Landmarks, museums, historic sites, parks and viewpoints that draw visitors to a city, with practical notes on planning a visit.
70 places · Updated November 12, 2026
Our top 3 attractions in Australia & Oceania
Attraction
Neoclassical museum and war memorial on Observatory Hill in the Auckland Domain, home to major Māori and Pacific collections, natural history galleries and the Halls of Memory.
View details — Auckland War Memorial MuseumAttraction
A 400-hectare park of bushland, lawns and a botanic garden of Western Australian plants on the city's western edge, free to enter every day.
View details — Kings Park and Botanic GardenAttraction
Australia's oldest public art museum, with free general entry to NGV International on St Kilda Road and the Australian collection at Fed Square.
View details — National Gallery of VictoriaAttraction
Queensland's state art museum, split between two free riverside buildings at South Bank, with Australian, Indigenous and Asia Pacific art and a cinema.
View details — Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)Attraction
Queenstown's gondola climbs from the top of Brecon Street to Bob's Peak, where a viewing complex, restaurant, café and two luge tracks look over Lake Wakatipu.
View details — Skyline QueenstownAttraction
Observation deck on levels 77 and 78 of the Q1 tower in Surfers Paradise, with 360-degree views from the hinterland to the Pacific and an external building climb.
View details — SkyPoint Observation DeckAttraction
Jørn Utzon's sail-roofed performing arts centre on Bennelong Point, opened in 1973 and the setting for opera, theatre, concerts and daily guided tours.
View details — Sydney Opera HouseAttraction
Not-for-profit wildlife sanctuary in Currumbin, founded in 1947, known for its free daily wild lorikeet feeding, koala encounters and wildlife hospital.
View details — Currumbin Wildlife SanctuaryAttraction
New Zealand's longest lake, an 80 km dog-leg of deep glacial water that frames Queenstown and links it by boat and road to Kingston and Glenorchy.
View details — Lake WakatipuAttraction
Queensland's state museum at South Bank, with free galleries on dinosaurs, wildlife and the Anzac legacy plus the ticketed SparkLab science centre.
View details — Queensland Museum KurilpaAttraction
Free 38-hectare botanic garden near the city centre, with more than 8,500 plant species, lakes, lawns and a dedicated children's garden.
View details — Royal Botanic Gardens MelbourneAttraction
The 328-metre telecommunications and observation tower at the heart of the CBD, with glass-floored viewing decks, a revolving restaurant and the SkyWalk and SkyJump.
View details — Sky TowerAttraction
The steel arch bridge that has linked the city with the North Shore since 1932, with a free footpath, a cycleway and a museum in its south-eastern pylon.
View details — Sydney Harbour BridgeAttraction
Western Australia's state museum, reopened in 2020 inside a mix of heritage and new buildings, home to Otto the blue whale skeleton.
View details — WA Museum Boola BardipAttraction
The state art gallery, founded in 1895, with free entry to collections spanning Western Australian and First Nations art from the 1800s to today.
View details — Art Gallery of Western AustraliaAttraction
New Zealand's first permanent art gallery, set in an 1887 French Renaissance building with an award-winning 2011 extension, holding over 18,000 works with free general entry.
View details — Auckland Art Gallery Toi o TāmakiAttraction
Small headland national park at Burleigh Heads with rainforest and coastal walking tracks, ocean lookouts and views back along the Gold Coast skyline.
View details — Burleigh Head National ParkAttraction
Australia's largest stadium, opened in 1853, home of the AFL Grand Final and Boxing Day Test, with guided tours and the Australian Sports Museum.
View details — Melbourne Cricket GroundAttraction
A 14.75-hectare public garden on the peninsula beside the town centre, planted from the 1860s, with lake views, a rose garden, memorials and New Zealand's first disc golf course.
View details — Queenstown GardensAttraction
Australia's oldest botanic garden, founded in 1816 on Farm Cove, with free entry, harbour foreshore paths and the Calyx glasshouse exhibition space.
View details — Royal Botanic Garden Sydney