For the past two years we've been exploring and we're in the early stages of our Rusty Compass Australia independent, cultural travel guides.
We now have an extensive list of things to do in Sydney - check it out here. We also have a bunch of travel videos from across Australia with lots more in the pipeline in 2023.
I've been planning to do Rusty Compass in Australia for years. I've longed believed there is an opening for the Rusty Compass style and community. In 2023, I'm more convinced of that than ever.
Travellers are active again across the globe and 2023 promises to be a great year.
Australia is a spectacular place. Nature has been kind. Nature's gifts were well cared for by First Nations Peoples for 60,000 years. White man's record over the past 235 years, has been mediocre.
A new government in 2022 is reversing the worst excesses of a decade of climate denial and crimes against Australia's rich and diverse natural habitat. It's a long and tough road.
Australia's stories are compelling - from the extraordinary ancient Indigenous civilisation, to the brutality and dispossession of the founding of the British prison colony, to the transformation to a prosperous, diverse, liberal democracy. Many wounds remain unhealed and many of the officially propagated vices of the colonial arrival have proven hard to expunge from officialdom. The stories are as big as the land.
I've spent two years thinking about Australia all over again - immersing myself in history as well as the many quirks of the modern nation. I've also spent a lot of time thinking about my own time and upbringing here in Sydney's West.
My decades abroad give me the privilege of viewing Australia as an outsider. That's something that will come in very handy as I expand Rusty Compass across the country. I hope to bring a unique view to this travel guide, as a somewhat estranged native returning home.
This guide is evolving in stages with an initial primary focus on Sydney.
Check out our independent travel guide to Sydney here.
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Twitter: @rustycompass
Rusty Compass is an independent travel guide. We’re focused on providing you with quality, unbiased, travel information. That means we don't receive payments in exchange for listings and mostly pay our own way. We’d like tourism to be a positive economic, environmental and cultural force and we believe travellers deserve disclosure from publishers. Spread the word about Rusty Compass, and if you're in Saigon, pop in to The Old Compass Cafe and say hi. It’s our home right downtown on Pasteur St. You can also check out our unique tours of Ho Chi Minh City and Sydney at www.oldcompasstravel.com Make a financial contribution using the link below. Even small amounts make a difference. Thanks and travel well!