Australia

Australia's biggest attraction is its natural beauty. The landscape varies from endless sunbaked horizons to dense tropical rainforest to chilly southern beaches. Scattered along the coasts, its cities blend a European enthusiasm for art and food with a laid-back love of sport and the outdoors. Visitors expecting to see an opera in Sydney one night and meet Crocodile Dundee the next will have to re-think their grasp of geography in this huge country. It is this sheer vastness that gives Australia - and its diverse population - much of its character. Any time is a good time to be in Australia. Summer (December to February) can get uncomfortably hot but it's great beach weather. Up north, the summer wet season, is very, very humid and the sea is swarming with box jellyfish. Winter (June to August) offers skiing in NSW and Victoria. In spring and autumn the weather is mild.

Great Barrier Reef

One of Australia's greatest assets is the magnificent reef that runs along virtually the entire coast of Queensland. Considered one of the world's natural wonders, it is the most extensive reef system and the biggest structure made by living organisms on earth.

Culture

Aboriginal rock carvings and paintings date back at least 30,000 years. Modern Aboriginal art has undergone a revival in the last decade or two as Aboriginal artists have explored ways to both preserve their ancient values and share them with a wider community. Australia's 20th-century artists include world figures such as Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Brett Whiteley and Fred Williams. Dame Joan Sutherland is Australia's best-known opera diva. Prominent in the 1960s, she was the undisputed coloratura soprano of her time. Nellie Melba - who took her name from her home town of Melbourne - was the world's biggest opera star at the beginning of the 20th century. She was prima donna at Covent Garden in the 1910s and 20s. These days, Australians know her best for foodstuffs named after her - Peach Melba and Melba Toast. The Little River Band, The Bee Gees, Nick Cave, INXS, AC/DC, Midnight Oil, silverchair, and, yes, Kylie Minogue are Australia's most famous music exports. Live music is common in Australian pubs, with Melbourne now hosting the livliest scene. There is plenty of highly regarded Australian fiction, including the work of Nobel Prize winner Patrick White, and Booker Prize winners Peter Carey and Thomas Keneally. Other well known Australian writers include Thea Astley, Robert Drewe, Helen Garner, Rodney Hall, Christina Stead, Elizabeth Jolley, David Malouf, Frank Moorhouse and Tim Winton. Peter Weir, Bruce Beresford, George Miller, Gillian Armstrong are all well-known Australian directors, while Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman are the country's best-known actors. The Aussie film industry is small but well-supported.

Temperatures

Summer starts in December, autumn in March, winter in June and spring in September. Seasonal variations in temperature are not extreme except in the deserts, where scorching daytime temperatures can approach freezing by night. Otherwise, it's rare for temperatures to drop below zero on the mainland except in the mountains.