Category: Travel

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Destinations

Horse treks in the Victorian High Country: retracing stock routes

Alpine National Park in north-eastern Victoria was once the stomping ground of Australia’s High Country cattlemen. The Plains and the surrounding peaks – including Mt Feathertop and Mt Hotham – all belong to the Victorian Alps, part of the Great Dividing Range. From the mid-1850s until a decade ago, stockmen would drive their cattle through the lush pastures and onto the surrounding mountains and muster them down again in autumn before the first major snowfalls. Since 2005, when the last of the state government’s High Plains grazing leases expired, all that remains are the cattlemen’s huts and scattered remnants of stockyards. In a celebration of this heritage, one pioneering family leads packhorse trips into the High Plains.

Destinations

Australasia’s record-breaking destinations

From the oldest rainforest to the youngest hot spring, the longest highway to the largest sand island, these unique locations hold the world record in their respective fields and are sure to trigger your wanderlust. We take a look at 7 of these alluring places in an extract from the original book by Samantha Wilson, Ultimate Record Breaking Destinations.

Destinations

The largest stand of river red gums in the world

The twisted river red gums are a recurring feature of the Australian landscape: long valued by Aboriginal people, often depicted by landscape artists such as Hans Heysen, and highly sought after by timber-getters who once made a living from their wood. Across the continent, red gums have a strong link to water bodies, be they creeks, billabongs, floodplains or thundering rivers. About 200km north of Melbourne, the Barmah-Millewa Forest forms the largest stand of river red gums in the world. The remarkable forest habitat straddles the narrowest reach of Australia’s longest river. Find the full story in #127 (July–August).

Destinations

Heron Island: Queensland’s tropical paradise

Heron Island may be small, but it’s 11x5km reef is home to 60 per cent of fish species and 70 per cent of coral species found in the Great Barrier Reef. It’s also a nesting site for green and loggerhead turtles, as well as tens of thousands of sea birds.