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The best guide to Australia, updated every year Where to encounter wildlife: from whale sharks to wombats, koalas to kookaburras, crocs and kangaroos to quokkas Spectacular diving, secluded beaches, all-terrain tramping Aussie culture from the Opera House to Aboriginal art Where to stay and eat, no matter what your budget Adventurous cuisine in harborside bistros, homey cafés, Asian-fusion palaces, Outback joints, and elegant hotels Victorian inns, Barrier Reef resorts, rain-forest lodges, high-country cabins, historic homesteads, and big-city luxury Fresh, thorough, practical -- off and on the beaten path Costs, hours, descriptions, and tips by the thousands All reviews based on visits by savvy writer-residents, including Sydney Morning Herald dining critic Terry Durack 46 pages of maps, 33 vacation itineraries, and more Important contacts, smart travel tips Fodor's Choice What's Where Pleasures & Pastimes, don't-miss activities New & Noteworthy Festivals Background essays Further reading, videos to watch Comprehensive index
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Pleasures and Pastimes
Australian Rules Football
Despite its name -- "Australian Rules football" -- novice observers frequently ask the question: "What rules?" This fast, vigorous game, played between teams of 18, is one of four kinds of football down under. Aussies also play Rugby League, Rugby Union, and soccer, but Aussie Rules, widely known as "footie," is the one to which Victoria, South Australia, the Top End, and Western Australia subscribe. It is the country's most popular spectator sport.
Because it is gaining an international television audience, the intricacies of Aussie Rules football are no longer the complete mystery they once were to the uninitiated: The ball can be kicked or punched in any direction, but never thrown. You'll see players make spectacular leaps vying to catch a kicked ball before it touches the ground, for which they earn a free kick. The game is said to be at its finest in Melbourne, although the recent defeat of a Melbourne team in a grand final was widely interpreted as a sign of moral lassitude in the state of Victoria.
New South Wales and Queensland devote themselves to two versions of rugby. Rugby League, the professional game, is a faster, more exciting version of Rugby Union, the choice of purists.
Beaches
Australia is renowned for its beaches. Along its coastline are miles and miles of pristine sand where you can sunbathe in solitary splendor. It is advisable, however, to swim only at designated areas where lifeguards are on duty. Surf is often rough, and many beaches have a treacherous undertow. Volunteer lifesavers monitor almost all metropolitan and town beaches during spring and summer months.
Sydney has 34 ocean beaches, with such well-known names as Bondi, Manly, Coogee, Bronte, and Maroubra. Daily reports are given on the state of the ocean in metropolitan newspapers and on the radio. Queensland's Gold Coast is a 32-km (20-mi) stretch of clean beach washed by warm, moderate surf. This area does not have the box jellyfish that plague the coast farther north (but not the Great Barrier Reef islands) from November through April. Perth's ocean beaches are excellent, too. From South Fremantle on up, there are 19 beaches along the Indian Ocean with wide swathes of sand and good surf. On most Australian beaches, women sunbathe topless; some beaches, like Sydney's Lady Jane and Perth's Swanbourne, are for those who prefer their sunning and swimming au naturel.
Beer
Some might say that beer is a way of life in Oz. True or not, pub life is a legitimate subculture worth looking into to get an earful of some local talk, and a mugful of some local grog. Traditional beer is strong and similar to Danish and German beer, although lighter, low-alcohol beer is now readily available. Draft from the tap is the brew of choice, served ice-cold with little head.
Bicycling
Australia's flat terrain is perfect for long-distance cycling. It's equally enjoyable to rent a bike and take a spin through city parks, most of which have bicycle trails. A network of rural trails is being developed.
Boating and Sailing
Australians are passionate sailors. Close to a million families own some sort of craft, and sailing charters on either bare-boat or crewed yachts abound, particularly in the Whitsunday Islands inside the Great Barrier Reef.
Bushwalking
With so much bird life, flora, and fauna to admire, hiking -- Aussies call it "bushwalking" -- is a pleasurable and popular pastime. Every weekend thousands of people head to the tranquillity of national parks in nearby ranges, either individually or with one of the many bushwalking clubs. Get yourself out into one of the country's parks -- the Australian bush is a national treasure.
Cricket
Although Australians are often fiercely divided by their allegiance to winter sports, the nation is united in its obsession with the summer sport of cricket. Played between teams of 11 players, this often slow -- and incomprehensible to outsiders -- game can take place over the course of a day. Test matches (full-scale international games) last for five days.
So leisurely is the pace of this game that to the uninitiated it looks more like an esoteric religious ritual than a sport. Despite the gentlemanly white garb and the tea breaks, however, cricket is a game of power and torrid passions.
Test matches against the Windies (West Indies), Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, South Africa, and England are played in all capital cities except Darwin and Canberra on a rotating basis. The ultimate cricketing prize, The Ashes, is fought solely between Australia and England. Because of its history, The Ashes means more to either side than any other test series.
This rather odd name for a sporting event, and its trophy, is derived from a series of events that occurred early in the history of Aussie-English competition. In 1882, the colonial upstarts scored their first win on British soil, which shocked the English to the core. One sportswriter at the time declared that English cricket died that day, and that the body would be cremated and its ashes taken to Australia.
The following season, the English team toured Australia. Some local wit had the fine idea to burn the bails -- part of the wooden stumps that batsmen defend, much as baseball batters defend the strike zone -- then presented "The Ashes" to the English team's captain. Years later, in the 1920s, these ashes were given to the English cricketing establishment and enshrined in an urn at Lords, the holiest of English cricket holies.
The cricket season runs from October through March.
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