Why travel anywhere else
Enjoy Queensland now while the temperature control on the atmosphere is at its optimum
IF there is one silver lining in the Covid cloud, it’s the manner in which this 21st Century plague has forced Australians to re-examine the pleasures of holidaying at home. The immigration queues, the always slightly-intimidating Customs’ questions and the 14-hour flights in crowded airlines have all been put aside as we rediscover the pleasures of our own country. And there is no better state in the nation than Queensland to take a holiday.
The beachside hiatus so many dream about – the one where you find yourself in a well-appointed room overlooking the beach reading novels, ordering drinks with little umbrellas in them and maintaining a wonderfully lethargic disposition somewhere between the sleep and the awake state for an entire seven days – is best experienced in Queensland.
Sure you can get it in Bali or Thailand or
Hawaii, places normally associated with beach retreats which are normally readily accessible by international flights from Australia. But in Palm Cove north of Cairns, on Hamilton or perhaps Hayman Island in the Whitsundays, at Marcoola on the Sunshine Coast or Noosa or Magnetic Island off Townsville or even Bucasia Beach north of Mackay, the same atmosphere is readily available without you having to fish out the passport and ponder visa requirements. Also, don’t forget to enjoy a tourism experience, such as learning to surf, to get the most from your base.
For Queenslanders, these locations are a few hours away, offering weekends which can transform your life from stressed city worker Friday morning, to beach bum Friday afternoon, your only concern being what wine to have with your evening meal.
The holidaying adventurer is not forgotten. Historic towns like Longreach, Winton, Barcaldine and Charleville welcome the curious, metropolitan-born Queenslander who has always wondered what it was like in the outback, and is now using the downturn in international flights to find out.
The Queensland interior is ripe for tourism operators looking to commercialise nostalgia for a period in our history many believe is long past. But visit many of these regions and you can be stunned to see just how authentic the lifestyle of the locals is, still based on agriculture and lived as it has been for generations.
The Great Barrier Reef needs no real explanation. Queensland’s birthright is still drawing millions from across the world to marvel at the colour and life of this extraordinary, living organism.
Many locals are now taking the opportunity to view for themselves what has drawn international visitors since the 1960s, donning the snorkel off Cairns right down to Bundaberg to experience the miracle of the reef.
As for natural rainforests which possess a magic all of their own, we are spoiled for choice.
You can fly to South America and gaze at the largest rainforests on earth surrounding the Amazon or venture to Africa and marvel at the forests of the Congo Basin spanning six countries.
But you can also fly to Cairns and take a rental car up to the Daintree where you will find the oldest rainforests in the world – a 135 million year old, natural world extravaganza of animal and plant life.
Many of us forget Eungella west of Mackay where you can find accommodation at the historic “Chalet’’ and walk inside what is recognised as the longest, unbroken stretch of sub tropical rainforest in the nation, complete with the charm of the platypus.
For historic gold fields, go to Charters Towers west of Townsville; for gourmet food and fine wine, head to Stanthorpe west of Brisbane.
And now is the time to do it. September is when the temperature control on the Queensland atmosphere reaches its optimum level, and it doesn’t last forever.
Get out and enjoy the state and its people, and you might find that you want to leave the passport in the drawer for another year, even if we do open up the international skies in 2022.