Australia-Melbourne,Great Ocean Road,Twelve Apostles,Sydney,Blue Mountains,Uluru,Great Reef Barrier
St Paul’s Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Melbourne. It is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Melbourne and the seat of the Archbishop of Melbourne, who is also the metropolitan archbishop of the Province of Victoria.
The cathedral was designed by the English Gothic Revival architect William Butterfield and completed in 1891, except for the spires which were built to a different design from 1926 to 1932.
State Library Victoria is located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia’s oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the world. It is also Australia’s busiest public library and, as of 2023, the third busiest library globally.
The library’s collection consists of over five million items, which in addition to books includes manuscripts, paintings, maps, photographs and newspapers, with a special focus on material from Victoria, including the diaries of Melbourne founders John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner, the folios of Captain James Cook, and the armour of Ned Kelly.
The landmark Domed Reading Room was opened in 1913, and was designed by Norman G. Peebles of Bates Smart. Its octagonal space was designed to hold over a million books and up to 600 readers.
It is 34.75 metres in both diameter and height, and its oculus is nearly 5 metres wide. The dome was the largest in the world on completion. The Old Melbourne Gaol is a former jail and current museum on Russell Street, in Melbourne.
It consists of a bluestone building and courtyard, and is located next to the old City Police Watch House and City Courts buildings, and opposite the Police Headquarters.
It was first constructed starting in 1839, and during its operation as a prison between 1845 and 1924, it held and executed some of Australia’s most notorious criminals, including bushranger Ned Kelly and serial killer Frederick Bailey Deeming. In total, 133 people were executed by hanging.
The three-storey museum displays information and memorabilia of the prisoners and staff, including death masks of the executed criminals. At one time the museum displayed what was believed at the time to be Ned Kelly’s skull, before it was stolen in 1978;
As well as the pencil used by wrongly convicted Colin Campbell Ross to protest his innocence in writing, before being executed. In 1957, the National Trust of Australia listed the Old Melbourne Gaol on its heritage register, and a year later marked it as a site that needed to be preserved at all costs.
Furthermore, in 1965, the Melbourne Junior Chamber of Commerce floated the idea of converting it into a museum, for the purposes of tourism. In 1972, the gaol was reopened as a public museum, under the management of the National Trust of Australia (Victoria).
Chinatown is an ethnic enclave in the central business district of Melbourne. Centred at the eastern end of Little Bourke Street, and consists of numerous laneways, alleys and arcades. Established in the 1850s during the Victorian gold rush,
It is notable for being the longest continuous ethnic Chinese settlement in the Western World and the oldest Chinatown in the Southern Hemisphere. The Royal Exhibition Building is a World Heritage-listed building, built in 1879–1880 as part of the international exhibition movement,
Which presented over 50 exhibitions between 1851 and 1915 around the globe. The building sits on approximately 26 hectares (64 acres), is 150 metres (490 ft) long and is surrounded by four city streets.
Parliament House is the meeting place of the Parliament of Victoria, one of the parliaments of the Australian states and territories. The grand colonnaded front dominates the vista up Bourke Street. Construction began in 1855, and the first stage was officially opened the following year, with various sections completed over the following decades.
Captain Cook’s Cottage is located in the Fitzroy Gardens. The cottage was constructed in 1755 in the English village of Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, by the parents of Captain James Cook and was brought to Melbourne in 1934 by the Australian philanthropist Sir Russell Grimwade.
The inside of the cottage includes centuries-old antiques and is stylised in the way of the 18th century. Eureka Tower is a 297.3 m (975 ft) skyscraper located in the Southbank precinct of Melbourne. Construction began in August 2002 and the exterior was completed on 1 June 2006.
The plaza was finished in June 2006 and the building was officially opened on 11 October 2006. The project was designed by Melbourne architectural firm Fender Katsalidis Architects and was built by Grocon (Grollo Australia). Eureka Tower is named after the Eureka Stockade, a rebellion during the Victorian gold rush in 1854.
This has been incorporated into the design, with the building’s gold crown representing the gold rush and a red stripe representing the blood spilt during the revolt.
The blue glass cladding that covers most of the building represents the blue background of the stockade’s flag and the white lines also represent the Eureka Stockade flag. The white horizontal stripes also represent markings on a surveyor’s measuring staff.
When measured either by the height of its roof, or by the height of its highest habitable floor, Eureka Tower was the tallest residential building in the world when completed.
Skydeck 88 features The Edge – a glass cube which projects 3 m (9.8 ft) out from the building with visitors inside, suspended almost 300 m (980 ft) above the ground. The Great Ocean Road is an Australian National Heritage-listed 240-kilometre (150 mi) stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia.
Built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932, and dedicated to soldiers killed during World War I, the road is the world’s largest war memorial. Winding through varying terrain along the coast, and providing access to several prominent landmarks, including the Twelve Apostles limestone stack formations,
The road is an important tourist attraction. Construction began on 19 September 1919. Approximately 3,000 returned servicemen worked on the project, which was a war memorial for servicemen killed in World War I.
In 2004, the Great Ocean Walk opened, connecting 104 km of walking trails that follow the coastline near the Great Ocean Road, stretching from Apollo Bay to the 12 Apostles. Lorne is a seaside town on Louttit Bay.
It is situated about the Erskine River and is a popular destination on the Great Ocean Road tourist route. Lorne is in the Surf Coast Shire. Koalas in the wild along the Great Ocean Road.
The Twelve Apostles are a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of Port Campbell National Park, by the Great Ocean Road. Their proximity to one another has made the site a popular tourist attraction. Eight of the original nine stacks remain standing at the Twelve Apostles’ viewpoint, after one collapsed in July 2005.
Though the view from the promontory by the Twelve Apostles never included twelve stacks, additional stacks are located to the west within the national park. The Twelve Apostles were formed by erosion. The harsh and extreme weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually erode the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs,
Which then become arches that eventually collapse, leaving rock stacks up to 50 m (160 ft) high. The stacks are susceptible to further erosion from waves. In July 2005, a 50-metre-tall (160 ft) stack collapsed, leaving eight standing at the Twelve Apostles’ viewpoint.
Due to wave action eroding the cliffs, existing headlands are expected to become new limestone stacks in the future. In March 2023, the Federal Court of Australia ruled in favour of formally recognising the Eastern Maar people as traditional owners’ of 8,578 km2 of land located in south-west Victoria, including the Twelve Apostles.
The Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney is a heritage-listed major 30-hectare (74-acre) botanical garden, event venue and public recreation area located at Farm Cove on the eastern fringe of the Sydney central business district.
Opened in 1816, the garden is the oldest scientific institution in Australia and one of the most important historic botanical institutions in the world. The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney.
Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world’s most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architecture. Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, but completed by an Australian architectural team headed by Peter Hall,
The building was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973, 16 years after Utzon’s 1957 selection as winner of an international design competition. The Government of New South Wales, led by the premier, Joseph Cahill, authorised work to begin in 1958 with Utzon directing construction.
The government’s decision to build Utzon’s design is often overshadowed by circumstances that followed, including cost and scheduling overruns as well as the architect’s ultimate resignation. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney.
The view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is widely regarded as an iconic image of Sydney, and of Australia itself. The building comprises multiple performance venues, which together host well over 1,500 performances annually, attended by more than 1.2 million people.
Performances are presented by numerous performing artists, including three resident companies: Opera Australia, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Under the direction of John Bradfield, the bridge was designed and built by British firm Dorman Long of Middlesbrough, and opened in 1932.
The bridge’s general design, which Bradfield tasked the NSW Department of Public Works with producing, was a rough copy of the Hell Gate Bridge in New York City. The design chosen from the tender responses was original work created by Dorman Long,
Who leveraged some of the design from its own Tyne Bridge. It is the tenth-longest spanning-arch bridge in the world and the tallest steel arch bridge, measuring 134 m (440 ft) from top to water level.
It was also the world’s widest long-span bridge, at 48.8 m (160 ft) wide, until construction of the new Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver was completed in 2012. In December 2006, BridgeClimb launched to climbing the upper arches of the bridge.
The Discovery Climb allows climbers to ascend the lower chord of the bridge and view its internal structure. From the apex of the lower chord, climbers ascend a staircase to a platform at the summit. The Queen Victoria Building is a heritage-listed late-nineteenth-century building.
Designed as a marketplace, it was used for a variety of other purposes, underwent remodelling, and suffered decay until its restoration and return to its original use in the late twentieth century. Sydney Ferries is the public transport ferry network serving the city of Sydney.
Services operate on Sydney Harbour and the connecting Parramatta River. The facility features a modern expressionist design, with a series of large precast concrete “shells”, each composed of sections of a sphere of 75.2 metres (246 ft 8.6 in) radius, forming the roofs of the structure, set on a monumental podium.
The building covers 1.8 hectares (4.4 acres) of land and is 183 m (600 ft) long and 120 m (394 ft) wide at its widest point. The Concert Hall is in the western group of shells.
With 2,679 seats, the home of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and used by a large number of other concert presenters. Sydney Tower Eye is the tallest structure in Sydney. The tower stands 309 m (1,014 ft) above the Sydney central business district.
The tower is open to the public, and is one of the most prominent tourist attractions in the city. Featherdale Wildlife Park is a zoo located in Doonside. The park contains various species native to Australia, and is known to be one of the world’s largest collections of Australian fauna.
The facility provides displays, events and interactive experiences. The site covers 3.29 hectares (8.1 acres), ranging from animal enclosures and display areas to visitor facilities. It specialises in Australian native wildlife and birds, as well as reptiles and marsupials. The wildlife park allows for up-close encounters with many different species.
Interactive species encounters include kangaroo feeding and koala, penguin and quokka encounters. The Blue Mountains are a mountainous region and a mountain range located in New South Wales. The name Blue Mountains is derived from the blue tinge the range takes on when viewed from a distance.
Volatile terpenoids emitted in large quantities by the abundant eucalyptus trees may cause the blue haze for which the mountains were named. The commonly told legend of the Three Sisters is that three sisters lived in the valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.
They fell in love with three men from the neighbouring Nepean tribe, but marriage was forbidden by tribal law. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to capture the three sisters.
A major tribal battle ensued, and the sisters were turned to stone by an elder to protect them, but he was killed in the fighting and no one else could turn them back. The Giant Stairway walking track runs down a cliff into the Jamison Valley, near the Three Sisters.
At this location is the Scenic Skyway, a glass-bottom aerial cable car that traverses an arm of the Jamison Valley, and the Scenic Cableway, the steepest aerial cable car in Australia. The Katoomba Scenic Railway is an incline railway now used for tourism,
And originally part of the Katoomba mining tramways constructed between 1878 and 1900. The incline railway descends 415 m (453.85 yd) through sandstone cliffs, via a rock tunnel with a maximum gradient of 52 degrees. Fly over the red center of Australia to the Uluru region.
Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone monolith. It outcrops near the centre of Australia in the southern part of the Northern Territory, 335 km (208 mi) south-west of Alice Springs. Uluru is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara, the Aboriginal people of the area, known as the Aṉangu.
The area around the formation is home to an abundance of springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient paintings. Uluru is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Uluru and Kata Tjuta, also known as the Olgas, are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park.
Uluru is one of Australia’s most recognisable natural landmarks and has been a popular destination for tourists since the late 1930s. It is also one of the most important indigenous sites in Australia. The sandstone formation stands 348 m (1,142 ft) high, rising 863 m (2,831 ft) above sea level
With most of its bulk lying underground, and has a total perimeter of 9.4 km (5.8 mi).[ Uluru is notable for appearing to change colour at different times of the day and year, most notably when it glows red at dawn and sunset.
The reddish colour in the rock derives from iron oxide in the sandstone. Both Uluru and the nearby Kata Tjuta formation have great cultural significance for the local Aṉangu people, the traditional inhabitants of the area, who lead walking tours to inform visitors about the bush, food, local flora and fauna,
And the Aboriginal Dreamtime stories of the area. During heavy rain, waterfalls cascade down the sides of Uluru and Kata Tjuta, a rare phenomenon that only 1% of all tourists get to see. Kata Tjuta, also called Mount Olga or the Olgas, lies 25 km (16 mi) west of Uluru.
Special viewing areas with road access and parking have been constructed to give tourists the best views of both sites at dawn and dusk. Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory. The saltwater crocodile is the largest living reptile.
Males can grow up to a weight of 1,000–1,500 kg (2,200–3,300 lb) and a length of 6 m (20 ft), rarely exceeding 6.3 m (21 ft). Females are much smaller and rarely surpass 3 m (9.8 ft). A billabong is an Australian term describing a small body of water, usually permanent.
It is most often defined as an oxbow lake, caused by a change in course by a river channel. Jabiru is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Built in 1982, the town is completely surrounded by Kakadu National Park.
Kakadu National Park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory, covering an area of 19,804 km2 (7,646 sq mi), extending nearly 200 kilometres (124 mi) from north to south and over 100 kilometres (62 mi) from east to west.
Most of the region is owned by the Aboriginal traditional owners, who have occupied the land for around 60,000 years and, today, manage the park jointly with Parks Australia. It also includes a rich heritage of Aboriginal rock art, including highly significant sites, such as Ubirr.
The art sites of Ubirr, Burrunguy and Nanguluwur are internationally recognised as outstanding examples of Aboriginal rock art. Some of the paintings are up to 20,000 years old, which makes them one of the longest historical records of any group of people on earth. The local Aboriginal word for rock art is “kunbim”.
These sites are found in rocky outcrops that have afforded shelter to Aboriginal inhabitants for thousands of years. The painting in these rock shelters were done for various reasons: Hunting – animals were often painted to increase their abundance
And to ensure a successful hunt by placing people in touch with the spirit of the animal Religious significance – at some sites paintings depict aspects of particular ceremonies Stories and learning – stories associated with the Creation Ancestors, who gave shape to the world were painted
Sorcery and magic – paintings could be used to manipulate events and influence people’s lives Fun – for play and practice Mimis are fairy-like beings of Arnhem Land in the folklore of the Aboriginal Australians of northern Australia.
They are described as having extremely thin and elongated bodies, so thin as to be in danger of breaking in case of a high wind. To avoid this, they usually spend most of their time living in rock crevices. According to Aboriginal folklore, Mimi had human form
And made the first rock paintings before the Aboriginal people first came to northern Australia The Mimi taught the Aboriginal people how to paint, and how to hunt and cook kangaroo meat. Anbangbang Rock Shelter shows Namondjok, a Creation Ancestor, with his wife Barrginj below, the Lightning Man Namarrgon to the right,
And a group of men and women with ceremonial headdresses underneath. These Spirit figures were repainted between 1962 and 1964, the last major rock painting at the Anbangbang Art site in Nourlangie Rock. Nawurlandja lookout offers world-class views across Anbangbang Billabong to Burrungkuy and the Arnhem Land escarpment.
The red-tailed black cockatoo is a large black cockatoo native to Australia. Adult males have a characteristic pair of bright red panels on the tail that gives the species its name. It is more common in the drier parts of the continent.
The species is usually found in eucalyptus woodlands, or along water courses. Trinity Beach is approximately 20 kilometres (10 mi) from the Cairns city centre. Cairns is a major tourist destination, with access to two UNESCO world heritage sites; the Daintree Rainforest as part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland,
And the Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Flecker Botanic Gardens is a heritage-listed botanic garden. It was built from 1886 to 1960s. It is now known as Cairns Botanic Gardens. The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history.
The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland’s history.
At around 1,200 square kilometres (460 sq mi), the Daintree is a part of the largest contiguous area of tropical rainforest in Australia, known as the Wet Tropics of Queensland. The region, along with a select number of other rainforest areas on the Australian east coast,
Collectively form some of the oldest extant rainforest communities in the world. At around 180 million years old, these ancient, self-sustaining forests are nearly 10 million years older than the Amazon of South America. The rainforest is named after the Daintree River.
Barron Falls (Aboriginal: Din Din) is a steep tiered cascade waterfall in Kuranda. The falls are created by the Barron River descending from the Atherton Tablelands to the Cairns coastal plain. The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs
And 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometres (1,400 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea. The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world’s biggest single structure made by living organisms.
This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps. It supports a wide diversity of life and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981. CNN labelled it one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World in 1997.
Australian World Heritage places included it in its list in 2007. The blacktip reef shark is a species of requiem shark, which can be easily identified by the prominent black tips on its fins. Among the most abundant sharks inhabiting the tropical coral reefs of the Indian and Pacific Oceans,
This species prefers shallow, inshore waters. The blacktip reef shark is usually found over reef ledges and sandy flats, though it has also been known to enter brackish and freshwater environments. It typically attains a length of 1.6 m (5.2 ft). Like other sharks, the females are larger than the males.
Australia – Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, Twelve Apostles, Sydney, Blue Mountains, Uluru, Kakadu, Darwin, Great Reef Barrier