There's an otherworldly quality to Tasmania , with its gothic landscape of rain clouds and brooding mountains. This was a prison island whose name, Van Diemen's Land, was so redolent with horror that when convict transport ended in 1852 it was immediately changed. Yet the island has another, friendlier side to it too, with distances comprehensible to a European traveller - it's roughly the size of Ireland - and resonant echoes of England: cream teas, old-fashioned B&Bs and amiable, homespun people. In winter, when the grass is green, the gentle and cultivated midlands, with their rolling hills, dry stone walls and old stone villages, are reminiscent of England's West Country. Town names, too, invariably invoke the British Isles - Perth, Swansea, Brighton and Somerset among them. It's a "mainlander's" joke that Tasmania is twenty years behind the rest of Australia, and it's true that in some ways it is very old-fashioned, a trait that is by turn charming and frustrating. However, things are changing fast: with a new arts festival and a literary festival, the island is keen to promote itself as a cultural centre, and most towns now have internet access thanks to federal government funding.

Tasmania is the closest point in Australia to the Antarctic Circle, and the west coast is wild, wet and savage, bearing the full brunt of the Roaring Forties. Inland, the southwest has wild rivers, impassable temperate rainforests, buttongrass plains, and glacially carved mountains and tarns that have been linked to create a vast World Heritage Area . This region - crossed only by the Lyell Highway - extends from the South West National Park, through the Franklin Lower Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, and across to the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, providing some of the world's best wilderness walking and rafting. It's the stage for frequent and dramatic conflicts between conservationists and the logging and mining communities, but is still one of the cleanest places on earth, and a wilderness walk, where you can breathe the fresh air and drink freely from tannin-stained streams, is a genuinely bucolic experience.

A north-south axis divides the settled areas, with the two major cities, Hobart , the capital, in the south, and Launceston in the north. The northwest coast , facing the mainland across Bass Strait, is the most densely populated region, the site of Tasmania's two other cities, Devonport (where the Bass Strait ferry docks) and Burnie , and several other large, conservative towns. Tasmania's central plateau , with its thousands of lakes, is sparsely populated, though full of weekender fishing shacks. The sheltered, mostly flat east coast is the place to go for sun and watersports activities; it has plenty of deserted beaches, safe for swimming, set against a backdrop of bush-clad hills.

Don't expect boiling hot weather in Tasmania. It rarely gets above 25°C, even at the height of summer, and the weather is notoriously changeable, particularly in the uplands, where it can sleet and snow at any time of year; the most stable month is February. However, with the ozone layer thinning every year the UV rays are particularly strong and in the middle of a summer day can burn unprotected skin in fifteen minutes. Wear plenty of sun screen and a hat. Winter is a bitterly cold time to visit unless you choose the more temperate east coast; wilderness walks are best left to the most experienced and well-equipped at this time of year.  

Australia  is massive, and very sparsely peopled: in size it rivals the USA, yet its population is just over eighteen million - little more than that of the Netherlands. This is an ancient land, and often looks it: in places, it's the most eroded, denuded and driest of continents, with much of central and western Australia - the bulk of the country - overwhelmingly arid and flat. In contrast, its cities - most of which were founded as recently as the mid-nineteenth century - express a youthful energy.

The most memorable scenery is in the Outback, the vast desert in the interior of the country west of the Great Dividing Range. Here, vivid blue skies, cinnamon-red earth, deserted gorges and other striking geological features as well as bizarre wildlife comprise a unique ecology - one that has played host to the oldest surviving human culture for at least fifty thousand years.

The harshness of the interior has forced modern Australia to become a coastal country. Most of the population lives within 20km of the ocean, occupying a suburban, southeastern arc extending from southern Queensland to Adelaide. These urban Australians celebrate the typical New World values of material self-improvement through hard work and hard play, with an easy-going vitality that visitors, especially Europeans, often find refreshingly hedonistic. A sunny climate also contributes to this exuberance, with an outdoor life in which a thriving beach culture and the congenial backyard "barbie" are central.

While visitors might eventually find this Home and Away lifestyle rather prosaic, there are opportunities - particularly in the Northern Territory - to gain some experience of Australia's indigenous peoples and their culture, through visiting ancient art sites, taking tours and, less easily, making personal contact. Many Aboriginal people - especially in central Australia - have managed to maintain their traditional way of life (albeit with some modern accoutrements), speaking their own languages and living according to their law (the tjukurpa). Conversely, most Aboriginal people you'll come across in country towns and cities are victims of what is scathingly referred to as "welfare colonialism" - a disempowering system in which, supported by dole cheques and other subsidies, they often fall prey to a destructive cycle of poverty, ill-health and alcoholism. There's still a long way to go before black and white people in Australia can exist on genuinely equal terms.