10 Of Australia's Most Incredible Natural Wonders

It appears that ancient Aboriginal people didn’t feel it necessary to build giant structures.

Neolithic Britons erected Stonehenge, while over in Ancient Egypt… well, you get the picture. But in Australia there was no need to go large.

Perhaps the stifling heat wasn’t conducive to dragging 10-tonne boulders around? Or was it the fact that nature had already littered the land with geological structures that no man-made effort could ever hope to replicate in scale or wonder?

Without doubt it has to be the latter; from vast salt basins to peculiar rock formations, here are 10 impressive Australian natural wonders that may have slipped under your radar – part of our 100 Incredible Experiences (right here in your backyard) special issue .

1. Remarkable Reefs – Rowley Shoals, WA

Three tear drops of coral reef sit almost equidistant from each other on the face of the Indian Ocean, 260 kilometres from Broome. With them being almost the same size at around 80 square kilometres apiece, Rowley Shoals is surely one of the most unusual reef formations.

Why you have to go: Fancy yourself an explorer of wild places? It doesn’t get much more remote than this, and it has some of the best diving on the planet.

2. Idyllic isthmus – The Neck, Bruny Island, Tasmania

Ascend a series of stairs among the dunes on southern Tasmania’s Bruny Island and you’ll find a viewing deck that affords a truly remarkable view of the famous Neck.

This is a long slither of land connecting south and north Bruny, an isthmus of sand that forms two beautiful beaches. From the lookout you get a 360º view of the island and you’ll find a memorial to the indigenous Nuenonne people who lived here before European settlement.

Why you have to go: Aside from the striking form of The Neck itself, there’s some great bird life to be found here, including little penguins, which can be seen moving up the beach in groups come dusk.

3. March of the crabs – Christmas Island

Surely one of the great wildlife migrations on the planet, rivalling that of the wildebeest or monarch butterfly, Christmas Island red crabs move en masse each year in the wet season of October/November from the island’s forests to the ocean.

It’s thought there are more than 40 million red crabs on the island, and when they decide to migrate to mate, a trip that takes them a week or so, roads and beaches become a carpet of moving red.

Why you have to go: Witness Australia’s most spectacular wildlife migration in this far-flung Territory of ours, plus keep an eye out for the monster of all crabs, the land-based coconut crab.

4. A secret paradise – Lawn Hill Gorge, Queensland

Boodjamulla National Park has a lush secret: a beautiful oasis at its heart. Lawn Hill Gorge is a pristine, emerald green creek surrounded by orange sandstone cliffs and tropical bush beyond.
It even has its own waterfall, Indarri Falls, a glorious wild swimming spot to cool off in.

people also come to this remote corner of north-west Queensland to cruise its waters in canoes, available for hire. The Waanyi people have lived in the area for at least 17,000 years and traces of their ancient rock art can be found in the park.

Why you have to go: Boodjamulla is a magical place that encompasses the best of the Australian outback with brilliant campsites to boot.

Lawn Hill Gorge in Boodjamulla National Park, QLD. — Lawn Hill Gorge in Queensland’s
Boodjamulla National Park

5. Nature’s Stonehenge – Murphy’s Haystacks, SA

Australia’s red rock is as iconic as its hopping fauna and it’s often shaped into weird and wonderful formations by wind and water.Murphy’s Haystacks is a stunning example of just how dramatic Australia’s geology can get.

Found off an innocuous minor road on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, this is our country’s Stonehenge, the giant outcrops of wave-like, sculpted, ochre granite seemingly placed there by some ancient civilisation. Weathering over the millennia has exposed the stone and left it sentinel atop a hill overlooking the surrounding back country as far as the eye can see.

Why you have to go: It’s an epic stroll among these ancient buttresses, and off the beaten track, you’ll likely have them all to yourself.

6. Go with the flow – Undara Lava Tubes, Queensland

It’s not often that the planet’s violent past is so awesomely realised; in the Undara Volcanic National Park, uncharacteristically well-formed tunnels look like they’ve been sculpted by some giant worm.

The passages are the result of a volcanic eruption some 190,000 years ago that sent lava down a dry riverbed.

The top of the lava flow cooled and formed a crust allowing the molten rock to flow down the tube and drain away, creating the tunnels.

Why you have to go: Where the roof has collapsed it has provided the perfect conditions for dry rainforest and exotic wildlife.

7. City break – The Lost City, NT

So romantically named you feel like packing a bull whip in your luggage, It’s easy to see how the Lost City got its moniker. giant pillars of sandstone jut out of the bush like the remains of some lost civilisation.

The lost city at Cape Crawford near the McArthur river

Found in Litchfield National Park, an hour’s drive from Darwin, the lost city is found at the end of a testing 4WD track. But if it was easy to get to you wouldn’t have that sense of wonder when you finally walk its maze of narrow passages, sculpted by hundreds of millions of years of wind and rain, would you?

Why you have to go: Feel like you’re in a lost world as you pick a path through the building-sized structures and natural streets of this spectacular formation.

8. Ebb and flow – Horizontal Falls, WA

When Sir David Attenborough describes something as “one of the greatest natural wonders of the world", you have to sit up and take notice.

The Hunter River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia

And he wasn’t talking about Uluru or that big reef of ours. No, he was enthusing about the Horizontal Falls. Located on the Buccaneer Archipelago, two near-perfectly aligned gorges let the tide rush in and out, creating a surge of water. The most seaward gap is just 20 metres across creating a literal horizontal waterfall.

Why you have to go: Catch a speed boat up through the torrents to see the power of the Kimberley tides for yourself.

9. Walking on air – Lake Gairdner, SA

California’s Death Valley contains a world-famous salt flat, the impressive Badwater Basin. Its crystallised, saline surface is an impressive 12 kilometres in length and eight kilometres wide.Pah! Lake Gairdner in central South Australia, is also a salt lake, but 160 kilometres in length and 48 kilometres across.

The pink lake phenomenon in south Australia

You can walk out on the brilliant white, hard surface of the salt and look at the horizon where the lake bleeds seamlessly into the sky.

Why you have to go: On par with any of Australia’s giants, you have to have your breath taken away with this little-known, yet big, beautiful natural wonder.

10. Sheer spectacle – Sawn Rocks, NSW

Like a cathedral’s organ rising up from the forest, this 40-metre-high cliff is surely one of the most bizarre geological formations in the country. Found in Mount Kaputar National Park, 38 kilometres north of Narrabri, the hexagonal columns of towering rock were formed when basalt lava from the now extinct Nandewar Volcano cooled before becoming exposed.

It’s a lovely 1.5-kilometre loop walk through the bush to arrive at the site and just beyond it you’ll find swimming holes and collapsed horizontal sections of the hexagonal rock to inspect.

Why you have to see it: Like a hanging Giant’s Causeway, Sawn Rocks has to be seen to be believed.

Slow down and find your rhythm on a Murray River journey through time and place.

Trust is a funny thing. It seems not that long ago that my mother was insisting on pouring the milk into my cereal bowl, because she didn’t trust me not to slosh it over the table, and yet here I am on the Murray River at Mildura in far north-west Victoria, being handed the keys to a very new and very expensive luxury houseboat.

After a crash course in how not to crash, I’m at the wheel of the good ship Elevate – pride of the All Seasons fleet – guiding her upstream past red-ochre cliffs as pelicans glide above the rippled river and kookaburras call from reedy banks. There’s a brief moment of breath-holding while I negotiate a hairpin turn around a jagged reef of skeletal, submerged gum trees, before a cheer rings out and calm descends as the timeless river unfurls in front of us.

The Murray River winding through Yarrawonga. (Image: Rob Blackburn)

Setting sail from Mildura

Murray River birds — Home to a large number of bird species, including pelicans. (Image: The Precint Studios)

A journey along the Murray River is never less than magical, and launching from Mildura makes perfect sense. Up here the river is wide and largely empty, giving novice skippers like myself the confidence to nudge the 60-tonne houseboat up to the riverbank where we tie up for the night, without fear of shattering the glass elevator (the boat is fully wheelchair accessible) or spilling our Champagne.

My friends and I spend three days on the water, swimming and fishing, sitting around campfires onshore at night, and basking in air so warm you’d swear you were in the tropics. The simplicity of river life reveals an interesting dichotomy: we feel disconnected from the world but at the same time connected to Country, privileged to be part of something so ancient and special.

Stop one: Echuca

19th-century paddlesteamers — A historic 19th-century paddlesteamer cruises along the Murray River. (Image: Visit Victoria)

The six-hour drive from Melbourne to Mildura (or four hours and 20 minutes from Adelaide) is more than worth it, but you don’t have to travel that far to find fun on the river. Once Australia’s largest inland port, Echuca is the closest point on the Murray to Melbourne (two hours 45 minutes), and you’ll still find a plethora of paddlesteamers tethered to the historic timber wharf, a throwback to the thriving river trade days of the 19th century. The PS Adelaide, built in 1866 and the oldest wooden-hulled paddlesteamer operating in the world, departs daily for one-hour cruises, while a brand-new paddlesteamer, the PS Australian Star , is launching luxury seven-night voyages in December through APT Touring.

The town is also a hot food and wine destination. St Anne’s Winery at the historic Port of Echuca precinct has an incredibly photogenic cellar door, set inside an old carriage builders’ workshop on the wharf and filled with huge, 3000-litre port barrels. The Mill, meanwhile, is a cosy winter spot to sample regional produce as an open fire warms the red-brick walls of this former flour mill.

Stop two: Barmah National Park

Just half-an-hour upstream, Barmah National Park is flourishing, its river red gum landscape (the largest in the world) rebounding magnificently after the recent removal of more than 700 feral horses. The internationally significant Ramsar-listed wetland sits in the heart of Yorta Yorta Country, with Traditional Owners managing the environment in close partnership with Parks Victoria. Walkways weave through the forest, crossing creeks lined with rare or threatened plants, passing remnants of Yorta Yorta oven mounds and numerous scar trees, where the bark was removed to build canoes, containers or shields.

The Dharnya Centre (open weekdays until 3pm) is the cultural hub for the Yorta Yorta. Visitors can learn about the ecological significance of the Barmah Lakes on a 90-minute river cruise, led by a First Nations guide, or take a one-hour, guided cultural walking tour along the Yamyabuc Trail.

Stop three: Cobram

Continue east to Cobram to find the southern hemisphere’s largest inland beach. Swarming with sun-seekers in summer, the white sand of Thompson’s Beach is shaded by majestic river red gums and dotted with hundreds of beach umbrellas, as beachgoers launch all manner of water craft and set up stumps for beach cricket. But the beach is at its most captivating at sunset, when the crowds thin out, the glassy river mirrors the purple sky, and the canopies of the gum trees glow fiery orange.

The region is also home to some fine resorts and indulgent retreats. Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort has two riverside championship golf courses, luxury apartments and self-contained villas. While not strictly on the Murray, the historic wine town of Rutherglen is rife with boutique (and unique) accommodation, including an exquisitely renovated red-brick tower in a French provincial-style castle at Mount Ophir Estate. Fans of fortified wines can unravel the mystery of Rutherglen’s ‘Muscat Mile’, meeting the vignerons and master-blenders whose artistry has put the town on the global map for this rich and complex wine style.

Stop four: Albury-Wodonga

First Nations YindyamarraSculpture Walk — First Nations Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk is part of the Wagirra Trail. (Image: Carmen Zammit)

Follow the river far enough upstream and you’ll arrive at the twin border cities of Albury-Wodonga. The Hume Highway thunders through, but serenity can be found along the five-kilometre Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk – part of the Wagirra Trail that meanders through river wetlands just west of Albury in Wiradjuri country. Fifteen sculptures by local First Nations artists line the trail, conveying stories of reconciliation, enduring connection to culture, local Milawa lore and traditional practices. It feels a long way from Mildura, and it is, but the pelicans and kookaburras remind us that it’s the same river, the great conduit that connects our country.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

New Mildura motel Kar-rama. (Image: Iain Bond Photo)

Kar-Rama is a brand-new boutique, retro-styled motel in Mildura, with a butterfly-shaped pool and a tropical, Palm Springs vibe. Echuca Holiday Homes has a range of high-end accommodation options, both on the riverfront and in town.

Playing there

BruceMunro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura — Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura. (Image: Imogen Eveson)

Artist Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights installation, comprising more than 12,000 illuminated ‘fireflies’, is currently lighting up Mildura’s Lock Island in the middle of the Murray. Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) is a hub for contemporary art, with a rotating roster of exhibitions, and is a major outlet for young and First Nations artists.

Eating there

Mildura’s diverse demographic means it’s a fantastic place to eat. Andy’s Kitchen is a local favourite, serving up delicious pan-Asian dishes and creative cocktails in a Balinese-style garden setting. Call in to Spoons Riverside in Swan Hill to enjoy locally sourced, seasonal produce in a tranquil setting overlooking the river.

Top 10 Little-known Natural Wonders in Australia