Editor’s Letter
Katie Goss Editor
There’s a moment on almost every journey when Australia catches you off guard. Not with grand gestures, but with a surprising detail or a place revealing a new side of itself.
Uluru does this beautifully. At Ayers Rock Resort, evenings shaped by Wintjiri Wiru, Field of Light and Sounds of Silence feel like the desert letting you in on a secret. Ancient stories rising through modern light; the land glowing and shifting after dark. It’s one of those moments where you catch yourself thinking: how is this the same Uluru I’ve seen before?
You’ll find that same sense of rediscovery at the table. Our native ingredients feature explores how chefs are shaping a new Australian cuisine from flavours rooted in Country. It’s creative, surprising and full of flavour.
As I read through this issue, one idea kept returning: travel with Journey Beyond isn’t about distance – it’s about depth.
You feel it on the Indian Pacific, where makers, characters and guides share stories you’d never find in a brochure. They’re the ones who give the journey its heart.
And depth doesn’t always mean quiet. Sometimes it’s an adrenaline jolt – like realising you’re effectively on safari in South Australia. Monarto Safari Resort brings wide-open plains dotted with giraffes, cheetahs and rhinos, creating that wonderful flicker of wait, are we really only an hour from Adelaide? It’s the thrill of the far-flung, without being far-flung at all.
Off Exmouth, time with our whale shark crew shows how differently an iconic encounter feels when you experience it through the people who know the water best.
As Journey Beyond expands, that idea broadens too. With Grand Pacific Tours now part of the family, travellers can explore New Zealand through the same lens of care, curiosity and connection.
Wherever you’re heading next – desert, coast, rail, city or across the Tasman – I hope this issue encourages you to pause, look again, and see our region a little differently.
On a day-trip, a short getaway or a long adventure? Share your #JourneyBeyond with us on Instagram – we love nothing more than gawking at travel pics.
Contributers
JOHN BURFITT
After a career in news, celebrity and lifestyle journalism, Sydney-based John Burfitt took a turn into travel writing a decade ago – and has never looked back. A regular contributor to publications including Escape, Explore and International Traveller, John joins Journey Beyond this issue to recount his trip on the Vintage Rail Journeys’ train, which also fulfilled a childhood dream, through NSW’s Riverina food bowl district.
CHRISTINE MCCABE
Travel writer and author Christine McCabe has been documenting her travels for more than four decades and is a senior contributing editor to Travel + Luxury at The Weekend Australian. Her career has taken her from a remote weather station in the High Arctic where she worked with a North Pole expedition to remote safari lodges in India and Africa. For this issue, she was excited to discover a safari experience a little closer to home.
LOUISE HAWSON
Louise Hawson is a Sydney-based lifestyle and travel photographer known for capturing everyday beauty, whether that’s in people, food or urban/suburban and natural landscapes. She leans towards nostalgia and is obsessed with the transformative power of natural light. Her work has been exhibited and published in books and magazines in Australia and internationally. Louise captured the characters of the Indian Pacific, who you can meet here.
PATRICIA MAUNDER
An arts and travel writer, Patricia Maunder has a way with words. A contributor to publications such as The Australian’s Travel + Luxury, The Age, Gourmet Traveller and arts magazine Limelight, she is Melbourne-born and bred, but also called Montreal home for four years. Patricia is the author of the Pocket Precincts guidebook for this cultured Canadian city. She also penned two stories in this issue: The People You Meet and A Taste of Country.
DESIGN + EDITORIAL
Storyation
DISCLAIMER
Views expressed in Journey Beyond magazine are not necessarily those of Journey Beyond. The content of this magazine is fully protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any form without prior permission of the publisher. All information is correct at the time of going to press. All rights reserved.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY
In the spirit of reconciliation, Journey Beyond acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.