Twelve experiences you simply can't have anywhere else on Earth — the truly, uniquely Australian.
Plenty of countries have beaches and mountains. Far fewer have quokkas, pink lakes, wild platypus and an entire menagerie of animals found nowhere else. These are the experiences that are unmistakably, only-in-Australia.
Some are wildlife encounters, some are landscapes, some are quirks of geology — and a few are on our home turf in Queensland. For the wildlife specifics, see our guides to koala experiences and where to see kangaroos.
Holding a koala — only legal in Queensland and SA — is about as uniquely Australian as it gets. Brisbane's Lone Pine, the world's first koala sanctuary, is on our home turf.
See our koala guide for the where and the rules.
The quokka — a small, perpetually smiling marsupial found almost nowhere else — is the star of car-free Rottnest Island off Perth.
Let them approach you; never feed or handle them.
Rolling out a canvas swag beneath the brilliant, light-pollution-free desert sky is a quintessential outback rite of passage.
Cooler months are most comfortable; the Milky Way is staggering.
Bubblegum-pink salt lakes like Lake Hillier and Hutt Lagoon glow an improbable rose, coloured by salt-loving microbes — best appreciated from the air.
Colour varies with the season and conditions.
One of the world's strangest animals — egg-laying, duck-billed, venomous — seen in the wild at dawn and dusk at spots like Eungella in our home state.
Be patient and quiet by a still creek at first or last light.
Each dusk, hundreds of little penguins — the world's smallest — waddle ashore to their burrows on Phillip Island, a nightly natural spectacle.
Ninety minutes from Melbourne; book a viewing spot.
Some of the oldest art on Earth — tens of thousands of years of continuous culture — at Kakadu's Ubirr and Nourlangie and across the country.
Best appreciated with a Traditional Owner guide who can share its meaning.
A camel train silhouetted against a Cable Beach sunset is one of Australia's signature images — touristy, yes, and completely worth it.
Dry season for the best sunsets.
The feisty, screeching marsupial carnivore survives in the wild only in Tasmania — see them at conservation sanctuaries working to protect the species.
An encounter you can have nowhere else on Earth.
Thousands of weathered limestone spires rising from golden sand in Nambung National Park, an eerie moonscape a couple of hours north of Perth.
Sunrise and sunset cast the longest, strangest shadows.
Spend a night on a tiny coral island ringed by reef — turtles, seabirds and a star-filled sky, with the reef quite literally at your doorstep.
On islands like Lady Musgrave and Lady Elliot at the reef's southern end.
On Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) in our home Moreton Bay, Quandamooka guides share their saltwater culture, bush foods and stories of Country.
A meaningful, uniquely local experience close to Brisbane.
Cooee Tours can weave koalas, wildlife and First Nations culture into a guided Queensland tour — the uniquely Australian, sorted.
See Brisbane & Moreton Bay toursCuddling a koala, a quokka selfie on Rottnest, seeing a wild platypus or a Tasmanian devil, and Australia's pink lakes and Pinnacles are all genuinely unique. Much of it comes down to wildlife and landscapes found nowhere else on Earth.
Only in Queensland and South Australia, where it's legal — including at Brisbane's Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on Cooee Tours' home turf. See our koala experiences guide for the full list and the rules elsewhere.
Seeing a wild platypus is high on the list — they're among the strangest animals on Earth. Quokkas, Tasmanian devils and the little penguins of Phillip Island are also found almost nowhere else.
The best known are Lake Hillier near Esperance and Hutt Lagoon near Port Gregory, both in Western Australia. Their pink comes from salt-loving microorganisms, and they're most striking seen from the air.
Yes — cuddling a koala at Lone Pine and joining a Quandamooka cultural tour on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) in Moreton Bay are both uniquely Australian and close to Brisbane, on Cooee Tours' home turf.
Many of these uniquely Australian moments are clustered by region — the koalas, platypus and reef culture of Queensland; the quokkas, pink lakes and Pinnacles of Western Australia; the penguins and devils of the south. Anchoring a trip on one region lets you tick off several without crossing the whole continent. Wildlife encounters in particular reward an early start or a dusk visit, when the animals are most active.
For the specifics, our guides to koala experiences, seeing kangaroos and whale watching go deeper on where and when.
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.