8 February 13, 2022The Sunday Times
Travel Australia
HOP IT A familiar sight in Australia
→Continued from page 7
Then you’ll visit the city of Alice
Springs, an outback outpost worthy of
Crocodile Dundee and the gateway to
Watarrka National Park. Here you can
hike up Heartbreak Hill to experience the
vertiginous Rim Walk at Kings Canyon,
where marine fossils sit in 330-million-
year-old sandstone, and marvel at the
36 silicate domes of Kata Tjuta. The Red
Centre’s undoubted highlight is Uluru,
deeply sacred to the indigenous Anangu
people. Plan to visit at dawn or dusk,
when its colours deepen through bright
orange to dusky plum.
Details Twelve nights on the Ghan
Ultimate Wildlife & Outback itineraryfrom £2,997pp, including most meals,
transfers, car hire and activities
(trailfinders.com). Fly to AdelaideTHE GREAT SOUTHERN
ADELAIDE TO BRISBANE
A relative newcomer to Australia’s
clutch of luxury train journeys, the
Great Southern route only launched in
December 2019. Linking Adelaide to the
wonderful — and woefully overlooked
— city of Brisbane, this service explores
the landscapes and extraordinary
experiences across Australia’s
southeastern corner.Running exclusively during the
Australian summer, the route stops in
Victoria’s spectacular Grampians Ranges
— a fantastic area for hiking, with a
network of sylvan trails that often end in
the craggy escarpments overlooking the
Victoria Valley. In Australia’s capital city,
Canberra, you’ll stop to take in the lesser-
visited, modern heart of the nation, and
get a glimpse of Australia’s recent history
at the humbling National War Memorial.
The final stop before arriving in
Brisbane is the laid-back beach town of
Coffs Harbour — a great place to top up
your tan on the sand, in the sea or
simply while browsing the eclectic
Harbourside markets.
Details Two nights’ all-inclusive
from £1,174pp, including activities
(journeybeyondrail.com.au).
Fly to AdelaideSPIRIT OF THE
OUTBACK BRISBANE
TO LONGREACH
Heading west for more than 820
miles, the Spirit of the Outback
is a government-run sleeper train
service that departs from Brisbane
and spends 26 hours travelling through
rugged Queensland outback to the
remote settlement of Longreach.
Accommodation classes on board
range from standard economy, which
has reclining seats and footrests (but
no bedding), right through to the private
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rivateTEST YOUR VERTIGO
Eighty-eight floors above
the city, the Melbourne
Skydeck has undergone
a huge refurb during the
hiatus of the pandemic.
There’s now a virtual reality
6D cinema, which throws in
smells, sounds, movements
and vibrations as the film
embarks on a journey of
the top tourist sights in
Melbourne and Victoria. But
no one comes to a 285m-
high observation deck to
look at a screen. The Edge
— a transparent box over
the street far, far below —
is the main event. Calm the
nerves with a few glasses
of fizz at the new Bar 88.
Entry from £15
(melbourneskydeck.com.au)TAKE YOUR NOSH NATIVE
The best Australian dining
tends to be reinterpretations
of cuisine from other
countries. But Aussie chefs
are beginning to discover
the wonders of native
ingredients. Case in point?
Big Esso in Melbourne’s
meet-up hotspot Federation
Square. Here, Nornie Bero,
from the Torres Strait
Islands, works magic with
authentic local ingredients:
baby snapper is cooked in
paperbark, emu fillets come
with saltbush chimichurri,
and finger lime and
wattleseed pepper the
menu. It’s not just a few
token trend-chasing dishes,either — every dish on
the menu gets an Aussie
addition.
Mains from £16
(mabumabu.com.au)MAKING TECH FUN
Once a well-meaning but
slightly daggy amble
through the high points
and Baz Luhrmann films of
Australian cinema, ACMI in
Federation Square has got
much more ambitious. The
£21 million redevelopment
gets seriously inventive in
engaging visitors with what
is now called “screen
culture”. You can play at
editing together film scenes,
making optical toys and
animating shadows. There’s
still a celebration of Aussie
cinema, TV and gaming,
but the way ACMI blends
the physical and digital is
impressively clever.
Importantly, though, it’s
never tech for tech’s sake.
Free entry (acmi.net.au)WHAT’S NEW IN... MELBOURNE
At the Melbourne Skydeck