Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gay & Lesbian Travellers
South Australia
Attitudes towards homosexuality in SA are fairly relaxed, but as you'd
expect, homophobia does rear its ugly head the further you travel into the outback.
Adelaide has plenty of gay-friendly venues, and a dedicated annual gay and lesbian cul-
tural festival,
Feast
(
www.feast.org.au
)
, held over three weeks in November. For info on
the G&L scene, pick up a copy of
Blaze
(
www.gaynewsnetwork.com.au
) magazine, avail-
able around Adelaide, or contact the
Gay & Lesbian Counselling Service SA
(
08-8193 0800;
www.glcssa.org.au
)
.
Northern Territory
In the NT you'll find active gay and lesbian communities in Alice
Springs, though homophobic attitudes do exist beyond the main towns.
Resources
For general information, check out the
Gay & Lesbian Tourism Australia
(
www.galta.com.au
)
, which has information on gay-friendly businesses, places to stay
and nightlife. See also
www.gaystayaustralia.com
.
Health
by
Dr David Millar
Healthwise, Australia is a remarkably safe country in which to travel, considering that
such a large portion of it lies in the tropics. Few travellers to central Australia will experi-
ence anything worse than sunburn or a bad hangover and, if you do fall ill, the standard of
hospitals and health care is high.
Vaccinations
»
Since most vaccines don't produce immunity until at least two weeks after they're given,
visit a physician four to eight weeks before departure. Ask your doctor for an International
Certificate of Vaccination (otherwise known as 'the yellow booklet'), which will list all the
vaccinations you've received.
»
If you're entering Australia within six days of having stayed overnight or longer in a yel-
low fever-infected country, you'll need proof of yellow fever vaccination. For a full list of
these countries, visit
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
(
www.cdc.gov/travel
) .
»
The
World Health Organization
(WHO;
www.who.int/wer
) recommends that all travel-
lers be covered for diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox and polio,
as well as hepatitis B, regardless of their destination. The consequences of these dis-
eases can be severe and, while Australia has high levels of childhood vaccination cover-
age, outbreaks of these diseases do occur.
