10 ways you can see Australia on wheel and wing

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We’ve rounded up the best ways to traverse the country on road, off-road and from the air: from the exhilarating to the epicurean and sometimes both at once.

1. Wheel around the wildflowers

VARIOUS LOCATIONS, WA

Western Australia surely has one of the most spectacular wildflower seasons in the country.

 

You’ll be compelled to snap away as the dusty red landscape turns into a veritable patchwork quilt of colour.

 

If you’re not keen to self-drive, throw your lot in with Luxury Outback Tours’ seven-day wildflower itinerary, where you also have the chance to travel to some of the state’s most engaging sites, such as Wave Rock, Cape Le Grand and Esperance.

2. For those who just like to tag along in the sand

Love to drive, hate to navigate?

Yep, we can do without those arguments that make you dream of ejecting your spouse onto the side of the road.

 

Happily, there are some incredible 4WD tag-along tours that alleviate the stress and leave you with the scenery.

FRASER’S ON RAINBOW BEACH, QLD

You don’t even need your own 4WD for this three-day tour, which takes you along Fraser’s stunning sands, into the rainforest and through creeks.

 

Included is all food and camping equipment, so you just need to bring yourself, your licence and a sense of adventure.

 

Oh, and if you’re a little apprehensive about putting wheel-to-sand, we recommend a Girls Got Grit preparatory course.

DIRK HARTOG ISLAND, WA

An island with a history that spans guano mining, pearling and sheep grazing, Dirk Hartog Island  is now used more sustainably for tourism.

 

Discover rock pools, blow-holes, a salt lake called Rose Lake, and long stretches of beach with impossibly clear waters.

 

The island’s isolation will make you feel like the last people on Earth.

 

The ‘Return to 1616’ tag-along tour incorporates restoration of the vegetation and habitat and includes 4WD, accommodation and meals.

3.  It’s Australia’s (better) answer to Big Sur. And, we know you love it

GREAT OCEAN ROAD, VIC

Sometimes the journey is just as much about the ride as the sights.

 

And when it comes to the Great Ocean Road, you, our readers, vote for it each year in our People’s Choice Awards, so we assume you’ve perhaps done the drive more than once.

 

Next time, why not leave the driving to someone else and spend a day cruising around in absolute coastal style in a 1974 VW Kombi Transporter Microbus?

 

Take Hike & Seek’s Great Otway National Park tour and return via the Great Ocean Road in style. Surf’s up, dudes.

4. Ride the rainforest and sleep in a pod

BLUE DERBY PODS RIDE, TAS

A brand-new experience has just launched in Tasmania’s Derby that will have mountain bikers eagerly donning their helmets.

 

The existing trails are already a hot spot for adventurers on two wheels, but the new Blue Derby Pods Ride will add an extra level to the experience with a three-day itinerary that includes fine Tassie food and wine, and accommodation in unique architecturally designed pods.

5. Arriving Bond-style by seaplane is a dream we all share

OUTBACK FLOATPLANE ADVENTURES, NT

It’s not just the seaplane that we love about Outback Floatplane Adventures’ Ultimate Tour, no, you get to travel in all the vehicles, including a helicopter, airboat (that other Bond-looking contraption with a giant fan that propels you from villains, or crocs) and luxury cruise vessel.

 

It’s a bird’s-and-fish-eye view of tropical Northern Territory’s breathtaking scenery and wildlife, and is a guaranteed boast-worthy trip.

6. Rolling in the streets

ADELAIDE, SA

Adelaide’s vibrant food truck scene has flourished since 2012, with a diverse array on city streets for mid-week lunches and large public events on weekends, including the frequent Fork On The Road food truck cluster events.

 

“Variety is the magic ingredient," says Mohamed Bensaid, of Moorish Bites.

 

“We introduce a whole world of different ethnic foods that you just can’t find in restaurants."

 

Here’s our pick from across the board:

 

1. Moorish Bites, Meloui: A luscious Moroccan pancake filled with spinach and feta cheese, or with eggplant, chicken, lamb or marinated fish.

 

2. La Chiva, Chivita de Chorizo: Feisty Colombian chorizo patties packed in soft bread rolls with lettuce, coriander, smoked salsa sauce and mayonnaise.

 

3. Bodri’s Taste of Hungary, Kurtosh Kalach: This towering Hungarian chimney cake is made from scratch in the van, with ribbon-like dough wound around a cylinder, covered with sugar and baked to form a crisp, caramelised crust.

7. When money ain’t nothing but a thing

“If only there was a tour that ticked off Australia’s greatest beauties, full of wine and good food, where I could travel in supreme comfort in a private aircraft," laments the gourmand high flyer.

 

If this sounds like you, bemoan your sorry existence no more, for there is just such a tour.

 

Dipping in and out of the sky to feast on the fare and fair landscapes of the Mornington Peninsula, Barossa Valley, Tamar Valley and Freycinet Peninsula (to name a few), this seven-day High Flyers Gourmet Trail from Ultimate Winery Experiences will only set you back a cool $10K or thereabouts.

8. There really is no better way to see it all: Four bucket list road trips

1. The Big Lap: It’s still the big dream: take three months off work, kit out a motorhome and circumnavigate this land.

 

2. The Kimberley Dream: A 4WD journey along the mighty Gibb River Road.

 

3. The Explorer’s Way: Cut the country in half, from Adelaide to Darwin.

 

4. The Nullarbor: It’s the horizontal line in the sand and the classic drive.

9. Go the big distances with the little guys

REX, QLD

Outback Queensland can teach you a thing or two about significant distances.

 

While many opt to drive from Brisbane to Birdsville and around to Bedourie and Boulia, there is another way to see the north-east piece of our nation’s puzzle.

 

Rex is nothing if not regional, and will get you to Winton and back if dinosaur bones are your thing, or to Birdsville for the bash, and to legendary Longreach.

 

So if breaking an axle on a dirt road isn’t your idea of seeing the country, consider the alternative way to get to these amazing outposts.

10. Because mixing booze and bikes can surely never be a bad idea

TOUR DE RIESLING RAIL TRAIL, CLARE VALLEY, SA

What to do with a defunct railway track in wine country?

 

Well, if you’re in the Clare Valley, you throw down some gravel, buy some electric bikes and turn it into a wine tour that Passes incredible wineries such as Skillogalee and Sevenhill.

 

While you’re in the mood: Take a gourmet cycle through Mudgee with Tour De Mudgee Cellar Doors or leave the Lycra at home for the Tour de Gourmet Escape in Milawa.

Lara Picone
Working for many of Australia’s top publications, Lara Picone has had the distinct pleasure of writing, editing and curating content about the finer things in life for more than 15 years. Graduating from Macquarie University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, her editorial foundation began at Qantas: The Australian Way magazine, before moving on to learn the fast-paced ropes of a weekly magazine at Sunday Magazine and picking up the art of brand curation at donna hay magazine. Pivoting a near-problematic travel lust into a career move by combining it with storytelling and a curious appetite, her next role was as Deputy Editor of SBS Feast magazine and later Online Editor of SBS Food online. She then stepped into her dream job as Editor of Australian Traveller before becoming Online Editor for both International Traveller and Australian Traveller. Now as a freelancer, Lara always has her passport at-the-ready to take flight on assignment for the Australian Traveller team, as well as for publications such as Qantas Magazine, Escape and The Weekend Australian. As ever, her appetite is the first thing she packs.
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Victoria’s surprising new outdoor adventure hotspot

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
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 

1970s log cabin
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
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 

Miss NorthcottsGarden
Miss Northcotts Garden is a charming garden store with tea room. (Image: Visit Victoria)

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. 

10 ways you can see Australia by car and plane | Australian Traveller