Australia has 20 sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, nominated for their exceptional cultural or natural values – and in some cases, both. From vast swathes of wilderness with species dating back to the dinosaurs to 19th and 20th-century architectural marvels, these national treasures tell us so much about Australia's past. Read on to find out more about these incredible sites.

A total of 11 penal sites have been recognised by UNESCO as culturally significant, relics of the prison settlements established by the British Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries. These include the infamous Port Arthur in Tasmania, where only the worst criminals were sent. The island has four other sites, including Darlington Probation Station on Maria Island. Other UNESCO-inscribed sites include the foreboding Fremantle Prison in Western Australia and Cockatoo Island Convict Site in Sydney. An incredible 3,000 other convict sites are dotted around Australia, a unique vestige of the forced migration of 166,000 convicts from Britain between 1787 and 1868.

The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, part of Gunditjmara Country, can be found in southwest Victoria. It was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019 and was the first place to be acknowledged purely for its Aboriginal cultural value. The volcanic landscape of Budj Bim (formerly Mount Eccles) National Park is home to some of the world’s oldest aquatic farming systems, which were created at least 6,600 years ago. The resourceful systems were used to trap, store and harvest kooyang, a type of eel. Cultural guided tours give a fascinating insight into the structures, and you'll learn more about the Gunditjmara people's story.

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An impressive example of Victorian-era architecture in Melbourne, the Royal Exhibition Building and its elaborate gardens were constructed for the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition and used again for the same event in 1888. The events drew in over three million visitors to the fledgling city. Recognised by UNESCO in 2004, this handsome structure is the only property typical of the late-Victorian international exhibition movement to survive largely intact. It's prized as one of the world's oldest remaining exhibition pavilions, and is still used as a venue.

Instantly recognisable, the Sydney Opera House is Australia’s most iconic architectural landmark. Its white sail-like form has commanded Bennelong Point on Sydney Harbour since 1973, when it was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, it was meant to cost AU$7 million at the time (the equivalent of £55m in today's money) but in the end cost AU$102 million (or £792m today). It also took 14 years to finish, rather than the intended four. The Queen went on to say of the then-divisive architectural masterpiece: "The human spirit must sometimes take wings or sails, and create something that is not just utilitarian or commonplace."

This two-location site reveals key insights into the evolution of Australia's endemic fauna. The first site, Riversleigh in northwest Queensland, is home to some of the world’s most outstanding fossils from between 10 and 30 million years ago, revealing a host of long-extinct creatures. These include carnivorous kangaroos, predatory pouched lions and tree-climbing crocodiles. The second site, Naracoorte Caves in South Australia, also yields an incredible fossil record. The caves acted as pitfall traps and roosting sites, which have accumulated animal bones for at least 500,000 years.

Want to see what Australia looked like before humans took over, or before the Australian land mass even existed? Head to the remnants of the Gondwana Rainforests, which extend from northern New South Wales to southeast Queensland. Inscribed by UNESCO in 1986 and scattered across 40 national parks and protected areas, these forests once covered the supercontinent of Gondwana, which split up 180 million years ago to become Australia, India, Africa, Antarctica and South America. There are giant trees, ferns, mosses, waterfalls, dramatic cliffs and caves, abundant wildlife and a vast network of bushwalking tracks to help you explore.

One of the world’s most precious natural wonders, the Great Barrier Reef is the Earth's largest coral reef system and one of the few living organisms visible from space. Consisting of almost 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands, and stretching for 1,615 miles (2,600km), its diverse ecosystems shelter more than 1,500 species of fish, around 30 species of whale, dolphin and porpoise, six species of turtle and 15 species of sea snake. Sadly, climate change is a huge threat to the reef, which has seen UNESCO recommend the site be added to its 'in danger' list once again.

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Soaring sandstone escarpments, deep valleys, thundering waterfalls, thick forests, age-old caves and even swamps: the size and diversity of the Greater Blue Mountains Area (just inland of Sydney) is dizzying. Inscribed on UNESCO’s list in 2000, the protected wilderness covers over one million hectares across eight conservation reserves. As well as native creatures, it hosts 96 species of eucalypts and some incredibly rare plants like the Wollemi pine. Presumed extinct for more than two million years, the endangered evergreen was discovered in a remote gorge in Wollemi National Park in 1994.

At 76 miles (122km) long, K’gari (or Fraser Island) is the world’s largest sand island. It also has the only ancient rainforest that grows on sand and lays claim to half the world’s perched freshwater dune lakes. Lying just off Queensland’s southern coast, K’gari is renowned for its long beaches, including 75 Mile Beach. As it's officially a national highway, you can take your car onto this sandy stretch. But ditch the wheels and head off on foot along the 56-mile (90km) Fraser Island Great Walk to see the UNESCO site's coastal woodlands, subtropical rainforest, sand dunes, rock pools, high cliffs and freshwater lakes up close. 

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Described as a "unique wilderness" by UNESCO, the Heard and McDonald Islands are an external territory of Australia that lie in the southern Indian Ocean between Australia and South Africa. Extremely remote and surrounded by some of the world’s stormiest waters, they are the only volcanically active sub-Antarctic islands in the world and "open a window into the Earth". Untouched by human hands and with no known introduced plants or animals, they're also described as "one of the world’s rare pristine island ecosystems". Accessible only via expedition, the islands are important breeding colonies for seals, petrels, albatrosses and penguins.

Strewn 373 miles (600km) off the coast of New South Wales, Lord Howe Island is a veritable paradise. The curved volcanic isle, which measures just six miles (10km) long and just over one mile (2km) wide, is dominated by Mount Gower and Mount Lidgbird, while its waters shelter the world’s southernmost coral reef. Plus, it’s a haven for birds, with 130 permanent and migratory species calling the island home, including the rare, flightless Lord Howe Island woodhen. Lord Howe's precious natural treasures are fiercely protected, with only 400 visitors permitted to stay on the island on any given night.

A geological marvel that lies 932 miles (1,500km) southeast of Tasmania in the tempestuous Southern Ocean, Macquarie Island is composed entirely of oceanic crust and rocks from the Earth’s mantle. Along with its outlying islets, it’s the only place on the planet where rocks from the mantle are actively exposed above sea level. As well as its unique geology, Macquarie Island astounds with its natural diversity. It has huge colonies of seals and penguins, including royal penguins, which are endemic here and on nearby Bishop and Clerk Islets. It’s only possible to visit the island on small-ship Antarctic expeditions.

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Covering 708,350 hectares of coastal waters and land, the Ningaloo Coast includes one of the longest near-shore reefs in the world. The reef that fringes Ningaloo is 160 miles (260km) long and home to manta rays, sea turtles and migrating humpback whales plus whale sharks. Hundreds of the latter arrive each March to July, after a mass coral spawning. Ningaloo's land-based wonders include Cape Range National Park, with its extensive karst system and network of underground caves and rivers.

 

In a land full of astonishing landscapes, the giant beehive-like formations of the Bungle Bungle Range in Purnululu National Park are a standout. Located in a remote part of the Kimberley region, these 350-million-year-old striped domes are described as "the most outstanding example of cone karst in sandstones anywhere in the world" by UNESCO, which inscribed the formations in 2003. They’re incredible when viewed from above, but also astounding at ground level. Follow hiking trails deep into the rocks during the dry season, from April to November.

Set on the westernmost point of mainland Australia, the Shark Bay coastline forms a 'W' shape that stretches for roughly 932 miles (1,500km). Its peninsulas, prongs, islands and bays feature tidal flats, mangroves, white shell beaches, rocky reefs and cliffs. The UNESCO site is also abundant with plants and animals that are found nowhere else in the world. One of Shark Bay's best-known wonders is Hamelin Pool, home to the most diverse examples of stromatolites in the world. Known as 'living fossils', stromatolites are structures comprised of microbe colonies that are said to be Earth's oldest living life forms.

A hugely significant haven for endemic flora and fauna, the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area is in northeastern Queensland. It's one of Australia's most biodiverse places: mostly made up of tropical rainforest, it has at least 88 species of vertebrate animals that can be found nowhere else on Earth, including the musky rat-kangaroo. The mini marsupial is the oldest surviving member of the kangaroo and wallaby family and also the smallest, weighing in at a tiny 1 lb (500g).

One of Australia’s four mixed UNESCO World Heritage Sites (sites of both natural and cultural significance), Kakadu houses countless treasures. It's around half the size of Switzerland, covering tidal mudflats, floodplains, savanna woodlands, coastal areas and monsoon forests. It’s home to a third of Australia’s bird species, a quarter of its land mammal species and has more species of freshwater fish than any other region. It also boasts the earliest known sites of human occupation on the continent, and has been inhabited continuously for more than 60,000 years. Under the protection of its traditional owners, the Bininj/Mungguy peoples, Kakadu has an expansive and impressive collection of ancient rock art.

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Wild forests, deep caves, glacially-formed landscapes and untouched waterways, the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area encompasses more than one million hectares and spans seven national parks. Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park (pictured) is one of them, and its peaks were formed by the tearing apart of the supercontinent of Gondwana. The sprawling site is also a living cultural site, preserving the diverse heritage of Tasmanian Aboriginal people. The takayna/Tarkine region in the northwest is particularly notable.

Australia’s most iconic rock formation lies deep within the inhospitable landscape of the Central Desert. Hugely sacred to its traditional owners, the Anangu people, Uluru and nearby Kata Tjuta were first added to UNESCO's list in 1987, in recognition of their incredible geological formations and the area's rare plants and animals. The national park was once again listed in 1994 for its cultural value, with UNESCO noting the unique relationship between the natural environment and the belief system of the Anangu.

An arid assembly of lakebeds that dried up around 18,500 years ago in remote New South Wales, the Willandra Lakes Region has yielded invaluable insight into early human history. The area encompasses Lake Mungo National Park, where the partially-cremated remains of a woman and an almost complete skeleton of a man from the Pleistocene era – the period when humans evolved into their present form, homo sapiens – were found here in the 1960s and 1970s. The scorched site also includes the world's largest collection of fossilised human footprints (460 of them), as well as fossils of giant marsupials.

Now discover Australia's most beautiful sites