on the role of culinary director for the hotel’s parent company, DOMA. Together with his impeccable reputation, he brings along his sous-chef, Sun Hwa Jang, to lead Louis Dining, one founded firmly on the cuisine of southern France. The space is defined by a multitude of stylish dining spaces. High tables and tan leather seating provide an excellent view of the glowing bar…

FOR THE LONGEST TIME, celebration meant raising a glass of Champagne. And not just any old fizz: real Champagne from the time-honoured French region. But things are changing. Australia’s sparkling wine scene has evolved and matured and at its heart is Tasmania, producing premium sparkling wines on a par with Champagne. In December 2020, Decanter named the House of Arras 2004 Arras Late Disgorged ‘the best sparkling wine in the world’ and the industry has many other trophies under its belt to boot. With its huge landmass, Australia has many cool-climate regions that are the result of altitude, latitude or both. So how has Tasmania become the star of the sparkling show? In terms of climate, says winemaker Ed Carr, who founded House of Arras in 1995, today Australia’s most…

Sunshine Coast, Qld Whether it’s summer or not, the Sunshine Coast is a perennial hotspot, a year-round escape that attracts southern dwellers with its seemingly endless sunny disposition. From Noosa to Mooloolaba and Caloundra, Gympie and Coolum Beach, the warm, Windex-coloured waters beckon families, surfers and van-life wanderers alike. North enough to be beautifully warm, yet south enough not to be beset by jellyfish and crocs, this Queensland stretch is the sweet spot. WHERE IS IT? An easy hour-and-a-half drive north of Brisbane. WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? Sunshine, actually. The Sunshine Coast has about 300 days of sunshine per year, so the chances of barrelling into a rainy holiday are low. SUMMER SECRETS: While the coast offers summer spoils, those volcanic-forged guardians, the Glass House Mountains, offer hikes, swimming holes…

MONA FOMA, TAS The mobility of Mona Foma brings its rewards. The fact the annual summer festival is not tethered to a particular site makes it a celebration of transience and the freedom of creativity that inspires. The ephemeral works of ‘art, music and other stuff ’ will again pop up around lutruwita/Tasmania from 15–25 February in nipaluna/Hobart and 29 February – 3 March in northern lutruwita. The line-up will be announced late 2023. mofo.net.au HOUSE OF SPLENDOUR NYE 2023, SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, NSW Ring in the new year in style by claiming a piece of prime real estate at House of Splendour in the Yallamundi Rooms of the Sydney Opera House. The New Year’s Eve event includes a roving feast of canapés, free-flowing French Champagne, premium wines and food…

YOU NEED NOT ENTER the theatre to experience a showstopping performance at the Sydney Opera House. Simply head to one of its many restaurants, where chefs and bartenders are consistently whipping up a symphony of flavour. The venue’s varied epicurean offerings epitomise the quintessence of modern Australian dining – all showcased in one of the most archetypal Aussie settings imaginable. Today, the Opera House’s nested shells carve their signature shape into a cloudless sky. This year marks 50 since the structure was immortalised as an architectural icon, transforming an otherwise unremarkable cityscape into one of the world’s most recognisable. But I’m not here to feast my eyes upon the impressive architectonics. I’m partaking in a true feast of epic proportions, as part of the Opera House’s monthly Taste of the…

Royal Mail Hotel IT’S LATE AFTERNOON at the Royal Mail Hotel, in the foothills of the Grampians/Gariwerd, and the sun is burnishing the landscape a deep, amber hue. It’s almost time for dinner – where we will indulge in the freshest of local produce thanks to executive chef Robin Wickens, who lends his name to the destination hotel’s eponymous fine diner. But first, we’ve got important business to attend to: learning about the important work being done to not only conserve the landscape but regenerate and rewild, and reintroduce to the pastoral property the native biodiversity of the region, some three hours west of Melbourne. During a Wildlife Conservation Education tour on Mount Sturgeon Biodiversity Reserve we meet and feed a rufous bettong called Bruce, spy a gaggle of sugar…

HIP HOOD ON LARRAKIA LAND IN A PLACE once home to locomotive workshops and a civilian airfield, the hub of Parap has surfaced as a funky and fun place to visit (or call home). Located a mere 10-minute drive from Darwin’s city centre, this multicultural suburb is just a hop, skip and jump away from beaches, sea breezes and sunsets. Home to Southeast Asian, Torres Strait Islander and plenty more communities, this cultural melting pot is celebrated each Saturday morning at the market. “A visit to the market is a big part of the locals’ weekend routine and is a kaleidoscope of cultures,” says celebrated Chinese-Sri Lankan restaurateur Jimmy Shu. “Every Saturday the friendly vendors serve up such a great mix of international cuisine, freshly plucked fruit and vegetables, artisan…

“WHAT DO YOU SEE?” asks Paul Mettner as he holds up an irregularly shaped piece of leather that looks like the silhouette of a Trojan helmet. Other answers for this tactile Rorschach test include a ghost from Pac-Man or Darth Vader’s head. But for hundreds of workers around us, this is the starting point for one of Australia’s most enduring style icons. On an otherwise unremarkable street in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, the R.M. Williams workshop turns out around 1500 pairs of elastic-sided Craftsmen boots a day, and Mettner is showing me around one of the production lines that he supervises. A paragon of simplicity, the design of the signature Craftsman boot has remained virtually unchanged since the shadows of The Great Depression, when Reginald Murray Williams collaborated on the design…

Yeppoon, Qld This Capricorn Coast uncut gem is now being polished yearly since intrepid holiday hunters have discovered the glimmer at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Yeppoon is the gateway to Great Keppel Island and 27 other outcrops, but also offers plenty of its own attractions, from the foreshore’s free zero-depth Keppel Kraken water park, lagoon pool and kids’ play areas to whale watching, fishing, four-wheel-driving and excursions beyond to snorkel and spot dolphins and turtles. While it skews towards families, that’s not the only feather in its cap. Couples and mates will enjoy the boho stylings at Yeppoon Surfside Motel. WHERE IS IT? About eight hours north of Brisbane, or fly into Rockhampton Airport, which is 40 minutes from the coast. WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? Tropical…

HOTA makes room for both high art and hedonism, mirroring a region whose reputation as an adult playground obscures a rich cultural scene full of artists as confident as any of the tanned bodies posing by the beach. A STIFF BREEZE RUFFLES MY HAIR as I cruise by ferry to one of Australia’s most exciting new galleries, but the Derwent River is several thousand kilometres to the south. More than a decade after MONA upended travellers’ perceptions of Hobart, another institution is hoping to do the same for the Gold Coast. HOTA is unashamedly brash. A six-storey structure covered in geometric blocks of primary colour, it sits at the centre of a precinct with a rooftop bar called The Exhibitionist, an outdoor stage that just hosted a rave for 5000…

Broome Looking back now, it seems obvious that Broome and the Kimberley would have this profound effect on me. These are destinations that make you really appreciate just how special and different to other parts of the world Australia is. BROOME AND I HAVE HISTORY. It started 20 years ago when, after living overseas for five years, I returned to my island home with an English girlfriend. And, in an effort to show her some of this vast country, we headed off for a week at the seminal, iconic and luxury Cable Beach Club Resort & Spa in Broome. As we came into land over Roebuck Bay, the mesmerising colours of the northwest edge of Australia made such an impression on me that I had an epiphany: “Why the hell…

10–14 JANUARY 2024 Parkes Elvis Festival PARKES, NSW Visitors will be seeing double at the 31st Parkes Elvis Festival, where hundreds of festivalgoers will be all dressed up in celebration of the King of Rock ‘ n’ Roll. Slide on down to the celebration and be sure to bring your moves – Jailhouse Rock is this year’s theme. parkeselvisfestival.com.au 11 NOVEMBER CQ BEER + CIDER FESTIVAL GLADSTONE, QLD A refreshing schooner of beer or cider is the perfect complement to a hot summer’s day. CQ Beer + Cider Festival is bringing the best brewers to one place in Gladstone Marina Parklands, so visitors can quench their thirst against a buzzy backdrop of live music and food stalls. facebook.com/CQBeerCiderFestival FROM 18 NOVEMBER RAMSES & THE GOLD OF THE PHARAOHS AUSTRALIAN…

QUENTIN LONG: SO, IN 2005 I WAS PANICKING ABOUT LAUNCHING A NEW DOMESTIC TRAVEL MEDIA BRAND. WHAT WERE YOU DOING? Phillipa Harrison: I was working for an Accor start-up in the youth hostel space called Base Backpackers. It was capitalising and corporatising the concept of ‘flashpackers’. That was so fun. I was the third employee onboard and we set up 11 hostels in 18 months. And backpacker bars, and a travel agency… QL: SO JÄGERBOMBS AT THE BAR WITH PIP? PH: Maybe [laughs]. QL: DO YOU THINK COVID HAS GIVEN DOMESTIC TRAVELLERS A GREATER APPRECIATION FOR THIS COUNTRY? I ALWAYS HOPED IT WOULD CREATE A NEW HABIT FOR AUSSIES. SO, FOR EXAMPLE, INSTEAD OF GOING OVERSEAS EVERY YEAR, YOU GO EVERY TWO YEARS. PH: I do think Australians worked out…

YOU ARE A THOROUGHLY WELL-TRAVELLED bunch, and we wanted to know what all-time favourite experiences you’ve had in the 18 years since Australian Traveller launched, and what’s still to tick off your bucket list. We had an inspired response – more than we can fit in these pages – with some definite themes emerging: Uluru never fails to move us and leaves an indelible impression that stays with us long after we’ve washed the last of the red dirt away. “Sunrise at Uluru was a spectacular favourite moment of mine,” says Lis Petersen from NSW. “And here I sit, late at night, the memory as fresh as if it were this morning. Our heart of the country is now in my heart and for this I will be forever grateful.”…

Prizes will be drawn regularly over a three-month period until 7 February 2024. Celebrating 100 issues of Australian Traveller is a huge milestone that we’re incredibly proud of. But we couldn’t and wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you, our valued readers. So, we wanted to give back and say THANK YOU for supporting us and trusting us to guide your travels over the last 18 years. We have carefully curated more than $175,000 worth of prizes from 25 different companies for the Australian Traveller Mega Holiday Giveaway, and you could be one of the lucky winners! Please note: you will not be able to choose which prize you win. Australian Traveller will draw the winners over a three-month period, with the first prize drawn on 6 November 2023…

MEET MISS MIDGLEY’S In tracing the heritage of one of Brisbane’s oldest homes, mother-and-daughter design duo Lisa and Isabella White have told a broader story about one of New Farm’s most colourful characters. The reimagined property, with five self-contained apartments, is as quirky as Miss Midgley, who opened a school in the building in 1905. Expect a soft, dusky palette that amplifies the russet and pink tones of the city’s heritage tuff rock, which is featured throughout the building. missmidgleys.com.au CUTTING ADGE The idea of a staycation amid the action of Sydney’s Surry Hills is irresistible. ADGE Hotel + Residences looks to the colourful neighbourhood for inspiration with all 105 of its guestrooms and apartments furnished with eccentric flourishes. The Riley Street hotel has a sort of 1950s Italian fashion…

Reviews IT’S 6.25AM WHEN I’M WOKEN by the sound of a passenger jet flying into Sydney’s international airport. A quick look at my Sydney Airport Information app confirms Flight QF24 from Bangkok is bang-on schedule. I’m not complaining. Hearing jets taking off and landing is the alarm sound you’d expect during a stay at Moxy Sydney Airport. Tucked behind the main drag of General Holmes Drive, the boutique hotel is the first of the Marriott’s Moxy Hotel brand to open in Australia. And she’s a Brutalist-esque beauty built with a retro aesthetic that reflects both the industrial heritage of Mascot and glamour and promise of travel. Although it’s moments from the cool bars and eateries of Sydney’s inner south, the hotel seems designed to keep you in its clutches from…

THERE’S A MOMENT ONBOARD Saffire Freycinet’s Seafood and Sparkling Cruise when the afternoon light has cast us in honey. We’re moored offshore from a solitary beach where Freycinet National Park’s porcelain-white sands fringe grey-green bushland. We’d set off onboard the purpose-built vessel, Saffire, from our mooring at Great Oyster Bay half an hour earlier, eyes peeled for whales, with our guide Chris Theobald. A consummate host, Chris is equally at home working in the world’s luxury lodges as he is in its wildest places: as an animal tracker by trade, he’s latterly been following the paw prints of snow leopards in the Himalayas and pumas in Patagonia. But he’s in his element here, too, on the east coast of lutruwita/Tasmania: pristine and teeming with nature, its sense of space unrivalled.…

Sal Salis THE SOFT GLOW OF FIRST LIGHT streams through the shaded mesh covering of my nature en suite. A palm-sized shell from the nearby beach adorns the ledge and a cool ocean breeze rushes through the gap in my tent, collecting strands of my hair as I splash water on my face to start the day. I’m suddenly super aware of how precious this finite resource is after three nights sleeping by the ocean on the sand dunes of Western Australia’s Cape Range National Park where they get 200 millimetres of rain a year – if they’re lucky. Here, cocooned in a rustic eco-wilderness tent at Sal Salis Ningaloo Reef, I wake with the sunrise and fall asleep to the sound of the ocean crashing against the reef. No…

Ultimate summer Hotel Marvell This downtown, five-star hotel is sleek, minimal and oozes Byron-ness. Complete with an ultra-cool rooftop pool and cocktail bar to capture the warm sunsets, plus elegant onsite restaurant, Bonito, this luxe stay offers rooms and suites in the middle of the action. hotelmarvell.com.au The Brooklet A hinterland hideaway focused on wellness, The Brooklet comprises six luxury villas and the three-bedroom The Bails, set on a lush, undulating 50-hectare property. With a gym, massage room, pool, sauna, hot tub and ice bath, it’s the place to kickstart a new you in absolute style. thebrooklet.com.au The Swell Adding to Byron’s collection of revived accommodation is The Swell, the town’s new, boutique 16-room hotel. Warm and textural styling flows from room to pool to Swell Bar and makes for…

Hunter Valley It hasn’t quite nudged midday when I’m sipping chardonnay and eating homegrown olives pickled in fennel while looking out over the vines. The sunsets here are said to be spectacular, with the light illuminating the dramatic sandstone escarpment. THERE ARE CERTAIN POINTS during a trip to the Hunter Valley that make you feel like you’ve stepped straight into a Frederick McCubbin painting. The Australian impressionist captured in brushstrokes an early Australian pastoral ideal in all its tawny shades of green and burnished golds offset by a blue sky or a marbled sunset. And despite being Australia’s most popular wine region, just over two hours from Sydney and an even quicker skip down the road from Newcastle, the Hunter still serves up these vistas in abundance and quick succession:…

sydney opera house . what’s on . wanderlust . see you soon Artist Mirka Mora stitched her way into Australia’s cultural fabric with her innovative embroidery and art career spanning seven decades. The anthropomorphic figures in Mora’s works, such as Moo-cow in Orchard, featured in an iconic garment collaboration helmed by Lisa Gorman’s eponymous fashion label. A new exhibition celebrates the collection and the artworks of both creatives. Turn to page 182 for more.…