International Students and other temporary visa holders are allowed to return back to Australia from 15th December 2021 without needing to apply for travel exemption.
Finally! Yay!!
But there are many requirements you need to meet in order to arrive in Australia. In this article, we are going to talk about requirements for entering Australia and other states and territories as well.
Let’s go!
Basic requirements for entering Australia as an international student
In order to enter Australia, you will need to meet these basic requirements. Here are the requirements you must meet:
hold a valid visa to enter Australia
be a visa holder that is eligible to arrive in Australia without needing to apply for travel exemption
have a negative report of COVID-19 PCR test 72 hours before flight
Requirements for entering each state and territory in Australia
Each state and territories has different requirements for entry, quarantine and testing.
You will need to make sure that you have sufficient arrangement for your isolation or quarantine before leaving your home country. It is important you complete any specific border permits for the state or territory you are entering.
In the document below, we are sharing all the requirements for each state and territory you need to meet. (Scroll through to get all the information).
Please note that this document gets updated regularly but as the situation regarding COVID-19 changes quickly we suggest you to click on the link for each state and territory to get up to date information.
We would love to hear from you which state or territory are you studying in 2022?
Australia is certainly a lucky country when it comes to Pink Lakes.
There are not one or two but more than 10 pink lakes that can be found here in Australia.
While, some of these lakes are very well known, others are not so much.
So in this article, we are revealing our Top 11 Pink Lakes in Australia.
Why is the Pink Lakes Pink?
Some of you might wonder why these lakes are pink in colour?
A genuine question.
To explain it simply, this natural phenomenon occurs due to the type of algae (Dunaliella salina) and the type of bacteria (Salinibacter ruber) living in the saltwater.
When these three things (saltwater, algae and bacteria) combine, it gives a various shades of pink (from pastel to bubblegum).
If you want to have the best experience for your pink lake visit, then plan to visit it on clear sky day during 10 am to 3 pm while the sun is high in the sky.
Also, it is a very important to check the local conditions and other restrictions in place before visiting any pink lake. We suggest you check the local Parks website in the area you are planning to visit for more information.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, we also suggest you check the local travel restrictions in each state and territory before deciding to travel to visit these pink lakes.
Lake Hillier is without a doubt the most popular and world-famous Pink lake. It stays pink throughout the year, so you can visit this lake throughout the year.
Unfortunately, it is also one of the most difficult pink lakes to access as well as it is located off the Western Australian coast, around 150 kms from the nearest town, Esperance.
🚗 How to get here: You can visit this lake by catching cruise boat (take around 2 hours) or scenic flight (take 1 hour 30 mins) altogether. Costs for boats starts from $300 and $425 for scenic flight.
📌 Nearest capital city: Perth
🕛Best time to visit: Anytime during the year
🚦 Access to the lake: Very difficult
2.Hutt Lagoon
The next most popular lake is also in Western Australia. It is located on Australia’s coral coast in Port Gregory and known as Hutt Lagoon.
🚗 How to get here: You can get here by driving around 5 to 6 hours from Perth. You can also take a scenic flight from Geraldton.
📌 Nearest capital city: Perth
🕛 Best time to visit: Anytime during the year but on a clear day (During middle of the day)
Lake Warden is another lake around Esperance area in Western Australia. It is located five mins away from other Pink Lake (Lake Spencer), which is no longer a Pink lake.
🚗 How to get here: Around 10 mins drive from the town centre of Esperance in Western Australia. To reach Esperance, it takes around 7 to 8 hours drive from Perth or 40 minutes flight from Perth Airport.
📌 Nearest capital city: Perth
🕛 Best time to visit: All year round
🚦 Access to the lake: Medium
4. Rottnest Island Salt Lake
Rottnest Island Pink Lake is located just off the coast of Perth and in the middle of the island itself. It’s not as glamorous as other lakes in Western Australia, but it certainly has its own vibe for sure.
🚗 How to get here: Once you are in Rottnest Island, you can cycle right close to the lake in Oliver Hill Battery.
📌 Nearest capital city: Perth
🕛 Best time to visit: Summer months
🚦 Access to the lake: Easy
5. Pink Lake in Quairading
Well, one more pink lake in Western Australia. But this one is not all pink throughout the year. The road divides this lake in the middle and, to the surprise of many, one side of the lake turns light pink while the other remain dark.
🚗 How to get here: It is around 2 hours drive from Perth.
📌 Nearest capital city: Perth
🕛 Best time to visit: Summer
🚦 Access to the lake: Medium
Pink lakes in Victoria
6. Westgate Park, Port Melbourne
The easiest Pink Lake to access in Australia is only 15 mins from Melbourne CBD. Westgate Park lake in Port Melbourne has been turning pink since 2012-13 during the warmer months.
Please note during the colder months, this lake is not pink in colour.
🚗 How to get here: 15 to 20 mins drive from the downtown Melbourne. You can also catch a bus 235 or 606 to get to the Entrance of the park.
📌 Nearest capital city: Melbourne
🕛 Best time to visit: Summer Months (between December to March)
🚦 Access to the lake: Very Easy
7. Pink Lake, Dimboola
Victoria’s another popular lake is around 340 km north west of Melbourne. It is in Dimboola and the lake is known as Pink Lake. Interesting fact about this lake is that salt is still harvested by the company names Mount Zero Olive.
🚗 How to get here: It takes around 4 hours to get there from Melbourne by car.
📌 Nearest capital city: Melbourne
🕛 Best time to visit: Summer Months (During the day time)
🚦 Access to the lake: Medium
8. Lake Tyrell
Lake Tyrell is the largest Salt Lake in Victoria. It covers more than 20,800 hectares and has history of more than 120,000 years old. Impressive! This light pink lake provides an amazing views of the sky reflections during sunsrise and sunset.
🚗 How to get here: The lake is in the Mallee region and takes 5 hours to get there from Melbourne.
📌 Nearest capital city: Melbourne
🕛 Best time to visit: Sunrise and Sunset (preferable during summer months)
🚦 Access to the lake: Difficult
9 to 12. Murray-Sunset National Park Lakes
Image Courtesy: Tourism Australia / Time-out Australia
50 kms from Mildura, Murray-Sunset National Park have got not 1 but 4 pink lakes. These are:
Lake Crosbie
Lake Kenyon
Lake Becking
Lake Hardy
You can also camp at Lake Crosbie or Lake Becking. Although Murray-Sunset National Park is located in Victoria, it is actually closer to South Australian capital, Adelaide than Melbourne.
You can get further information and updates about these lakes on Parks Victoria’s website.
🚗 How to get here: You can get here driving from Adelaide for 4 hours or 5 and half hours from Melbourne.
📌 Nearest capital city: Adelaide
🕛 Best time to visit: Autumn and Winter Months (between April to August)
Lake Macdonnell is a very unique lake as one side of the causeway is pink in colour and the other side is green. It is close to the Nullarbor Plain and around 15 km south of Penong on the Eyre Peninsula.
🚗 How to get here: The lake is located around 850 kms from Adelaide and takes around good 9 to 10 hours drive. You can also fly into
📌 Nearest capital city: Adelaide
🕛 Best time to visit: May to September
🚦 Access to the lake: Medium
14. Lake Bumbunga
Located 130 kms from Adelaide city, Lake Bumbunga is one of the easiest pink lakes to get to (can’t beat Westgate Park Lake though). Lake Bumbunga is famous for its changing colour throughout the year from pink to white to blue depending on the time of the year.
🚗 How to get here: It is only around couple of hours drive from Adelaide
Lake Hart is perfect lake to see during the day and night with pastel pink reflections. It might be further out with more than 500km drive from Adelaide but it is certainly worth the effort.
You can also see the glimpse of this pink beauty from The Ghan (Luxury train travel between Adelaide to Darwin).
🚗 How to get here: To reach here by car from Adelaide, it will take around 5 to 6 hours.
📌 Nearest capital city: Adelaide
🕛 Best time to visit: All year round
🚦 Access to the lake: Medium
16. Lake Eyre
Image Courtesy: Grant Hunt Photography
Lake Eyre is the Australia’s largest salt lake. It is located 650 kms north of Adelaide. It is interesting to know that the lakes gets filled with 1.5 metre flood every 3 years and 4 metres floods every 10 years.
It costs around $11 for your vehicle entry fee in the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre National Park.
It is also important to note that there is no mobile phone coverage in the park.
🚗 How to get here: It is around 8 hour drive from the nearest capital city, Adelaide. You can also take a plan ride from Adelaide to outback town Coober Pedy and then take another tour over the lake with local flight tour operators.
📌 Nearest capital city: Adelaide
🕛 Best time to visit: April to October
🚦 Access to the lake: Very difficult
17. Lake Albert
Lake Albert is a freshwater lake near Murray river in South Australia. The area serves as the gateway to the Coorong National Park.
🚗 How to get here: It is around 2 hours drive south east from Adelaide.
📌 Nearest capital city: Adelaide
🕛 Best time to visit: Varies based on rainfall during the year
🚦 Access to the lake: Easy
Let us know which pink lake would you like to visit in the comment section below.
Travelling Australia – or anywhere in the world – with a good quality camera is one of the best ways to appreciate your surroundings and capture some special memories to share with family and friends for years to come. But what are the best travel cameras in 2019 for capturing the land down under in all its glory? Compact? Mirrorless? DSLR? When you factor this in with how much budget you have to spend on a new camera or lens, things can get tricky.
Generally speaking, we all want the same thing from a travel camera. We want a compact and lightweight digital camera that can quickly and easily capture the variety of landscapes, wildlife, buildings, and people that we encounter on our travels – and all within budget.
To help you determine the best travel camera for your price range, the travel-loving team at Ted’s Cameras have put together a handy guide of their top 4 recommended travel cameras, each tailored to a different budget, starting from under $500 to over $1,500.
Here are their picks for the best travel cameras, for all levels of budget, in 2019:
In terms of compact cameras, the Panasonic TZ range could make its claim as the undisputed king. For years, this range of cameras has been overwhelmingly popular thanks to their standard features of a long-ranging zoom and portable pocket-size.
The Panasonic Lumix TZ90 has all of this, with a Zeiss branded 30x optical zoom lens and 20.3MP CMOS sensor to help you capture stunning travel images near and far. It combines all this with built-in 5-Axis image stabilisation, 4K resolution video and a 3-inch touch-sensitive, tilting LCD screen for excellent usability. With such a long list of functionality, the Panasonic Lumix TZ90 is the best compact camera for travel under $500.
If you have a little more to spend, you can start exploring the mirrorless territory, which is where you will find the Canon EOS M100. We love the EOS M100 due to its perfect blend of still image and video functionalities, which has made it a huge success amongst content creators and will ensure your Aussie adventures look as crisp, clear and colourful as a Sydney Harbour morning.
Although not exactly pocketable, this mirrorless model from Canon is decidedly portable, being light enough to carry for long periods of time without ever being cumbersome. In terms of quality and usability, this camera excels, with a 24.2MP APS-C sized image sensor, Full HD 1080P video and 3-inch tilting, touch-sensitive LCD screen to compose your stills and videos. When you factor-in compatibility to a growing list of Canon EOS M lenses, this is a capable travel photography tool for beginners and enthusiasts alike.
Another Mirrorless entry on our list, the Olympus E-M5 Mark II is a retro-styled camera that produces images that are even more attractive than its classic design. Although lightweight, the E-M5 Mark II is no push-over, featuring dust and splash-proof construction. It’s compatible with a wide-range of MFT lenses, which are a perfect match for the camera with their impressive size to performance ratio.
As well as being touch-sensitive, the LCD screen at the rear of this camera can be flipped and tilted at will, which is great for taking some selfie travel photos – especially if you’ve come across an adorable quokka in Western Australia! There’s also a high-quality EVF for those that prefer a more traditional approach to their image composition.
With built-in WiFi making it easy to share your travel photography results from almost anywhere in the world, this is a stunning camera that is fuss-free, dependable and versatile – just what you want from a travel partner!
With the A6500, Sony has ticked all of the necessary boxes in order to make this Mirrorless model the best camera for travel photography over $1500. The camera has functionality that can compete with high-quality DSLR cameras but in a much more portable package. Image quality from the 24.4MP Exmor CMOS sensor is spectacular – a quality which is extended over to the 4K resolution videos that this camera can record.
The built-in Image Stabilisation and class-leading Autofocus performance really allow the camera to make the most of its capturing abilities, so if you put quality first, this is the right camera for you. From sailing around Far North Queensland to bushwalking in Tasmania, you can feel confident you’re capturing every adventure at its best – plus, with its lightweight magnesium alloy construction and dust and moisture-resistance, the A6500 is easy-to-carry and tough as nails. This camera is packed and ready to go, wherever you are.
A travel souvenir like no other
So there you have it! Any of these four cameras will be a great addition to your next Aussie adventure, giving you a stunning photographic collection of travel souvenirs you’ll cherish forever.
As an overseas student, you must be travelling via planes to come from and to Australia. Here are 8 airport hacks that will make your life much more easier when travelling.
1. Be Kind –
If you ask nicely, most airline personnel will respond accordingly. And you may be lucky to get an upgrade! You just never know this one.
2. Early Bird –
Avoid delays by travelling early in the day. If you are catching an international flight, depending on how busy your local airport gets, try to be at the airport at least 2-3 hours early. If you are catching a local flight in Australia, 1 hour would be sufficient.
3. In Last, Out First –
This hack is pretty obvious. The later you check your bags, the less time you have to wait when picking them back on the arrival at your destination! We know, right!
4. Special Status –
If you want to enjoy the special perks or collect points for your travel then join an airplane credit card or frequent flyer plan. It will help you to collect those points if your always fly with the same airlines which later can be used for the free flights or upgrades or extra luggage.
5. Go Left –
Pick checkpoint to your left, most people tend to go right! As the research shows that most of the people usually turn right when it comes to queuing up for the security check, you do the opposite to save yourself time for a long queues.
6. Bring empty water bottle –
No one is not allowed to carry liquids more than 100ml in the airplane cabin baggage. And if you have to stay at the airport for more than couple of hours, chances are you are going to need water to drink. Buying water at the airports, don’t make sense at all as they are usually ridiculously expensive. Instead bring empty water bottle, once you cleared the security check, you can refill the water.
7. Wi-Fi –
Always check for free wi-fi at the airport. Now, most of the airports will only allow limited amount of Wi- Fi data for use but if you keep setting your time back on your laptop and phone, it will extend your time for the Wi-Fi usage. Simple, yet effective trick.
8. Extra luggage –
In case you are having excess luggage and the check-in person won’t allow you to bring that without paying for it, then, wear the heavy clothing and put on some extra clothes while checking–in. As soon as you pass through the security, you can do a quick outfit change.
Travelling Australia – or anywhere in the world – with a good quality camera is one of the best ways to appreciate your surroundings and capture some special memories to share with family and friends for years to come. But what are the best travel cameras in 2019 for capturing the land down under in all its glory? Compact? Mirrorless? DSLR? When you factor this in with how much budget you have to spend on a new camera or lens, things can get tricky.
