Here are the available villas for rental in Australia.

Still beauty and vast space

The Australian outback had been calling – something about space and a stark but beautiful landscape, neither of which are offered with much generosity by a life in London.

So I arrived at airport and stepped out of the air conditioning to be hit by 38 degrees of dry heat and some flies...
Helpfully, an airport shuttle bus was on hand to take me the 15km into town to my hotel. This A$12 (£5) journey gave me the chance to take in the view - which was as different from the UK as I had hoped.
Designed to blend in with the flat desert terrain, the Alice Springs Resort had the air of a far-flung military outpost with its low, understated buildings.
Inside, however, all was air-conditioned comfort, tastefully presented, and a welcome retreat from the dry heat of the great outdoors.
As a woman travelling alone, I was advised to avoid the dried-up Todd riverbed after dark, a traditional camping site for some of the local Aboriginal community.
Advice duly noted, I set off to explore before the sun went down – and discovered that even in the outback there is retail therapy!
Craft markets are held in Todd Mall and Aboriginal art galleries showcase the most striking dot paintings and carvings.
The adventurous can buy outdoor equipment, the less-adventurous, gifts, clothes and the requisite Australian opals. The Yeperenye Shopping Centre provides the basics – a supermarket, off-license and chemist.
My favourite purchase was a fly net. It cost about A$7 (£3) and worn over a wide-brimmed hat, it became my best friend, along with walking boots, a two-litre bottle of water and factor-30 sunscreen.
The Visitor Information Centre on Gregory Terrace was the first port of call.
Seeking immersion in that dramatic landscape, I skipped visits to the much talked about School of the Air and the Royal Flying Doctor Centre and booked a coach trip into the Macdonnell Ranges.
This included stop-offs at Simpson's Gap, home of the black-footed wallabies, and Angkerle (Standley's Chasm), a spectacular five metre break in the range where the rock burns fiery red in the sun.
In the afternoon, the coach dropped us off at the award-winning Desert Park. My vague notion that nothing much was likely to live in the desert was proved spectacularly wrong.
I travelled on from Alice Springs by coach to Kings Canyon Resort, a remote oasis in the middle of an empty landscape and a 20-minute drive from the canyon itself.
My deluxe room included a spa next to a huge window with a view of the orange rocks outside. I also had two king-size beds.
Delicious buffets that had you going back for dessert at least four times proved to be the main evening entertainment.
On my first morning, I was up before sunrise at 5.30am for the guided Kings Canyon Rim Walk, a location featured in the film 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'. After the steep Heartbreak Walk up to the top, the pace was leisurely, the view spectacular.
Discovering the verdant 'Garden of Eden' and the 'Lost City' with its strange, beehive-shaped rock formations, I felt that of all the things that could be done before 9am, this rated pretty highly.
A four-hour coach trip later and I was at Voyages Ayers Rock Resort.
The resort consists of two campsites, a backpackers' hostel and five hotels. Prices start at A$85 (£35) per person per night and rise to to A$221 (£92) at the five-star Sails in the Desert.
And there was plenty of food, ranging from five-star fine dining to a laid-back feast of Australian 'tucker' meats char-grilled over an open flame.
Prices varied from the regional delicacies at Kuniya, which started at around A$61 (£25) for a starter and main course, to A$23 (under £10) per person for a group meal deal at the Outback Pioneer BBQ Bar.
The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is a hive of tourist activity and the Tour and Information Centre in the resort was permanently abuzz with the sound of decision-making. Does the Rock look better at sunrise or sunset? And is a Harley Davidson, a helicopter or a camel the best way to get there?
Desert Awakenings was a tour that stood out from the rest.
After a 5am pick-up, our group of five was taken to a remote sand dune, far away from the crowds.
Over breakfast, we watched the stars fade and the sun rise and then, comfortably full, moved on to the Cultural Centre, which offers a fascinating insight into the local aboriginal people, the Anangu.
Then it was on to Ayers Rock (also know by its Aboriginal name of Uluru), to visit the Mutitjulu waterhole and hear the story of Kuniya the python, ancient Aboriginal lore which is literally marked out on the face of the Rock itself.
Having not had an enormous meal for at least four hours, the culinary indulgence of a Sounds of Silence dinner was most welcome.
Against a backdrop of night skies and flickering candlelight, temporary best friends were made over generous amounts of wine. It was a great evening – in spite of the crickets which joined us at the table and the promised didgeridoo player who didn't.
Kata-Tjuta (the Olgas) is also worth exploring. For the Anangu, the 36 huge domes surpass Ayers Rock in spiritual significance. The oranges and reds of the many slopes and gullies are stunning in the morning sunlight.
For a truly authentic experience of the area's spiritual and cultural history, Anangu Tours, lead by an Aboriginal guide, provide a unique insight into the land that the Anangu people have belonged to for 30,000 years.
It is ultimately their beliefs and traditions that give this incomparable landscape its grandeur and mystery - and make it worth the long journey from the UK to see it.

• For accommodation details, go to Voyages at www.voyages.com.au. Book internal flights to Alice Springs and from Ayers Rock via Travelmood (08700 664 556; www.travelmood.com). Coach transfers in the Red Centre were provided by AAT Kings (www.aatkings.com).

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Taking to the Great Ocean Road

We were about to embark on one of the world's most spectacular coastal drives, Australia's Great Ocean Road, but an hour after boarding the bus, we still hadn't left Adelaide.

It was only after several more interminable loops around the city's grid-like streets that Kam, our young Aussie driver, realised the passenger he'd been searching for was already in his seat. It wasn't the best start but things could only improve, I thought. Until minutes later, Kam declared: "If you want to have fun, I suggest you talk among yourselves."
His humour was clearly as dry as the sun-parched outback, I thought. Any minute, I was sure Kam was going to turn into one of those insanely cheerful, wise-cracking guides who'd proved so entertaining on my two month travels Down Under.
But I was wrong. For the next six hours, Kam didn't utter a word and neither did any his 12 passengers. It was only when we entered the Grampian Mountains National Park that noise levels rose. We cooed as yellow wheat fields gave way to glistening forests where scores of wild kangaroos grazed. At one roadside bend, a stag with magnificent antlers stared impassively at us from a thicket of trees as we flashed past.
Our bus climbed higher before Kam pulled over and led us on a short walk among sweet-smelling eucalyptus trees to a craggy outlook called the Balconies. A wooded valley stretched before us, like an endless green carpet. On the horizon, bruised clouds gathered over the rugged, steadily darkening peaks of the Grampians. It was gorgeous.
By the time we resumed our drive, the twilight had been replaced by inky blackness. It didn't stop Kam from racing along the empty, winding roads and hairpin bends with all the zeal of a Formula One driver.
"Have you ever hit a kangaroo before," a voice asked grimly in the dark.
"Never," came the terse reply.
Minutes later, there was a loud bang, followed by a sickening jolt as the van's front and then back wheels rolled over a large, roo-sized lump in the road. I shuddered. But Kam shrugged off his hit-and-run accident without so much as a gear change and we sped away from the crime scene in glum silence.
After an overnight stay in a B&B, we hit the official start of the 420km long Great Ocean Road. Built between 1916 and 1932 along Victoria's south west coast, I'd heard this cliff-hugging drive was packed with more drama than the average Neighbours episode. And it more than lived up to its promise.
From the lush green Otway rainforests to the notorious Shipwreck Coast, from pounding surf to razor sharp cliffs and unspoilt beaches, it presented at its wild best.
One of the highlights was Port Campbell National Park where wind and waves had blasted the soft limestone cliffs into impressive sculptures. Our first stop was London Bridge, named because its double arches resembled the Thames bridge - until 1990 when one of the arches collapsed. No one was more surprised than the two tourists stranded on top, who had to be rescued by helicopter.
The name has still stuck but London Bridge can now be viewed from the safety of the mainland. My favourite spot was further along the coast however at a set of towering pinnacles known as the Twelve Apostles. Today, only eight of these limestone needles remain.
We hung around until sunset when the fading light blazed yellow, orange and red hues on the giant stacks and cliffs - unforgettable. Even Kam broke into an appreciative smile. The man had a heart after all. ... more

The bumpy road to Oz

From the Daily Mail

Only in Australia could one of the world's most stunning natural phenomena be discovered by chance over a drink.
The unique terrain of Purnululu - or the Bungle Bungles - was unknown to the outside world until 1983 when a camera crew working for Kerry Packer's Nine Network flew to a remote corner of northern Western Australia called the Kimberley.
They were there to make a television documentary on a part of the country called Hidden Valley, which features 300 million year-old sandstone cliffs.
Delighted with their work, the crew piloted their plane back to the Kimberley gateway town of Kununurra and slipped into a dusty hotel bar for a few beers. 'That Hidden Valley is a ripper place,' they told a local.
'Yeah,' came the surprisingly unenthusiastic reply. 'Not as good as the other place though.'
'What other place?' the crew asked. The next morning they were taken there by a local guide. And the extraordinary world of Bungle Bungles was discovered.
When the film they made of it was first shown on Australian television the nation was amazed at the unspoilt beauty of the thousands of beehive mountains that make up the Purnululu national park.
It is the combination of remoteness and lack of tourist exploitation that convinces more and more people each year that the long journey by four-wheel drive to Purnululu is worthwhile.
Purnululu is close to nowhere. Darwin, at 700 miles away, is the nearest state capital - and that's not the capital of Western Australia but of the Northern Territories.
Perth, Western Australia's capital, is 1,628 niles to the south. Remote it certainly is - but that is its attraction.
Broome is the ideal starting point, a relaxing, modern holiday resort that has grown out of an old pearl diving town.
There are regular Qantas flights into Broome from either Perth or Darwin and plenty of experienced four-wheel drive centres, the most impressive being run by Trevor Tough at Wheels Over The Kimberleys.
The Great Northern Highway from Broome to Purnululu is the only sealed road in the area, but a four-wheel drive is still vital - as is instruction before you set off. ... more

The wild west of Oz

From the Mail on Sunday

A strange monument glistens in the winter sun in a lay-by on the road into the small town of Dampier, Western-Australia.
It's a bronze statue of the region's most infamous resident, who captured the hearts of the locals despite being an ill-mannered, stinking vagrant, known primarily for his ability to steal food.
Its inscription reads: 'The Pilbara Wanderer. Erected by the many friends he made during his travels.'
Perhaps his saving grace is that our hero is of the canine persuasion - a ragged mongrel coated in the dust from the rust-coloured rocks.
In 1998, one of the people passing by the memorial was Captain Corelli's Mandolin author, Louis de Bernieres, visiting the area for a literary festival.
He was immediately taken with this four-legged vagabond and began to ask around for stories about his life.
Though the hound went under a variety of names - to some Tally Ho, to others Bluey - to most, he was simply Red Dog. And it was this name that de Bernieres chose for his new collection of short stories*, which celebrate the adventures, and misadventures, of this curious character.
Dampier is in the Pilbara, a vast area of the outback around 1,000 miles north of Perth, the state capital. With a population of just 1,500, it takes its name from one of England's more colourful explorers, William Dampier, a buccaneer and skilful mapmaker who navigated the coast in 1699.
With a history of shipwrecks, whaling, pearling and farming, it now trades on its reputation as something of a fishing mecca - a beauty spot that becomes a haven during the winter months.
This is unsurprising given that the sun at this time of year in north-western Australia is still enough to put British summers to shame.
It was in the early Seventies when Red Dog arrived in Dampier with his owners. A restless pooch, he was quick to sever familial ties, initially finding his food on unguarded plates among the many barbecues held along the beach. ... more

A crook's tour in the land of Ned

'So,' I asked the two thirty-something housewives sharing breakfast in our B&B in Beechworth, Australia, 'Why the obsession with Ned Kelly?'
Nicole stared me straight in the eye and replied: 'Well, we're related actually.' Dramatic pause. 'He's my 54th cousin, twice removed.'
Considering I had just flown across the world to follow the trail of Australia's most famous villain - or hero, some might say - it was a bit rich of me to raise an eyebrow quite so high.
After all, these two had abandoned their families to attend a commemorative dinner in Glenrowan, the town where the notorious horse thief, bank robber and police murderer made his famous last stand in 1880.
A fancy marquee had been put up for the occasion, just a few yards from the spot where a gun-toting Ned, aged 25, 6ft tall, 14 stone and famously clad in home-made armour and a bucket-shaped helmet, fell under a hail of police bullets.
But the place was positively heaving with even keener Kelly-maniacs, whose fervent preoccupation with Ned made my housewives' folk hero worship look positively amateur.
Rubbing shoulders with the eccentrics there were historians and authors, artists, musicians and poets, some of whom have spent decades studying the Kelly legend.
There were also locals claiming to be privy to the whereabouts of assorted artefacts not yet made public including, most controversially, a document by which Kelly declared his part of the state of Victoria a republic free of British rule.
While the number of Australians claiming Kelly kinship increases daily, the total rehabilitation of the charismatic bushranger has, in the eyes of many others, a little way to go - he was, after all, convicted and executed for killing policemen - and the country has yet to cash in wholeheartedly on him as a tourist attraction.
But all that could change with the release of a new film, Ned Kelly, starring Heath Ledger as Ned and filmed close to, though not actually in, his gang's home territory.
The last time the outlaw was portrayed on the big screen was by Mick Jagger in 1970. ... more