The coast and the interior both loom like giants in our national imagination. If you're in doubt about your next Aussie holiday - whether to head inland or embrace the blue - our experts can help you decide.
THE BEACH
By AMY COOPER
I'm a seaside-born, lifelong shore hugger. My favourite places all have tidelines. When it comes to the surf v turf debate, I bring the impartiality of a cuttlefish. But I'm in good company. More than 80 per cent of Australians live on or near the coast. And why the shell wouldn't they? This country has more beaches than any other - over 12,000 of them. You could see a new one every day for the next 32 years.
Our magnificent, massive coast is why people come; to splash, bask, frolic and plunge into globally envied beach culture as seen in Home and Away and Bondi Rescue, to marvel at the impossible beauty of Whitehaven, Wineglass Bay and Hyams Beach. They come for the many, many moods of Aussie beaches, from the splendid isolation of wild Tasmanian sandscapes to glamorous Noosa and Byron and watersports wonderlands Manly and Burleigh Heads.
Surfing and swimming are Aussie instincts. Saltwater runs through our veins. We are girt by sea.
The bush is quintessentially Australian, too - but in a Ned Kelly ambush, Mick Dundee "that's not a knife" way. Frankly, it scares the bunyips out of me. Going bush requires hardcore survival skills. When Bear Grylls -a man routinely unafraid to sleep in a camel carcass or eat a raw moose heart - first encountered the Aussie outback, it terrified him. He had to drink his own urine to stay alive. That just couldn't happen at the beach, no matter how limited the juice bar menu.
Oceans have sharks, I hear you landlubbers cry - but billabongs have crocs.
Beach survival requires little more than sunscreen, a towel and the intention to relax. Swimming abilities are handy, but it's just as glorious on a sunlounger, playing beach volleyball or sipping a local chardie in a beachfront restaurant. And you'll find many of those, because Australia's coast-dwelling population means fabulous facilities are a shore thing, from five-star resorts to family holiday parks.
Oceans have sharks, I hear you landlubbers cry - but billabongs have crocs and there's no net that'll stop one of those if it decides you're dinner.
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Speaking of dinner, let's go fishing for Australia's finest cuisine: Queensland spanner crab, Freycinet oysters, Western rock lobster. Beach seafood feasts are fresher than the cooling breeze that distinguishes our coastal summers from the 50-degree furnace inland.
Beaches are your portal to the most breathtaking Australia, the deep blue realm of clownfish and giant clams, dugongs and dolphins, whales and wobbegongs. Beaches also have penguins, seals, kangaroos and our most beloved native species: the greater ripped Hemsworth (don't tell me the bush is the only place for clear views of the stars). I want sand, not dust between my toes. Sure, Australia's beautiful on the inside, but nothing beats life on the edge.
THE BUSH
By MAL CHENU
Banjo Paterson didn't write about The Man from Surfers Paradise. "There was movement at the kiosk for the word had got around that the Golden Gaytimes were a-meltin'..."
Banjo was the bard of the bush, not the bard of the beach. Clancy of the Undertow is not a thing.
Patto knew the true identity of this wide brown land lay in the bush, where you can actually find a parking spot and your view isn't obscured by thousands of CoolCabanas.
Out in the outback, even the jumbuks are jolly. And you will be too when you widen your horizons and explore the interior. Instead of just getting sand between your toes, go bush and get some Aussie culcha between your ears and some inland on your Insta.
Tackle the Larapinta Trail through iconic painter Albert Namatjira's West MacDonnell Ranges in the NT. Wander the Scenic Rim in Queensland. Take on Tassie's Overland Track. Meander along the Murray. Take a food trail, a wine trail, a heritage trail or an Indigenous immersion.
Delve into the core of the country and you'll find there's more to see and do than you can shake a lamb chop at. Australia's most valuable scenic, cultural - and actual - gems lie inland; in the bush. The 'back o' Bourke' isn't just a saying. You can go there and follow the Darling River Run.
Head to the Flinders Ranges and fly over Wilpena Pound and Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre. Check out life underground in Coober Pedy. Crack a stockwhip at the Deniliquin ute muster. Check out Mungo National Park and the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area. Get to Glenrowan and follow in the bloody footsteps of Ned Kelly.
You won't encounter budgie-bearing Elvii at Bondi. Or bushrangers at Bells. Or Russell Coight at Rockingham.
Have a flutter at the Birdsville races, glam up at a B&S ball, stare up at the stars. Race a boat through the dust at the Henley-on-Todd Regatta in Alice Springs. Explore Kings Canyon, Katherine Gorge and Kakadu. Feel the ethereal spiritualism at Uluru.
Go west and discover the Bungle Bungles and Lake Argyle. Drive the Gibb River Road and stay at El Questro Station. Drive to the Pinnacles near Cervantes north of Perth, and if you're a real petal-head, wander WA's spring wildflower trails, from the Pilbara down to Esperance.
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The bush loves a festival too, such as the famous Parkes Elvis Festival, where you can put on your blue suede shoes and set your soul on fire. You won't encounter budgie-bearing Elvii at Bondi. Or bushrangers at Bells. Or drovers at Dee Why. Or stockmen at Scarborough. Or Russell Coight at Rockingham.
If you want to travel to the real Straya, go the full pastiche. Dangle corks from your Akubra, pull on your R.M. Williams, Spotify Slim Dusty and camp by a billabong under the shade of a coolabah tree.
