Australien

Welcome to Rockhampton (‘Rocky’ to its mates), where the hats, boots and utes are big, and the bulls are even bigger. With over 2.5 million cattle within a 250km radius, this riverside city, founded in 1858 on land owned by the Darumbal people, calls itself Australia’s Beef Capital with some justification. Despite rustic touches such as cane trains running down the centre of wide streets, it's the administrative and commercial centre of Central Queensland, with fine Victorian buildings reflecting the region's 19th-century mining and beef-rearing heyday.

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.

At the centre of the fertile Mid North agricultural district, two hours north of Adelaide, the wine bottle–slender Clare Valley produces world-class, sweet-scented rieslings and mineral-rich reds. This is gorgeous countryside – Ngadjuri Indigenous homelands – with open skies, rounded hills, stands of large gums and wind rippling over wheat fields. Towns here date from the 1840s; many were built to service the Burra copper mines.

Baked, straw-coloured plains, hawthorn hedgerows, rows of poplars, roadside mansions… Tasmania’s Midlands have a distinct English-countryside feel. This is old-school Tasmania, tracing the route between Hobart and Launceston hammered out by convict gangs in the early 1800s. As the road rolled itself out, sandstone garrison towns and pastoral properties appeared: the Midlands soon became the food factory of Van Diemen's Land.

Får det vara lov att vara ett glas shiraz, pinot noir eller en smutt cabernet sauvignon? Eller kanske ett glas bubbel lockar mer? På Wine Island behöver du inte välja.

Queensland is Australia's take on paradise. Warm, laidback and heartbreakingly beautiful, its sweep of pristine beaches, luxuriant jungle and ethereal peaks conjure a southern Shangri-La.

Built for pleasure and remaining a place dedicated to sun, surf and the body beautiful, this strip of coast is possibly Australia’s most iconic holiday destination. Its shimmering high-rises can, when glimpsed from afar, resemble a make-believe city, and its reputation for tackiness is occasionally deserved. But this is far outstripped by the area's youthful spirit and startling physical beauty: some 52km of pristine sand with countless epic surf breaks, stunning sunsets, blissful water temperatures and 300 sunny days a year.

Welcome to your holiday. Port Douglas (Port or PD) is equal parts flash and fun, from the million-dollar marina to the dreamy Four Mile Beach and the five-star resorts big enough to warrant their own postcode.

Sandstränder, surfvågor och vin. Australiens västkust är som gjord för en roadtrip för dig som är både naturälskare och finsmakare.

Australia's only tropical capital city and gateway to the Top End, Darwin, on the traditional lands of the Larrakia, gazes out across the Timor Sea. It's closer to Bali than Bondi and certainly feels removed from the rest of the country, which is just how the locals like it.