The views of the Opera House were fine from wherever you could see it. In the late evening from the Manley Ferry, from the tower of the Bridge, from the docks at Circular Quay, it always looked just as striking as I ever thought it would.

The Harbour Bridge is known affectionately as the Coathanger. It really is quite impressive, and we went to the small museum in the south west tower to get some great views over the bridge and harbour.

The Sydney tower is great. It only cost A$10 to go up it, and you can stay for hours. We did just that, appreciating the wonderful views over the fabulous city as the sky darkened and the lights came on.

Sydney is one of the great cities of the world. Stunning natural setting, stunning buildings, stunning beaches…generally stunning. I’ll never forget my first sight of Circular Quay, with the Bridge to the left and the Opera House to the right. The weather wasn’t great while we were there but we still had fun taking the [...]

Alice Springs is a strange little town in the middle of absolutely nowhere. On a map of Australia it looks as if it’s right next to Ayer’s Rock, but in fact it’s about 400 miles away. Australia really is stupidly big. We spent a couple of days there, enjoying views from Anzac Hill and a [...]

Kata Tjuta ia about 30 miles from Uluru, but far less well known. The rocks are taller that Uluru and there’s many more of them. We did an excellent walk around and through the rocks, and our enjoyment was only slightly tempered by only having taken a couple of small bottles of water.

Once the sun goes down, you realise that the sky at Ayer’s Rock is awesomely dark. The southern skies are awesomely bright. It’s also freezing cold, but I braved the freezing temperatures to take some photos. For me as an astronomer one of the many exciting things about going to Australia was seeing the southern [...]

It’s something you have to do at Ayer’s Rock - see the sunset. The rock changes slowly from golden yellow to red and to purple as the sun sinks below the horizon. It’s memorable.

This was a high point - a 15-minute helicopter over the magnificent Ayer’s Rock, or Uluru. I took a whole roll of film, and was hugely impressed by the sight of the endless red desert, interrupted so startlingly by the Rock, and the Olgas a little way away. To my horror, after the flight I [...]

As Bill Bryson says in ‘Down Under’, ‘You have driven 1,300 miles to look at a large, inert, loaf-shaped object that you have seen photographically portrayed 1,000 times already. And then you see it, and you are instantly transfixed’. Too right. Here are a few more photographic portrayals to add to the tally.