The land where big really is beautiful

Exploring a country as enormous as Australia is a matter of choosing the right journey, says Chris Leadbeater

Most people who have taken part in a pub quiz with a round on Australia will have tripped over a question put there to confound: which national capital is closest to Perth? Your pen scribbles down the word “Canberra” – because that has to be the answer, surely – only for the results to reveal that, by air, there are 1,919 miles (3,088km) between Australia’s chief city and its lone west-coast metropolis, but “only” 1,875 miles (3,018km) between Perth and Indonesia’s kingpin Jakarta. There goes your chance of winning.

It is nuggets of trivia like this which demonstrate just how enormous a country Australia is. Here is a southern hemisphere giant where some of the globe’s most alluring cities knock elbows with some of its sparsest desert; a sunny oasis where soft beaches keep company with colossal coral reefs and stark stretches of dramatic shoreline.

Here too is a place that, in terms of travel appeal, can be broken into seven vast segments – six states and one territory, each a little different from its neighbour: New South Wales (visitnsw.com), where Sydney stands as one of the most recognisable cityscapes on Earth; Victoria (tourismvictoria. com), where the Great Ocean Road is fly-drive paradise; South Australia (southaustralia.com), where Adelaide is an urban jewel, but the Flinders Ranges rise as outriders for the Outback; Western Australia (western australia.com), where Perth and the Kimberley do the same contrast dance; the Northern Territory, where the Outback blazes fully, Uluru its emblem (northernterritory.com); Queensland, where the beach seems to go on forever, the Great Barrier Reef its shadow (queensland.com); and Tasmania (discovertasmania.com.au), the island state where wildlife darts between peaks and lakes.

A broad canvas for holidays, then. And one that has become a little more accessible for British tourists recently. Last March saw Qantas (0800 964 432; qantas.com) launch the first direct flight between Australia and the UK – a 17-hour service to Perth from Heath- row. But it was hardly unreachable before this innovation. Other options include British Airways (0344 493 0787; ba.com), from Heathrow to Sydney, Emirates (0344 800 2777; emirates.com) to Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne from a range of UK airports, via Dubai – and Etihad (0345 608 1225; etihad.com), to Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney via Abu Dhabi from Manchester and Heathrow. Qatar Airways (0330 024 0127; qatarairways.com) and Singapore Airlines (020 8961 6993; singaporeair.com) are further one-stop possibilities, while Qantas serves Melbourne and Sydney from Heathrow as well as Perth.

Today, of course, is Australia Day – the point in the calendar when the country celebrates itself in a happy haze of fireworks, festivities and family fun (albeit during the ongoing heatwave). If their national holiday is enough to make you dream of a Down Under holiday of your own, then one of the 30 getaways described here could be just the trip for you.

Some of the globe’s most alluring cities knock elbows with some of its sparsest desert