The Australia travel guide series
The land of reef and red earth.
Sydney·Cairns·Uluru·Hobart·Perth·Melbourne
Australia is too big for one book. So Discover Australia publishes a series of focused guides, each one built for a single state, region or way of travelling.
Every guide covers what you need on the ground: when to go, how to get around, where to stay, what it costs, local etiquette and the precautions that keep a trip on track. Each title is updated for the 2027 season.
The ocean series
Australia is ringed by three oceans, its reefs full of life found nowhere else. Here's what lies beneath.
Diving Australia
Australia is an island continent, and its reefs grew up far from any other land. Warm currents run south along both coasts, carrying larvae and nutrients from reef to reef, and the Great Barrier Reef stretches some 2,300 km. The result is marine life you will not find anywhere else.
But the distances are huge, the best reefs lie far offshore and the seasons change from coast to coast. A dive at Ningaloo in May is a very different dive.
The dive guide · Coming 2027
Diving the reefs of three oceans
Everything you need to plan the dives of your life, from your first drift dive to your tenth liveaboard: the right reef, in the right season.
The flagship guide
Six of the world's seven sea turtle species swim in Australian waters, and green and loggerhead turtles crawl ashore to nest on beaches from Mon Repos to the outer reef. Our guide shows you where to see them, how they live and how to watch them the right way, with maps of the best turtle beaches and snorkel spots.
Coming 2027
Read: how to see turtles responsibly →
The shark guide · Coming soon
Meet Australia's apex predator
Named for the stripes they wear when young, tiger sharks patrol Australia's warm waters year-round and can grow beyond four metres. Our complete guide explains the animal behind the myth: how they live, where they roam and how to share the ocean with them.
Southern Great Barrier Reef
The southernmost coral cay of the Great Barrier Reef, a ring of sand and reef far off the Queensland coast. It lies in a Marine National Park Zone and is a seabird haven, with manta rays gliding past for much of the year.
Getting there means a small plane. That's exactly why the water around it is some of the clearest on the reef.
The history guide · Coming 2027
Inside the hidden history of the continent
Shaped over billions of years on the oldest rocks on Earth, home to the world's oldest living cultures for more than 65,000 years, and a British colony from 1788 before it became a nation in 1901. The story behind every place you will visit.
From the journal
Free articles from the research behind the guides: dive maps, seasons, costs and the things we wish we'd known before our first trip.
Wet and dry seasons in the north, stinger and whale months, school holidays and when the crowds and prices peak.
Read the article →
NSW, Queensland, the Outback, Tasmania or the West? How each region feels, who it suits and how to combine two.
Read the article →
The Overland Track, BridgeClimb, Uluru tours and reef trips: the things that sell out, where to book and how far ahead.
Read the article →Start here
The places that belong on every first trip to Australia, starting with the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru and Sydney, then sixteen more from the surf beaches to the red heart of the Outback.
Highlight 01 · Queensland
The largest reef system on Earth runs some 2,300 km down the Queensland coast: thousands of reefs, hundreds of islands, turtles, mantas and whales. Our complete guide shows where it is, how to see it, the best dive and snorkel sites, and how the reef is really doing, with new maps.
Highlight 02 · Northern Territory
The great red monolith in the middle of the continent, sacred to its Anangu Traditional Owners. Best at sunrise and sunset, and best walked around rather than climbed.
Highlight 03 · New South Wales
The Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, Bondi and the ferries to Manly: a harbour city where the beaches start at the edge of downtown.
And more
New South WalesSurf beaches and ocean pools north of Sydney
New South WalesHarbour sails on a World Heritage stage
QueenslandSurf beaches below a skyline of towers
QueenslandPure white silica sand in the Whitsundays
QueenslandA heart-shaped reef you can only see from the air
Northern TerritoryThe red heart of the continent at sunset
Northern TerritoryThirty-six domes rising from the desert
VictoriaLimestone stacks in the Southern Ocean
Victoria243 km of coast road above the Southern Ocean
TasmaniaJagged peaks above the still waters of Dove Lake
TasmaniaA perfect curve of white sand in Freycinet
Western AustraliaAustralia's longest straight road, 146.6 km
QueenslandWatch turtles nest at Mon Repos, November to March
QueenslandIn Hervey Bay from July to early November
Western AustraliaSwim with the biggest fish at Ningaloo, March to July
Western AustraliaBottlenose dolphins in the shallows at Monkey Mia
Tasmania & the Kimberley
Most visitors never leave the east coast. Our guides go further: Tasmania's wild coast, the Kimberley's gorges, the empty bays of the west and the quiet shores in between.
See the region guides
The continent
Western Australia
Northern Territory
Queensland
South Australia
New South Wales
Victoria
Tasmania
Great Barrier Reef
On land
New South Wales, Queensland, the Outback, Tasmania and the West, region by region. Coming in 2027 on Amazon in Kindle and paperback, and as ebooks on Apple Books and Kobo.
Free download
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The dolphin guide · Coming 2027
Inside the secret life of the ocean's brightest minds
From the bottlenose dolphins of Australia's bays to the pods of the Azores and the Maldives: who they are, how they think and live together, and where to see the ocean's smartest mammal in the wild, the right way.
The ocean series · Coral reef
The largest coral reef system on Earth runs for 2,300 kilometres along the Queensland coast: about 3,000 reefs built by animals smaller than a fingernail. Discover how coral lives and spawns, meet the turtles, sharks, mantas and whales that share it, and find the best places to snorkel and dive, with every one of our reef maps.
The book · Coming 2027
