This was published 5 years ago
Ten exotic destinations inside Australia that seem like another country
By Ben Groundwater
In a country as large as Australia, with a natural and cultural history as long and varied as it is, it makes sense that there would be a few quirks out there, a few oddities. And there are. Though some of them are instantly recognisable as Australian – hello, Big Pineapple – there are plenty that you could mistake for being somewhere else entirely…
PARONELLA PARK
Where it should be: Spain
Maybe not the rainforest – you wouldn't expect to find that in Spain. What you would expect, however, a Spanish-style castle, a charming old place that looks fit to house royalty on a weekend away.
Where it is: Queensland
Paronella Park, a sprawling old mansion set on 13 acres of that lush rainforest, is actually up in the north of Queensland, near Innisfail. It was built by Jose Paronella, a Spanish immigrant, in 1929, and though the castillo is these days but a shadow of its grand former self, it's still a popular spot for tours and wedding photos.
HAHNDORF
Where it should be: Germany
You see the billboards, and you know where you should be. You see the Lowenbrau beer signs, the chalkboards advertising bratwurst, the shops and pubs with their recognisably German names, and even the name of the town itself – Hahndorf – and you think, surely this is in Germany.
Where it is: South Australia
This Hahndorf is in South Australia, in the Adelaide Hills, about a 45-minute drive from the state capital. The town was founded by German settlers in 1839, and retains much of its Teutonic flavour, with German-style pubs serving German-style food washed down with German-style beer.
THE PINNACLES
Where it should be: Mars
This is probably not the Mars of reality – it's the Mars of your imagination. But that's OK. In this fantasy version of Mars you would expect to find extra-terrestrial pillars of stone, fingers of rock that point at the sky from red earth.
Where it is: Western Australia
The Pinnacles, however, can be found in Western Australia, near the town of Jurien Bay. They're a series of limestone formations, otherworldly rocks that were formed 30,000 years ago, and still stand in stark contrast to the bare earth that surrounds them.
COOBER PEDY
Where it should be: Turkey
Anyone who's dreamed of going to Turkey has probably seen photos of Cappadocia, the rocky region in the centre of the country. It's there you'll find entire villages – houses, churches, monasteries – carved out of the soft rock.
Where it is: South Australia
This photo, however, was in Coober Pedy, a town of 2000 true-blue Australians in the central-southern part of the country. Here the temperatures soar during summer, leading locals to build "dugouts" – large homes excavated out of the bare rock – to keep cool.
COCOS KEELING ISLANDS
Where it should be: The Maldives
You see the crystal-clear turquoise water, the blinding white sands, the palm trees and the blue skies and you immediately think of somewhere like the Maldives. The overwater bungalows and the infinity pools can't be far away.
Where it is: Australia
Though the Cocos Keeling Islands are positioned far out in the Indian Ocean, closer to Indonesia than WA, this is Australian territory. The group of islands, crowded around an atoll in the middle of the deep blue sea, has a population of 600, and receives only 1500 visitors a year. It's one stunning location, and it's all ours.
GRINDELWALD
Where it should be: Switzerland
The town of Grindelwald in Switzerland is a fairytale hamlet of wooden farmhouses and rolling green hills, and the Grindelwald in this photo appears to be of much the same ilk. So it seems natural to assume it will be positioned close to the original.
Where it is: Tasmania
This town of Grindelwald, however, is in Tasmania, just outside Launceston. It was founded by a Dutchman and has a population of 1000 people, most of whom don't speak a word of Swiss-German, and don't really care if Roger Federer wins or not.
MOONTA
Where it should be: Cornwall
You can get a pretty decent pastie in the town of Moonta. You can visit a museum dedicated to Cornish culture. You can go to a festival of all things Cornwall once every couple of years. And you might even hear the odd Cornish accent.
Where it is: South Australia
Moonta is in South Australia, on the Yorke Peninsula. The town has a rich Cornish history thanks to its past as a mining hotspot – Cornish miners were encouraged to move over in the late 1800s, and those links to the old country have proved strong.
BALL'S PYRAMID
Where it should be: Ireland
Star Wars fans would think they recognise this landmark immediately. The stark finger of rock emerging from a rough ocean, known as Ball's Pyramid, looks just like Skellig Michael, a former monks' retreat turned filming location off the southern coast of Ireland.
Where it is: Lord Howe Island
This particular finger of rock, however, emerges from the ocean just near Lord Howe Island, an Australian territory far off the NSW coast. The area is known for its scuba-diving, as well as the chance to take in the sight of this amazing, rugged outcrop of land.
WAVE ROCK
Where it should be: the US
You've probably seen the photos of the world's most famous wave-like rock formations, the whorls of colour that have been frozen in time in the likes of Arches National Park in Utah, and in the Coyote Buttes in Arizona. Wave Rock would fit in nicely.
Where it is: Western Australia
This multi-hued barrel of stone is actually in the south-west of Australia, near the town of Hyden, WA. Wave Rock is a 15-metre-high, 110-metre-long formation known as a "flared slope", a concave bedrock surface that looks like a breaking wave.
BALLANDEAN PYRAMID
Where it should be: Mexico
The ancient inhabitants of Mexico were just as keen on a pyramid as their distant cousins in Egypt. Possibly even more so. In Mexico, however, at places such as Teotihuacan and Uxmal, the pyramids had less finesse than the Egyptian examples, and tended to look just a bit more like a pile of rocks.
Where it is: Queensland
The Ballandean Pyramid, meanwhile, really is just a pile of rocks. Back in the early 2000s there was an abundance of leftover granite in the town of Ballandean, in south-western Queensland, and no one knew what to do with it. No one except local identity Ken Stubberfield, who used earthmoving equipment to create this 15-metre-high, 7500-tonne pyramid, under which no one is buried, and no spiritual significance is attached.
See also: From Rocky Mountain oysters to Marmite, here are the world's 10 most divisive foods
See also: The world's 10 most terrifying tourist attractions
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