The Best Small Towns and Villages

Central Tilba (NSW): Just inland from Narooma on the south coast, this historic hamlet is one of the cutest you'll see, complete with blacksmiths and leatherwork outlets. The ABC Cheese Factory offers free tastings, and you can spend hours browsing antiques stalls or admiring the period buildings.

Broken Hill (NSW): Known for its silver mines, the quirky town of Broken Hill has more pubs per capita than just about anywhere else. It's the home of the School of the Air -- a "classroom" that transmits lessons by radio to communities spread over thousands of miles of Outback. Here you'll also find the Palace Hotel, made famous in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, as well as plenty of colonial mansions and heritage homes.

Port Douglas (QLD): What happens when Sydneysiders and Melbournites discover a one-street fishing village in tropical north Queensland? Come to Port Douglas and find out. A strip of groovy restaurants and a championship golf course have not diminished "Port's" old-fashioned air. Four Mile Beach is at the end of the street, and boats depart daily for the Great Barrier Reef.

Mission Beach (QLD): You'd never know this tidy village existed (it's hidden in lush rainforest off the highway) if you weren't well informed. Aussies know it's here, but few bother to patronize its dazzling beach, offshore islands, and rainforest trails, so you'll have the place to yourself. There's great white-water rafting on the nearby Tully River, too.

Broome (WA): This romantic pearling port on the far-flung Kimberley coast on the Indian Ocean blends Aussie corrugated-iron architecture with red pagoda roofs left by Chinese pearl divers. The town fuses a sophisticated international ambience with Outback attitude. Play on Cable Beach and stay at glamorous Cable Beach Club Resort. This is the place to add to your South Sea pearl collection.

Kalgoorlie (WA): This is it, the iconic Australian country town. Vibrant Kalgoorlie sits on what used to be the richest square mile of gold-bearing earth ever. It still pumps around 2,000 ounces a day out of the ground. Have a beer in one of the gracious 19th-century pubs, peer into the world's biggest open-cut gold mine, and wander the ghost-town streets of its sister town, Coolgardie.

Hahndorf (SA): A group of Lutheran settlers founded this German-style town in the Adelaide Hills in the 1830s. You'll love the churches, the wool factory and crafts shops, and the delicious German food at the local cafes, restaurants, and bakeries.

Coober Pedy (SA): For an Outback experience that's fair-dinkum (genuine), few places are as weird and wonderful as this opal-mining town in the middle of nowhere. Visit mines, see wacky museums, and stay in a hotel underground -- not all that unusual, considering that the locals live like moles anyway.

Launceston (TAS): Tasmania's second city is not much larger than your average European or American small town, but it's packed with Victorian and Georgian architecture and remnants of Australia's convict past. Spend a few days and discover the scenery; splurge a little on a stay in a historic hotel.

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