World Heritage Sites in Oceania

The largest living structure on Earth, a 2,300 km mosaic of some 2,900 reefs, cays and islands so vast it is visible from space. Snorkel among a kaleidoscope of coral, turtles and reef sharks, or sail from Cairns to the clearer outer Ribbon Reefs. Visit in the calmer months, June to October.

One of the 20th century’s most recognisable buildings, its billowing white sail-shells rising above Sydney Harbour as a masterpiece of modern engineering. Take a backstage tour to grasp the audacity of Jorn Utzon’s design, or admire the shells glowing at sunset from the Opera Bar, drink in hand.

A dual natural and cultural site where the great red monolith of Uluru and the domes of Kata Tjuta hold profound spiritual meaning for the Anangu, its traditional owners. Walk the base loop at dawn, then gather at sunset to watch the sandstone blaze to deep crimson. Climbing is now banned.

A colossal wilderness spanning New Zealand’s entire southwest, uniting Fiordland, Aoraki, Mount Aspiring and Westland into one of the planet’s great untamed areas. Cruise the mirror fiords of Milford and Doubtful sounds and watch for the cheeky kea. The Milford and Routeburn Great Walks recall the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana.

The very first site anywhere granted World Heritage status for both natural and cultural values, honouring three active volcanoes held sacred by local Maori. Hike the world-famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing past steaming vents to the turquoise Emerald Lakes. The perfect cone of Ngauruhoe stood in as Mount Doom.

A dual-listed expanse of wetlands, escarpments and stone country safeguarding extraordinary biodiversity and more than 20,000 years of continuous Aboriginal rock art. Cruise the crocodile-filled Yellow Water billabong and study the layered ochre galleries at Ubirr. Come in the dry season, when Jim Jim and Twin Falls open.

Listed for the Bungle Bungle Range, a mesmerising maze of orange-and-black banded sandstone domes hidden deep in the remote Kimberley. Walk into the cathedral-like echo chamber of Cathedral Gorge, or fly overhead to grasp the beehive pattern. Unknown to the wider world until the 1980s and reached only by rough 4WD.

A vast, remote coastline on Australia’s westernmost tip, home to the world’s largest seagrass beds and the living stromatolites of Hamelin Pool, microbial mounds hinting at life billions of years ago. Meet the wild dolphins that swim ashore each morning at Monkey Mia and walk the blinding cockle-shell drifts of Shell Beach.

A rare fringing reef that runs right up to the Western Australian shore, letting you snorkel a coral wonderland straight off the beach without a boat. Swim alongside gentle whale sharks and manta rays in season, and explore the rugged red gorges of Cape Range. It shines from March to July.

A scattered series of subtropical and temperate rainforest reserves straddling the NSW-Queensland border, preserving living relics of the ancient Gondwanan forests. Walk beneath 2,000-year-old Antarctic beeches in Lamington and listen for the extraordinary mimicry of the superb lyrebird. Glow-worms light the forest gullies after dark.

A ribbon of ancient rainforest along the tropical Queensland coast, where jungle meets the reef at the Daintree and harbours plants tracing back to the dawn of flowering species. Ride the Skyrail cableway over unbroken canopy near Cairns, watch for the flightless cassowary, and swim in cool streams at Mossman Gorge.

One of the last great temperate wilderness areas on the planet, blanketing roughly a fifth of Tasmania in glaciated peaks, wild rivers and ancient forests. Walk the Overland Track beneath Cradle Mountain, raft the roadless Franklin River, and stand among Huon pines thousands of years old. Caves shelter Ice Age Aboriginal art.

A landscape of ancient lava flows in southwestern Victoria preserving one of the world’s oldest and most extensive aquaculture systems, engineered by the Gunditjmara. Follow guided trails past stone channels and basalt traps used to farm eels for at least 6,600 years, alongside foundations of permanent stone dwellings.

A system of long-dry lakes in outback NSW that yielded some of the oldest human remains outside Africa, including the ceremonially buried Mungo Man, dated to around 42,000 years. Walk the eroding lunette dunes of the Walls of China at sunset, where ancient hearths and shells lie exposed in the sand.

A mysterious ancient city built on nearly a hundred artificial islets off Micronesian Pohnpei, so laced with canals it is called the Venice of the Pacific. Glide by boat between massive basalt-log walls raised without the wheel or metal tools. Best explored with a local guide at high tide.

The largest raised coral atoll in the world, forming the southern tip of the Solomon Islands and centred on Lake Tegano, a vast brackish lagoon strewn with limestone islets. Kayak across the lake, spot endemic birds and sea kraits, and trek through humid rainforest. Under customary ownership, visits are arranged with villagers.

A far-flung Marshall Islands atoll listed as a stark memorial to the nuclear age, where the United States detonated 23 bombs, including the colossal Castle Bravo blast of 1954. Its lagoon now holds a ghost fleet of sunken warships, among them the carrier Saratoga, one of the world’s eeriest wreck dives.

Chile’s Easter Island, one of the most remote inhabited places on Earth, famed for the nearly 900 monumental moai carved by its Polynesian people. Stand before the fifteen restored giants of Ahu Tongariki at sunrise and wander the quarry of Rano Raraku, where hundreds of unfinished moai still lie half-buried.