A Sunday Stroll Along the Beaches of New South Wales, Australia
Stroll is an understatement, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Very often my posts on a Monday are about what I’ve been up to at the weekend. The reason I do this is not because I think anybody cares...
View ArticleWho Lives Where? Migrants Settling in Australian Cities
In a moment I’m going to show you a series of maps of Australia’s state capital cities. I’m sure they will instantly remind you of the kind of maps that are thrust before us as the election results...
View ArticleRevisiting Our Long Tweed Coast Weekend
Last month the reprint of one of my Australia and New Zealand magazine articles was on the rather contentious subject of housing; it was called UK and Australia: The House Price Debate. Nothing...
View ArticleA Trip to Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
We like to travel and since we’ve been in Australia, which is about 7 and a half years now, we’ve done quite a bit of it. When we had a holiday in Perth earlier in the year, it meant we have now been...
View ArticleGoing to the Market in Australia
It’s not often I get up at 6:15 AM on a Sunday morning, but that’s exactly what I did yesterday. If you read Friday’s post called A Trip to Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, you will know that my...
View ArticleSkinny-dipping in Hobart’s Derwent River for Winter Solstice
Dark MOFO. Image courtesy of Paris B-A Doesn’t sound very pleasant, does it? It even sounds a little scary. It’s not though, here’s what it is. MONA FOMA is an acronym, it stands for Museum of Old and...
View ArticleThe Capital of Australia: A Brief History
Is Sydney the capital of Australia? No, it isn’t. Is Melbourne the capital of Australia? No it isn’t. This is the capital of Australia… A Very Brief History of Canberra, Capital of Australia And when I...
View ArticleThe Great Barrier Reef Escapes Endangered Listing from WHC
For almost 8 years now me and Mrs Bob have lived in Queensland and we still haven’t yet visited the Great Barrier Reef. We came close a few years ago, it was a toss up between the Great Barrier Reef...
View ArticleA Street Festival, in Brisbane, in Winter
What would happen if you had a street festival where you live in the middle of winter? What would it look like? This is what a street festival in the middle of winter here in Brisbane looks like....
View ArticleWhere Do the Happiest People in Australia Live?
I’ve often wondered what it would really be like to live in a small town in Australia. And when it comes to small towns, Australia’s got plenty of them. Most people who migrate to Australia though,...
View ArticleCommsec’s Australian State of States Report July 2015
I last looked at this report a year ago in my post State of the States: a CommSec Report. As I mentioned then, the economies of each of our eight states and territories are run separately and this...
View ArticleA Guided Tour of the Margaret River Region
I’ve been chatting to Alistair McGuinness recently. Me and Alastair have a fair bit in common. We were both born and bred in the UK, I grew up in a town 30 miles east of London and Alistair spent his...
View ArticleAustralia’s Strange and Unusual Place Names
If you were to go to Latitude: -34.750690460 and Longitude: 139.380264282, you would find yourself in the state of South Australia. You would be around 80 kilometres east of Adelaide, slightly to the...
View ArticleWhat Are the Bad Areas to Avoid in Australia?
It’s a question I get asked quite often on this website, usually more specifically linked to a particular city. So, for example, “What are the bad areas to avoid in Brisbane?” Or “What are the bad...
View ArticlePerth and Western Australia: A Visit to the Other Side
Time for another Australia and New Zealand magazine reprint. You may have noticed I’ve done a few of these lately, but every now and then I realise I’m getting a little behind with them. I like to...
View ArticleA Long Weekend on the Sunshine Coast
It’s Friday evening here in Australia, the start of another weekend. Here in Queensland, as well as in Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and South Australia, it’s even better, it’s a long...
View ArticleLamington National Park, Queensland: A Rather Large Back Garden
A lamington is a very popular Australian desert. It’s a sponge cake with chocolate sauce and sprinklings of coconut. It looks very much like this… Apparently it originated in Brisbane and there are...
View ArticleHamersley Range and Karijini National Park Areas
As regular readers will know, on Fridays I like to showcase a video from somewhere in Australia. I have to say, these are my favourite posts of the week, because I often get to see something or...
View ArticleDriving Out Of Town in Australia
Any of you who live in the UK will know that if you decide to drive out of town, it is usually not long before you are driving into another town. Where I used to live, for example, if I drove out of...
View ArticleA Roundup of Top Places to Live Down Under
As you probably know, I write a regular monthly article for Australia and New Zealand magazine. Recently they asked me if I could write a roundup of top places to live down under for a supplement they...
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