Breakaway Destination Guides (International)

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands. The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia.

The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps

The Great Barrier Reef supports a wide diversity of life, and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981. CNN has labelled it one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. The Queensland National Trust has named it a state icon of Queensland.

The Great Barrier Reef has long been known to and utilised by the Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islanders, and is an important part of local groups' cultures and spirituality. The reef is a very popular destination for tourists, especially in the Whitsundays and Cairns regions.

A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which limits the impact of human use. Other environmental pressures to the reef and its ecosystem include water quality from runoff, climate change accompanied by mass coral bleaching, and cyclic outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish.

Uluru, also referred to as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, Central Australia. It lies 335km (208mi) south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs;

Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park. Uluru is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara, the Aboriginal people of the area. It has many springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient paintings.

Uluru is one of Australia's most recognisable natural icons. The world-renowned sandstone formation stands 348m (1,142ft) high with most of its bulk below the ground, and measures 9.4km (5.8mi) in circumference.

Historically, 46 species of native mammals are known to have been living in the Uluru region, according to recent surveys there are currently 21. Anangu acknowledge that a decrease in the number has implications for the condition and health of the landscape.

According to the Anangu traditional landowners of Uluru: "The world was once a featureless place. None of the places we know existed until creator beings, in the forms of people, plants and animals, traveled widely across the land. Then, in a process of creation and destruction, they formed the landscape as we know it today. Anangu land is still inhabited by the spirits of dozens of these ancestral creator beings which are referred to as Tjukuritja or Waparitja."

Tasmania is an Australian island and state of the same name. It is located 240kilometres (150mi) south of the eastern side of the continent, being separated from it by Bass Strait.

Tasmania is promoted as the Natural State and the "Island of Inspiration" owing to its large and relatively unspoiled natural environment. Formally, almost 37% of Tasmania is in reserves, National Parks and World Heritage Sites.

The state is named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who made the first reported European sighting of the island on 24 November 1642. He named the island Anthony van Diemen's Land after his sponsor Anthony van Diemen, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies.

It is believed that the island was joined to the mainland until the end of the last glacial period approximately 10,000 years ago. Tasmania was first inhabited by the Tasmanian Aborigines. Evidence indicates their presence in the region, at least 35,000 years ago.

Sydney is the largest city in Australia. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City", "the City of Villages" and "the Emerald City".

The site of the first British colony in Australia, Sydney was established in 1788 at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip, commodore of the First Fleet.

The city is built on low hills surrounding Sydney Harbour - an inlet of the Tasman Sea on Australia's south-east coast. It is home to the iconic Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge and its beaches.

The city is surrounded by and is renowned for its inner city parks, such as Hyde Park, Royal Botanical Gardens and numerous national parks. This is a major factor, along with the stunning Sydney Harbour that has led to the city being considered one of the most stunningly beautiful in the world.

In 1770, British sea Captain Lieutenant James Cook landed in Botany Bay on the Kurnell Peninsula. It is here that James Cook made first contact with an Aboriginal community known as the Gweagal. Under instruction from the British government, a convict settlement was founded by Arthur Phillip, who arrived at Botany Bay with a fleet of 11 ships on 18 January 1788.

The Sydney region has been inhabited by indigenous Australians for at least 30,000 years. The traditional Indigenous inhabitants of Sydney Cove are the Cadigal people, whose land once stretched from south of Port Jackson to Petersham.

The Territory of Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It is located 2,600kilometres (1,600mi) northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, 500km (310m) south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and 975km (606mi) ENE of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

The island’s geographic isolation and history of minimal human disturbance has led to a high level of endemism amongst its flora and fauna, which is of significant interest to scientists and naturalists.

British and Dutch navigators first included the island on their charts in the early seventeenth century, and Captain William Mynors of the British East India Company vessel, the Royal Mary, named the island when he arrived on Christmas Day, 25 December 1643.

The earliest recorded visit was in March 1688 by the British ship Cygnet, who found it uninhabited, when trying to reach Cocos from New Holland, and the ship was pulled off course in an easterly direction and after 28 days arrived at Christmas Island.

Christmas Island is of immense scientific value as it was uninhabited until the late nineteenth century, so many unique species of fauna and flora exist which have evolved independently of human interference.

Bora Bora is an island in the Leeward group of the Society Islands of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the Pacific Ocean.

The original name of the island in the Tahitian language might be better rendered as Pora Pora, meaning "First Born"; an early transcription found in 18th- and 19th century accounts, is Bolabolla (or "Bollabolla").

The Island was first inhabited by Polynesian settlers around the 4th century. Its previous Polynesian name was Vava'u. The first European sighting was made in 1722 and James Cook sighted the island in 1769 and landed in 1777.

Today the island is mainly dependent on tourism. Over the last few years several resorts have been built on motu (small islands) surrounding the lagoon.

Although French and Tahitian are the main languages spoken by the inhabitants, people in contact with tourists generally have some command of English. Most visitors to Bora Bora are American, Japanese, or European.

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle.

A special territory of Chile annexed in 1888, Easter Island is widely famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people.

Historically the island has experienced a collapse of its ecosystem, with extinction of many of its prehistoric species; these events were associated with over-exploitation of the island's resources. The underlying island geology is one of extinct volcanoes.

The name "Easter Island" was given by the island's first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered it on Easter Sunday 1722, while searching for Davis or David's island and named it Paasch-Eyland (18th century Dutch for "Easter Island").