Revealed: The 10 most popular hidden gems in Australia

Australia is packed full of world-famous destinations and landmarks: from the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru to the Blue Mountains and the Great Ocean Road. But if you ask real Aussies and seasoned travellers, they’ll tell you the real magic of our Great Southern Land lies off the beaten track. If you’re looking for inspo for your next Aussie adventure, you don’t have to dig any further. A new study has revealed the ten most searched hidden gem destinations and attractions in Australia, and we’re here to spill all the secrets.

Using trusty travel sources like Time Out Australia (hell yeah!), the luggage storage legends at Bounce put together a list of 70 hidden treasures across the country. They then looked at search trends to rank each spot by popularity and also tapped into Tripadvisor data to uncover the highest-rated secret attractions.

Queensland’s largest inland city, Toowoomba, took the title of Australia’s most searched hidden gem, racking up 937,500 searches across the past year. Dubbed the state’s ‘Garden City’, this regional treasure is best known for its annual Carnival of Flowers, where more than 40 million petals burst to life, transforming the city’s major parks into a confetti-coloured spectacular. 

Australia is the biggest island on Earth, but we’ve got a speckling of smaller islands surrounding our biggest one – 8,222 of them, to be exact. Three of these scored spots on the list of the country’s most searched hidden gems, with NSW’s incredibly beautiful Lord Howe Island in second (735,100 searches), SA’s remote yet remarkable Kangaroo Island in third (723,500 searches), and QLD’s easy-to-reach Moreton Island in fourth (642,500). The beautifully unpretentious beach town of Yamba in NSW and the incredibly underrated tropical town of Broome in WA also racked up more than 500,000 searches each. 

When it comes to Australia's top hidden gem attractions, Victoria’s Panorama Garden Estate claimed the highest Tripadvisor rating, with an impressive 95.89 per cent of reviews marked as “excellent”. Chasing at its tail is The Kangaroo Sanctuary in Alice Springs, with 95.27 per cent of “excellent” reviews. 

Aussies clearly love their wineries, with Ernest Hill Wines in NSW’s Hunter Region, Kies Family Wines in the Barossa Valley, and Ivanhoe Wines in Newcastle also making the top ten. Down Under, we also love a good national park, with Hill Inlet in the Whitsunday Islands National Park, Cape Le Grand National Park in Esperance, and Maria Island National Park in Tasmania also receiving rave reviews. You can check out the full rankings below.

Here are the 10 most searched hidden gems in Australia:

1. Toowoomba, QLD
2. Lord Howe Island, NSW
3. Kangaroo Island, SA
4. Moreton Island, QLD
5. Yamba, NSW
6. Broome, WA
7. Wilsons Promontory National Park, VIC
8. Glasshouse Mountains, QLD
9. Pink Lakes, VIC
10. Ningaloo Reef, WA

Here are the 10 best hidden gem attractions in Australia:

1. Panorama Garden Estate, VIC
2. The Kangaroo Sanctuary, NT
3. Ernest Hill Wines, NSW
4. Hill Inlet, QLD
5. Kies Family Wines, SA
6. Ivanhoe Wines, NSW
7. The Great Aussie Beer Shed and Heritage Farm Museum, VIC
8. Opal Museum, QLD
9. Cape Le Grand National Park, WA
10. Maria Island National Park, TAS

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