While the Northern Lights get most of the global attention, Australia offers some of the world’s best viewing opportunities for their southern counterpart – the Aurora Australis. These spectacular Southern Lights paint the night sky with vibrant waves of green, pink, and purple when charged particles from solar winds collide with gases in Earth’s atmosphere.
The further south you travel in Australia, the better your chances of witnessing this breathtaking natural light show against a backdrop of stars unspoiled by light pollution. Here is a list of 20 locations across Australia where you can experience the magic of the Southern Lights.
Bruny Island
Just off Tasmania’s southeastern coast, Bruny Island offers exceptional aurora viewing thanks to its minimal light pollution and southerly position. The island’s remote beaches and lookouts provide unobstructed views across the Southern Ocean toward Antarctica.
Locals recommend The Neck, a narrow isthmus connecting north and south Bruny, as an ideal spot to set up your camera and wait for the green and pink curtains to dance across the night sky.
Mount Wellington
Towering over Hobart at 4,170 feet, Mount Wellington provides an elevated vantage point that places you above most of the city’s light pollution. The mountain’s observation shelter offers some protection from Tasmania’s often chilly and windy conditions while you wait for the Southern Lights to appear.
Photographers particularly value this location for the stunning compositions possible with Hobart’s twinkling lights in the foreground and the aurora’s colorful display above.
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Bathurst Harbour
Nestled within Tasmania’s Southwest National Park, Bathurst Harbour represents true wilderness accessible only by boat, plane, or multi-day hike. This remote location offers pristine dark skies that allow the Southern Lights to shine with remarkable clarity when conditions are right.
The still waters of the harbor create perfect reflections of the aurora, doubling the visual impact and providing photographers with rare shooting opportunities in one of Australia’s most untouched environments.
South Arm Peninsula
Just a 40-minute drive from Hobart, South Arm Peninsula juts into Storm Bay, offering expansive southerly views ideal for aurora spotting. Clifton Beach and Goat Bluff have become popular gathering spots for local aurora chasers when magnetic activity predictions look promising.
The peninsula’s accessibility makes it perfect for spontaneous aurora hunting when conditions suddenly become favorable without requiring extensive travel or preparation.
Cradle Mountain
Deep within Tasmania’s highlands, Cradle Mountain National Park combines iconic wilderness landscapes with excellent aurora viewing potential. Dove Lake, with its calm surface and the silhouette of Cradle Mountain creating a distinctive foreground, has become an iconic location for Southern Lights photography.
The area’s high elevation and distance from major settlements ensure wonderfully dark skies that make even faint auroral displays clearly visible on nights with good solar activity.
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Port Arthur
The historic penal settlement of Port Arthur on Tasmania’s rugged Tasman Peninsula offers a unique combination of cultural heritage and natural wonder. After dark, the site’s isolated position and southerly aspect make it an excellent aurora viewing location.
The historic buildings provide distinctive silhouettes against the glowing sky, creating haunting compositions that connect Australia’s colonial past with cosmic phenomena visible from the same spot for countless millennia.
Melaleuca
Located in Tasmania’s remote southwest, Melaleuca is accessible only by light aircraft or seven-day bushwalk, making it one of Australia’s most isolated aurora viewing locations. This former mining settlement sits on a lagoon surrounded by mountains, creating a natural amphitheater facing south toward Antarctica.
Visitors willing to make the journey are rewarded with a wilderness experience where the Southern Lights can be viewed with zero artificial light interference, just as they appeared to indigenous Tasmanians thousands of years ago.
Freycinet Peninsula
Home to the famous Wineglass Bay, the Freycinet Peninsula on Tasmania’s east coast provides excellent aurora viewing opportunities combined with world-class scenery. Cape Tourville lighthouse and the granite peaks of The Hazards create striking foreground elements for aurora photography.
The peninsula’s relatively accessible location allows visitors to enjoy comfortable accommodation nearby while still accessing dark-sky locations perfect for viewing the Southern Lights when they appear.
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Maria Island
This car-free national park off Tasmania’s east coast combines fascinating wildlife, historic ruins, and pristine night skies. The island’s southern beaches offer uninterrupted views across the ocean, perfect for spotting the aurora when it dances above the horizon.
Overnight visitors staying in the former penitentiary buildings at Darlington can simply step outside when aurora alerts come through without needing to travel to a viewing location.
Cockle Creek
As the southernmost point accessible by road in Australia, Cockle Creek represents the ultimate destination for serious aurora chasers on the mainland. This tiny settlement sits at the edge of the Southwest National Park, looking directly south toward Antarctica across the Southern Ocean.
The area’s remoteness ensures exceptionally dark skies, with even faint auroras clearly visible when magnetic conditions are favorable.
Phillip Island
Though not as far south as Tasmania, Victoria’s Phillip Island offers mainland Australia’s best aurora viewing opportunities. The Nobbies and Cape Woolamai provide excellent southern views across the Bass Strait, allowing visitors to spot auroras that might not be visible from locations further north.
The island’s famous penguin parade provides an additional wildlife attraction, making this an ideal location for combining aurora hunting with other nature-based activities.
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Wilson’s Promontory
As mainland Australia’s southernmost point, ‘The Prom’ extends into the Bass Strait, providing excellent southern exposure for aurora viewing. The lighthouse area and Oberon Beach offer particularly good vantage points when the Southern Lights appear.
The national park’s strict lighting controls help preserve dark sky conditions, allowing even subtle auroral displays to be visible when magnetic activity is moderate rather than extreme.
Kangaroo Island
Off South Australia’s coast, Kangaroo Island’s southern shores provide excellent aurora viewing conditions when strong geomagnetic storms occur. Remarkable Rocks and Cape Willoughby lighthouse offer distinctive foreground elements for night photography when the aurora appears.
The island’s distance from major cities ensures minimal light pollution, with the remote south coast beaches providing uninterrupted views across the Southern Ocean.
Great Ocean Road
Victoria’s famous coastal drive includes several excellent aurora-viewing locations, particularly around the Twelve Apostles and Cape Otway. These iconic landmarks create distinctive silhouettes against the southern sky when the aurora appears.
Though less reliable than in Tasmanian locations, strong aurora displays can be visible here during major geomagnetic storms, rewarding photographers with unique compositions featuring famous landmarks beneath the Southern Lights.
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Mount Kosciuszko
Australia’s highest peak provides an elevated viewing platform that compensates somewhat for its more northerly position compared to Tasmanian sites. At 7,310 feet, the mountain rises above much of the atmosphere, which can obscure auroral displays at lower elevations.
During winter months, the snow-covered landscape reflects the aurora’s colors, amplifying the visual impact when strong displays reach this far north during major geomagnetic storms.
Flinders Ranges
South Australia’s ancient mountain range rarely sees aurora displays, but when extremely powerful geomagnetic storms occur, the distinctive peaks and clear desert air create perfect viewing conditions. Photographers value this location for the unique opportunity to capture the Southern Lights above iconic Australian outback landscapes.
The ranges’ dark sky reserve status ensures minimal light pollution, maximizing visibility during rare events when the aurora reaches this far north.
Uluru
While seeing the Southern Lights from Australia’s red center represents an extremely rare occurrence, the few documented cases have produced extraordinary photographs of the aurora above this iconic landmark. Only during the most powerful geomagnetic storms in recorded history has the aurora been visible this far north in Australia.
Photographers who have captured these rare convergences have produced some of Australia’s most distinctive night sky images.
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Wolfe Creek Crater
This remote meteorite crater in Western Australia’s Kimberley region represents another extremely rare aurora viewing location. The circular crater creates a natural amphitheater facing the southern horizon, where powerful aurora displays might appear during once-in-a-decade geomagnetic storms.
The site’s connection to cosmic impacts makes it philosophically fitting as a place to observe another cosmic phenomenon in the form of the Southern Lights.
Lord Howe Island
This World Heritage-listed island in the Tasman Sea occasionally witnesses aurora displays during strong geomagnetic storms. Mount Gower provides an elevated viewing platform with magnificent southern views across the ocean.
The island’s strict development controls and small population ensure minimal light pollution, preserving excellent night sky visibility when rare aurora displays reach this far north.
Macquarie Island
Australia’s subantarctic outpost lies halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica, making it the country’s premier aurora viewing location. Access is limited to scientific expeditions and rare tourist voyages on expedition vessels, but those lucky enough to visit experience the Southern Lights with an intensity and frequency impossible elsewhere in Australia.
The island’s research station staff regularly witness spectacular displays that encircle the entire sky rather than just appearing on the southern horizon.
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Nature’s Celestial Symphony
The Southern Lights remind us that Australia’s natural wonders extend beyond Earth’s atmosphere into the cosmos itself. These luminous displays connect us to solar processes occurring 93 million miles away while showcasing our planet’s magnetic field that protects all life from harmful radiation.
As light pollution increases globally, these Australian viewing locations gain importance as windows to phenomena our ancestors witnessed with far greater regularity and clarity. Whether you’re a dedicated aurora chaser or simply hope to glimpse this ethereal display by chance, these Australian locations offer your best opportunity to witness one of nature’s most captivating performances.
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