100 Things to Do in Australia Before You Die
One hundred experiences that add up to the trip of a lifetime — grouped by region and theme so you can build your own Australian bucket list.
Australia is too big and too varied for one trip, or even ten. This is our running list of the hundred experiences we'd put on any Australian bucket list — the reef and the rainforest, the red desert and the snow, the wildlife you'll see nowhere else on Earth.
We've grouped them by region and theme so you can pick a thread and pull it into a real itinerary. Plenty sit on our home turf in Queensland — the Whitsundays, K'gari, Hervey Bay's whales and the Scenic Rim among them. Tick off what you can; there's no wrong order. For the deeper dives, follow the links through to our things to do guides.
The Reef & the Tropical North
- 01Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef — off Cairns or Port Douglas
- 02Walk the ancient Daintree Rainforest — where the reef meets the rainforest
- 03Spot a wild cassowary — in the Wet Tropics
- 04Swim beneath Josephine Falls — at the foot of Bartle Frere
- 05Ride the Kuranda Scenic Railway — above Barron Gorge
- 06Chase the Atherton Tablelands waterfall circuit — Millaa Millaa and friends
- 07Snorkel with dwarf minke whales — on the northern reef in June–July
- 08Visit Mossman Gorge with Kuku Yalanji guides — a Dreamtime walk
- 09Spend a day on a reef pontoon — snorkelling and diving
- 10Watch turtles nest or hatch at Mon Repos — near Bundaberg
The Whitsundays & the Islands
- 11Stand on the silica sand of Whitehaven Beach
- 12See Hill Inlet's swirling sands from the air — a Whitsundays scenic flight
- 13Sail the 74 Whitsunday Islands
- 14Fly over Heart Reef — the reef's natural coral heart
- 15Float down Eli Creek on K'gari — crystal-clear and cool
- 16Swim in Lake McKenzie's perched waters — on the world's largest sand island
- 17Bike car-free Rottnest Island — and meet a quokka
- 18Snorkel straight off the beach at Lady Elliot Island — manta rays and turtles
The Outback & the Red Centre
- 19Watch Uluru change colour at sunset
- 20Walk the full base of Uluru at dawn
- 21Explore the domes of Kata Tjuta — the Valley of the Winds
- 22Hike a section of the Larapinta Trail — along the West MacDonnells
- 23Swim in a desert gorge waterhole — Ellery Creek or Ormiston
- 24Stargaze far from any light — the outback night sky
- 25Sleep underground at Coober Pedy — in an opal-town dugout
- 26Fossick for your own opal
- 27Stand inside Wilpena Pound — the Flinders Ranges' natural amphitheatre
- 28Drive the historic Oodnadatta Track — past the mound springs
- 29See Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre from the air — when the rare floods fill it
- 30Walk the Kings Canyon Rim Walk
The Kimberley & the North West
- 31Watch a Cable Beach sunset — with the camel trains at Broome
- 32Fly over the Bungle Bungle Range — at Purnululu
- 33See the Horizontal Falls by floatplane
- 34Cruise the King George River — to its towering twin falls
- 35Drive the Gibb River Road — and swim its hidden gorges
- 36Marvel at a pink lake — Hillier or a Kimberley salt lake
- 37Swim with whale sharks at Ningaloo
- 38Snorkel the fringing reef at Turquoise Bay — a drift straight off the sand
Wildlife You'll See Nowhere Else
- 39Watch humpbacks play in Hervey Bay — on our Fraser Coast doorstep
- 40Cuddle a koala at Brisbane's Lone Pine — the world's first koala sanctuary
- 41See kangaroos on the beach at Cape Hillsborough — at sunrise
- 42Find a wild platypus at Eungella — at dawn
- 43Watch little penguins come ashore — on Phillip Island
- 44Meet a Tasmanian devil
- 45Spot wild koalas at Kennett River — on the Great Ocean Road
- 46See sea lions on Kangaroo Island
- 47Snorkel with weedy sea dragons or cuttlefish — in South Australia
- 48Watch a mob of kangaroos graze at sunset
- 49See seabirds nesting on a reef cay
- 50Share a track with a wombat at Cradle Mountain
Wild Tasmania
- 51Look down on Wineglass Bay — from the Freycinet lookout
- 52Walk the Dove Lake circuit — beneath Cradle Mountain
- 53Hike the Three Capes Track — along the highest sea cliffs in the country
- 54Wander the orange boulders of the Bay of Fires
- 55Take in MONA in Hobart — Australia's most provocative gallery
- 56See glow-worms light a dark gully — Mole Creek or Mt Field
- 57Cross to Bruny Island — for its food and wildlife
- 58Tackle the six-day Overland Track
Coast & Beaches
- 59Walk the Bondi to Coogee coastal path
- 60Watch the surfers (or paddle out) at Bells Beach
- 61Drive past the Twelve Apostles — on the Great Ocean Road
- 62Swim the natural pool at Greens Pool — in WA's south
- 63Camp beachfront at Lucky Bay — among the kangaroos
- 64Find the Figure Eight Pools — in the Royal National Park, at low tide
- 65Snorkel the clear water of Jervis Bay
- 66Walk to the Cape Byron lighthouse — the mainland's most easterly point
- 67Watch the sun rise over the Pacific — from a Queensland or NSW headland
- 68Stroll Burleigh Heads to Tallebudgera — on our home Gold Coast
Cities & Culture
- 69Climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge
- 70See a show at the Sydney Opera House
- 71Watch New Year's Eve fireworks over the harbour
- 72Catch an AFL game at the MCG
- 73Watch the cricket on a hot summer's day
- 74Get lost in Melbourne's laneways and coffee
- 75Ride a Brisbane CityCat down the river — on our home turf
- 76Visit the Australian War Memorial — in Canberra
- 77Wander Vivid Sydney's winter light festival
- 78Graze the Adelaide Central Market
Great Journeys
- 79Ride The Ghan from Adelaide to Darwin
- 80Cross the continent on the Indian Pacific
- 81Drive the Pacific Coast Way — Brisbane to Cairns, from our home city
- 82Cross the treeless Nullarbor Plain
- 83Take a scenic flight over the Whitsundays — from our home reef
- 84Ride Puffing Billy through the Dandenongs
- 85Make the drive to the tip of Cape York
- 86Sail the Spirit of Tasmania across Bass Strait
Adventure & Adrenaline
- 87Skydive over a beach
- 88Ski the Australian Alps in winter
- 89Sandboard towering coastal dunes — Stockton or beyond
- 90Drift over the country in a hot-air balloon — the Gold Coast hinterland or Yarra Valley
- 91Dive a shipwreck or a reef bommie
- 92White-water raft the Tully River — in tropical Queensland
- 93Abseil into a Karijini gorge
- 94Cross a treetop canopy bridge — in the Otways or Lamington
Food, Wine & First Nations
- 95Taste your way through the Barossa or Margaret River
- 96Hear Dreaming stories with Traditional Owners — and learn to throw a boomerang
- 97Eat fresh seafood on a wharf — in Sydney or Tasmania
- 98See ancient rock art — at Kakadu or the Grampians
- 99Join a Quandamooka cultural tour on Minjerribah — in our home Moreton Bay
- 100Toast a Top End sunset at Darwin's Mindil Beach markets
How to actually use a list of a hundred
A hundred items is not an itinerary. It is a menu, and the most common mistake people make with a list like this is treating the numbers as a sequence to be worked through. Australia is roughly the size of the continental United States with a fraction of the transport density, and the entries below are spread across it in ways that make some combinations natural and others absurd.
Three constraints shape every Australian trip, and getting them straight before you start booking saves more time and money than any other planning decision.
- Season is not national. Australia runs two travel seasons in opposition. The reef, the Kimberley, Cape York and the red centre are dry-season country, broadly May to September. The southern coast, Tasmania and the Great Ocean Road are at their best in the southern summer, December to February. Almost nobody can do both well in one trip.
- Distance is the hidden cost. Brisbane to Melbourne is roughly 1,700 km by road. Perth to Sydney is nearly 4,000 km. Flying between capitals is the only sensible way to cover the continent inside a normal holiday, and driving is for the regional legs at either end.
- Weather cancels things. Scenic flights, reef trips and sailing are called off regularly for wind, and a single-day window means a single chance. Build a buffer day around anything weather-dependent.
Work out which season you can travel in, pick the two or three regions that season serves, and then let the list fill in the days. That order round the right way is the whole trick.
The list by season and region
Roughly speaking, the hundred entries above cluster into four groups, and each group has a window when it works and a window when it does not.
| Region cluster | Best window | Why the rest of the year doesn't work |
|---|---|---|
| Tropical north & the reef Cairns, Whitsundays, Daintree, Top End | May – September | Wet season from November brings monsoonal rain, flooding, marine stingers and cyclone risk |
| The Kimberley & the north-west Broome, Gibb River Road, Purnululu | May – September | Roads and gorges are closed by wet-season flooding; Purnululu shuts entirely |
| Red centre & outback Uluru, Simpson, Flinders, the Ghan | April – October | Summer heat is dangerous; desert parks close formally from 1 December to 15 March |
| Southern coast & Tasmania Great Ocean Road, Sydney, Freycinet, Margaret River | November – April | Winter is fine for walking but cold for swimming, and alpine tracks close for snow |
The two shoulder windows — April to May, and September to October — are the widest, when most of the continent is workable at once. If you have one trip and want the broadest possible pick from this list, those are the months to aim for.
If you only do ten
Asked to cut a hundred down to a first visit, this is where we land. It is not the ten “best” — it is the ten that between them show you the most different versions of the country.
- Snorkel the outer Great Barrier Reef — from Cairns, Port Douglas, the Whitsundays or the southern cays. Go outer rather than inshore.
- Walk the base of Uluru at dawn — not just the sunset viewing area. Ten kilometres, three to four hours, and the thing everyone remembers.
- Stand on Whitehaven Beach — silica sand so fine it squeaks, with Hill Inlet's tidal colours from the lookout.
- Drive the Great Ocean Road properly — two to three days, not one, with Kennett River and the Twelve Apostles at the right end of the light.
- Watch humpbacks at Hervey Bay — July to early November, on our doorstep, in a recognised Whale Heritage Site.
- Cross to K'gari — Lake McKenzie, Eli Creek and the beach highway of the world's largest sand island.
- Walk to Wineglass Bay — Freycinet, Tasmania, and the whole east coast around it.
- Fly over Purnululu — the Bungle Bungle domes only make sense from the air. Dry season only.
- Spend a night with no light pollution — anywhere far enough inland. The cheapest item on the list and, for many visitors, the one they talk about afterwards.
- Go to a game — the AFL in winter or the summer of tennis in January. Nothing shows you a country faster than its crowd.
Do fewer things and give them more time. The single most common regret we hear after fifty years of moving people around this country is never that someone missed an item — it is that they rushed the ones they did.
What a realistic plan looks like
Three shapes cover most people, depending on how long you have.
Two weeks, one season
Pick one half of the country. A dry-season fortnight might run Cairns and the reef, then the Whitsundays, then Uluru. A summer fortnight might run Sydney, the Great Ocean Road and Tasmania. Either works well. Trying to combine them means long flights and compromised weather at both ends.
Three to four weeks
Enough for two clusters plus the travel between them, ideally in a shoulder month. Add the Kimberley or the Red Centre to a reef trip, or add South Australia and the Flinders to a southern coastal run. This is the length at which Australia stops feeling rushed.
Multiple trips
Honestly the best answer, and the one most Australians take themselves. A northern dry-season trip and a southern summer trip cover the great majority of this list between them, with the outback and the shoulder-season inland country as a third.
Minimum times worth respecting
| Experience | Realistic minimum |
|---|---|
| Great Barrier Reef | 2–3 days — one day boat is a taste, not the reef |
| Uluru & Kata Tjuta | 3 days / 2 nights — fly in rather than driving from Alice |
| Whitsundays | 3 days — charters have minimum hire periods |
| K'gari | 2–3 days — barge times and tides shape the itinerary |
| The Kimberley | 7–14 days — distances are enormous and the season is short |
| Tasmania | 7 days — more if the Overland Track is on the list |
| The Ghan | 3–4 days — book many months ahead |
Practicalities worth sorting early
- Permits and passes. National park entry, vehicle access permits for Queensland's sand islands, Desert Parks Passes and Aboriginal land permits are all separate systems with separate lead times. Some take weeks. See our guide to the best 4WD adventures in Australia for the detail.
- Book the scarce things first. The Ghan, Overland Track permits, Whitsundays charters, Uluru accommodation, liveaboard reef boats and peak Kimberley dates sell out many months ahead. Everything else can wait.
- Swim safely. Swim between the red and yellow flags at patrolled beaches, respect stinger season from roughly November to May in the tropical north, and do not swim in northern rivers or estuaries where estuarine crocodiles are present. See our guide to the best Australian beaches.
- Respect Country. Many places on this list are culturally significant. The Uluru climb has been closed since October 2019 at the request of the Anangu Traditional Owners; some sites restrict photography; some require permits. The signage explains why, and it is worth reading.
- Sun and heat. Australian UV is among the highest in the world. Unprotected skin burns in under an hour in summer, and inland heat is a genuine health risk rather than an inconvenience.
- Getting around. Fly between capitals, drive or charter within a region. Our guide to getting around Australia sets out the trade-offs by distance.
Working through the list with us
Cooee Tours is family-owned, Brisbane-based and has been touring Queensland and beyond since 1974 with our own fleet and our own drivers. A list this size is usually attempted as milestone travel — a significant birthday, a retirement, a reunion, a group of friends who have been talking about it for years — and that is exactly where the logistics get complicated.
We handle the ground movement: airport transfers, day touring from a city or coastal base, and full charter for groups so everyone arrives together and nobody has to drive. Tell us which entries you have your heart set on and we will work backwards from them. Call 0409 661 342 or email contact@cooeetours.com.au.
Related reading: our Australia bucket list experiences shortlist, Australia's best national parks, the best road trips in Australia and the best Indigenous cultural experiences.
Start ticking off the list with us
Cooee Tours has been showing travellers the best of Australia since 1974 — let us help turn a few of these bucket-list moments into a real Queensland itinerary.
Plan a Queensland adventureFrequently asked questions
What should be top of an Australia bucket list?
The classics for good reason: snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef, watching Uluru at sunset, standing on Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays, and a wildlife encounter you can't have anywhere else — whales at Hervey Bay, a koala at Lone Pine, or kangaroos on the beach at Cape Hillsborough.
How long do you need to see Australia properly?
Far longer than most trips allow — Australia is roughly the size of mainland Europe or the continental United States. Rather than rush, most travellers pick one or two regions per trip and return for more. This list is designed to be tackled a thread at a time.
What is the best time to do an Australian bucket list trip?
It depends on the experiences. The tropical north and outback are best in the dry season (roughly April to October), the south and Tasmania in spring through autumn, whale watching in winter and spring, and the snow in July and August. Many bucket-list items are seasonal, so plan around them.
Which bucket-list experiences are in Queensland?
A huge share of them — the Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsundays and Whitehaven Beach, K'gari (Fraser Island), Hervey Bay's whales, the Daintree, the Atherton Tablelands and the Scenic Rim's rainforest are all in Queensland, much of it on Cooee Tours' home turf.
Can a tour help me tick off bucket-list experiences?
Yes — a guided tour takes care of the driving, timing, permits and logistics, which matters for the harder-to-reach items. Cooee Tours runs guided touring across Queensland and can help build a bucket-list itinerary.
How long would it take to do all 100 things in Australia?
Realistically, several trips over several years. The list spans a continent and two opposing travel seasons — the tropical north, Kimberley and red centre are dry-season country from roughly May to September, while the southern coast and Tasmania are at their best from November to April. Most people cover the majority across a northern trip, a southern trip and an outback trip.
What is the best time of year to visit Australia?
It depends entirely on which half. April to May and September to October are the widest windows, when most of the continent is workable at once. If you must pick one region: the reef, Kimberley and red centre are best May to September; the southern coast, Great Ocean Road and Tasmania are best November to April.
Can you still climb Uluru?
No. The climb was permanently closed in October 2019 at the request of the Anangu Traditional Owners, who had asked visitors not to climb since the park was returned to them in 1985. The 10-kilometre base walk and Kata Tjuta's Valley of the Winds are the far better experiences.
What should I book first for an Australian trip?
The scarce things. The Ghan, Overland Track permits, Whitsundays charters, Uluru accommodation, liveaboard reef boats and peak dry-season Kimberley dates all sell out many months ahead. Permits — national park entry, Queensland vehicle access permits, Desert Parks Passes and Aboriginal land permits — are separate systems with separate lead times, some measured in weeks.
How far apart are Australia's major attractions?
Further than most visitors expect. Brisbane to Melbourne is roughly 1,700 km by road and Perth to Sydney is nearly 4,000 km. Flying between capitals is the only practical way to cover the continent in a normal holiday, with driving or charter better suited to the regional legs at either end.
What is the one experience you would not skip?
The base walk at Uluru at dawn. Most visitors photograph the rock from the sunset viewing area and never get close to it, and the walk — around 10 kilometres and three to four hours, past waterholes, caves and rock art — is the thing people describe years afterwards.
Building your own bucket list
No one ticks off all hundred in a single trip — and that's the point. The smart approach is to pick a region or a theme, build a realistic itinerary around it, and come back for the next thread another year. Many of these experiences are seasonal, too: the whales, the wildflowers, the reef and the snow each have their window, so check timing before you lock anything in.
Several of the most accessible entries sit on our home turf in South East Queensland — the Whitsundays, K'gari, Hervey Bay's whales, the Scenic Rim's rainforest and Moreton Bay's islands. Browse our full set of things to do in Australia guides to turn any line on this list into a proper plan.
Cooee Tours acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and recognise that the places described here hold deep cultural significance for the First Peoples who have cared for them for tens of thousands of years.