Australia boasts 19 separate World Heritage listed areas. Three are of cultural significance; 12 are of natural significance and four are of both cultural and natural significance.
Those sites that are of Cultural Significance are:
- Australian Convict sites which are scattered throughout the nation
- The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens in Melbourne; and
- Sydney Opera House, everyone know’s where that is!
The sites that are of Natural Significance are:
- Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh / Naracoorte) in country Victoria
- Fraser Island off the coast of south east Queensland,
- Gondwana Rainforests of Australia which is situated in various areas along the Great Escarpment on the east coast of Australia
- The Great Barrier Reef which spans almost the whole of the eastern seaboard of Queensland
- The Greater Blue Mountains Area which is located to the west of Sydney
- Heard and McDonald Islands which are situated the Southern Ocean, approximately 1,700 km from the Antarctic continent and 4,100 km south-west of Perth
- Lord Howe Island Group is found 700 kms east of Sydney in the Pacific Ocean
- Macquarie Island, which is found in the Southern Ocean, 1,500 kms south east of Tasmania
- Ningaloo Coast found on the point in mid Western Australia.
- Purnululu National Park located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia
- Shark Bay, another Western Australian location not far from the Ningaloo Coast; and
- Wet Tropics of Queensland found along the northern coast of north Queensland
The mixed sites (both natural and cultural) are:
- Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory
- Tasmanian Wilderness in Tasmania
- Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park in the Northern Territory; and
- Willandra Lakes Region found in south west New South Wales.
I am really privileged to say that I have visited 11 of the 19 World Heritage Listed sites in Australia. It does help that I’m an Aussie I must add!
