From Abercrombie Caves to Zeehan…

At a staggering 2.7 million words, it is unlikely that anyone will ever read all of Bruce Elder’s magnum opus, Aussie Towns, and he doesn’t really think you should read it all anyway.

But he definitely wants you to check it out and we agree! Aussie Towns is an extraordinary, free online travel guide that covers the length and breadth of the country. For anyone travelling Australia, it should be the first port of call to discovering the history and attractions you’ll find in all the towns stopping in.

An award-winning journalist and writer, Bruce Elder, spent more than two decades as a travel writer for the Sydney Morning Herald and Age Newspapers. He also has more than ten travel books about Australia to his name including the Globetrotter Guides to Australia, Sydney and Queensland; 1015 Things to See and Do in Australia; and Explore Queensland and Explore NSW.

But upon retiring in 2013, with many of his published Australian travel guides decades old, Bruce decided he needed to do it all again.

“I thought it would take three years; I got it dramatically wrong!” said Bruce, from his home at Kiama.

In fact, it took 2,797 days for Bruce to research, visit, photograph and write up each of the 1,322 Aussie towns on his list — the last of which was just published on the site on February 15, 2021.

“When I finally said farewell to Fairfax in 2013, I got started on it and since then I have just driven around the country,” said Bruce, who described the planning of his research trips like preparing for a military operation.

Working out a list of 30 or 40 towns, he’d research and write out lists of what he needed to see and what he needed to photograph while in each town.

For the smaller towns, Bruce said he might be able to write up three in a day, but as the project progressed and he moved onto larger centres, it started taking much longer.

“Ballarat is a perfect example,” he said. “I wrote 14,000 words on Ballarat and it took me over a week to do. So that dramatically slowed me down and Victoria has got more than its fair share of those towns — it has got Ballarat, it has got Bendigo, it's got Geelong — and all of those are just huge undertakings.”

What is enjoyable about Bruce’s Aussie Town guides is that he doesn’t just cover what there is to see at each location, but there is a focus on showing you the reason you should go there to see it.

“When I was living in England there was an exceptionally good guide called the Shell Guide to England and it answered that question, Why am I here? In other words, it didn't just tell you — I was a living in tiny village called Dorchester on Thames — and it didn't just tell you that there was an interesting cathedral in the town. It told you that inside the cathedral there was an exceptional wall and it has the finest example of a 14th century Jesse Window.

“And I thought to myself, yes of course! People go and gawk at things, but they don't know why they are gawking at things… so when I came back, I thought to myself I'd really like to do that for the whole of Australia.”

It is that idea that has also determined just what towns have made it on Bruce’s list, which obviously does not include every town you’ll find in Australia.

“If I drive into a town, I need to be able to answer the question, why am I here? What am I here for? What am I supposed to be looking at? Now you can have quite substantial towns where there is literally absolutely nothing to look at, so consequently I have not included them,” said Bruce, who cites Logan City as an example.

“It is just a big urban area. Its new and it's a suburban development,” he said. “Now that is significantly different to say Campbelltown in NSW where there is a really interesting history and there are historic buildings.”

In some cases, where people are upset about their town being overlooked, Bruce has asked people to convince him otherwise.

“Someone sent me an email saying it is outrageous you haven't got Cygnet (Tasmania) and I said, you tell me what there is there that would cause somebody to want to stop and check things out and I'm happy to include it. I never got a reply!” he said.

But then there is the tiny town of Merino in Victoria that did successfully make their case.

“I said, persuade me… and they did! So you will find Merino is actually in Aussie Towns and that is a direct result of people persuading me that there were things there that would cause somebody to want to stop and have a look at them.”

While Aussie Towns may now be called complete, the work is far from over for Bruce. He has already begun the process of revising, fine tuning and making corrections based on the thousands of emails and comments his posts have attracted over seven years.

While Bruce has never really sort publicity for Aussie Town, and it is not a commercial venture, more and more people each day are discovering the site, which now attracts about 2 million visitors each year.

“Every additional person makes me happy,” said Bruce, whose said his sole aim for the project was to create a resource that might encouraged people to get out and explore their own country.

“It was a wonderful way to fill the years of my retirement and, of course, it got me out and about and driving around Australia, seeing and just marvelling at the way things have changed! And finding thing that I didn't know were there! So all in all it was a great experience.

“When things settle down, I'll be out on the road again, but I will be doing them as an enjoyable trip rather than desperately trying to do 40 or 50 towns and go flat out. If there's a really pleasant five kilometre walk along the river, I'll do that. Whereas before I'd just check the walk was there, get information from the information centre and go. Now I will go and enjoy!”

Find Bruce Elder’s comprehensive travel guide to Australia at www.aussietowns.com.au and follow Aussie Towns on Facebook.