Running for over 2500km from the New South Wales border to Australia’s northernmost tip at Cape York, the Queensland coast contains almost everything tempting about Australia. Located in the more developed southeastern corner, Brisbane, the state capital, is a relaxed city with a lively social scene and, if you’re thinking of settling there, good employment opportunities. Between this city and the border, the Gold Coast is Australia’s prime holiday destination, with a reputation founded on some of the country’s best surf – though this now takes second place to a belt of beachfront high-rises, theme parks and a host of lively bars and nightclubs surrounding Surfers Paradise. An hour inland, the Gold Coast Hinterland’s green heights offer a chain of national parks packed with wildlife and stunning views.

North of Brisbane, the rich volcanic soils and a subtropical climate combine to the huge benefit of the fruit and vegetable plantations, overlooked by the spiky, isolated peaks of the Glass House Mountains. Down on the coast, you’ll find Noosa, a fashionable resort town with more famous surf. Beyond that looms Fraser Island, where the surrounding waters afford great views of the annual whale migration against a magnificent backdrop of huge wooded dunes, freshwater lakes and sculpted coloured sands.

North of Fraser, you begin to head into the tropics, with rising humidity and temperature. Though there’s still an ever-narrowing farming strip hugging the coast, the Great Dividing Range edges coastwards as it progresses north - dry at first, but gradually acquiring a green sward which culminates in the steamy, rainforest-draped scenery around Cairns. Along the way are scores of beaches, archipelagos of islands and a further wealth of national parks, some – such as Hinchinbrook Island – with superb walking trails. If you have a work visa, you earn yourself a bit of pocket money along the way by fruit and vegetable picking around the towns of Bundaberg, Bowen, Ayr and Innisfail. North of Cairns, the rainforest ranges eventually submit to the savannah of the huge, triangular Cape York Peninsula, a sparsely populated setting for what is widely regarded as the most rugged 4WD adventure in the country.

Offshore, the Tropical Coast is marked by the appearance of the world-famous Great Barrier Reef, among the most extensive coral complexes in the world. The southern reaches out from Bundaberg and 1770 are peppered with sand islands, while further north there’s a wealth of beautiful granite islands between the coast and reef, covered in thick pine forests and fringed in white sand – the best of these being Whitsundays near Airlie Beach and Magnetic Island off Townsville. Many of these islands are accessible on day-trips, though some offer everything from campsites to luxury resorts if you fancy a change of pace from tearing up and down the coast. The reef itself can be explored from boat excursions of between a few hours’ and several days’ duration; scuba-divers are well catered for, though there’s plenty of coral to be seen within easy snorkelling range of the surface.

Title Image Credit: ilaria (Image Cropped)