Country Information
Australia attracts many visitors each year due to its broad range of things to see and do. The varying landscape offers many beautiful attractions and fantastic activities, from surfing and white water rafting to trekking and skiing. As well as natural beauty, Australia’s cosmopolitan cities offer a wide variety of cultural attractions from sports to art.
Australia is a huge country size wise, and therefore offers a diverse population and landscape, creating a perfect environment for travelling and working.
Time
Australia is such a big country that it has three time zones:
Eastern Standard Time (Queensland) – 10 hours ahead of GMT depending on Daylight Savings
Central Time – 9.5 hours ahead of GMT
Western Time - 8 hours ahead of GMT
Getting There
You will need to plan your travels to ensure that you are in Airlie Beach the day before your start date of the programme. There are excellent transport links throughout the East Coast and the easiest way to travel to Airlie Beach is by taking a bus from one of the main gateway cities such as Brisbane, Mackay, Townsville or Cairns.
Climate
The summer months in Australia (November to March) can get very hot. Up north, in Queensland for example, the summer period brings the rainy season and the weather can be very hot and humid with lots of rainfall. The winter months (June to August) in Queensland bring much dryer weather but still heat. The further south you go the colder and wetter winter becomes and in some mountainous areas of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania skiing is possible.
The sun in Australia is much more intense than here in the UK so we strongly advise that you always use sunscreen (at least factor 30) when you are outside, even when you think you don’t need it. You will be constantly reminded of the slogan “Slip, slop, slap”; the government approved catchphrase reminding you to slip on a T-shirt, slop on some sun block and slap on a hat. To prevent headaches and to protect your eyes, it’s a good idea to wear sunglasses.
Whitsunday Islands, on the East Coast between Cairns and Brisbane.
