In 1995, on my first tour of Australia with the AAT Kings coach party, we stopped for a few nights at Fraser Island, Daydream Island, Rockhampton and Ingham on our way South, having already made our way up through the red centre of Australia. The following few entries are taken from my diaries of the time, and updated for this book. The ferry to Fraser Island departs from Hervey Bay and seemed to me to be more of a makeshift raft just large enough to transport a...

The following year, Eloise and I returned to Brisbane as part of a more in-depth tour of Australia and New Zealand. This time, we had backpacks firmly strapped to our backs (always the best place to keep them) and were very much playing the student travel game, staying in youth hostels and backpacker accommodation nearly everywhere so we'd have more money to spend on seeing a wider range of places. Although we had very limited time and were really just passing t...