Ambrym is known as the ‘Black Island’ due to its dark volcanic soil, with two active volcanoes, Mount Marum and Mount Benbow. The island is also known for its magic and sorcery, and for its traditional Rom dances, when locals don elaborate masks and costumes.

Pentecost Island, named after the day it was first sighted by Europeans, is famous for its ancient custom of land diving. During this ritual, which is believed to ensure a good yam harvest, men leap from a precarious-looking wooden tower with a liana vine attached to their ankle, aiming to touch the ground with their head or shoulder.

Espiritu Santo is the largest of Vanuatu’s islands, home to the famous Champagne Beach, a stunning stretch of perfect white sand on the east coast. The beach is named after a bizarre natural phenomenon, in which gas escaping from volcanic rocks on the sea floor causes the water to bubble and fizz at low tide.

Alotau is the capital of Milne Bay province, on the remote eastern tip of mainland Papua New Guinea. Milne Bay was the scene of heavy fighting during the Second World War, and today you can dive amongst the wreckage left behind. Alotau also serves as a base for visiting the nearby islands, including the fascinating Trobriand archipelago.

The Asmat people of West Papua are one of Indonesia’s most fascinating indigenous groups, notorious in the past for their cannibalism and headhunting, a practice said by some to have persisted as recently as the 1990s. The Asmat are also known for their magnificent wood carvings, and their cultural traditions remain strong in the face of encroaching modernity.

More of a large town than a city, Darwin is less about what’s contained within the city limits and more about the huge expanse of wild landscape that’s outside it. Closer to Jakarta than Sydney, the city really does feel remote in its tropical perch.

Vansittart Bay lies close to the northern tip of Western Australia, and is home to some interesting examples of aboriginal rock art. You can also take a trip across a lagoon to visit the intact wreckage of a C-53 aircraft that crash landed here during the Second World War.

The Hunter River region is home to a spectacular system of mangroves surrounded by red sandstone cliffs, providing a habitat for mudskippers, fiddler crabs, saltwater crocodiles and numerous species of bird. Head further inland and you’ll reach the stunning Mitchell Falls, where the waters cascade from one shimmering emerald pool to the next.

Talbot Bay is home to one of the world’s most unusual natural wonders, the ‘Horizontal Falls’. This amazing spectacle occurs when tidal movements force water through the narrow gaps in the ridges either side of Poulton Creek, with the water building up on one side quicker than it can flow through the gap, causing a spectacular waterfall effect.

The Lacepede Islands, situated just off Australia’s Kimberley coast, are a fantastic destination for birding enthusiasts, supporting over 1% of the world’s population of brown boobies and roseate terns. Other bird species here include masked boobies, Australian pelicans and lesser frigatebirds, and it’s also a key breeding site for green turtles.