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.
307 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
Interests
The Chinese Garden of Friendship is a traditional Chinese garden located in Sydney. It was established as a symbol of friendship between Sydney and its sister city in China, Guangzhou.
Heide Museum of Modern Art is a Melbourne museum devoted to Australian modern and contemporary art.
Elizabeth Bay House is an 1830s colonial residence built for Alexander Macleay, the colony’s colonial secretary, in Sydney’s inner east.
Elizabeth Farm is a historic house museum in Sydney's Parramatta area and one of Australia's oldest surviving European buildings. John and Elizabeth Macarthur's house was constructed in 1793 and is closely connected with the beginnings of Australia's wool industry.
Saint Patrick's Cathedral
St Patrick's Cathedral is a major Roman Catholic landmark in Melbourne and the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne. Its Gothic Revival design gives the building a strong architectural presence within the city centre.
Hornby Lighthouse is a heritage-listed active lighthouse situated at the southern entrance to Sydney Harbour, on the tip of South Head in Watsons Bay.
Melbourne Town Hall is a civic building serving as the seat of the City of Melbourne local government. Located on Swanston Street in the central business district, it occupies a prominent position in the city's civic and cultural landscape.
St Mary's Cathedral
St Mary's Cathedral is a significant ecclesiastical structure in Sydney, recognised as a meaningful visitor destination within the documented city scope. The cathedral represents an important example of Gothic Revival architecture in Australia.
The Immigration Museum is a museum in Melbourne dedicated to the history of immigration to Australia. It explores the stories of people who have migrated to Victoria and Australia, examining the causes, processes, and impacts of immigration.
The Museum of Sydney is a history museum near Circular Quay on the site of Australia’s first Government House, built in 1788. It explores Sydney’s colonial foundations, Indigenous history and continuing urban development through archaeology, objects, art and multimedia.
Queensland Museum Kurilpa is Queensland's state museum at the Queensland Cultural Centre in Brisbane's South Bank precinct. Its public galleries connect natural history, palaeontology, biodiversity, technology, cultural history and First Nations stories with the museum's active collections and research.
Fitzroy Gardens is a historic public garden in Melbourne, Victoria, situated on the city's eastern fringe near the central business district.
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.
Anzac Square
ANZAC Square is a war memorial and public park in central Brisbane, Queensland. It commemorates Australian and New Zealand Army Corps personnel who served in conflicts.
Old Treasury Building is a grand nineteenth-century public building in Melbourne, Victoria. Built during the Victorian gold rush era, it reflects the wealth and administrative ambition that shaped the young city.
Parramatta Park is a large public park in Parramatta, western Sydney, beside the Parramatta River. It combines open lawns, mature trees, garden areas, walking paths and colonial heritage associations.
Susannah Place Museum preserves a terrace of four houses built in 1844 in Sydney’s The Rocks. The site presents working-class domestic life across more than 150 years, showing how successive families lived within a compact urban terrace.
Manly Beach is a broad ocean beach reached through the Manly peninsula, combining surf frontage with a harbour-to-ocean visitor route.
The Wheel of Brisbane
The Wheel of Brisbane is a prominent observation wheel situated in the South Bank Parklands area of Brisbane, Queensland.
Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens
Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mount Coot-tha is a major botanical garden located in the western suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland. It serves as Brisbane's premier botanical collection and is distinct from the city's other green spaces.
Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia is a Melbourne art gallery devoted to Australian art and located within the Federation Square precinct.
Migration Museum South Australia
The Migration Museum in Adelaide is a cultural institution dedicated to documenting and sharing the stories of people who have migrated to South Australia. It explores themes of displacement, settlement, identity, and belonging through personal narratives and historical records.
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.
Mrs Macquarie's Chair is a historic carved sandstone bench located on a peninsula in Sydney Harbour. It was hand-carved by convicts in 1810 for Elizabeth Macquarie, the wife of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who enjoyed sitting and viewing the harbour.
Bondi Beach is Sydney’s broad, crescent-shaped Pacific shoreline, where a long sweep of sand meets surf, sandstone headlands and the busy Bondi promenade.
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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