Australia travel guide: The highlights (and lowlights) of each state according to comedian Jimmy Rees

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Australia travel guide: The highlights (and lowlights) of each state according to comedian Jimmy Rees

By Belinda Jackson
Updated
During lockdown Jimmy Rees created the viral hit series "Meanwhile in Australia" featuring various characters such as the champagne-swilling Sydneysider.

During lockdown Jimmy Rees created the viral hit series "Meanwhile in Australia" featuring various characters such as the champagne-swilling Sydneysider.Credit: Kristoffer Paulson

I am, you are, we are all Australians, right? Well, yes, but from state to state and from territory to territory, the differences between us can be stark, profound even. Those quirks have been no more skillfully and laughably defined and exposed in recent times than by YouTube sensation Jimmy Rees.

A superstar to toddlers and their parents in his role as ABC children's television presenter Jimmy Giggle in the hit but now defunct TV series Giggle & Hoot, the comedian spent a decade with a stuffed owl as a sidekick. But in 2020, he traded Hoot for a cup of Victorian "wanker coffee" on his smash hit "Meanwhile in Australia" pandemic lockdown series.

"There was no work during lockdown, so I just started mucking around on social media," says Rees.

"There was no work during lockdown, so I just started mucking around on social media," says Rees.

"There was no work during lockdown, so I just started mucking around on social media," says Rees.Credit: Kristoffer Paulson

The videos, not always for the faint-hearted or easily-offended, went viral as he cast a laser eye over the states and territories' rivalries and alliances.

In parodying states and territories' stances on such issues as border closures, mask-wearing and the convoluted rules around daily exercise and social interaction ("yes, you can book a restaurant for 20 people. No, you can't have 20 people over to your home for a dinner party") he revealed much about Australia and Australians.

Enter the state characters including the champagne-swilling Sydneysider; the (ineffectual) microphone-wielding Tasmanian, and the "beers, beers, beers" obsessed Territorian. He's also given us the Brighton Ladies, the Byron Baes and The Guy Who Decides. Following up with his successful POV series on social media, Rees asked Australians what typifies their town.

"People do like to think they live in the best place, and will die on the hill for it," he says, tapping into a deep, sardonic vein of regional differences highlighted during the pandemic years, from isolationist West Australians to border-shy Queenslanders.

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"Yeah, we get loyal or patriotic to our own town, we're protective of our own area," he says. "We love our own quirks, telling out-of-towners, 'You just wouldn't get it'."

Rees grew up in Mount Eliza, on the city side of Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, where he now lives with his young family. "It's known for having 6000 real estate agents, 28,000 hairdressers and two supermarkets in a tiny village. What's missing? Maybe a wine bar?"

While he lives in a bayside suburb, his top holiday pick is another beach. "Like everyone else, I go to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast or the Gold Coast for a relaxing holiday, and then run into people from my Melbourne suburb at the bar."

With a little help from Traveller, we asked Jimmy Rees to provide his take-no-prisoners overview of the states and territories we're in from a travel perspective, drawn from his experiences on tour and on family holidays, highlighting the difference between the states, and what he loves about travelling in each of them.

QUEENSLAND

JIMMY SAYS ...

Ah, the Gold Coast. The weather, the beaches, the cruisy lifestyle. Everyone's got a sports car, and there's lots of bling. It's flashy and it's full of cashed-up bogans. (Actually, I don't think you really need to say there are bogans in Queensland. It's like a silent "k"). But Queenslanders are like, 'yeah, we know, and it's fine. But we have the best weather, so where would you rather be?' Well, perhaps not Brisbane. You fly into it and then realise it really doesn't have a beach and you ask yourself 'Why did I come to Brisbane? I should have just gone to the Goldie or the Sunshine Coast to be with all of the cashed-up bogans'.

TRAVELLER SAYS…

Queensland gets some hard love, including from Jimmy, from those south of its borders. But now there's a chance to love a less visited part of the Sunshine State with the launch of the first and only day trip to the Torres Strait from Cairns (straitexperience.com.au). But can we love the Sunshine Coast (visitsunshinecoast.com) even more? Its dedication to sustainability and conservation has reaped rewards with it being named Australia's newest UNESCO biosphere. Admire it on high by taking one of the new joy flights over the region (saltairaviation.com.au). You can also hit the swim-up bar at the new Langham Gold Coast (langhamhotels.com), replete with Michelin-star dining, or take a paddlewheeler down Longreach's Thomson River on the Thomson Belle or the relocated Pride of the Murray (outbackpioneers.com.au). See queensland.com  

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Credit: Kane Overall/SATC

JIMMY SAYS…

Adelaide can turn anything into a festival. Food and wine. Wine and food. I've stayed in Adelaide for the Fringe Festival, when the city really comes alive, or supposedly so. Our hotel there had a rooftop bar which closed at 8.30pm. A rooftop bar should be open until at least midnight. What's the point? But you've got to go to the Adelaide Hills – it's the best wine in the world – and Adelaide's beaches just go on and on to such an extent they're not even proportionate to the city. It's dubbed "the 20-minute city" because you can get anywhere in 20 minutes and it tops the other capitals as the most liveable city in Australia. Yet it's quite happy to be under the radar (and tuck its rooftop bars into bed at 8.30pm).

TRAVELLER SAYS…

Swim with myriad wildlife on the Eyre Peninsula, from sharks to sea lions in Baird Bay (bairdbay.com), and even cuttlefish in Whyalla (whyalladivingservices.com.au) at the top of the peninsula. Kangaroo Island's dolphins and seals don't mind a paddle with humans either (kimarineadventures.com.au), as the island continues its heroic rejuvenation after the catastrophic 2019 fires. Check out the new Odd Plate, focused on KI's stellar produce (theoddplate.com.au). If you can't get to the Barossa fast enough, a new motorway has shaved 30 minutes off the time to Australia's most lauded wine region, now taking just an hour, where you can check into a new tiny house, CABN Elsie (cabn.life) on a working vineyard. In Jimmy's beloved Adelaide Hills, Sequoia's luxury lodgings at the historic SA landmark Mount Lofty House gets top marks (sequoialodge.com.au; mtloftyhouse.com.au). See southaustralia.com

TASMANIA

Credit: Rob Burnett

JIMMY SAYS…

Tassie's beautiful, with MONA, random castles in the middle of nowhere and the "Flannelette Curtain", which separates Hobart from the rest of the state. Tassie cops flack for its weather but in a week, you can have your own little "Tassie Fest" and see most of it and embrace it all, whereas if you go to Queensland for the same amount of time all you'll get to see pretty much is the Gold Coast. Poor Tassie gets left off the map a lot so it makes its people overprotective of their state. They say to me when I visit, 'Are you here for a joke?' I was, actually, as I once had a three-year run as Jimmy Giggle at the annual Agriculture Show in Launceston.

TRAVELLER SAYS…

Tassie cashes in on its deep, wintery weirdness, celebrating pagan rituals, cider and controlled bonfires. The focus is on the return of the sun at the upcoming Winter Light Festival at Salamanca Place (sac.org.au) and there's also a spotlight on the stomach, as befits Launceston's status as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy and the upcoming Tasmanian Whisky Week (taswhiskyweek.com). Walk it all off on a four-day wukalina Walk (wukalinawalk.com.au), an Indigenous-owned and led journey in the larapuna-Bay of Fires region. Tassie is embracing its dark skies, with guided stargazing walks on kunanyi-Mount Wellington (walkonkunanyi.com.au) and watch for the Aurora Australis at McHenry Distillery's new observatory on the Tasman Peninsula (mchenrydistillery.com.au). Also check out the new five-star The Tasman Hotel in Hobart. See (marriott.com).See discovertasmania.com.au

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Credit: Tourism Australia

JIMMY SAYS...

Perth may be a massive place now but it's still one of the most remote cities in the world, surrounded by absolutely nothing for thousands of kilometres. It's cheaper to go to Bali for the weekend than to go over east. So instead of going to Noosa like us, they go to Bali and run into their own neighbours there. Although it's pretty big, like Adelaide, it's still got those small-town vibes. There are so many trendy cafes and cool buildings but you can't seem to get a coffee after 2pm and all of the shops close at 5pm on a Sunday arvo, even the supermarkets.

TRAVELLER SAYS...

Far from closed, Western Australia has put the welcome mat back out. Beyond Perth, join an Indigenous corroboree experience in Yawuru Country in Broome (broomeaboriginaltours.com.au), or swill wine, sans eco-guilt in the Margaret River, WA's first eco-certified tourism destination (margaretriver.com). WA's wondrous wildflowers are just starting to bloom, and everyone's waiting for the Ningaloo Eclipse on April 20, 2023 (ningalooeclipse.com). Perth continues to hook up with the rest of the world, with direct flights to London and Rome (qantas.com), positioning it as the ideal stopover destination for east-coasters who can finally make good their intention to visit the WA capital. See westernaustralia.com

VICTORIA

JIMMY SAYS…

Victoria's got its wanker coffee and it's proud of it. Melbourne doesn't have Sydney's harbour and the weather's not great all year round. But the city's so walkable with those little laneways full of coffee and crazy amounts of graffiti. It has a buzz that's not found in most of the other capitals. Okay, we've got a river that's a little bit gross and you wouldn't swim in it but you can still have an entire festival centred around it (the other states just don't understand Moomba). You can walk to the MCG from the city and catch a tram straight back into it. And which other Australian capital city has a Formula One grand prix circuit right next to its CBD?

TRAVELLER SAYS…

Beyond Jimmy's marvellous Melbourne, scrub up with new hot springs on the Mornington Peninsula (albathermalsprings.com.au), Metung (metunghotsprings.com) and Phillip Island (phillipislandhotsprings.com), all bubbling up in the next six months. The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape (budjbim.com.au) near Macarthur in south-west Victoria, is up and running and scoff Scott Pickett's stellar food at Sorrento landmark Continental Hotel, with its new accommodation set to open in spring (thecontinentalsorrento.com.au). Back in the city, there's the new Federation Square restaurant Victoria by Farmer's Daughters bringing the bounty of the state to you (victoriarestaurant.com.au) and The Picasso Century blockbuster exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (ngv.vic.gov.au) running until early October. See visitvictoria.com

NEW SOUTH WALES

Credit: iStock

JIMMY SAYS...

Flashy Sydney knows it's Australia's most beautiful city. It's got all the goods: the harbour, the Opera House, beaches and surf. But it's so hard to get to any of them, so why bother going to Sydney? You go to the Opera House to see a show, spend $40 million on car parking and then you go home, because it's too hard to get anywhere. You think, "It's going to take us an hour to get home, so let's just go home". Sure, Newtown's got all the eclectic bars, and Surry Hills thinks it's got all the coolest places, but Sydneysiders never want to cross a bridge to get anywhere.

TRAVELLER SAYS…

Haven't you heard about Sydney's new $3 billion-plus tram line, Jimmy? A host of new hotels have opened in Sydney recently including Ace Hotel (acehotel.com), the Aiden Darling Harbour (aidendarlingharbour.com.au) and a W (marriott.com) waiting in the wings. But the real NSW story is in the regions beyond the city where Mudgee, Berry and historic little Carcoar in the Central West are the official top tourism towns this year. The biggest openings have also been out-of-towners, including QT Newcastle (qthotels.com), Osborn House in Bundanoon (osbornhouse.com.au), Kyah boutique hotel in the Blue Mountains town of Blackheath (thekyah.com.au) and the new luxury Pods at QPits Milton winery (miltonvineyard.com.au) See visitnsw.com

NORTHERN TERRITORY

Credit: Shaun Jeffers/Tourism NT

JIMMY SAYS...

Beers! Beers! Beers! Territorians like to think they're tougher than anyone else. To prove it, on super hot Saturday mornings Darwin people all go to Mary's to eat hot laksa (parapvillage.com.au). You'd think the hottest place in Australia would have the best beaches where you'd spend all your time in the water, cooling down. But, no. There are crocs, giant jellyfish, snakes and sharks; anything that can eat or kill you is in the water there. They have a competition called the Million Dollar Fish, and everyone goes out to try to become a millionaire (if they don't end up being eaten by a crocodile). I went to work at a parenting baby expo there once and the organisers literally gave me their Toyota Landcruiser and said, "just go for it". We had a jerry can on the back with spare fuel and it felt like we were locals, having to change T-shirts 50,000 times a day, and trying not to walk too fast so you don't drown in your own sweat.

TRAVELLER SAYS…

The NT's caravan parks and roadhouses have been licked into shape in a post-pandemic rejuvenation program including 40 new powered campsites in Litchfield Tourist Park (litchfieldtouristpark.com.au). Stay at the sparkling new Finniss River Lodge (finnissriverlodge.com.au), 90 minutes west of Darwin; glamp at Kings Canyon Resort in Watarrka National Park (kingscanyonresort.com.au) or soak up the newly renovated Glen Helen Resort (discoveryholidayparks.com.au) in Tjoritja, in the West MacDonnell Ranges. Meanwhile, croc wrangler Matt Wright has launched his own luxe accommodation Freshwater Retreat (mattwright.com.au) in Darwin as well as new day tours spotting crocs in the wild and an airboat tour of the city's harbour and mangroves, The Darwin Festival runs throughout August, and the question on everyone's lips (including Jimmy's) is who will win this year's Golden Bowl at the 2022 Darwin International Laksa Festival in November?(laksafestival.nt.gov.au) See northernterritory.com

ACT

JIMMY SAYS...

Why go to Canberra? It's a good question. I think they hate being blamed for everything. When a politician makes an unpopular decision, it's reported as, "Canberra did this, Canberra did that" and everyone in Canberra shouts, "It wasn't us! Blame the pollies". But don't worry, when parliament is not sitting it just becomes a normal, massive roundabout once again. The hottest place in the world in the middle of summer, and the most freezing place in winter, Canberra's super cold but not cold enough for all the fun things like snow play - it's just freezing enough to be annoying. And in summer, it's not near the coast, so you've got to travel to Batemans Bay to escape the heat. However, Parliament House, despite all that blame it helps heap on Canberrans, is an amazing structure.

TRAVELLER SAYS…

Warm up to the ACT with a massage with lions at the Jamala Wildlife Lodge (jamalawildlifelodge.com.au), the ACT's quirkiest stay at the excellent National Zoo & Aquarium (nationalzoo.com.au). Elsewhere, for party animals, rooftop bar newcomer Leyla, atop the Burbury Hotel, offers a Gin & Tonic cheesecake to accompany its cocktails (burburyhotel.com.au; leylabar.com.au). Pop on your runners on and work it off in the inner-city streets of Braddon, where the city's best street art is found. New openings in town include Saint Malo (saintmalo.com.au) in the CBD offering Spanish shared plates on the ground floor, a new live music venue promising burlesque and stand-up is upstairs, opening mid-August. See visitcanberra.com.au

To catch the remaining gigs on Jimmy Rees' national tour, visit livenation.com.au See jimmyrees.com.au where you can watch a selection of his best youtube.com videos

JIMMY REES' FIVE FAVOURITE AUSTRALIAN HOLIDAY SPOTS

MORNINGTON PENINSULA, VICTORIA

Visit Commonfolk for a delicious wanker coffee, then enjoy all that the Mornington Peninsula has to offer such as wine, coffee, craft beer, sparkling wine, gin, more craft beer, cellar doors, more wine, woodfire pizza with a wine, a sparkling at the Peninsula Hot Springs, more wanker coffee, espresso martinis, a local seltzer, a local sour beer and fish and chips at Mothers Beach with a beer. See commonfolkcoffee.com.au; visitvictoria.com

TERRIGAL, NSW

At Terrigal, under an hour and a half north of Sydney, walk or sprint (if you dare) up the Skillion lookout, grab a coffee and a delicious pastry at Bouffant, then get dinner and a drink at Rhonda's. Above all, enjoy the beautiful beaches of the Central Coast. Bar Botanica in Erina is the perfect spot to enjoy a gin. The people of Terrigal like to believe they're exempt from the undertones of bogan the Central Coast exudes but, well, everyone has a little bogan in them. See bouffant.com.au, rhondas.bar, barbotanica.com.au; visitnsw.com

RICHMOND, TASMANIA

Follow the lines of bricks made by convicts at Richmond, about 20 minutes north-east of Hobart. You can see the convict names, which boat they came on and the crime for which they were transported to Australia. I saw a few Reeses along the walk, perhaps they were my relatives who stole bread and were sent away (the Rees family doesn't steal bread anymore). See tasmania.com

HUMPTY DOO , NORTHERN TERRITORY

Head to the small Territory town of Humpty Doo, which is about 30 minutes by road south-west of Darwin, to see crocs, buffalos and kangaroos in the wild. then eat them in a burger at the Humpty Doo Hotel or the Roadkill Cafe at the Mindil Markets back in Darwin. See humptydoohotel.com.au; mindil.com.au; northernterritory.com

COOLUM, QUEENSLAND

Hit up the beautiful beach and fall off a surfboard a million times like me before trying something more relaxing, like a hit of golf around the Mount Coolum Golf Club. Wait, hang on, that can be frustrating. Ok, after all that, grab a cocktail and lay by the pool at Element on Coolum Beach (my in-laws used to have an apartment there, it was delightful.) elementoncoolumbeach.com.au, visitsunshinecoast.com

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