Daydream Island is in the Whitsunday group and seems to be nothing more than a small island containing a hotel and sports facilities. Coming out on the ferry yesterday morning, it was a bit like arriving on Fantasy Island and I half expected Tattoo to be waiting for us on the jetty. Compared to the challenges of Fraser Island, our two days on Daydream have been all about relaxing - in fact, it's felt something like a good old fashioned Butlins family holiday com...

The Big Pineapple is just one of the "big things" of Australia, which they seem to love just plonking all over the place to catch the attention of passers-by. Sometimes, I'm told, It's difficult to travel anywhere n the country without driving past a big this or a big that. The Big Pineapple, at least, has made some sort of effort to be more than just a giant plastic fruit by the side of the road - but not much. There is a little train to drive visitors aroun...

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...

As you drive into Brisbane and follow a line of coaches up a dreary looking circular ramp into the Transit Centre, it's easy to wake up after a long journey, look out of the window at the featureless grey walls passing by and draw a hasty conclusion, as I did, that you're entering just another dismal city of square office blocks and grid-system roads. The Brisbane Transit Centre, which is about as much as I managed to see of the city the last time I was here, app...