Kate Hennessy : Freelance Writer

Ancient jungles host rare animals, headhunting remnants and grassroots conservation programs on tropical Tetepare Island, a true lost world of the South Pacific.

‘Fortune Forest’ reads the side of a logging ship hulking just off the coast of Rendova Island. Heavy machinery sprouts from its hull and dwarfs the diminutive boat that passes by carrying visitors – soaked in warm sea spray – to neighbouring Tetepare Island. Both islands are in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands, a Melanesian archipelago five degrees south of the equator.

GATEWAY TO RUGGED DRAMA OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA’S KIMBERLEY REGION, BROOME IS FULL OF COLOUR AND CHARM. EVEN WHEN IT’S WET DURING ‘THE DRY’.

Legend has it that a couple travelling from Darwin to Perth were once debating where to do their laundry. ‘Derby or Broome?’ they mused. Years after deciding on Broome, the two blow-ins are still there, happily ensnared by the laid-back lifestyle in the stunning Western Australian town.

The self-guided beach walk at Eco Beach

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The Daily Tele edit of my Broken Hill article. Broken Hill gallery below.

Road to Mutawintji NP

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It’s a hostile 43 degrees outside and even the locals are wilting. We are at Broken Hill’s tourist information centre and having no trouble getting service. “Our quiet months are December, January and February,” says the representative primly. Ah, I think. She means Summer.

She needn’t dodge the obvious. Unlike most January holidaymakers in Australia who flock beachside to unwind, we’ve willingly turned toward the country’s centre, rather than away from it, seeking a different kind of holiday.

Darling River bed

[See more photos here]

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WITH A RICH HISTORICAL HERITAGE AND FINE WINE AND DINING EXPERIENCES IN THE PRESENCE OF BREATHTAKING NATURAL SCENERY,  MUDGEE IS A LITTLE SLICE OF PARADISE FOR ANY TRAVELLER.

“Some winemakers go along in a tractor spraying the vines and never getting dirty — we call them ‘windshield viticulturalists’.”

It’s six in the evening at Thistle Hill organic winery in Mudgee. The January heat still shimmers across the vines and, in the distance, rise the picturesque hills that give the area its Wiradjuri Aboriginal name — Mudgee means “nest in the hills”. We’re sitting in low, dappled sun, sipping on a prize-winning 2009 Riesling.

The road from Mudgee to Gulgong

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