Australien

Snart kan unga backpackers som reser till Australien för att jobba stanna längre i landet. Detta efter nya regler som införs för att möta efterfrågan av arbetare hos landets jordbrukare.

Sitting on lovely undulating coastline traditionally owned by the Ngaro and Gia peoples, Airlie is the gateway to the unparalleled Whitsunday Islands and an essential stop on most east-coast road trips. Its multiple hostels, sprawling beer gardens and myriad tour operators are strung along Shute Harbour Rd, separated from Pioneer Bay by a lovely lawn-fringed swimming lagoon.

Escape the frenzy of Australia's east coast with a few days in gracious, relaxed South Australia (SA). The driest state in the planet's driest inhabited continent, SA beats the heat by celebrating life's finer things: fine landscapes, fine festivals, fine food, and (…OK, forget the other three) fine wine.

Nothing can really prepare you for the immensity, grandeur, changing colour and stillness of 'the Rock'. It really is a sight that will sear itself on to your mind. The World Heritage–listed icon has attained the status of a pilgrimage.

Proclaimed in 1916, Mt Field is Tasmania's oldest national park (along with Freycinet) and sits little more than an hour's drive north of Hobart. There's an upstairs, downstairs structure to the park, with its rainforest-covered lower slopes leaking waterfalls, while its tips hold exposed alpine moorlands, a laid-back ski field and the wonderful Tarn Shelf, which turns on one of Tasmania's finest autumn spectacles when the native fagus (beech) glows gold.

Cairns (pronounced ‘cans’) has come a long way since its humble beginnings as a boggy swamp and rollicking goldfields port. As the number-one base for Far North Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef, today Cairns heaves under the weight of an ever-growing number of resorts, tour agencies, souvenir shops, backpacker bars and reef boats. This is a tourist town, and unashamedly so – luxury hotel development in 2018 and an increasingly busy cruise-ship port suggest it's only growing busier.

When it comes to Byron these days, cries of 'Paradise lost' echo in the surrounding hills, while nearby unassuming beach towns puff out their chests in pride of being dubbed 'the new Byron'. Sure, this is a place suffering under the weight of its intense popularity – traffic-choked streets, no car spaces and lengthy cafe queues – but while it might not be what it used to be, it's still pretty special.

With its enticing mix of history, adventure and culinary temptations, Victoria's High Country is a wonderful place to spend some time. The Great Dividing Range – Australia’s eastern mountain spine – curls around eastern Victoria from the Snowy Mountains to the Grampians, peaking in the spectacular High Country. These are Victoria’s alps – a mountain playground attracting skiers and snowboarders in winter and bushwalkers and mountain bikers in summer. Here the mountain air is clear and invigorating, winter snowfalls at the resorts of Mt Buller, Mt Hotham and Falls Creek are fairly reliable, and the scenery is spectacular.

Goda nyheter för miljön. Nu finns världens första, och hittills enda, tåg som drivs enbart av solkraft. För drygt 20 kronor kan resenärer åka med på en tre kilometer lång färd mellan två stränder i det australienska surfnästet Byron Bay.

Australia's most populous state is home to its largest city: glitzy, vibrant, intoxicating Sydney, an unforgettable metropolis in a privileged natural setting. Bondi Beach and the harbour are justly famous, but in reality the whole NSW coast is simply magnificent: a mesmerising sequence of beach after quality beach backed by a series of excellent national parks and interesting coastal towns.