BUCKET LIST

From launching off a 140m-high dam wall in Tassie’s South-West to a night in the Old Melbourne Gaol, best-selling author Robin Esrock scoured the country to find unique experiences for his latest book. Here are his highlights.

We present the ultimate guide to things you must do and see throughout this great land of ours.

To be honest, descending the World’s Highest Commercial Abseil is something I would expect to find in New Zealand – not Tasmania. Zorbing, canyon swinging, swooping, body flying, catapulting — Kiwis love combining thrills with gravity. Hoisting myself on to the edge of a 140m-high concrete dam wall, I’m actually grateful that the world’s highest commercial abseil is Australian. The Kiwis would make me bungy jump off the thing. Abseiling is far gentler and, frankly, more enjoyable. Controlling your own descent allows you to look around and appreciate your surroundings, which is something one should do, often, in Tasmania’s beautiful South-West. The Gordon River has the largest supply of freshwater in Australia and, with the blessing of Hydro Tasmania, Aardvark Adventures has been operating the Gordon Dam abseil adventure for more than 20 years. Your ticket includes as many descents as you’d like — provided you’re fit enough to keep climbing the steep 480runged service ladder to the top. Most visitors are content to do it once, saving their energy for the gorgeous three-hour drive back to Hobart.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA: Dive in a Crystal Sinkhole

Mount Gambier has some of the world’s best cave diving, but you usually need specialist training and certification to attempt this notoriously challenging sport. Fortunately, a new local dive shop called Reef 2 Ridge allows Open Water divers to experience the joys on offer in a sinkhole, with exclusive rights to dive a cave called Kilsby’s. After experiencing this otherworldly environment, I headed off to dive (or you can snorkel) Ewens Ponds. Here I found a series of crystal-clear pools connected by narrow channels bursting with aquatic life, some of which you’ll find nowhere else on the planet. Having scuba dived in the Philippines, Anguilla, Hawaii, Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea and the Great Barrier Reef, my day in Mount Gambier proved to one of my finest and most unusual underwater adventures yet.

NSW: Pull Gs on a Treetop Rollercoaster

Ziplines and flying foxes have taken off around the world. Who wouldn’t enjoy a chance to soar above the trees, at great heights or speed. On the central coast of NSW, Treetop Adventures imagined a contraption that would let us do more than that, one that would spiral and zigzag, dip and curl in one seamless motion from start to finish. It took 5000 hours of construction and testing before their Xtreme TreeTop Crazy Rider opened for business. Skirting trees on a kilometre-long track through Ourimbah State Forest, it takes me less than five minutes to conclude this innovative outdoor adventure belongs on everyone’s Australian Bucket List. It is neither a rollercoaster, nor toboggan nor zipline and yet, somehow, is more thrilling than all three.

VICTORIA: Brave a Few Moments in Cell 17

It’s a creepy building during the day, and that’s when it’s just a historical museum. At night, the echo-chamber passageways and thick cells of the Old Melbourne Gaol reveal a far more disturbing atmosphere, aided by the death mask of Ned Kelly and some of the other 131 convicts hanged in the premises. Guided by a storyteller, the evening “Ghosts, What Ghosts?” tour took me through the blackened cellblocks, where I had to walk carefully for fear of tripping over my imagination.

The challenge is to spend time in Cell 17 after the tour concludes, because it is the apex of the Gaol’s supernatural spookiness where the belligerent spectre of a man often appears, where guests feel something push on them, where electronic devices go on the blink, and where I’m told guide dogs refuse to enter. Having floated on the underground tunnels of Fremantle Prison in WA, and visited Port Arthur and Maria Island in Tasmania, Cell 17 is where convict history got under my skin.

NOTHERN TERRITORY: Country on the Larapinta Trail Along with the Overland Trek, the Larapinta Trail is an Aussie bucket-list hike. I signed up with World Expeditions who have condensed this rugged two-week trek into six days of outback hiking, supported by semi-permanent camps with hot showers, meals, knowledgeable guides, and chats around the campfire. The company has integrated Indigenous experiences. Meeting a local Arrernte woman named Deanella Mack in Standley Chasm was as rewarding as watching the sunrise over Mount Sondor in the West McDonnell Ranges. With humour, honesty and analogies, Dee crosses a deep cultural chasm, teaching us about her land and people, and lifting Larapinta Trail to a richer experience.

QUEENSLAND: Sleep on top of the Great Barrier Reef There’s no question the Great Barrier Reef belongs on any Australian bucket list. But how does one tackle a chain of 2900 reefs stretching over 2300km? Stay on an island resort or take a helicopter ride? Snorkel off a pontoon, sail or scuba dive? I did it all, but one experience floated to the top. Cruise Whitsundays operates a 45m long pontoon above Hardy Reef, where daytrippers can snorkel or dive, enjoy a semi-submersible and underwater viewing deck, and learn about the reef ecosystem. At 3pm, the catamaran ferry departs, leaving two-dozen lucky passengers behind. Until 11am the following morning, Reefsleep guests enjoy the colourful coral and marine life all to themselves. Toasting a romantic sunset, I devoured a gourmet sous vide meal, and slept blissfully in a swag under the Milky Way. With the sun rising at my feet, I watched the tides flush across the reef, and after several hours of immaculate uncrowded snorkelling, greeted the day trippers like a seasoned reef veteran.

ACT: Hear Whispers from Deep Space

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, Australia’s unsung heroes of space exploration gaze to the heavens. They are responsible for nearly every picture we have of the celestial bodies in our solar system and beyond; every announcement about galaxies and planets, black holes and distant stars; every mission that takes humanity beyond the moon. Funded by NASA, the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex uses 70m and 34m dishes to track and provide two-way radio transmissions with dozens of spacecraft scouring the solar system and beyond. It’s free to show up, where you can visit the on-site museum (don’t miss a chunk of moon rock and life-size Mars Rover), check out the dishes, and watch data arriving from millions of kilometres away. It’s 45-minutes’ drive from Canberra, so you don’t even have to go to the end of the universe.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Meet Australian Royalty

With so much land and no shortage of eccentrics, Australia has one of world’s highest number of micro-nations. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I drove into the Principality of Hutt River, a micro-nation that has battled the Australian government to recognise its independence since the 1970s when a controversial wheat board was established, posing problems for the local wheat farmers — but a polymath named Leonard discovered loopholes in the law that allowed for succession to save his 18,500 acre farm. Today, the Principality operates its own post office, museum, mint and passport control, and has 13,000 honorary citizens around the world. After chatting with Prince Graeme, who took over the Crown Prince role from retired dad Prince Leonard, I walked away with knowledge of international sovereign law, and respect for the family’s persistence..

The Great Australian Bucket List by Robin Esrock (Affirm Press, $32.99) is out now