Australia

Let's face it...that long haul flight is certainly worth it.

Not only that, any Australian will gladly tell you that there is so much more to see and do than what you just see in the brochure!

That's why it's so important to get your travel plans sorted out properly - whether it's Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, or even the Great Barrier Reef - Australia has it all!

Title : Australia (Lonely Planet Country Guide S.)
Author : Paul Smitz
Rating : 4 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Starting Point

No single guide to an entire continent could ever be comprehensive, but the Lonely Planet guide has a good stab at it.

The guide is well presented and well organised, being divided up by state. City and Town sections are presented in the standard Lonely Planet way, with an introduction, maps, lists of places to sleep, shop, eat, drink etc. For me the standout feature is that the guide supplies a web address (where there is one) for every listed establishment, museum, tour company etc. This provides a great starting point to find out if what they suggest might really be for you or not, and to plan your trip. Crucially all of the information that I have relied on is up to date.

Having also looked at the Lonely Planet East Coast, Queensland and Sydney guidebooks I would say that there is enough information in the Australia guide book to preclude purchasing a more specific one.

The only major problem, as I believe with all Lonely Planet books, are the awful town and city maps. While they are just suitable for establishing if a bar you're interested in is anywhere near your hostel, they don't really provide a means of getting you there with much chance of success. The tiny versions of the public transport networks for Sydney and Melbourne are a nice idea, but not practical unless you were to go to the effort of making an enlarged photocopy version. In contrast however, the larger scale maps are quite deceent and fairly useful.

In conculsion I was extremely pleased with this guide, which made an excellent starting point for deciding what to see do and experience in Australia.

Title : The Rough Guide to Australia (Rough Guide Travel Guides S.)
Author : Margo Daly
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : an exceptional read

this book gives all the details anybody would need who is traveling to australia plenty of advice to everywhere worth visiting. the book apeals more to the indpendant traveller rather than families.it has advice on where to stay eat and party it is an essential guide if you are travelling to oz i give this book a big thumbs up.

Title : West Coast Australia (Footprint Travel Guide S.)
Author : Andrew Swaffer
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : A useful guide to Western Australia

The guide's information on the places we visited was first rate and the information on eating out was particularly helpful. We took three guide books to Western Australia in January 2005 (one each) but soon found that the Footprint book gave the best information on restaurants. The restaurant reviews were very accurate and there was only one that did not live up to expectations.

Title : Down Under
Author : Bill Bryson
Rating : 2 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Not his best

Bill Bryson concludes 'Down Under' by emphasising (for about the fiftieth time) that Australia is an interesting country. It is, undoubtedly. However, you wouldn't know it from reading this book.

Remarkably, in a country that is packed with things to do (try scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, try Croc watching in Darwin, try partying in Sydney, watching Aussie rules in Melbourne) Bryson spends most of his time pottering around on his own - his inability or unwilling to actually talk to people is quite unrivalled in a travel journalist - and peering at exhibits in out of the way museums. Each day on his travels seems to have the same shape: rise with a hangover, drive a long way on his own, look around another museum and arrive at a hotel to drink quietly on his own. Is this interesting? Is this giving us an insight in life 'Down Under'?

There are so many examples of Bryson coming across as a rather introverted ninny it's hard to pick one, but here goes. On the Great Barrier Reef, where he musters the courage to take a pleasure cruise (after about a chapter of fretting at the dangers of sharks, jelly-fish, groupers (!) etc...) After finally taking the plunge, he decides to extract himself from the water without actually seeing anything because he mask continually fills with water and he feels uncomfortable. Perhaps even more unbelievably, he goes to Adelaide and stumbles upon (yes, stumbles upon ... does he do any research?) an Ashes Test Match. Rather than actually go, by begging, borrowing or stealing tickets he decides instead to sit on his own in a bar and ponder what might be happening.

Put this lack of content together with his infuriatingly limited vocabularly which covers the full gamut of adjectives from 'delightful' to enlightening' and back again and you have the makings of a thoroughly dull read. One wonders whether this was a project foisted upon him by his over-eager publishers as it is striking how weak his pool of historical anecdote-cum-factoids are (which is his usual forte). Did we really have to hear about the Aussie Prime-Minister that managed to drown himself in every chapter?

In summary, it might be an exciting read if you like the Daily Mail.

Title : The Fatal Shore: History of the Transportation of Convicts to Australia, 1787-1868 (Harvill Panther S.)
Author : Robert Hughes
Rating : 4 Stars out of 5.
Summary : A history of The Convict Stain

From Captain cook's discovery of Botany Bay and The First Fleet's cargo of convicts this is comprehensive history of the transpotation system and the earliest days in the fledgling Australia. Factual and detailed the author desribes the gradual genocide of the primitive Aboriginal race, the precarious settlement of Sydney, the floggings and horrors inflicted within the harshest prisons on Tasmania and Norfolk Island. A tale of Britain's attempt to sweep an entire unwanted section of the communtity 'under the carpet'- which stopped only when they started getting rich on the proceeds of the newly discovered Australian goldfields. Wealth which could never quite remove 'The Stain' of a convict origin.

Property In Australia and Australia online resources.