Australia’s top 10 secrets

The Australian travel magazine, Australian Traveller, has announced the 100 Best Travel Secrets of Australia in a special collectors’ edition of the magazine. The number one secret, Whites Beach in Byron Bay was one of the many stunning beaches to make the list. Several surprises made the top 10 – including Australia’s most expensive secret, Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, and the nation’s most underrated landmark, Wilpena Pound, a near-perfect oval in South Australia, big enough to hold six Ulurus. A tiny roadside restaurant was revealed to have ‘The World’s Best Limoncello’, the ‘ultimate secret treehouse’ was uncovered in the Blue Mountains, and a ‘fairytale’ castle-cum-luxury hotel in South Australia, as well as several stunning, but lesser-known islands including Maria Island, Fitzroy Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, were all named on the list. Over 1,000 nominations were submitted from people wanting to share best-kept secrets of the nation, before being shortlisted to 100 by a panel of eleven respected Australian travel experts: Catriona Rowntree, Pat Rafter, Tony Wheeler, Dr Chris Brown, Kate Ritchie, Camilla Franks, Tim ‘Rosso’ Ross, Daniel Scott, Sonia Kruger, Andrew McEvoy and Australian Traveller editor, Georgia Rickard. The top secrets were voted upon and the following scored highly enough to make the top 10: 1. White’s Beach, Byron Bay, NSW 2. Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges, SA 3. Swimming with Minke Whales, QLD 4. Baird Bay Eco Experience, SA 5. Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa, NSW 6. Cape Range National Park, WA 7. Shelly Beach near Manly, NSW 8. Karijini National Park, WA 9. Paperbark Camp, NSW 10. Secret Bush Camps of Arnhemland, NT For the rest of the list, you’ll need to buy the magazine!