100 Great Things To Do In Australia You've Never Heard Of

From incredible sculptures to swimming with seals, sharks and tuna. This is Australian Traveller's list of 100 Great Things To Do In Australia You've Never Heard Of . . . BY AT Staff

Overwhelming feedback from our seminal 100 Things To Do In Australia Before You Die led us to think we’d missed something: sure, we had all the big icons covered, but what about the underrated and unknown?

These are the experiences we as Australians value and love about this amazing, sometimes bizarre, continent. We figured we’re always coming across something fascinating we’ve never heard of before, why not share it with the world?

Once again our esteemed panellists got right into the spirit of the exercise, plucking the best and brightest from an original list of hundreds and hundreds of great nominations from around the country. They deserve our hearty thanks, because by its very nature this was a far trickier task than identifying Australia’s major icons, since no one panellist had heard of even a fraction of the attractions offered. But if it sounded intriguing and their reactions led them to exclaim, “now that I’d like to see,” then there was a fair chance that you, the reader, would agree.

The result is a fun, fascinating, wonderful eye-opener of a bible to some of the historic, mythic, incredible hidden corners of Australia.

As always, please send us any Great Things you think we’ve missed.

See you out there,

The Australian Traveller Team

 

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Click the links below to check out each 100 Great Things Entry

1-50

51-100

001 Explore Kakadu’s little brother Litchfield 002 Be cast for eternity onto salty Lake Ballard 003 Swim with wild seals at Baird Bay 004 Go on holiday save 100 lives at Mapoon 005 Reach the oasis of Ormiston Gorge 006 Visit the other remarkable pebble Mount Augustus 007 Open a half-million-year-old treasure chest Naracoorte Caves 008 Visit one of the world’s oldest art galleries Carnarvon Gorge 009 Go swimming with tuna at Port Lincoln 010 Hear a great set of pipes at the Undara Lava Tubes 011 Walk to Art in Melbourne 012 Stay the night in a light on Montague Island 013 Lose yourself in the bluest lagoon at Fitzroy Reef 014 Call the birds in on towering Mount Gower 015 Take a vow of silence in New Norcia 016 Be among the first to paint the hills in outback SA 017 Celebrate Australian biodiversity at Australian Garden 018 Adrift on a Dead Sea at the Pool of Siloam 019 Rent your own island in the Mackerel Islands 020 Get dragged around with Sydney by Diva 021 Look! Up in the sky! It’s your round! Flying Pub Crawl 022 Bathe in convict history at the Bogey Hole 023 Live the life of a keeper on Gabo Island 024 See Sydney from a VERY different angle 025 Paddle under a convict prison in Fremantle 026 Play catch with sharks on the Undersea Explorer 027 Lose your blues at Greens Pool 028 Be a postman for a day on the Outback Mail Run 029 Take the longest sheer plunge down Wallaman Falls 030 Stay at Kangaroo’s lighthouse trinity 031 Dive into the world’s purest cleanest water Mount Gambier 032 See the world at 300m per second in a Mig Jet 033 Gain some extremely remote access at Garig Ganuk Barlu 034 Find food for your soul at Flames of the Forest 035 Stride among the city of Gnomes 036 Watch over Australia’s moodiest lake Blue Lake 037 The Sound of Music at Mount Scoria 038 See blind shrimps and a million stars at Cutta Cutta Caves 039 Fly to the ancient source of Australian art 040 Visit our most haunted house Monte Cristo Homestead 041 See the other side of the rainbow Rainbow Serpent Tour 042 Twitter with the Twitchers at Coffs Coast 043 Stroll along the seabed with Seawalker 044 Find a home among the Banksias 045 Bathe in a boiling outback lake at Dalhousie Springs 046 Spot Australia’s oldest graffiti on Chambers Pillar 047 Get on your soapbox Australian Billy Cart Champs 048 Travel in a clattering time machine the Afghan Express 049 Take tea with the Morning Tea Ladies on Tiwi Island 050 Go French for a hidden tourism gem French Island

051 Go to sea in a tinnie at the Beer Can Regatta 052 Hold your breath for the dive of the century Fish Rock Cave 053 Fly in raft out on the North Johnstone River 054 Run with white lions in Mogo Zoo 055 Win your wife’s weight in beer Wife Carrying Champs 056 Don’t fence me in at Cameron’s Corner 057 Watch spawning cuttlefish off Whyalla 058 Proclaim yourself King for the night Kings Plains Castle 059 Walk through untouched lands Kakadu Hawk Dreaming 060 Visit an outback slice of the ’50s at Bells Milk Bar 061 Imagine the land before maps on the Great North Road 062 Catch your own seafood platter at Black Point 063 Prepare to circle the wagons in Bendigo 064 Hop on Tasmania’s newest ride Piners and Miners Tour 065 Play polo in Banjo country at the Geebung Polo Match 066 Make your own wine at Penfolds 067 Tinker with Tilba Tilba’s trinkets 068 Walk among the dolomites in the Hastings Caves 069 Make like Moses at Burning Mountain 070 Go deep underground with Douggie’s Mine Tours 071 Boogie-woogie on rails in the Blues Train 072 Rent your own cave in the Upper Blue Mountains 073 Visit Australia’s unknown Grand Canyon Capertee Valley 074 Share your secrets with the Whispering Wall 075 Find your way among the roses at Ashcombe 076 Bomb the Perry Sandhills on the banks of the Murray 077 Have the perfect family day at Parsley Bay 078 Stumble across Beautiful Betsy 079 Crawl through a goldmine at Arltunga 080 See the giant water babies at Point Ann 081 Crawl through a convict tunnel in Clarence 082 Visit a country within a country Principality of Hutt River 083 Back your favourite cane toad on Magnetic Island 084 Twirl a brolly from a previous century Old Umbrella Shop 085 Delve into your immigrant past at the National Archives 086 Visit Hans Heysen’s home among the gumtrees 087 Spot Australia’s rarest mammal at Two Peoples Bay 088 Dive into surfing heartland’s Blue Pool 089 See the walls come alive at Kurri Kurri 090 See the world’s largest acrylic painting at Broken Hill 091 Sail the postman’s run up the Hawkesbury 092 Join the outback pest war against the Yellow Crazy Ants 093 Roll with the pumpkins at Goomeri 094 Wander through the scarecrows in the vineyard 95 Step through the looking glass National Art Glass Gallery 096 Get the best coffee in the galaxy at Tidbinbilla 097 Ride fly eat and learn on the Flying Camel Tour 098 Pay your respects to Tom Roberts’ Big Picture 099 Drink the world’s most expensive coffee 100 Set your spider senses tingling at Australia’s Venom Zoo