From the World Heritage inscription for the Lord Howe Island Group: Located in the South Pacific, 700 km north-east of Sydney, the property is included administratively in New South Wales. The preserve includes some 75% of the land area of Lord Howe Island and all of the offshore islands and rocks of significant size in …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Wet Tropics of Queensland: The Wet Tropics of Queensland, or Wet Tropics, stretches along the northeast coast of Australia for some 450 kilometers. Encompassing some 894,420 hectares of mostly tropical rainforest, this stunningly beautiful area is extremely important for its rich and unique biodiversity. It also presents an …
Since I’ve started my trip, I’ve rented cars in Hawaii, Easter Island, Fiji, New Zealand, Japan and Australia. As an American, I am accustomed to driving on the right-hand side of the road. I haven’t driven on the right, however, since I was in Easter Island back in May 2007. In fact, save for my …
Ok. I’m leaving Melbourne for real now. I realize that this site probably hasn’t been the most exciting thing in the world the last few weeks as I sat here in Melbourne and took care of my business. I can actually start moving again. I’m not going to go to Tasmania like I had first …
From the World Heritage inscription of the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens: The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens are a surviving manifestation of the international exhibition movement which blossomed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibition building was constructed as a Great Hall, a permanent building initially intended to house …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Sydney Opera House: The Sydney Opera House constitutes a masterpiece of 20th-century architecture. Its significance is based on its unparalleled design and construction; its exceptional engineering achievements and technological innovation and its position as a world-famous icon of architecture. It is a daring and visionary experiment that has …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Greater Blue Mountains Area: The Greater Blue Mountains Area (GBMA) is a deeply incised sandstone tableland that encompasses 1.03 million hectares of the eucalypt-dominated landscape just inland from Sydney, Australia’s largest city, in south-eastern Australia. Spread across eight adjacent conservation reserves, it constitutes one of the largest and …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Tasmanian Wilderness: In a region that has been subjected to severe glaciation, these parks and reserves, with their steep gorges, covering an area of over 1 million ha, constitute one of the last expanses of temperate rainforest in the world. Remains found in limestone caves attest to the …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia: The Gondwana Rainforests contains the largest and most significant remaining stands of subtropical rainforest and Antarctic Beech (Nothofagus moorei) cool temperate rainforests in the world, the largest and most significant areas of warm temperate rainforest and one of only two remaining large areas of …