Off Western Australia’s Coral Coast, a spotter plane circles overhead and signals your boat. You slip into clear blue water as the world’s largest fish glides past, spotted like a night sky and gentle as anything.

As the light comes up over the Red Centre, the rock shifts from violet to burnt orange. Walking its base with an Anangu guide, you hear the stories held in every cave, waterhole, and ridge.

In the Daintree, a rainforest older than the Amazon spills right down to a white-sand beach, with the Great Barrier Reef just offshore. Keep watch for the cassowary, a prehistoric-looking bird wearing a helmet of its own.

A morning boat from Port Douglas carries you out to the ribbon reefs, where giant clams, sea turtles, and schools of jewel-toned fish drift through coral gardens.

At Seal Bay, you walk the beach with a ranger among Australian sea lions dozing in the sun, then spend the evening watching kangaroos graze as the sky turns gold.

Some of the world’s oldest Shiraz vines grow in this South Australian valley. Settle in at a long table of local produce, then head into the cellar to blend a bottle of your very own.

From above, the beehive domes of Purnululu National Park rise in orange and black stripes across the Kimberley, one of the great wilderness frontiers on Earth. Later, you land and walk into the cool shade of Cathedral Gorge.

In Kakadu, an Aboriginal guide leads you past paintings layered over thousands of years, then up to a lookout where the Nadab floodplain glows as the sun goes down.

In Tasmania’s wild highlands, wombats amble across the buttongrass plains as the light fades. At a nearby conservation sanctuary, you meet Tasmanian devils up close at feeding time.

Wander hidden lanes lined with street art, tucked-away coffee bars, and some of the most exciting restaurants in the Southern Hemisphere.

Follow Victoria’s coastal curves, spot koalas napping in the gum trees at Kennett River, and watch the Twelve Apostles glow gold as the sun sinks into the Southern Ocean.

An hour from Darwin, your boat drifts along a tea-colored river as wild saltwater crocodiles, some longer than the boat itself, launch straight up out of the water. Back in town, wrap the evening at the Mindil Beach Sunset Market with golden hour light and a plate of something delicious.

A short ferry ride from Perth brings you to a car-free island of turquoise bays, where you pedal between beaches and meet the quokka, a pint-sized marsupial with a permanent smile and zero fear of the camera.

Follow sandstone cliffs south from Bondi past hidden coves and ocean pools carved into the rocks, stopping for a swim at Bronte or Clovelly before ending with a long lunch overlooking Coogee Beach.

As night falls over the Red Centre, a guide’s torch picks out bilbies, rufous hare-wallabies, and other rare desert dwellers that only come out after sunset. Then look up: the outback sky is crowded with stars.

A scenic drive up the Coral Coast from Perth brings you to Nambung National Park, where thousands of limestone spires rise from golden sand like the ruins of an ancient city. Stay as the sun sets and the shadows stretch long, then watch the Milky Way climb above the pillars.