Experience The Best of Australia
Make the most of your trip abroad – Lonely Planet’s full color Discover guides highlight the best a country has to offer while still providing an authentic and memorable experience.

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Special front-of-book chapter on the top 25 can’t-miss experiences
Features the must-see attractions and unbeatable experiences
Focuses on key cities and regions

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Country-wide itineraries take you step by step though the country – broken out by interest, theme and length of trip
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Major attractions include insights from local experts on what not to miss

Impossibly beautiful Australian native tropical parrots! The colours are absolutely stunning!
There seems to be two spellings of this bird: eclectus and electus
I first thought these electus parrots were soft toys! They were perfectly used to people, only metres away.

The electus parrot is most unusual for having such differential colour schemes between male and female.

ElectusParrots are boldly colored birds.
The male is bright green with blue and red patches,
and the female is crimson with a blue belly. Their feet are very unusual;
the two outer toes of the foot point backward and the two inner toes point forward.
This gives the parrot an extremely powerful grasp so it can manipulate objects close to its bill.
These birds are tree dwellers and live around lowland in tropical areas.

ElectusParrots are strong fliers and fly high above the forest canopy.
In the day time they fly in pairs or small parties in search of fruits, nuts, nectar and leaf buds. In the evening they engage in display flights before they gather in groups of about 80 birds to roost for the night.

Body length: (beak to tail) Males: 420–480mm; Females: 400–450mm
Wing span: Males: 900mm; Females: 890mm
Weight: 615g
Scientific name: Eclectus roratus macgillivrayi (Gk. eklektikos = select, pick out, L. rorare = bedewed, macgillivrayi = after the ornithologist who discovered the species in Queensland)

Eclectus roratus macgillivrayi is the largest of twelve subspecies of eclectus parrot. Plumage between the sexes is markedly different, even in juveniles. Males are predominantly emerald green, with scarlet red on the sides of the abdomen extending across the underwing, and dusky feathers on the remainder of the underwing. The upper wing is emerald green with blue outer feathers. The tail is emerald green on the upper side, fading to light blue with a white tip, and on the underside the tail is grey-black with a yellow tip. The lower beak is black, and the upper beak is orange fading to yellow at the tip. The eye is orange-red in colour with a grey eye-ring. Females have a scarlet-red head and neck, with a darker red tail and back. The upper side of the wings are dark red on the inside half and blue on the outer half. Under the wing is dusky with a vivid purple-blue band that continues under the body and around the back of the neck. A purple-blue ring surrounds the yellow eye, and the upper and lower beak is black. Both sexes have a short, square tail.
Habitat and distribution: Eclectus roratus macgillivrayi is endemic to Queensland (only lives in Queensland) and is the only subspecies on mainland Australia, with one other subspecies, E. r. polychloros, found in the Torres Strait islands. All other subspecies are located in Indonesia, New Guinea, and several Pacific islands. The eclectus parrot is found in one region in Queensland, the Iron and McIlwraith ranges of eastern Cape York Peninsula. They mainly inhabit the interior and edges of lowland rainforest; however they can also be found in the higher rainforest regions.

Diet: The diet consists of fruit, nuts, seeds, flowers and nectar, obtained from the tree canopy.

Great flight aviary, Melbourne Zoo, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

Impossibly beautiful Australian native tropical parrots! The colours are absolutely stunning!

I first thought these eclectus parrots were soft toys! They were perfectly used to people, only metres away.

The electus parrot is most unusual for having such differential colour schemes between male and female.

ElectusParrots are boldly colored birds.
The male is bright green with blue and red patches,
and the female is crimson with a blue belly. Their feet are very unusual;
the two outer toes of the foot point backward and the two inner toes point forward.
This gives the parrot an extremely powerful grasp so it can manipulate objects close to its bill.
These birds are tree dwellers and live around lowland in tropical areas.

ElectusParrots are strong fliers and fly high above the forest canopy.
In the day time they fly in pairs or small parties in search of fruits, nuts, nectar and leaf buds. In the evening they engage in display flights before they gather in groups of about 80 birds to roost for the night.

Body length: (beak to tail) Males: 420–480mm; Females: 400–450mm
Wing span: Males: 900mm; Females: 890mm
Weight: 615g
Scientific name: Eclectus roratus macgillivrayi (Gk. eklektikos = select, pick out, L. rorare = bedewed, macgillivrayi = after the ornithologist who discovered the species in Queensland)

Eclectus roratus macgillivrayi is the largest of twelve subspecies of eclectus parrot. Plumage between the sexes is markedly different, even in juveniles. Males are predominantly emerald green, with scarlet red on the sides of the abdomen extending across the underwing, and dusky feathers on the remainder of the underwing. The upper wing is emerald green with blue outer feathers. The tail is emerald green on the upper side, fading to light blue with a white tip, and on the underside the tail is grey-black with a yellow tip. The lower beak is black, and the upper beak is orange fading to yellow at the tip. The eye is orange-red in colour with a grey eye-ring. Females have a scarlet-red head and neck, with a darker red tail and back. The upper side of the wings are dark red on the inside half and blue on the outer half. Under the wing is dusky with a vivid purple-blue band that continues under the body and around the back of the neck. A purple-blue ring surrounds the yellow eye, and the upper and lower beak is black. Both sexes have a short, square tail.
Habitat and distribution: Eclectus roratus macgillivrayi is endemic to Queensland (only lives in Queensland) and is the only subspecies on mainland Australia, with one other subspecies, E. r. polychloros, found in the Torres Strait islands. All other subspecies are located in Indonesia, New Guinea, and several Pacific islands. The eclectus parrot is found in one region in Queensland, the Iron and McIlwraith ranges of eastern Cape York Peninsula. They mainly inhabit the interior and edges of lowland rainforest; however they can also be found in the higher rainforest regions.

Diet: The diet consists of fruit, nuts, seeds, flowers and nectar, obtained from the tree canopy.

Great flight aviary, Melbourne Zoo, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

A romantic action-adventure epic set in Australia prior to World War II that centers on an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) who inherits a large ranch. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn cattle drover (Hugh Jackman) to protect her ranch. Together they experience four life-altering years, a love affair and the bombing of Darwin during World War II.


Audio: English, French & Spanish: 5.1 Dolby Surround
Language: Dubbed & Subtitled: English, French & Spanish
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen: 2.35:1

Watching the early reels of Australia, there's certainly no doubt who's in charge: this could only be a film by Baz Luhrmann, that wacky purveyor of all things over-the-top. In this old-fashioned, 165-minute hymn to his native continent, Luhrmann travels back to the late 1930s/early '40s, for a scenario that would not have been out of place at MGM in that era. Straightlaced Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) journeys Down Under and is put under the protection of--crikey--a rugged cattle driver known only as the Drover (Hugh Jackman). When the two are forced to team up (along with a motley crew of misfits) to take a herd of cattle through the hostile landscape, their way is challenged by the dastardly plans of the local beef baron (Bryan Brown) and his elaborately evil lieutenant (David Wenham). At some point you realize that this film's main commodity is not cattle, but corn: Luhrmann piles on the melodrama and the old-school climaxes with his usual frantic glee. Employing "When You Wish Upon a Star" and the Japanese air force to make his case is not beyond Luhrmann, and he reaches big here. Those with a taste for un-ironic silliness might just go for this stuff, but even fans of the Baz will have their patience tested by the broad comedy and the absence of discernable chemistry between Kidman and Jackman. Australia does manage to skewer the culture's prejudices against the Aboriginal people, but in this context such a victory comes across as rather tinny. --Robert Horton



Stills from Australia (Click for larger image)