Country guide
Australia covers 7,688,287 km², sixth largest in the world, and close to 4,000 km separate its east coast from its west. Nearly 28 million people live here, abo...
Photograph · Corey Leopold · CC BY 2.0
Reviewed by Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor
Australia covers 7,688,287 km², sixth largest in the world, and close to 4,000 km separate its east coast from its west. Nearly 28 million people live here, about 80 per cent of them within 25 km of a mainland coastline 35,821 km long — which is the fact that governs any trip taken across it. The cities form a rim around an interior that stays largely empty; Sydney and Melbourne pass five million each, and Canberra, the capital, is neither of them. Six states and ten territories, and a sensible visit chooses two of them rather than the map.
Checked 2026-08-25
Every city catalogued in this country so far, ranked by how much there is to see.
Photograph · W. Bulach · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · Shkuru Afshar · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · Chris Olszewski · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · Samuel Wiki · CC BY 4.0
Photograph · Photograph by Doug Barber · CC BY-SA 3.0
Seasonal closures come from recorded opening hours.
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
31 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
Interests
The State Library of New South Wales is Australia's oldest library, established in 1826. It occupies a prominent position on Macquarie Street in Sydney's central business district, adjacent to the Royal Botanic Garden.
State Library of Queensland is the principal reference and research library of the state, located in the Queensland Cultural Centre on the South Bank of the Brisbane River.
National Gallery of Victoria is an art museum and one of Melbourne's highest-priority visitor stops in the current curated list.
Art Gallery of New South Wales is a major public art museum beside the Domain, combining historic collections with contemporary exhibition spaces.
The Art Gallery of South Australia is a major public art museum in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It forms part of the North Terrace cultural precinct alongside other significant institutions.
Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia occupies the former Maritime Services Board building on Circular Quay West, beside Sydney Harbour. Its galleries bring contemporary art into direct conversation with the waterfront, ferry movement and the Opera House across the quay.
Heide Museum of Modern Art is a Melbourne museum devoted to Australian modern and contemporary art.
His Majesty's Theatre is a historic performing-arts venue in central Perth, Western Australia. It is a destination for theatrical productions, musicals, and live entertainment, as well as a notable heritage building within the city.
Gallery of Modern Art, known as GOMA, is Brisbane's modern and contemporary art museum within the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art complex.
The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art is a leading Melbourne institution dedicated to exhibiting and promoting contemporary art from Australia and around the world.
Princess Theatre is a historic theatre in Melbourne, Victoria. It stands as a significant performing arts venue within the city's cultural landscape. The building contributes to Melbourne's reputation as a major centre for theatre and live entertainment in Australia.
Regent Theatre is a historic Melbourne theatre and a destination for visitors interested in the city's entertainment heritage. It continues to function as a performance venue, bringing contemporary audiences into a building whose architectural character is part of the experience.
Queensland Art Gallery is a public art gallery in Brisbane. The current curated ranking identifies the exact production place and prioritises it for art collections and exhibitions within Brisbane's South Bank cultural precinct.
Capitol Theatre is a heritage-listed theatre located in Sydney, Australia. The building occupies a prominent position within the city's entertainment district. Originally constructed in the early twentieth century, the theatre has undergone various transformations throughout its history.
Her Majesty's Theatre is a historic performance venue in Melbourne's East End Theatre District. The theatre opened in 1886 and remains a working commercial venue for musicals, plays, and live entertainment.
White Rabbit Gallery is a contemporary art museum in Chippendale, Sydney, founded by Judith Neilson to present her collection of twenty-first-century Chinese art. The gallery occupies a converted four-storey knitting factory, giving the visit an industrial architectural setting.
Melbourne Recital Centre is a dedicated live-performance venue in Melbourne's arts precinct, focused on chamber music and recital programming. Its purpose-built architecture and acoustic design place the listening experience at the centre of the visit.
Angel Place Birdcages, also known as Forgotten Songs, is an outdoor artwork in Sydney’s central business district. Suspended cages fill the pedestrian laneway overhead, while recorded birdcalls recall species that once lived around the Tank Stream valley before European settlement.
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a historic performing arts venue located in Adelaide, South Australia. The theatre serves as a significant cultural institution within the metropolitan area, hosting a diverse range of live entertainment productions.
Brett Whiteley Studio is a gallery and studio museum in Sydney dedicated to the life and work of Australian artist Brett Whiteley. The preserved working environment offers a more intimate encounter than a large museum collection.
Goolugatup Heathcote is a cultural precinct and heritage site in the Perth metropolitan area. Its name, Goolugatup, reflects the place’s significance to Noongar people, the Traditional Owners of the land.
Hosier Lane is Melbourne’s celebrated open-air street-art corridor, a public laneway whose identity is made by walls layered with changing murals, tags and painted interventions.
The Institute of Modern Art is a contemporary art institution located in Brisbane. It serves as a venue for the exhibition and promotion of modern and contemporary art practices.
Ipswich Art Gallery is a public art museum in the centre of Ipswich, about 40 kilometres west of Brisbane's central business district.
QUT Art Museum is a contemporary art museum located in Brisbane, Queensland. It forms part of the Queensland University of Technology's cultural precinct at Gardens Point campus.
Ten to fourteen days should cover one coast, one city pair or one city plus a nearby landscape, not the continent. Sydney and Melbourne can share a southeastern route; Perth, the tropical north and the Red Centre each demand separate flights and more time.
Australia’s Department of Home Affairs is the authority for Visitor visas and electronic travel permissions. Select the product for the passport and purpose, complete required declarations, and remember that visa approval does not remove Australia’s strict biosecurity obligations.
Flights are usually the efficient link between distant states. Rail and coaches serve selected corridors, cars become important outside cities, and urban fare cards are local rather than national; remote drives require fuel, water, communications and realistic distance planning.
Australia’s seasons and hazards vary dramatically by latitude. Southern-city summers, tropical dry seasons and Red Centre heat create different windows, so choose dates for the selected region and check official fire, cyclone or flood advice before road travel.
The Australian dollar is the sole recorded currency. Contactless payment is common, but remote roadhouses and small services justify a backup card or cash; check surcharges at the point of sale and budget fuel around long gaps rather than metropolitan prices.
Use 000 for urgent police, fire or ambulance assistance; Australia uses Type I power at 230 V. Treated public tap supplies are recorded as safe, but remote-site notices take precedence, and travellers should save the state emergency service relevant to their route.
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