Arrivals & Departures Weekly Travel News & Views 24 June 2025

CASE FOR HAPPINESS

Casey is back from Italy, India and Uluru, and pretty happy being parked in the corner of my writing room at home. It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Casey, my faithful suitcase, can be truculent, belligerent, quarrelsome, pugnacious and obstreperous ... BUT my constant companion has surprised me with his bonhomie in all three places, as you can read here.

CASE FOR COMPANIONSHIP

I’ve just spent three nights at Uluru with 102 readers. Being with readers makes us better writers — and I was interested to chat and hear the many reasons that people had joined us on this short, sharp, quite dramatic adventure close to home (it took under two hours to fly direct to Uluru on our charter flight). One person said she’d never travelled with a group before: “This has opened my eyes!” She enjoyed the company and conversations, the explanations of the guides and the general organisation falling to others, so she could just be there and enjoy the experience.

CAMEL QUESTION

Camels are a sort of double-edged sword.

Their part in our inland story is indisputable. Introduced to Australia from the Canary Islands in 1840, camels were the backbone of outback Australia for more than 150 years, carrying supplies and stores to remote places. When railways took over, cameleers were told to shoot their beasts — but many turned these animals (their close friends) free. They are great survivors and suited to our inland environment, can drink up to 200 litres of water in one go, and run up to 65km/h.

An insider at Uluru tells me of reports that there may now be four million camels roaming wild in Australia’s central deserts. Fifteen years ago, it was estimated that there may be a million feral camels in central Australia — and they can double their numbers every eight to 10 years, depending on the season.

LEARNING HISTORY

They have been much in my thoughts at Uluru, and many of our guests went to the Camel Farm for education as much as rides. It has a good little museum which tells the story. It is run by Uluru Camel Tours, is Australia’s biggest camel farm, and visitors are welcome to wander through the saddlery, visit the petting farm, and hear the stories and history of “Afghan cameleers”, ANZAC cameleers and their Aboriginal guides. ulurucameltours.com.au

FIVE EVENTS

June 22 was World Camel Day and Outback Queensland has five events to celebrate the “desert champions” between July 5-26.

THE AUSSIE SCENE

Tourism Research Australia’s annual Benchmark Report was released this week, and it shows that there are more than 360,000 tourism-related businesses in Australia. That’s about one in seven, accounting for about 713,000 tourism-related jobs.

It also shows an increase of nearly 1 million international visitor trips in 2024, as 3.2 million people came here for a holiday. More than a third were to regional Australia.

Australians were busy travelling across the continent, too, with 2.4 million more domestic overnight trips in 2024 than in 2023 (up 2.1 per cent).

It also shows that the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games has already led to more investment in Queensland.

NZ’s SOHO BASIN

Winter has well and truly arrived in the snowy ski and snowboarding hotspot (!) of Queenstown, on New Zealand’s South Island. As I write this, they are looking at a high of 4C and a forecast of snow. Just an hour’s drive away over the mountains, Cardrona Alpine Resort is set to open its much-anticipated Soho Basin. It will add 150ha of skiable terrain to the resort and give it the title of “biggest ski field in New Zealand”. Cardrona Alpine Resort opened in 1980, and caters for everyone, from beginners and families to World Cup and X Games skiers. There are six basins, with progressive terrain for all levels. cardrona-treblecone.com

OCEANARIUM TO OPEN

For those who like their water, well, liquid , the Singapore Oceanarium is due to open on July 23. It is at Resorts World Sentosa on Sentosa Island, and is the transformation and expansion of the former S.E.A. Aquarium. It is three times bigger and will have 22 zones. A spokesperson says storytelling and marine science will inspire visitors towards “real-world change”. rwsentosa.com/en/play/singapore-oceanarium

TWO NEW SHIPS

Touring company Trafalgar has two new river cruise ships in Europe — Trafalgar Verity and Trafalgar Reverie. They sail from April 2026 on the Rhine and Danube. The Best of the Danube is an eight-day trip through four countries from $2799. The Best of the Rhine and Amsterdam is 10 days from $3399. trafalgar.com/en-au/river-cruises/ships

WALKER & WHEELCHAIR

And finally, one of my companions at Uluru has mobility challenges, did a lot of research and came up with a good solution — a “two in one” folding walker and wheelchair. The Airgo Fusion F20 is lightweight and stable, giving confidence to walk, and converts into a chair which can be pushed. It weighs 7.76kg, without accessories.

I kept an eye on it, and it performed well over the weekend. Officially called the Airgo Fusion Side-Folding Rollator and Transport Chair, I have found it from $750 online. (Oh, and, better still, in “Pacific Blue”.)

BLUE IS GOOD

On my recent trip to India, an astrology professor did an instant “reading” and summed me up: “Serious. Justice. Taller than your father.” Pause. “And the colour blue is good for you.”