Flying Fish Point Tourist Park

In some parts of this mighty continent, ‘easy to reach’ means ‘in a helicopter’ and ‘near’ means a two-day drive. Not on this spot, where you can get up to much cracking stuff within an hour’s drive of the park. For hikes through the bird-filled rainforest and beaches empty save for the odd sea turtle, it’s a 20-minute drive to the Ella Bay National Park and half an hour to walk the rainforest canopy at Mamu Tropical Skywalk. If you want an even grander high-up encounter with the subtropical landscape, take the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway over the Barron River, just north of Cairns (an hour and 20 minutes). For a more active encounter with the wilderness, walk it: there’s a great trail to Josephine Falls (half an hour), at the foot of Queensland’s highest peak, Mt. Bartle Frere: the two make a great combo, especially if you walk up one and take a dip in the other. Also half an hour away, there are further (safe) trails through Eubanangee Swamp National Park, home to crocodiles, cassowaries and over 190 species of birds, and if you get your tides and timings right at the Kurrimine Beach Conservation Park, you can walk to the Great Barrier Reef. Talking of which, it’s an hour and 15 minutes to Cairns for everything marine, from boat trips around the reef and to the islands, scuba and snorkelling and sea fishing charters.