#outback-mind

#outback-mind

As the rust expands, it weakens the rock and helps break it apart. It's a very red part of the country, it's got that rusty hue, so you get that color getting whipped up with the strong winds.

Frogmouths have another life that few people see: like vampires, they wake at sunset and night-hunt until dawn. These stolid creatures turn into zephyrs that silently swoop, catching prey on the ground and in the air.

I get there, I look and here's this little crocodile swimming around in the water. The sighting occurred at Federal Park in Wallsend, close to a local pool and primary school. Kirsop said she was met with initial disbelief when she contacted the wildlife rescue group Wires, and the Australian Reptile Park.

The redevelopment prompted Simon and Catriona Mordant, leading Australian arts philanthropists, to make a record gift of 25 works from their private collection, and the gallery will present these to the public in a special exhibition to open in May. The building expansion makes Newcastle Art Gallery the largest public art institution in New South Wales outside Sydney.

According to color psychology, this soothing shade helps decrease stress and improve focus-and travelers can reap these much-deserved benefits in lush landscapes around the world. Here are 10 of the greenest places on earth, which combine serenity with unforgettable adventures.

Whether you know Robert Irwin from his thrilling routines on Dancing with the Stars last year, that underwear campaign, or simply his conservation and wildlife work there's one thing you really should know, he's a "proud" LGBTQ+ ally. The son of the late 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin, Robert has taken after his father in terms of working with animals as well as his good looks and killer charm.

To capture the biological impact of this extreme environment, I used a comprehensive suite of sensors and biomarker analyses. I wore a wireless electroencephalograph (EEG) system to monitor brain activity, sleep stages and neural signatures of stress and adaptation; the Oura Ring to continuously track sleep patterns, heart-rate variability and circadian-rhythm shifts; and the glucose monitor to follow metabolic responses in real time.

In a white and sterile office that could belong to any one of the warehouses that dot this industrial strip between Brisbane's airport and horse-racing precinct, a young woman is engrossed in a puzzle. Only this puzzle comprises, perhaps, three different sets, each almost (but not quite) identical to the other and none likely to be completed. Emily Totivan wears blue plastic gloves. She is an archaeology student helping to catalogue artefacts.

The body is a shifting landscape transformed by surfaces and sensations. Each look captures a different tactile world: the heat of blood, the cool weight of metal, the yielding drift of water. The result is a sculptural study of how the elements carve, shield, and release the self. The materials we embody become the emotions we carry, and the body becomes a materialised exhibition of our emotions, from the pulse of Blood to the discipline of Metal to the surrender of Water.

On an empty beach at the bottom of the world, the waves that roll over the sand are midnight blue and lit by the stars and a waxing moon. I'm only vaguely familiar with the constellations that hang above Great Barrier Island, known for centuries to the Māori as Aotea, some 56 nautical miles northeast of Auckland, New Zealand. I'm not all that used to seeing them so clearly,

On a cool, rainy afternoon in the wilds of Laikipia, Kenya, I am lying in savasana, or corpse pose, beside a log fire in the pool house of Enasoit Camp. The teacher, Laura Bunting, gently intones a yoga nidra to our small, all-female group, during which I slip in and out of a hypnotic half-light state, only vaguely aware of the sound of rain on the thatched roof and the percussive efforts of a nearby woodpecker.

I was five years old when I had my first encounter with a black bear. In the spring of 1990, my father, a wildlife biologist, brought home an orphaned three-month-old cub in a cardboard box. The cub's mother, having burrowed beneath the roots of an old tree, had been killed in the den by a logging excavator, but the cub, weighing barely more than a bag of apples, survived. Forestry workers caught the young bear and dropped it off at the Fish and Wildlife office in Peace River, Alberta, where my dad worked, and he called my mom with the news.

It might be only 40 minutes by ferry from Brisbane, but when North Stradbroke Island, or Minjerribah, comes into focus - a soft line of bush, dunes and open water - and you roll off the barge, the city skyline feels like a sci-fi memory. It's no wonder that the locals and in-the-know Brisbanites guard this island with a conspiratorial hush.

Demand for safari holidays is growing, so how can you do it without harming animals, people or the landscape? Last summer, images were shared of a scene in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park - a large group of jeeps and dozens of tourists standing outside taking pictures of 'The Great Migration' and blocking wildebeests' traditional crossing point. Jeep traffic jams have also been widely reported in other parks, including Sri Lanka's Yala, known for its high density of leopards.

As one of the most protected national parks in the world, the Galápagos Islands are full of incredible wildlife that are not afraid of humans and will come in closer contact with you than is possible in most other natural places in the world. You can experience a variety of landscapes in a small space, from lush highlands full of tortoises to moon-like volcanic rock covered in piles of iguanas.

Greenland is currently making headlines, much to the chagrin of Greenlanders. U.S. President Donald Trump's ambition to seize this island, an autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO founding member, has turned global attention to a corner of the planet they probably hadn't considered before, or to Wikipedia or AI tools, to find out who lives on that enormous white patch in a corner of the American continent, and how.

"I've had my fair share of beach vacations, but I'm telling you, there's no place like Margaret River," Hardy, the vice president of Friends of the Cape to Cape Track, shares in his tour of his home region. "You don't have access to waves like this anywhere else in the world." While Hardy happens to be a seasoned local, he explains that it's still a wave for everyone, especially at spots like Gnarabup Beach, with plenty of surf schools around to show you the ropes.

As of February 2026, the island is offering those who can work remotely for companies outside of Sri Lanka the chance to apply for a year-long digital nomad visa, so here is everything you need to know about how to apply if you're eligible. Firstly, you need to be at least 18 years old and earning a minimum of €1,700 (or around $2,000) per month.

On French Island in Victoria's Western Port Bay, koalas are dropping from trees. Eucalypts have been eaten bare by the marsupials, with local reports of some found starving and dead. Multiple koalas usually solitary animals can often be seen on a single gum. Koalas were first introduced to French Island from the mainland in the 1880s, a move that protected the species from extinction in the decades they were extensively hunted for their pelts.

This December, I was on the inaugural United flight from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Adelaide Airport (ADL), the first-ever direct flight connecting the U.S. and South Australia. The nearly 16-hour flight will be happening three days a week with United Economy, Premium Plus, and Polaris business-class seats available, making it easier than ever to reach this part of Australia.