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Tags: Travel Contests / Design Travel / Australia Travel / → All Tags

If You Can Design A T-Shirt, You Can Win 11 Days In Australia

Tired of the colder temperatures and all the leaves to be raked already? It's spring in Australia! But of course, heading Down Under costs a pretty penny, and for creatives it most likely remains a dream destination. That's where Threadless and STA Travel step in with their "Threadless Loves Travel II" contest. Last year's winner got a trip to Iceland, $2,000 in cash, and slew of other perks. This year they're looking to a warmer destination by giving away an 11-day trip to Australia, new luggage, headphones, a $500 Threadless gift card, and the $2,000 in cash.

So how do you enter and win? Break out your best graphic design, drawing, or photoshopping skills to create a T-shirt inspired by travel. If it wins the most votes, it's Australia here you come. So far only six designs have been submitted, so the odds are good. Here's the design that won last year, for a little inspiration, but we know you can do better with Australia at stake. Submissions are accepted until December 2, so get brainstorming!

Related Stories:
· Threadless Loves Travel II [Threadless]
· Threadless Loves Travel I (Winner) [Threadless]
· Travel Contests coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: winning design for Threadless Loves Travel I]

Tags: Qantas / Australia Travel / Beer Travel / Drinking Travel / In-Flight Drinks / → All Tags

Beer Ban On Select Qantas Flights Is Un-Australian

Aussies are definitely not impervious to the charms of a cold can of Fosters; after all, they do have record-breaking pub crawls and boats made of beer cans. But if you're flying on a domestic Qantas flight Down Under, there are a few less beers going round these days.

Citing unruly behavior, mostly from drunken mine workers heading home after a couple of weeks working in the desert, Qantas has banned full strength beer and spirits on all flights within Western Australia. This follows existing bans on sales of spirits on intrastate flights in other parts of Australia.

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Tags: Australia Travel / Spring Festivals / Spring Travel / Horse Racing / → All Tags

Down Under Gears Up For The Melbourne Cup

It might be fall in States, but spring has just sprung up Down Under and we're ready to get out and play at some of the continent's best seasonal festivals. The biggest event this season is definitely the Spring Racing Carnival in Melbourne. You might wonder that a bunch of horse races grabs the attention of so many Aussies and anyone visiting at the time, but the highlight of the carnival—the Melbourne Cup—is correctly dubbed "the race that stops a nation".

And you don't have to know the slightest thing about horses to get involved. Come next Tuesday afternoon, you won't be able to get service in any shop in Australia as everybody will have their eyes glued to the TV to watch the Melbourne Cup race. Over 100,000 people attend the race in person, and most of them get dressed up either in their best dress or a crazy costume; like at the Kentucky Derby, the most important thing is to have a great hat.

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Tags: Airfare Deals / V Australia / Richard Branson / Australia Travel / Music Travel / → All Tags

V Australia Can't Wait To Get You Down Under With An Aussie Rock Band

The always spunky Richard Branson and his Virgin team are no slouches at putting together clever promotions, and this time his Aussie long-haul airline V Australia has got a smart one going called Jet with JET.

One jet, of course, is the plane that V Australia is going to fly you in from Los Angeles to Sydney. The all-capitals JET is the great Aussie rock band that will be on the plane with you, and then will perform at the Homebake Music Festival once they back to Oz.

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Tags: Australia Travel / Extreme Sports / Stunts / Queensland Travel / → All Tags

Queensland Will Let You Act Out The Movie Stunts Of Your Dreams

When we're on vacation, being set alight or jumping off tall buildings is not exactly high on our list of must-dos. But everybody's different, and if you've dreamed of performing stunts like you see in the movies, then on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, you can find just the right place to spend a day.

The Movie Stunt Experience is a day out that still has the thrills and spills of a typical Gold Coast theme park, but you're the one doing the spilling. If you book the A$299 ($275) full day program, experienced stunt people will first teach you and then let you try film fighting choreography, flying on a wire, commando-style abseiling, falling from a pretty great height and, perhaps scariest of all, being set on fire. So far, every tourist has come out alive. See if you can break the record.

Related Stories:
· Movie Stunt Experience [Official Site]
· Move Over Lara, This Is My Scene [The Age]
· Queensland Travel Guide [Jaunted]

Tags: Business Class / Airfare Sales / Qantas / Business Class Travel / Australia Travel / Travel Deals / → All Tags

Get Comfy En Route Down Under With Qantas' Biz Class Sale

Australia seems like a long way from just about everywhere, right? (Maybe not from New Zealand!). So if you want to get there in a bit of comfort, it would be great to splash out on a business class seat. Aussie airline Qantas wants to make this financially easier for us for a while, with a 40% off sale on business class seats from Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York down to Sydney or Brisbane.

Business class is certainly a nicer way to travel on those long, long-haul flights, although the funny thing is that Qantas claims to have invented business class back in 1979; if you prefer to believe Wikipedia, it was actually British Caledonian in 1978.

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Tags: Movie Set Travel / Melbourne Travel / Australia Travel / Melbourne / Movie Travel / → All Tags

Where To Start A Rumpus In Melbourne, Australia

Director Spike Jonze chose to film "Where The Wild Things Are" on location with puppets, rather than in front of a blue screen; an expensive gamble that paid off, considering the movie brought in 32.5 million dollars this weekend. To get the location just right for his adaptation of the beloved children's book, Jonze considered locations in Argentina, Hawaii, New Zealand and California before settling on Melbourne, Australia. Here's a look at where you can go "wild" in Melbourne.

What to Do:
Jonze took full advantage of Melbourne's unique surroundings for the film. He used a burnt-out forest near Gembrook, just outside of Melbourne, as the movie's primary location. He also filmed scenes at the cliffs of Bushrangers Bay in Victoria and among the boulders of the You-Yangs. The You-Yangs are a series of granite peaks that rise dramatically in the Werribee lava plains and can be explored on foot or by bike. The You-Yangs Regional Park is perfect for a day of hiking, biking or picnicking off the beaten path. The park is open daily until sunset, mountain bikes can be rented via All About Mountain Bike Tours.

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Tags: Historical Travel / Qantas / Private Jets / Australia Travel / Around the World Travel / → All Tags

Take The Hop, Skip and Jump Route On A Private Qantas Jet To Australia

It seems hard to believe that it is almost 75 years since the first regular flights from Britain to Australia began, but it's apparently true that as far back as 1935, the wealthy were skipping the long boat trips and flying Down Under. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Australia flights next year, Qantas Holidays are putting on a real "trip of a lifetime" vacation on the historical "Nostalgia" and "Classical" routes.

Flying with a group of just 22 passengers on a classic Convair CV580 plane, the 22-day trip from London to Sydney (or the 21-day reverse journey) will be something quite special. With a maximum flying time of four hours per day, there are numerous stops in countries as diverse as the Czech Republic, Syria and Vietnam. Daily excursions could take you over the Himalayas, by water taxi to stilted houses in Brunei, or on a dawn cruise on the Ganges.

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Tags: Food Festivals / Sydney Travel / Australia Travel / Events / Food Travel / → All Tags

Sydney Takes 'Shrimp On A Barbie' Seriously During International Food Fest

No visitor to Sydney will go hungry next month: October is the Sydney International Food Festival and there will be numerous ways to satisfy your foodie cravings.

What used to be the local newspaper's Good Food Month has now become something grander. But not too grand; being Aussies, they're kicking off the festival with a free barbecue at lunchtime on Saturday, October 3 in Taylor Square and at the same time, a not-quite-free barbecue which they're calling an Opera Beer-b-cue because it takes place near the Sydney Opera House and your A$12 ($10) charge includes a barbecue plate "matched with a beer".

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Tags: Movie Set Travel / Wine Travel / Australia Travel / Clive Owen / → All Tags

Clive Owen Is Outback Bound in 'The Boys Are Back'

In The Boys Are Back, opening today, Clive Owen plays a macho sportswriter living in Australia and raising two sons on his own after his wife dies. Though the content of the movie sounds like a downer, the South Australian setting is sure to be uplifting. It even sounds like The Boys Are Back could be the next Sideways. Take a look at the fabulous wine country that serves as the movie's background and judge for yourself.

Where to Stay, Eat and Drink, after the jump.

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Tags: Australia Travel / Garden Travel / Festival Travel / Events / → All Tags

Canberra's 'Floriade' Flower Fest Welcomes Spring With Giant Fire Organ

Australia's tiny capital city of Canberra is somewhere tourists often stop by to simply visit Parliament House or the national War Memorial, but in the Down Under spring (which would be now), it actually comes alive with something better than stuff from the history and geography curriculum: it's time for Floriade.

This month-long festival is now in full bloom and runs right through until October 11. From its origins as a rather stuffy garden show, Floriade has turned into a hip reason to head to Canberra and even has the Floriade NightFest up and running—it's this week until Sunday, and has outdoor films, a Glow Bar, live music and most impressively, the "Pyrophone Juggernaut"—the largest hand operated multi-octave fire organ in the world, which basically spews fire while making noise.

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Tags: Virgin Blue / Seats / LCCs / Australia Travel / Seating / Airline News / → All Tags

Virgin Blue Wants To Squish Your Knees, Make Tall People Suffer On Flights

The Aussie part of Richard Branson's vast empire, low-cost carrier Virgin Blue, has a plan that doesn't sound good for tall or large people. Or anyone one wants to sit reasonably comfortably in a plane, in fact.

Like many airline proposals these days, the new project centers on getting more passengers into the same space. The ideas include putting in extra seats after the emergency exit at the back (apparently that alone would decrease their costs by 3%, presuming people buy those seats) and trying to find other ways to alter the mix of premium, economy and "third class" seats.

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