Australia’s Strangest Day Tours

Australian Traveller Australian Traveller
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If a bog-standard bus trip around the well-trodden highlights doesn’t quite cut the mustard for you any more, it’s time to ramp up the quirky quotient. David Whitley ticks off the top five seriously odd day tours being offered around the country.

1. Boar Busters

Pest control is really not a sexy business, so kudos has to go to Boar Busters at Mission Beach in Qld, who’ve managed to turn their contract to get rid of feral pigs into a tourism opportunity. The Big Pig Shindig allows guests to get as involved as the Occupational Health and Safety chaps will allow. And, yes, that means getting dirty. The Boar Busters try to stagger things so that their guests can set a trap, check devices that have already been set and see pigs that have been caught in the previous day’s traps.

 

Details // Boar Busters (www.boarbusters.com.au 0427 406 887) operates the Big Pig Shindig for $90 per person. The day out also includes a visit to a croc farm.

2. Quoll Patrol

Of all the cutesy Australian animals most people would be gagging to see in the wild, the quoll would be quite far down the list, probably below the pademelon and above the irukandji jellyfish. But this won’t deter the chaps at Pepper Bush Adventures in Launceston, who spend the best part of their eight to ten hour “Quoll Patrol" following the little critters around in dark. As part of the trip, there’s a bush tucker and Tasmanian game-heavy dinner, but once that’s out the way, it’s all about scrabbling through the Tasmanian bush, chasing spotty marsupials with torches.

 

Details // Quoll Patrol with Pepper Bush Adventures (03 6352 2263, (www.pepperbush.com.au), cost dependent on individual preferences and

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3. Go industrial – Rio Tinto Alumina Refinery Gladstone tour

Who needs beautiful beaches when you’ve got the world’s largest alumina refinery and the fifth-largest coal export plant on Earth? Yep, Gladstone is that sexy. Every day a different bus tour goes from the coastal Qld town to one of its industrial delights for behind-the-scenes access to heavy machinery. On Wednesday, it’s the port; on Thursday, the power station. But the real highlight is on the Friday, when the three-hour tour goes to both the Rio Tinto Alumina Refinery and Australia’s largest smelter.

 

Details // Tours are free, but bookings are essential via the Gladstone Visitor Info Centre (07 4972 9000).

4. Canberra Host and History Tour

Ghost tours aren’t particularly unusual any more – you can find one in pretty much every Australian town. But Destiny Tours’ Weird Canberra Ghost and History Tour is a little bit different. For a start, it’s led by Tim The Yowie Man – the shorts-clad shameless self-publicist with an almost unhealthy obsession with mysterious creatures. He’s the Australian National Museum’s resident cryptonaturalist, and he promises that the tour will take in tales of secret tunnels, buried art treasures and coffins in Lake Burley Griffin. There’s also a hidden cave, a haunted embassy and an old homestead that makes people’s noses bleed. But the weirdest things are arguably the fellow passengers – the people who book to go on this tour have a tendency to dress in Halloween-esque garb.

 

Details // $64 with Destiny Tours (02 9943 0167).

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This geological wonder is hiding in the heart of Victoria

    Michael Turtle Michael Turtle
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    Mythical, historical and most of all, spectacularly beautiful, Buchan Caves demands you take your time – and a tour. 

    In the pools of water, so still they could be mirrors, the reflections of the stalactites make these limestone towers seem even taller. Almost 400 million years ago, an underground river carved through the rock to create the Buchan Caves. Now, artworks created by dripping water adorn these subterranean galleries: stalactites hanging from the ceiling, pillars connecting some to the ground, even curtain-like wave formations clinging to the stone.

    Caves House
    Visit the caves for the day or stay onsite in the campground or at the self-contained Caves House. (Image: Ben Savage)

    “This is called the Fairy Cave because it’s full of fairy dust,” a guide tells visitors as they enter a cavern glittering with “calcite that’s solidified into thousands of tiny little diamond shapes”.  Buchan Caves is Victoria’s largest cave system, but Fairy Cave is a highlight and, along with nearby Royal Cave, is accessible only by tour. Naturally cold, naturally dark, these caverns deep below the surface light up as the local experts tell their stories. 

    couple walking in cave
    You’ll need to book a guided tour to see the caves. (Image: Tourism Australia)

    Among the hundreds of caves, some can be easily accessed from the surface. For instance, a casual stroll along the FJ Wilson Interpreted Walk, as kangaroos watch on from beneath acacia trees, leads into the 400-metre-long Federal Cave and its natural steps of white limestone. A slightly longer track, the Granite Pools Walk heads through soaring forest down into moss-covered gullies where the calls of lyrebirds trill through the leaves. 

    A quick history lesson on Buchan Caves 

    Buchan Caves
    Buchan Caves are a must-visit attraction in Gippsland. (Image: Tourism Australia)

    Among the geology and the nature are millennia of history. This part of East Gippsland connects the high country to the coast and was long a place of refuge for the local Gunaikurnai people on seasonal migrations to the mountains. Archaeological studies show humans lived here up to 18,000 years ago, with artefacts such as small stone tools found around the site. But not too far into the caverns – oh no! The Gunaikurnai didn’t dare venture deep into the dark at Buchan Caves, telling stories they were inhabited by gnome-like nyols (small grey-skinned creatures that could steal memories). 

    Buchan Caves Hotel
    The Buchan Caves Hotel was rebuilt after burning down in 2014. (Image: Jess Shapiro)

    By the early 1900s, more people had started to hear about these incredible caves and so the Moon family set up home at the site and started to run tours below ground for intrepid visitors. More than a century later, their historic residence is available as accommodation, with the three-bedroom house sleeping up to eight people and now equipped with modern amenities the Moons could only have dreamt of. 

    But whether you stay overnight or just spend the day here, it’s worth taking your time to explore more than just the main caves, to get a deeper understanding of one of Victoria’s fascinating geological attractions.