"Then it’s time to hop aboard the most impressive train of all: the Indian Pacific. A two-night journey west to Perth includes top-quality dining, stark desert scenery, and dinner in a remote ghost town. It’s a fitting finale to an almost 8000 kilometre rail odyssey..."

Detailing how to catch trains from Far North Queensland through NSW, Victoria and South Australia, all the way to Western Australia.
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"Huge, colourful images of geishas line a brick wall off Adelaide’s Rundle Street, and they’re far more glamorous than the alley they overlook. A fine example of the street art to be found scattered through the city’s Central Business District, they’re attached to the wall of a nightclub called Sugar. Which seems appropriate, as the next stop on the Adelaide Feast tour is a chocolate shop. Or more elegantly, a chocolatier..."

Enjoying food and street art on a walking tour through Adelaide, South Australia.

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"Once he’s rattled off an impressive list including saltwater crocodiles, snakes and jellyfish in his calm delivery style, I find myself slightly nervous. Visitors tend to experience Aboriginal culture outside the city, on tours into the Northern Territory’s spectacular landscapes. But Mills, a member of the local Larrakia people, runs walking tours in the heart of Darwin, sharing indigenous knowledge of the land and its seasons under urban dwellers’ noses..." 

Joining the Batji walking tour highlighting the Aboriginal heritage of Darwin, Australia.
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"The Alice Desert Festival is Alice Springs’ annual celebration of the arts. Where it departs from your standard big-city arts festival in its use of the incomparable desert environment which surrounds Alice. Last year, for example, saw the premiere of a new play about Olive Pink, the eccentric custodian for many years of a nature reserve near the town centre. It was performed in the reserve, now the Olive Pink Botanic Garden..."

Exploring cutting-edge arts venues & companies in Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart & Alice Springs.

"I glance around at the interior of the tapas bar. Dark and moody with orange-yellow illuminated panels beneath a bar with angular black bar stools, it could be anywhere in the hipper suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne. Instead, I'm in Darwin. If I had a little dog, this is the point at which I'd say 'We're not in Kansas any more, Toto'..."

"This laneway has a special vibe, which evolved after an old-fashioned fruit and vegetable market closed. The market’s spacious interior was redeveloped into modern apartments and neat intersecting streets, including this one. As a managed laneway, it’s a little less grimy and unpredictable than Melbourne’s equivalents. But what it lacks in grit, Ebenezer Place has in street cred..."

Exploring Ebenezer Place, a cool laneway in Adelaide, South Australia.

"Within this space a huge animated film, the Bombing of Darwin Experience, is projected across a series of glass panels. It’s brilliantly done, mixing cutting-edge computer graphics with period photography and an urgent soundscape. It’s an immersive experience that rolls back the decades and gives a sense of what it was like to stand in Darwin on that darkest of days..."

"My companions on the bus today make a varied group, from New Zealand, France, Germany, Britain and Brazil. The two Brazilians, Fernando and Flavia, are on a break from their studies in Sydney, while the rest are visiting Australia on holidays of various lengths. 'It’s wine time!' we all think, as the bus climbs into the hills. But not quite yet - it is a bit early for alcohol..."

Taking a relaxed winery tour through the Barossa Valley of South Australia.

"In the centre of Australia stands a set of low sand-coloured buildings behind a fence topped with barbed wire. For half a century this was Alice Springs’ prison, a place of misery, punishment and despair. Nowadays the Old Gaol is the home of the National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame, celebrating women’s achievements in the outback and beyond..."

Investigating the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame in Alice Springs.
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"Most flashpacker hostels are full of super-slick modern architecture, but this Adelaide hostel is distinguished by its classy colonial-era premises. Built in the 19th century, the two-storey building has a typical facade of the time, with high ceilings, stone walls and a balcony above the street."

Detailing upmarket 'flashpacker' hostels across Australia and New Zealand.

"PrismTeam Haunted Tours takes a investigative approach to spectral sightings in its Haunted Tour of Adelaide. 'We started investigating the Hindmarsh Rectory in 1999, after a call from a gentlemen who used to rent the place,' says Laurie Pearce. After undertaking research, he discovered that a small girl had died in the front room when a candle got too close to a curtain."

Delving into the paranormal via ghost tours across Australia. 

"On Kangaroo Island off the South Australian coast, another member of the Lark family is applying his hand to liqueurs. 'I probably eat too much, and I like to drink,' says Jon Lark, co-owner of Kangaroo Island Spirits. 'I couldn’t afford to build a bar, but I could afford to set up a distillery, and that’s what I’ve done here. It’s a lot of fun.'"

Revealing the artisan distillers of Australia, from rum makers to sake brewers. 

"There are more amazing chocolate-coated wonders in store. As Beverley talks, revealing the intricacies of chocolate manufacture in a lively, engaging style, two women just beyond the glass are coating reddish-brown spheres in successive layers of chocolate. It turns out they’re creating sparkling shiraz truffles."

I sample the food and beverage delights of the South Australian capital.

"'There’s no reason to be scared of any of the ghosts, just talk to them normally.' So says Francis Thompson casually about the resident spirits of the Port Dock Brewery Hotel, including the much-sighted ‘lady in white’. But then, he’s known them for a long time. He beckons me down to the hotel’s cellar to see if we can spot the other ghost, a seaman from the hotel’s rough-and-tumble early days, but he’s not home today."

Investigating the classic 19th century pubs of Port Adelaide. 

"Not only has the group now drunk more than enough wine – those small tastings eventually add up – but it’s a sunny day, and the combination of food, drink and the warm sunshine are inducing a feeling of deep relaxation. Add in the amazing view, and you can understand why those early settlers thought this was the place to settle down."

A journey into South Australia's famous Barossa Valley wine region.
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"What is it about Adelaide? All those churches, that clean-swept look, the history unmarred by the 'convict stain'. It all looks pretty innocent. Which is why I decide to put the city of churches to a test. Can the seven deadly sins be recreated in this historical monument to wowserism and good behaviour?"

A tale of temptations in the South Australian capital.
Available for republication (print and Web).

I also have a selection of high-quality digital images available, depicting a variety of international locations. 

If you'd like to republish one of these pieces, or would like a new piece written about the same location, please get in touch via the contacts below.

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email:
tim@iwriter.com.au

phone:
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(international +61-411-242327)

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