Editor’s letter

AFTER NEARLY TWO YEARS of being told to stay put and holiday here, our international borders are open once again. Finally! And while I am as happy as the next long-haul-starved traveller about the prospect of jumping a flight to wherever, the motivation behind this issue is to entreat you to think twice before trading here for there just yet.

You see, we at Australian Traveller never viewed travelling in our own country as a pandemic-induced consolation prize. To us, getaways spent in Byron Bay or Bruny Island weren’t stand-ins for parts more exotic (the Amalfi Coast and the Galápagos Islands perhaps). On the contrary, we took heart in the fact that our wide, diverse country was no longer playing second fiddle to overseas locations, just because they are overseas. That Aussie travellers were focusing on their immediate surroundings and finding pleasure in the allures of rural country towns (all the better if they came complete with either/or established wineries and a burgeoning foodie scene), ‘everyone in the car’ road trips and decamping to a beachside holiday house for the duration.

It felt like we were all in this together and that taking a break in our own backyard was an act of defiance: against the disease, against the ‘new normal’ that felt anything but, and against the havoc created by restrictions and deprivations on everything from local businesses to our mental health. I hope that it also reminded many of us how genuinely lucky we are to live in a country so big and beautiful and amazing that it can accommodate a world’s worth of holiday aspirations without coming up short in any way.

And with our internal borders once again being relegated to invisible lines instead of lightning rods that divide us, it goes without saying that now is the perfect time to Holiday Here This Year, still. To head back to Kangaroo Island and rediscover its natural wonders, which have been on their own Aussie journey – one of recovery – after the Black Summer fires (page 84). To see sights that are absolutely unique and all our own (page 112). To discover new destinations yet to be experienced (page 94). And to embrace the regenerative powers of transporting yourself somewhere else (page 104), whether in person or in your mind’s eye. Surely all of that is worth sticking around for?

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: One of the amazing inhabitants of Kangaroo Island, p84; Tassie’s Cradle Mountain can be seen nowhere else but here, p112; South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula is a backyard surprise worth discovering, p62; A First Nations guide shares stories and culture at Mossman Gorge, p104; The exuberant colour and pattern of Brisbane designer Anna Spiro’s work , p36.