Australia

• New Here? No Worries Mate - Beginners Guide
• Daydreamer Believer - Daydream Island, Great Barrier Reef
• Wonders of Wilderness Island - Fraser Island, Great Barrier Reef
• The Lizard of Oz - Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef
• 700-mile hop on Kangeroo Highway - Melbourne to Sydney
• Bush Tucker... without the trial - Outback
• Primeval Pamering - Queensland
• Sydney is Supreme - Sydney
• It's simply the best, Mate! - Sydney
• Continent Please Carol - Top End
• Whirlybird Wine Tours - Victoria
• Home from home for me Down Under - Sydney
• I can’t get enough of Melbourne! - Melbourne

MY SISTER KYLIE famously sang about being Lucky, Lucky, Lucky and I think it must run in the family. There was a time when I used to fly home to Melbourne for Christmas and stay for two or three weeks: nice, but I really yearned to stay a bit longer, particularly over the amazing Australian summer.

Then I landed a job as a judge on the Australia’s Got Talent TV show and my wish came true – I now stay from Christmas to April, which is fantastic.

Melbourne is where I grew up so it obviously means a lot to me. It’s a city that is constantly evolving. Melbourne people, like all Australians, enjoy travelling and will jump on a plane at the drop of a hat but their increasing experience of other countries means local tastes have changed. The city has become much more cosmopolitan.

I’m a real food buff so I particularly notice how sophisticated the Melbourne restaurant scene is these days. One of my favourite places is the Crown Casino, which features more than 40 eating places all under one roof.

The city’s cosmopolitan ambience

Here, for example, you’ll find the Melbourne outpost of Nobu, which I love. Another regular haunt is the Rockpool Bar & Grill, run by chef Neil Perry, which has a huge dining room with an open kitchen and wood fire grill. The wine list features no fewer than 1,200 wines from Australia and Europe.

Jamie Oliver opened his only Fifteen restaurant outside Europe in Melbourne in 2006 and there are always rumours about other new restaurant openings. Gary Rhodes has said he is keen to start one, while Gordon Ramsay’s long-awaited Maze in Melbourne, his first venture in Australia, is set to open early next year.

It’s easy to explain the city’s cosmopolitan ambience because Melbourne enjoys a rich ethnic mix. In my class at school I had a lot of friends from Greek and Italian homes, so I have always been used to eating Mediterranean food.

Now, of course, the big new influence is Asian cuisine, particularly Japanese. Someone told me that in Melbourne you can sample the cuisines of 75 different countries; I haven’t managed to eat my way through them all, but it’s a wonderful gastronomic challenge. And besides the top-class restaurants, Melbourne has a vibrant cafe culture, with wonderful beachside places at St Kilda.

If you enjoy your food, you will love exploring local produce markets. One of my favourites is the Queen Victoria Market on the corner of Queen and Elizabeth streets, which is open five days a week and sells a huge variety of fresh produce, including all manner of fruit and vegetables.

Should be on any traveller’s must-see list

There’s a famous rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne. The two cities are only 650 miles apart (a mere hop, step and jump in Australia) but it’s amazing just how different they are.

When I was filming Home And Away, which is made in Sydney, I spent a lot of time travelling between the two. I really enjoyed my time in Sydney but I think people there are beginning to appreciate that Melbourne, too, has something to offer. Certainly they enjoy the food but now they also come for the fashion – Melbourne is Australia’s fashion capital.

Where Melbourne also scores is with its major events. Everything stops, of course, for the annual Melbourne Cup horse race, the Australian Open tennis tournament and the Formula 1 Grand Prix, but there’s also Melbourne Fashion Week, which I attended recently, the Comedy Festival and the Food and Wine Festival. It’s amazing how our city, relatively small with a population of just four million, looms so large on the world stage.

Many foreign visitors make Sydney their first port of call, to take in iconic sights such as the Harbour Bridge and Opera House – I’ve done the bridge climb a couple of times and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Sydney has a different vibe to Melbourne but the two cities complement each other wonderfully and should be on any traveller’s must-see list.

I’ve travelled around much of Australia on working trips and musical tours and the more you see of the country the more you realise just how huge it is. One region I have yet to visit is central Australia.

My boyfriend joined me for my most recent trip home. It was fun showing him all the familiar landmarks but also going to places I’ve never been before.

You’ll never run out of fabulous experiences

It was both a voyage of discovery and rediscovery. From Melbourne, we took the Great Ocean Road, a 150-mile highway that is a scenic delight.

You pass through an area that includes the world-famous Twelve Apostles rock formations, the Otways rainforest and Bells Beach along with resort towns such as Torquay, Lorne and Apollo Bay.

Then there are the coastal cities of Geelong and Warrnambool as well as the historic villages of Queenscliff, Port Campbell, Port Fairy and Portland. It is simply breathtaking.

From Sydney, we travelled into the Blue Mountains which was fabulous, too. We loved spending time on the beach, as well as visiting vineyards and taking in jazz music. It really was an amazing summer.

That said, we’ve still got a pretty extensive ‘to do’ list, including a trip to Queensland and the Barrier Reef. And although I’ve been to Hayman Island a couple of times, I’d like to get to know some of the more exclusive resort islands that can be reached only by private boat or helicopter.

That’s another of the beauties of Australia. You’ll never run out of fabulous new experiences – ticked off the list or still to be done.