THE SEVEN WONDERS OF AUSTRALIA

As the premier national park in Australia, Kakadu offers dramatic landscape, Aboriginal rock art and diverse and abundant wildlife. Waterfalls and gorges in the park such as Maguk, Gunlom, Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls are also very popular. The Kakadu region is one of the world’s best for bird watching since 30 percent of the country’s bird species live there. Saltwater crocodiles, kangaroos and wallabies can be seen all over the park. Visitors can also explore some of the oldest aboriginal artwork in Australia. Many of the Kakadu rock drawings date back over 20,000 years.

Probably the best known natural icon of Australia, Uluru or Ayer’s Rock, lures crowds of tourists every year. The iron in the rock makes its colors change through the course of a day from bright to dark red. Uluru is sacred to the local aboriginal people, but it is also of considerable cultural and natural significance. As such, Uluru was inscribed in the UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites.

For many travelers Australia means Sydney and Sydney means the famous shell-shaped Opera House. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the most famous performing arts centers in the world. Moreover, it is visited by some 1.2 million people a year. It is located in the Sydney Harbor close to the Sydney Harbor Bridge and is locally nicknamed "The Coat Hanger" because of its arch-based design. Visitors can take a ferry across the harbor, walk across the top of the bridge, have tea in the Opera House, and take a stroll in the nearby Royal Botanical Gardens.

Yet another World Heritage Site, the Purnululu National Park in Western Australia is famous especially for the Bungle Bungle Range. These beehive-shaped towers made of sandstone and rocks make the park the premier attraction in the region. The domes are unusual and visually striking with their striping in alternating orange and grey bands. Since the park is accessible only in the dry season (April to December) and only by four-wheel-drive vehicles helicopter tours are quite popular there.

The world’s largest coral reef system, the Great Barrier Reef stretches over 2,600 km (1,600 mi). It is composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands. The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland. The reef is also the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. It consists of and is built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps and it supports a wide diversity of life. As such, it was inscribed in the UNESCO’s list of World Heritage in 1981. The reef is also a very popular tourist destination, especially in the Whitsunday Islands and Cairns regions.

Tasmania is well known to travelers looking for pristine beauty and unspoiled wilderness. Besides unique flora and fauna including the endangered Tasmanian Devil, it is also home to the giant eucalyptus tree. The Eucalyptus Regnanst, also known as the Swamp Gum, Mountain Ash or Tasmanian Oak, is the largest flowering plant and hardwood tree in the world. Historically, it has been known to attain heights over 100 meters (330 ft) and is one of the highest tree species in the world. The tallest measured living specimen, named Centurion, stands 99.6 meters tall in Tasmania.

The Great Ocean Road with its 243 km (151 mi) on the southern coast of Victoria is one of the greatest drives in the world. Carved by thousands of years of battering by the Great Southern Ocean, the sandstone formations along the Great Ocean Road are truly stunning. It is an important tourist attraction, which winds through varying terrain alongside the coast, and provides access to several prominent landmarks. Among them are the nationally significant Twelve Apostles limestone stack formation, London Bridge, and Lord Ard Gorge.

Lord Howe’s Island, Fraser Island, Blue Mountains, Coober Peady, Shark Bay, Mungo National Park, Pinnacles Desert …

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