There was a time when Dr John Goldsmith would have had little trouble photographing the stars over Pyramid Hill, a rocky outcrop that sticks out from a vast salt basin called Lake Ballard in Western Australia. Get the exposure right, and Goldsmith could capture a sky bright with millions of stars with little to get […]

Even if it’s hard to say exactly why Australia’s craze for giant objects began, it is possible to say where. When it landed in Coffs Harbour in 1964, Alan Chapman’s Big Banana was a sensation. The 40ft monument to fruit designed by Chapman even drew royalty. “The people just came in hordes; the car park […]

Tourists will have to book in advance and pay to visit the Twelve Apostles, one of Australia’s most famous natural landmarks, as authorities try to tackle overcrowding. More than two million people a year visit the towering limestone stacks on the Great Ocean Road, about four hours west of Melbourne. A new A$126m (£66m) visitor […]

A serial killer convicted of murdering seven backpackers including two young British women, has been linked to the unsolved murder or disappearances of 31 more people in Australia, an official inquiry has been told. Police suspect that Ivan Milat, known as the backpacker murderer, may be linked to 17 murders or missing person cases and […]

You could call her Ishmael. In a remote corner of the South Pacific, Jemma Cooper was one of four sailors on board the Tai Tam, a 52ft yacht, when she heard a thud. Her husband, Jeremy, was below deck and the crash was enough to wake him. “The whole boat was pushed sideways,” she said. […]

When a woman in the Australian town of Inverell heard a strange growling noise and scratching at her sliding glass door, she was astonished to find a koala sitting on the threshold. As she opened the door, the marsupial ran past her, down the hallway and climbed onto her bed, apparently trying to find a safe perch. […]