Australia travel vacations are very much about exploration and discovery, particularly the discovery of the unique cultural and historical heritage of this fascinating island nation. Australia was settled long before European colonists began arriving, and the native people have a shared history and experience dating back millennia. Many vacations and tours are centered around the opportunity to explore and envision some of this culture, and such experiences can turn a lovely holiday into an extraordinary one.
Take the beautiful monolith of Uluru, a massive red stone butte in the heart of the Outback. This strange feature, rising up amid so much lower ground, presents itself in a magnificent fashion and seems a mysterious entity. The aboriginal people have many stories about it, dating back to what they call the dreamtime, a time before memory or thought. Tours around the base of the rock that share pieces of this magical heritage are very popular among culturally-minded guests.
Alternatively, there is the Daintree rainforest, home of the Wujal Wujal people. The aboriginal people are not a single group, but a group of many different yet shared cultures that fill the various niches of the Australian panorama. The Wujal Wujal share their unique knowledge of the rainforest with their guests, showing how to find “bush tucker” and fresh water in the forests. Thousands of animals are present in the trees and waterways, including fresh water crocodiles sunning themselves on the shores, and hundreds of species of beautiful birds, many of them native only to Australia and unknown anywhere else in the world except for their reputation for amazing beauty.
