Australia’s Strangest Day Tours

1. Boar Busters

Pest control is really not a sexy business, so kudos has to go to Boar Busters at Mission Beach in Qld, who’ve managed to turn their contract to get rid of feral pigs into a tourism opportunity. The Big Pig Shindig allows guests to get as involved as the Occupational Health and Safety chaps will allow. And, yes, that means getting dirty. The Boar Busters try to stagger things so that their guests can set a trap, check devices that have already been set and see pigs that have been caught in the previous day’s traps.

Details // Boar Busters (www.boarbusters.com.au 0427 406 887) operates the Big Pig Shindig for $90 per person. The day out also includes a visit to a croc farm.

2. Quoll Patrol

Of all the cutesy Australian animals most people would be gagging to see in the wild, the quoll would be quite far down the list, probably below the pademelon and above the irukandji jellyfish. But this won’t deter the chaps at Pepper Bush Adventures in Launceston, who spend the best part of their eight to ten hour “Quoll Patrol" following the little critters around in dark. As part of the trip, there’s a bush tucker and Tasmanian game-heavy dinner, but once that’s out the way, it’s all about scrabbling through the Tasmanian bush, chasing spotty marsupials with torches.

Details // Quoll Patrol with Pepper Bush Adventures (03 6352 2263, (www.pepperbush.com.au ), cost dependent on individual preferences and

3. Go industrial – Rio Tinto Alumina Refinery Gladstone tour

Who needs beautiful beaches when you’ve got the world’s largest alumina refinery and the fifth-largest coal export plant on Earth? Yep, Gladstone is that sexy. Every day a different bus tour goes from the coastal Qld town to one of its industrial delights for behind-the-scenes access to heavy machinery. On Wednesday, it’s the port; on Thursday, the power station. But the real highlight is on the Friday, when the three-hour tour goes to both the Rio Tinto Alumina Refinery and Australia’s largest smelter.

Details // Tours are free, but bookings are essential via the Gladstone Visitor Info Centre (07 4972 9000).

4. Canberra Host and History Tour

Ghost tours aren’t particularly unusual any more – you can find one in pretty much every Australian town. But Destiny Tours’ Weird Canberra Ghost and History Tour is a little bit different. For a start, it’s led by Tim The Yowie Man – the shorts-clad shameless self-publicist with an almost unhealthy obsession with mysterious creatures. He’s the Australian National Museum’s resident cryptonaturalist, and he promises that the tour will take in tales of secret tunnels, buried art treasures and coffins in Lake Burley Griffin. There’s also a hidden cave, a haunted embassy and an old homestead that makes people’s noses bleed. But the weirdest things are arguably the fellow passengers – the people who book to go on this tour have a tendency to dress in Halloween-esque garb.

Details // $64 with Destiny Tours (02 9943 0167).

A town charmingly paused in time has become a hot mountain biking destination.

There’s a forest reserve full of eucalyptus and pines surrounding town – when you combine all the greenery with a main street of grand old buildings still standing from the Victorian Gold Rush, Creswick looks more period movie set than a 21st-century town.

old gold bank Victoria — Grand buildings from the Victorian gold rush. (Image: Visit Victoria)

This entire region of Victoria – the Central Goldfields – is as pretty-as-a-picture, but there’s something extra-special about Creswick. I used to live 30 minutes north; I’d drive in some evenings to cruise its main street at dusk, and pretend I was travelling back in time.

It was sleepy back then, but that’s changed. Where I used to walk through its forest, now I’m hurtling down the state’s best new mountain bike trails. There’s a 60-kilometre network of mountain bike trails – dubbed Djuwang Baring – which make Creswick the state’s hottest new mountain biking destination.

Meet Victoria’s new mountain biking capital

Creswick bike trail — This historic town has become a mountain biking hotspot.

Victoria has a habit of turning quiet country towns into mountain biking hotspots. I was there in the mid-2000s when the tiny Otways village of Forrest embarked on an ambitious plan to save itself (after the death of its timber cutting industry) courtesy of some of the world’s best mountain bike trails. A screaming success it proved to be, and soon mountain bike trails began popping up all over Victoria.

I’m no expert, so I like that a lot of Creswick’s trails are as scenic as they are challenging. I prefer intermediate trails, such as Down Martuk, with its flowing berms and a view round every corner. Everyone from outright beginners to experts can be happy here. There’s trails that take me down technical rock sections with plenty of bumps. But there’s enough on offer to appeal to day-trippers, as much as hard-core mountain-bikers.

I love that the trails empty onto that grand old main street. There’s bars still standing from the Gold Rush of the 1850s I can refuel at. Like the award-winning Farmers Arms, not to be confused with the pub sharing its name in Daylesford. It’s stood since 1857. And The American Creswick built two years later, or Odessa Wine Bar, part of Leaver’s Hotel in an 1856-built former gold exchange bank.

The Woodlands is set on a large bushland property. (Image: Vanessa Smith Photography)

Creswick is also full of great cafes and restaurants, many of them set in the same old buildings that have stood for 170 years. So whether you’re here for the rush of the trails or the calm of town life, Creswick provides.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

Inside the Woodlands, a chic 1970s log cabin. (Image: Vanessa Smith Photography)

RACV Goldfields Resort is a contemporary stay with a restaurant, swimming pool and golf course. The Woodlands in nearby Lal Lal comprises a chic log cabin set on a 16-hectare property abundant in native wildlife.

Eating there

Le Peche Gourmand makes for the perfect pitstop for carb and sugar-loading.

The menu at Odessa at Leaver’s Hotel includes some Thai-inspired fare. Fuel up for your ride on baguettes and pastries from French patisserie Le Peche Gourmand . The Farmers Arms has been a much-loved local institution since 1857.

Playing there

Creswick State Forest has a variety of hiking trails, including a section of the 210-kilometre-long Goldfields Track. Miss Northcotts Garden is a quaint garden store with tea room.

If a bog-standard bus trip around the well-trodden highlights doesn’t quite cut the mustard for you any more, it’s time to ramp up the quirky quotient. David Whitley ticks off the top five seriously odd day tours being offered around the country.

1. Boar Busters

2. Quoll Patrol

3. Go industrial – Rio Tinto Alumina Refinery Gladstone tour

4. Canberra Host and History Tour

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