Let loose in Noosa

Noosa is instant Australia. Step out in the car park just behind Hastings Street and it's not so much the scent of the eucalyptus trees that tells you you've arrived - nor the bright sunshine that earns this part of the Queensland coast its nickname - but the carefree teenager strolling past in a wispy bikini, as poised as any catwalk model but with a grin as wide as the surfboard she totes.

A couple of hours' drive north of Brisbane, Noosa serves up a combination of beach, bling and bush with consummate panache. Packed with pricey boutiques, designer restaurants and hotels whose rates indicate a certain bravado regarding the town's allure, Hastings Street is nevertheless relaxed, and the cuisine available is as fresh as it comes.

The adjacent beach wakes early, with joggers and tai chi practitioners out before sunrise, then moves into overdrive with the arrival of the surf-and-tan crowd and parties well beyond dusk.

Given Noosa's manifest attractions, it would be easy to spend an entire holiday eating, shopping and sleeping within a few hundred square metres. Yet the real delight here is that a far more elemental Queensland lies just beyond the town's borders. Stroll east for 45 minutes through a thickly forested national park and the trail opens into Alexandria Bay, a stunning crescent of sand pounded by high waves. At the time of writing, the beach's website is "down until further notice due to a bunch of ****ers trying to spoil it for everyone", to quote the homepage, but plans are in place for Alexandria Bay's annual sports carnival, organised by the Adam & Eve Social Group, next month.

The 500 or so participants tend towards all-over tans and physiques better suited to repose than speed: if the organiser's nomenclature suggests an Eden, it's one for seniors, or at least those on the mellower side of middle age. Moreover, be warned - bathing suits seem pretty much superfluous and jokes about being careful not to grab the wrong baton in the relay race are du jour.

If any of this fails to pique your interest, venturing farther afield on four wheels is a smart option. The trail west leads first through Noosaville and the outer suburbs, then by rustic ferry across the Noosa River, and finally, given a low tide, north along the coast. This - to use its official title - is the Cooloola Recreation Area, and it's undiluted Oz.