Destination: Australia

Movie: Australia (2008)

Stars: Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackson and AUSTRALIAN LANDSCAPE

Rather than talk about this movie which was released last year, let me instead just suggest that if you have not seen it,   To comment and scurry down to BlockBuster or click over to Netflix and get a DVD.  If this movie does not put Australia on your travel list, you just are not paying attention to that gorgeous scenery. Baz Luhrmann manages to make a beautiful landscape even more alluring.

We can go have a beer and discuss Luhrmann’s techniques later, but for now, let’s concentrate on where the heck all that beautiful stuff is to be found. And if we are lucky travelers, we will get to go on location in Australia.

Western Australia and the Kununurra Visitor Center are ready to welcome you to scenes from the movie Australia. They will tell you about the Mirima National Park, a tiny wonderland of canyons, waterfalls and rock formations practically inside the town of Kununurra.

The Kimberley Range, 422,000 sq. km. of more eye-popping scenery can be seen in this promotional video.

The El Questro Wilderness Park, privately owned, stretches over a mind boggling million acres of land that was once a cattle station. (Take THAT, Texas ranchers!)  If you want to stay in a tented cabin or a bungalow in one of the scenic areas near where the movie was filmed, it will set you back about $220 to $550 dollars for four people. Open between 1 April and 31 October. Learn more at their web site.

Of course your base of operations will not be those Austalian cities you are more or less familiar with like Sydney or Melbourne. Oh, no. We are talking the far north and west, here. Darwin, the Northern Territories, the town that starred in the movie, will serve as an operational base. (If you have journeyed to the iconic Ayers Rock in Australia, you know Darwin).

This travel agency site explains the story of the cattle station, Carlton Hill, that was “borrowed” to become Faraway Downs in the movie, Australia.

Now, all that said, anybody want to talk about the pros and the cons of the script, acting, and directing of the move, Australia?

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Australian Sunset by Reto Fetz

Destination: Australia

Books: In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

Conversations at Curlow Creek and Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

Mike Cadogan, the commenter known as sandandsurf came up with a site for people looking for books about Australia and two specific books.

Cadogan recommended Bill Bryson’s  In a Sunburned Country.  Bryson is a favorite of many, but was dissed in a World Hum conversation as someone who talks about himself rather than the place in question. Travel writer Tom Swick says, “As a glimpse into the modus operandi of a travel writer, In a Sunburned Country is rather revealing. As a travel book, it’s a disappointment.”  As a travel writer, myself, who was once skewered by Tom Swick in a rejection letter, it is nice to know I am in such august company as Bill Bryson.

A website with a comprehensive list of Australian literature, (literature by Australian authors) can provide browsing for weeks, but I would like some more guidance on which of these authors provide a good sense of place and a feeling for the country. Anybody have some specific recommendations?

Mike particularly recommends, The Conversations at Curlow Creek by David Malouf. Malouf is a novelist and poet and was short listed for the Booker prize for Remembering Babylon, like Curlow Creek, set in the 19th century in Australia. Sounds like a very good choice, as he is praised for his sense of place.

Photo by Reto Fetz “SwissCan” from Flickr, Creative Commons License

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