Australia
Australia
is a big place.
A whole continent for just one country.
This means it’s about as far to travel from Sydney to Perth
as it is from New York to Los Angeles, and Melbourne to Darwin is
nearly as far. California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona
— and even Texas — would fit into just one State, Western
Australia. But it’s also empty — more people live in
New York State than in all of Australia, and by some estimates on
any weekday Manhattan Island has about two thirds as many people
crowding its offices, houses and streets as Australia has in total.
More significantly, Australia’s
population is very concentrated, along the eastern and southern
coast. In fact, if you carved off a small 20-mile wide strip of
coastal land from Brisbane to Adelaide, you’d remove about
three quarters of the population, leaving as many people as live
in Atlanta to occupy all of Australia. So if you don’t spend
much time in Melbourne or Sydney — which two cities account
for about half the population — you’ll have room to
stretch out.
Of course, with lots of land, and
not many people, infrastructure is not always what we’re used
to in the US. In the Northern Territory, there’s a road going
north from Alice Springs, NT’s second largest city (in fact,
just “other city”) to Darwin, NT‘s capital. A
road. There’s a right turn a couple of hundred miles north
of the Alice that takes you to Mt Isa and the east coast. Don’t
miss it; the next one’s another two hundred miles north of
that, and will take you to — well, pretty much nowhere. But
you aren’t likely to miss it — they are just about the
only paved roads around.
What all this means to most travelers
thinking about an Australia tour is that you are not going to see
it all at once. Just as you wouldn’t try to cover all of Europe
— or the US — in one two week trip, don’t try
to fit it all in, thinking that you won’t return. You probably
will, as it’s a lot shorter journey than most people imagine.
You can board your plane late in the evening in Los Angeles, and
wake up in Sydney in time for breakfast; from New York you can have
an early dinner before you leave, and still enjoy that Sydney breakfast
to begin your Australia tour.
But Australia is not only big, it
a different world. Yes, the people speak English (really!), and
you can buy a McDonalds, but that’s about where the similarities
end. It’s one of those places that tend to sneak up on you.
You’re playing golf in Melbourne, when suddenly the distant
tree stump moves — by hopping away. The local backyard feeder
birds include two sorts of parrots and a cockatoo. Trees drop their
branches, not their leaves. The further north you go, the warmer
it gets. And Christmas is celebrated in shorts and shirtsleeves,
and maybe a swim at the beach.
So when you are
ready to experience a whole new world, with completely different
animals, plants, and scenery at every turn — give us a call,
or email, and we’ll help. We're
the specialists for Australia tours and travel.
Australia in Parts – a brief tour
An
Aussie Dictionary
Aussie Humor
