We spent 18 months driving around Australia and visited hundreds of beaches. There’s said to be over 10,000 beaches in Australia, and while we can’t say we’ve seen them all, we’ve seen our fair share.

I was first seduced by the dramatic landscapes of Western Australia (often called "the real Australia" by Aussies) as I watched Baz Lurhmann’s epic 2008 Antipodean western, Australia, which was ...