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Australia.
The very name ignites the imagination and sets the mind ablaze with panoramas of astonishing beauty.
Australia means the Outback, a vast space of fiery sands and ancient monoliths.
It means sweeping white beaches that hug an astounding 36,000 kilometres of coastline.
It means rainforests, tropical treasure houses of rare plants.
Australia means exquisite islands anchored to the greatest coral reef on earth.
It means the scent of bushland, the lure of mountains, the glamour of cityscapes.
These are the panoramas of Australia, enough to fill a picture book.
The magnificent panoramas of Australia have been relentlessly carved and chiselled from one of the most ancient landscapes on earth.
So ancient is this land that it's undergone the most awesome of transitions from tropical rainforest to driest continent on earth.
And when it broke away from Asia millions of years ago, it became a natural arc of rare wildlife.
The Australian aborigines roamed here for up to 40,000 years in perfect harmony with the land, cultivating one of the great religious arts of the world.
In 1770, Captain James Cook discovered and proclaimed Australia for Britain, changing the face of this land for all time.
January 26th, 1788 was a hot Friday.
As the convict ships of the first fleet sailed into Port Jackson, their sweltering, unwilling passengers became spectators to a rare moment in history, the birth of a new nation.
Today, clustered around the southern foot of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the convict's first village at Sydney Cove retains pride of place in the city that grew from it.
Known as the Rocks, its 18th century beauty has been lovingly rekindled.
Hewn and crafted by convict hands, the old warehouses and cottages of the Rocks are now vibrant waterside restaurants, colourful fashion boutiques and distinguished offices.
The Rocks is also home to Sydney's oldest home, Cadman's Cottage, built in 1816.
With its unsurpassed natural harbour, Sydney is a maritime city.
From Circular Quay, the city's famous ferries cut back and forth between North and South Shores and beyond to Manly, one of Australia's most celebrated beaches.
And an old manly expression still applies. Seven miles from Sydney, a thousand miles from Care.
Water is the music of Sydney and nowhere is the arrangement sweeter than where the water of the Great Harbour meets the striking architecture of the Sydney Opera House.
With its dramatic shell-shaped sails, the Opera House rivals the Harbour Bridge as the ultimate symbol of Sydney, dominating its skyline as well as its cultural life.
Beyond the simple pleasures of its majestic harbour, Sydney is also an international shopping adventure with its sophisticated malls and retail centres.
The city's grandest is the Queen Victoria Building. Its vaulted glass ceiling stretching the length of a city block inspired Pierre Cardin to pronounce it the most beautiful shopping centre in the world.
Mere minutes away by monorail, yet a century apart in style, is Darling Harbour, designed as a focal point for Australia's bicentennial celebrations in 1988.
Housing eight waterfront restaurants, 200 shops and night spots, this bold development expresses perfectly the international flavour of Sydney.
Sydney can also claim Australia's best view, the view from the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, Centrepoint Tower.
It's a panorama that stretches from the waterways of Sydney Harbour west to the tantalising hue of the Blue Mountains.
Forming the central section of Australia's great dividing range, the sheer rock faces and plunging river valleys of the Blue Mountains have created some of the nation's most breathtaking bushwalking trails just 100 kilometres from Sydney.
The Blue Mountains conjure a kaleidoscope of sensations, soaring views, awesome rock formations, crisp invigorating air and the thundering rush of waterfalls.
70 kilometres from the Blue Mountains, in the Genolan Caves, lies an unexpected world of stunning stalactite formations, crafted by time.
The Genolan Caves' nine main chambers are filled with wondrous ancient shapes, the result of millions of years of calcium deposits left by seeping water.
Both the south, in the snowy mountains, is Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko.
Down the slopes of these Australian Alps sweep snowfields bigger than those of Europe, an unexpected contrast in the flattest, lowest and driest continent on earth.
South of Sydney, fishing villages like the aptly named Eden cling to craggy shorelines and secluded inlets.
The south coast is sheer heaven to lovers of seclusion and sheer poetry to those who love to go down to the sea in boats.
Part of New South Wales, yet 700 kilometres away in the Pacific Ocean, is Lord Howe Island.
Its precious coral reefs and crystal lagoons have won it rare distinction as one of only three islands in the world ever granted World Heritage listing.
Perhaps more than any other Australian city, Melbourne possesses charm.
Not only does it retain some of the world's most impressive examples of Victorian-age architecture, but also a form of transport the rest of the world seems to have mostly abandoned.
The face of Melbourne's diverse ethnic population is reflected in an entire street of Chinese eating houses in Chinatown.
Slicing into the night sky, the spectacular spire of the Victorian Arts Centre, symbol of the city's vibrant artistic temperament.
The complex on the banks of the Yarra River is Melbourne's maker for concerts, opera, drama and ballet.
Like most Australian cities, Melbourne sprawls robustly its great cathedrals of commerce dominating the skyline.
Melbourne's pride in its straight wide streets is as evident today as when the city was a struggling riverside settlement.
The great retailing avenues always feel spacious, even at peak hour, and thankfully Melbourne's famous trams still have room to rattle along.
At the Queen Victoria Markets, people from every ethnic background imaginable flock in a fantastic trading frenzy.
The air is thick with accents and the delicious scent of bread, cheese and spices.
The Yarra River is an inseparable part of Melbourne's character.
A stroll along its banks inevitably leads to handsome parks and gardens that eagerly absorb traffic noise and reveal delightfully secluded private places.
The Fitzroy Gardens reveal another surprising Melbourne feature.
Captain Cook's Cottage, brought from England in 1932 and painstakingly rebuilt stone by stone,
this former home of Australia's discoverer is a fine example of the classic English cottage set in a traditional English garden.
Nearby is an example of the almost lost floral art of an earlier time, Melbourne's Floral Clock.
And residing in their own exclusive parkland domain are the native and exotic animals of Melbourne's royal zoological gardens.
Melbourne Zoo has almost completely rid itself of traditional enclosures, giving visitors and animals alike a more natural and unrestricted view of each other.
Just 35 kilometres east of Melbourne, the exquisite plant forms of the delicate Dandenong ranges are almost overwhelmingly beautiful.
The Dandenong serene landscape is occasionally disturbed by the friendly romance of steam as the famous 90-year-old tourist train, Puffing Billy, runs the glorious old narrow gauge line between Belgrave and Emerald Lake Park.
From Arthur's Seat, highest point on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, are magnificent coastal views of Melbourne's favourite holiday region.
Both sides of the peninsula, casually wrapped around Port Phillip Bay, offer calm water swimming.
Next to the Mornington Peninsula lies the picturesque holiday island of Phillip Island.
Here, every evening at dusk, a remarkable event takes place, the Phillip Island Penguin Parade.
Oblivious to crowds of delighted spectators, the penguins march up the beach to their rookeries.
South-west of Melbourne, winds one of the world's most spectacular scenic roads, the Great Ocean Road.
Travelling atop surf-battered cliffs, the road reveals breathtaking views of tiring limestone pillars stranded in the endless surf of the Great Southern Ocean.
The wealth of 19th century Melbourne was done from the gold fields of north-western Victoria,
and that great gold rush era is superbly recreated at Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, on the site of the town's original gold diggings.
The city's spear-like telecom tower provides the most spectacular view of Australia's capital, Canberra.
Canberra owes its very existence to Old Parliament House, seat of power for some 60 years, and now to the new and visionary building standing behind on the pinnacle of Capitol Hill.
New Parliament House is a structure of stunning imagination, incorporating the many colourful themes of Australian life.
It's the only building in Australia to rival the Sydney Opera House.
The Houses of Parliament are aligned perfectly with Anzac Parade, which stretches with military precision to the very steps of the Australian War Memorial.
This revered national shrine is a vast and moving memorial to the gallantry of Australians in battle.
Canberra is the caretaker of some of Australia's most important buildings, like the inventive structure of the Science Museum,
the quietly secluded Storehouse of Knowledge, the National Library,
and the highest Court of Appeal in the land, the High Court of Australia.
Canberra's modern design has spawned spacious, tree-lined boulevards, well-structured streets and pleasing shopping malls that ensure a rare, uncluttered way of life.
Nestling quietly in Canberra's suburbs and lending an exotic, international flavour to the traditionally Australian streets,
are more than 60 high commissions and embassies.
A living memorial to the city's designer is Lake Burleigh Griffin,
with a 35-kilometre shoreline laced with cycling and walking tracks, the lake is the recreational focal point of Canberra.
The plume of Captain Cook's water jet is always in view, and from Aspen Island, the bells of the striking carillon ring out across the city.
On weekends, Lake Burleigh Griffin's normally tranquil waters become freckled with sails, as regular boating regattas turn a stiff breeze into stiff competition.
Canberra is at its most brilliant when the trees along the gracious avenues and in the sunlit parks react to the first mild days of autumn.
As the leaves turn to orange, then spectacular sunset reds, Canberra becomes a magic carpet of colour.
In Canberra, too, lies a little slice of England.
Cochington Green is in fact very little, a traditional English village in magnificent miniature.
Every detail, every moment of village life has been painstakingly recreated in Cochington Green, right down to the cricket game on the green,
and the intercity express rattling by.
Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted the isolated coastline of Tasmania in 1642.
That same island isolation prevented a European foothold until 15 years after Sydney was established.
Tasmania's first village was called Hobart, where today its colonial past still lives just around the next modern day corner.
In Hobart's original streets, the echoes of Tasmania's seafaring heritage still linger.
Early fisherman's cottages rub shoulders with the fine townhouses of ship owners.
Meanwhile, magnificent old pubs recall the days when the old salts came ashore to drink their rum.
By contrast, however, and practically in the heart of Hobart, modern seafaring men tie up at historic Constitution Dock to unload the present day catch.
Elsewhere in Hobart, this engaging mix of modernity and heritage continues to surprise.
In the central business district, lunchtime shoppers can watch the cat fiddle his prelude and wait for the cow to jump over the moon.
The great fishing village tradition of the harbourside market flourishes in a colourful mix of enthusiastic barter and good-natured salesmanship.
Set in the gentle peace of the royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens are some of Hobart's most exquisite jewels.
These rare temperate climate plants offer up a brilliant confection of colour at every turn and add a magnificent splendour to the historic conservatory dating back to the early 19th century.
Beyond Hobart, Tasmania's history still hovers over the landscape.
It's sometimes beautiful, like in the lovingly preserved colonial village of Richmond, where Australia's oldest Catholic Church watches serenely over the nation's oldest bridge.
But Tasmania is also littered with reminders of past brutalities.
100 kilometres south-east of Hobart, on the eerie Isle of the Dead, the ghostly headstones of convicts look grimly across to Port Arthur.
A site of Tasmania's old penal settlement, Port Arthur's preserved buildings and ruins stand as stark symbols of a tortured time in Australia's history.
There was no escape from Port Arthur, because Tasmania itself was a prisoner of the sea. The rugged beauty of the coastline defied the boldest and damned the desperate.
Trapped between the cruelest of treatment and the prospect of drowning, the convicts were doomed to a hell on earth.
But today, people escape to Tasmania, and they often escape here to hike the island's spectacular wilderness.
If not to the wilderness, they escape to cool, plunging valleys, where waterfalls disappear into forests of ferns.
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North-east of Adelaide, grapes await the pickest clippers in Australia's premier wine-growing region, South Australia's Barossa Valley.
Settled by German refugees last century and still reflecting their European heritage and culture, the Barossa is where many famous Australian wine labels originated and still flourish.
Colonel William Light, the man who surveyed South Australia's capital city, had a special vision for it.
He proposed Adelaide streets be broad and gracious, tree-lined and sunlit.
The results of his vision are best symbolised by North Terrace, a beautiful boulevard in the classic European style, wide and spacious,
and lined with buildings for learning and the arts.
Adelaide is the city which once moved New Yorker magazine to call it possibly the last well-planned and contented metropolis on earth.
Surrounded by a lush green belt of parks and gardens which allow quiet moments in busy city days.
Still cruising the city's river torrents, an institution to several generations of Adelaide families, a boat called Popeye,
looking the river, the centre of the city's artistic life, Festival Theatre, focal point of the internationally renowned Adelaide Festival of Arts.
At the heart of the city is Victoria Square.
A park central to Light's grand design and overlooked by some of Adelaide's earliest buildings.
Victoria Square is also the terminus for Adelaide's only tram service, connecting the city with one of Adelaide's most popular suburban beaches, Glenelg.
Overlooking the city, the Adelaide Hills are full of charming scenes that could be straight from a corner of England or Europe.
One of the most famous Adelaide Hills townships is Haendorf. Rich in German heritage, it nestles in the gentle hillscape that inspired the famous Australian watercolourist Sir Hans Heissen.
High in the Adelaide Hills is Cleland Wildlife Park, an open range park that's home to some of Australia's more familiar faces.
South of Adelaide, at the foot of the picturesque Flurio Peninsula, is South Australia's most famous holiday town, Victor Harbour.
A charming echo of the seaside holiday of yesteryear.
Just off the mainland, the natural wonderland of Kangaroo Island, one of the few places in the world where sea lions make you feel welcome.
And just waiting to be enjoyed are sunsets on the secret lagoons and peaceful cliff-lined bends of the Murray River.
In the mid-north of South Australia, the rich textures of the Flinders Ranges stretch into the outback, where in spring, wildflowers explode in an avalanche of colour.
South Australia is the driest state on the driest continent.
In the far north, the glaring expanse of vast salt lakes tells of the rain that rarely comes.
Yet when rain does fall, it usually arrives as a deluge, transforming the harsh outback into temporary waterways of rare beauty.
The extra-modern city of Perth, capital of Western Australia, rises beside a broad expanse of the Swan River.
It's a casual, easygoing city, with a pioneering spirit of youth and vitality.
Its well-planned streets are situated closer to Singapore than Sydney, and are full of surprises.
London Court, for example, is a shopping arcade built in 1937, which recalls the Tudor period in British architecture.
The most commanding views of Perth can be seen from the crown of Kings Park.
Just a walk away from the commercial pulse of the city, these 400 magnificent hectares bring together the more traditional and formal plants with those of the Australian wilderness.
Perth's wildlife is drawn to the peace and security of the city's parks and gardens. Just minutes from the frantic race of traffic, an unexpected serenity attracts that gracious symbol of Perth, a mystical bird of Aboriginal legend, a black swan.
At the mouth of the Swan River nestles Fremantle.
Although a modern working port, Fremantle's glorious 19th century buildings keep it securely moored to the past.
It was a charming, ready-made backdrop to the spectacular America's Cup Challenge of 1987.
18 kilometres off the coast of Fremantle, Rottnest Island lazes in the clear waters of the Indian Ocean.
With its gentle, old-fashioned pace, Rottnest is Perth's favourite holiday resort. The simple, ochre-washed stone cottages of Thompson Bay provide peaceful island accommodation.
While brigades of bicycles offer the island's only alternative to walking.
But it's not just people who relish the respite of Rottnest.
These kangaroo-like marsupials, called quackers, are not found anywhere else in Australia and rightly enjoy protected species status.
South of Perth stretches the spectacular coastal scenery and pounding surf beaches of the Margaret River region of southwest Western Australia.
Its special, wild beauty attracts adventurous fishermen and windsurfers.
But the most towering attraction in all the southwest are the great Karey forests.
Frequently rising to more than 120 metres, these awesome silver-grey columns of Karey are some of the tallest in the world.
Beneath the great silent giants, streams weave their delicate silver threads along the forest floor.
North of Perth, in Nambung National Park, much older columns stand petrified in the desert. Known as the pinnacles, these mysterious shapes are limestone columns exposed by ceaseless wind erosion.
The breathtaking secrets of the Hammersley rangers in Western Australia's Pilbara region were revealed by mineral exploration in quite recent times.
The jagged escarpments offer up a wealth of colour as their stunning rock formations catch the sun.
When cattlemen came to the vast sprawling region known as the Kimberley, more than 2,000 kilometres north of Perth, they discovered spellbinding scenes from a lost world.
It's in the Kimberley that the eerie mountain formations of the Bungal Bungal Range bubble up from the black soil plains.
Darwin, capital of Australia's Northern Territory, is the nation's most northern city facing the Timor Sea.
Once a remote tropical outpost, Darwin has grown at its own leisurely pace into a colourful city with an easygoing lifestyle that's envied further south.
Virtually next door to Asia, the face of Darwin is distinctly cosmopolitan.
Nowhere is this rich mix of cultures more apparent than at the Mindal Beach sunset markets.
As the sun sets over the Timor Sea, friendly voices and the aromas of nearby lands fill the tropical air.
Before World War II, Darwin was, to the rest of Australia at least, a remote colonial outpost.
Its isolation and its feeling of being distinctly different brought to the city a very special proud identity that still echoed in the romantic appeal of its many colonial buildings.
On Christmas Day 1974, the city was devastated by tropical cyclone Tracy.
Many new buildings have since risen from the very ruins of the old.
Devastation came in another form during World War II when Darwin Harbour and the city was bombed.
The Darwin Aviation Museum houses relics of the aircraft that flew in defence of the city, as well as more modern exhibits including this mammoth B-52 bomber.
When the tides are right, the warm waters of Doctors Gully boil with fish as mullet, bream, milkfish and catfish swim in to literally take food from the hand.
Darwin is the host to Australia's only crocodile farm, where more than 7,000 sets of hungry jaws have to be fed every day.
South east of the city is one of the tropical north's most inviting places, Berry Springs.
This refreshing rainforest oasis with its irresistible natural swimming pools is a close neighbour to the birds and animals of the territory wildlife park.
Within easy reach of Darwin is the most famous, most evocative of all Australia's national parks. Its name is Kakadu.
This extraordinary wetland expanse, famming east and west of the South Alligator River, holds priceless natural treasures.
Jim Jim Falls, Australia's most magnificent waterfall, thunders into Kakadu.
The aboriginal rock art of Kakadu is some of the country's most stunning.
350 kilometres south of Darwin, towards Australia's red centre, the glowing colours of Catherine Gorge.
Further south still, near Tennant Creek, hand-lying just where he carelessly rolled them, are the tumbling boulders of the Devil's Marbles.
Near Alice Springs, in the very heart of Australia, lie the MacDonald Rangers.
Here photographers meet the challenge presented by Stanley Kazem to capture on film that brief but magic moment when, with the sun directly overhead, the Kazem's walls are set alight.
Beyond Alice Springs rise the mighty granite helmets of the Olgas. But even these massive shapes are unable to equal the Northern Territory's ultimate drama.
The world's largest monolith, Uluru, airs rock, unrivaled as one of nature's most magnificent monuments.
Welcome to Australia's playground. This is Queensland's Gold Coast, a dream world where, just for a while, reality takes a holiday.
The Gold Coast's world-standard theme parks are meeting places for old friends, and Warner Brothers Movie World is a non-stop special effects extravaganza.
Sea World is a delightful marine park where sea lions, whales and the specially lovable dolphins are always hard at play.
Who said mealtimes can't be fun?
The fun of the Gold Coast centres around Surfers Paradise. This is Australia's star holiday attraction and the country's most famous stretch of ocean beach, 42 spectacular kilometres long.
Cavill Avenue pedestrian mall is the heart of Surfers and where every Gold Coast shopping spree begins.
With its skyscrapers rocketing into the tropical blue and sitting astride the river which gave the city its name, is Brisbane, the sun-drenched capital of Queensland.
Just an hour away from the Gold Coast glitter, Brisbane challenges Darwin in the relaxation stakes with its balmy subtropical climate.
Its warm weather makes browsing in its malls and arcades a major pastime.
North of Brisbane strung out along the living wonder of the Great Barrier Reef are sparkling gems in a coral sea, Queensland's tropical islands.
On magnificent resorts like Hamilton Island, it's beautiful one day, perfect the next.
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living thing on earth and the most complex expanse of coral known to exist. Its delicate, peaceful beauty can never be forgotten.
The rainforests of North Queensland are thought to be some of the oldest in the world.
Beneath their sunshine filters of heavy green canopies live botanical beauties without equal.
Many of these plants exist nowhere else in the world.
The rainforests also provide safe airspace for the silent wings of butterflies.
Adding mystery and magic to the rainforests north of Cairns are the secluded waterways of the Daintree River.
This wild, mysterious place is a hidden world of exquisite beauty.
West of Cairns roll the hills of the Atherton Table Land, a rich farming and sugar growing area that owes its fertile soil to the natural compost created by the rainforests which once grew here.
The Atherton region is dotted with crater lakes and waterfalls always rushing after tropical rain.
West of the Great Dividing Range, Queensland's tropical landscape rapidly dries and the land is transformed into the traditional reds and ochres of the Outback.
In the Outback Queensland town of Winton, a simple song penned by Australia's greatest balladist Banjo Paterson was first played publicly late last century.
It was called Walsing Matilda and to this day embodies the very heart of Australia.
The magnificent panoramas of Australia have an awesome power.
The power to linger in the memory.
The power to haunt like the lyric of a song.
From the oceans to the city, the beaches and the coast, to the barren Outback desert plains and the mountains I love most.
Wherever I go, across this nation, from the dreaming time to what it is today, Savannah plains to islands of treasure, people of places that are far away.
Land of ancient grandeur, land of the rainbow gold, showing visions bright and clear and pleasures to emboll.
A land of time of beauty, a land so rich and free, panoramas of Australia, the splendour of my country.
From the oceans to the city, the beaches and the coast, the barren Outback desert plains and the mountains I love most.
The people here have made this nation the one place on earth I know.
Where right across this ancient land, beauty lies wherever I may go.
Land of ancient grandeur, land of the rainbow gold, showing visions bright and clear and pleasures to emboll.
A land of time of beauty, a land so rich and free, panoramas of Australia, the splendour of my country.
The splendour of my country.
The splendour of my country.
Discover the diverse beauty and spectacular landscape of Australia with the award winning Australian Video Panorama Series.
The series presents a comprehensive picture of the Australian landscape, its flora and fauna, its majestic geological formations and their development over millions of years into the landforms of today.
Each magnificent episode focuses on a different area of the continent's unique wilderness.
Australia is portrayed as never before.
The award winning Australian Video Panorama Series is a kaleidoscope of colour and sound, bringing to life a land filled with nature's treasures.
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