Feature

Step beyond the obvious highlights in Australia, and it starts getting a little odd. The further away you get from the big cities, the weirder the country seems to get…

The Big Things

Australia has a weird penchant for putting giant fibreglass objects by the side of the road in mundane towns. Since the Big Banana was unveiled in 1964 alongside the Pacific Highway in Coffs Harbour, hundreds of variations on the theme have cropped up across the country.

Some Australians regard them as a tick list to be completed – others just want to see the most absurd. The Big Pineapple at Nambour, the Big Prawn at Ballina and the Big Merino in Goulborn are all quite superb.

Gracemere Saleyards

Rockhampton, lying on the Tropic of Capricorn in Central Queensland, is real cowboy country. It has statues of cows all over the place, hosts bull-riding sessions every Friday night and regards a dinner without a massive steak as a bit wussy.

And the Gracemere Saleyards are where most of the cows, bulls and steers are bought and sold. Over the chorus of a thousand moos, men in big hats and tight jeans do business – and tourists are allowed to come along and watch. The auctioneers gabble impenetrably, the cowboys herd the cattle through a bewildering maze of pens and the smell of dung fills the air – but it’s a fascinating look at a different world.

Nullarbor Links

As a gimmick to attract people to an enormous stretch of dull nothingness goes, the Nullarbor Links is a brilliant idea. Billed as the world’s longest golf course, it stretches for 1,365km from Ceduna in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. It follows the Eyre Highway across the virtually featureless Nullarbor Plain, with one hole at each town (most of which are little more than a roadhouse) on the way. Caddies are advised to invest in a car.

Wycliffe Well

This outback roadhouse has been billed as Australia’s UFO hotspot – and is thought by sci-fi nuts to be one of the most active alien sites in the world.

The roadhouse, which has a basic holiday park attached, has taken to this tag with gusto. Little green men can be found painted all over the place, signs warn of UFOs presenting a traffic hazard and a rather plastic-looking spaceship is parked on the lawn. Wycliffe Well can be found alongside the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory, about 375km north of Alice Springs.

The Bush Mail Run

Of all the ways of getting out into the Australian outback, tagging along with the postman as he delivers to remote cattle stations is arguably the coolest. Australia Post contractor Steve Green is responsible for servicing a vast area around Broken Hill in New South Wales, and he invites tourists along on the 550km mail run to keep him entertained and open the gates. On the way he points out wildlife, drives down dirt paths where the only tire tracks are his from a few days earlier, and stops for morning tea with station owners.

Bookings need to be made through the Broken Hill Visitor Information Centre.

Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy is a South Australian mining town that just so happens to produce more opals than anywhere else in the world. It also gets rather hot there, so the majority of the population has dealt with the scorching desert sun by building underground cave homes.

Some of these – such as the one at the Umoona Opal Mine – have been turned into rather spectacular show homes. And once you’ve marvelled at the Flintstones-style house, you can descend into the mine to learn about how families will sit around the kitchen table to make bombs. These are later used to build extensions.

Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Inn

This resort, at Jabiru in the middle of the Northern Territory’s Kakadu National Park, isn’t your average chain hotel. It has the facilities you’d expect – outdoor pool, restaurant etc – but it looks rather strange. That’s because it has been designed in the shape of a massive crocodile. It’s best seen from the air, but where else can you say you’ve slept in the belly of a giant crook?

Hutt River Principality

If you believe Prince Leonard and his 13,000 subjects worldwide, there are two countries on the continent of Australia. In 1970, farmer Leonard Casley decided to secede when the West Australian government decided to impose wheat quotas.

Australia has done nothing to get the land – roughly the size of Hong Kong– back since Casley styled himself as a Prince. This is despite Hutt River declaring war in 1977. Nowadays, it’s possible to get your passport stamped in the Principality – which is just under 600km north of Perth – as well as buy Hutt River coins. You may even be served by a member of the royal family in the souvenir shop.

New Norcia

In the dusty Western Australian wheat belt, New Norcia sticks out like a basketball player in the cast of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. It is Australia’s only monastic town, and is still run by the Dominican monks that call it home.

What makes it particularly striking is the gorgeous Spanish architecture in the schools and chapels – it looks like it belongs in Salamanca or Toledo rather than an obscure corner of the Australian bush.

The Harold Holt Swim Centre

There’s nothing obviously unusual about this leisure centre in Melbourne. It has a 50m outdoor pool, a 25m heated indoor pool and various fitness classes.

What does make it a bit odd is who it’s named after. Harold Holt was the former Australian prime minister who went missing on the Mornington Peninsula in 1967. Rather tastefully, given the centre that was named in his honour, he is presumed to have drowned.

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About the writer:

Since winning the Guardian Student Travel Writer of the Year award in 2001, David has been published in newspapers and magazines across the world, including the Sunday Times, Sydney Morning Herald and the Boston Globe.