Australia's biggest attraction is its natural beauty. The landscape varies from endless sunbaked horizons to dense tropical rainforest to chilly southern beaches. Scattered along the coasts, its cities blend a European enthusiasm for art and food with a laid-back love of sport and the outdoors.

Visitors expecting to see an opera in Sydney one night and meet Crocodile Dundee the next will have to re-think their grasp of geography in this huge country. It is this sheer vastness that gives Australia - and its diverse population - much of its character.

Any time is a good time to be in Australia. Summer (December to February) can get uncomfortably hot but it's great beach weather. Up north, the summer wet season, is very, very humid and the sea is swarming with box jellyfish. Winter (June to August) offers skiing in NSW and Victoria. In spring and autumn the weather is mild.

A vast island continent situated south of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, Australia lies between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The world's sixth-largest country, Australia measures some 4000km (2500mi) east to west and 3200km (2000mi) north to south. Much of the interior of the country is flat, barren and sparsely populated. The bulk of the population lives on the narrow, fertile eastern coastal plain and on the southeastern coast. The continent-long Great Dividing Range runs north-south down the eastern seaboard, separating the coastal plain from the drier inland areas. The Great Barrier Reef lies 50-300km (30-185mi) offshore and extends 2000km (1240mi) from Torres Strait to Gladstone.

Distinctive plants include the ubiquitous gum tree or eucalypt, of which there are some 700 species. Other common plants are wattle, banksia, waratahs, bottlebrushes, paperbarks and tea trees.

Endemic mammals include the kangaroo, koala, platypus, echidna, possum, wombat and dingo. There are also a number of interesting birds, such as emus, parrots, cockatoos and kookaburras, and countless indigenous reptile and insect species. Fauna to be wary of include Australian spiders (especially the redback and funnel-web), snakes (notably the venomous brown, tiger, death adder, copperhead and red-bellied black varieties) and both salt and freshwater crocodiles.

Summer starts in December, autumn in March, winter in June and spring in September. Seasonal variations in temperature are not extreme except in the deserts, where scorching daytime temperatures can approach freezing by night. Otherwise, it's rare for temperatures to drop below zero on the mainland except in the mountains. As you head north, the seasonal variations become even less distinct except that summer is much wetter and more humid. Darwin, in the far north, is in the monsoon belt, where there are just two seasons: hot and wet (when floods can occur) and hot and dry.

Australia is slowly getting over its cultural cringe, and the white-bread Australia that Barry Humphries began railling against in the 50s has long gone. Experimental groups are pushing the boundaries of ideas (and taste) in all aspects of the arts and taking their efforts to the global stage. Australians are taking the leads in Hollywood, galleries of Australian art line the streets of London and New York and its musicians export new sounds across the oceans. Australia's image as a sports-mad nation still rings true, but you're likely to end up talking football during an interval at the theatre and diuscussing the latest gallery trends between innings at the cricket.

Aboriginal rock carvings and paintings date back at least 30,000 years. Modern Aboriginal art has undergone a revival in the last decade or two as Aboriginal artists have explored ways to both preserve their ancient values and share them with a wider community.

Australia's 20th-century artists include world figures such as Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Brett Whiteley and Fred Williams.

Dame Joan Sutherland is Australia's best-known opera diva. Prominent in the 1960s, she was the undisputed coloratura soprano of her time. Nellie Melba - who took her name from her home town of Melbourne - was the world's biggest opera star at the beginning of the 20th century. She was prima donna at Covent Garden in the 1910s and 20s. These days, Australians know her best for foodstuffs named after her - Peach Melba and Melba Toast.

The Little River Band, The Bee Gees, Nick Cave, INXS, AC/DC, Midnight Oil, silverchair, and, yes, Kylie Minogue are Australia's most famous pop music exports. Live music is common in Australian pubs, with Melbourne now hosting the livliest scene.

There is plenty of highly regarded Australian fiction, including the work of Nobel Prize winner Patrick White, and Booker Prize winners Peter Carey and Thomas Keneally. Other well known Australian writers include Thea Astley, Robert Drewe, Helen Garner, Rodney Hall, Christina Stead, Elizabeth Jolley, David Malouf, Frank Moorhouse and Tim Winton.

Peter Weir, Bruce Beresford, George Miller and Gillian Armstrong are all well-known Australian directors, while Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman are the country's best-known actors. The Aussie film industry is small but well-supported.

Australia is so vast (and so empty in places) that something like 80% of long-distance trips by public transport are made by air. For many years, Qantas and Ansett monopolised the domestic scene and a cosy cooperation between the two ensured that domestic air travel remained relatively expensive. Recently Ansett and the regional airlines it owned have either collapsed or run a skeleton service, while upstart airlines have taken on Qantas, and there's a sense of competition in the air. Few people pay full fare for domestic air travel because the airlines offer a wide range of discounts, including random discounting and air passes.

Few people travel long-distances by train because it's usually the slowest mode of overland transport and remains relatively expensive (though it is generally more comfortable for overnight trips).

There are several long-distance bus companies but only one truly national service, Greyhound Pioneer Australia. Buses are comfortable, but if you're travelling between major cities, be prepared for a long trip. Australia has a skeletal rail network linking all major cities.

Many visitors group together and hire or purchase a car. The latter can be an economical way of travelling around Australia, as long as you don't have too many mechanical failures. Highway 1 circumnavigates the continent, sticking close to the coast much of the way. Watch out for monstrous road trains (trucks with multiple trailers) on outback roads; naturally it's wise to give way to anything bigger than yourself.

Australia Travel