Even though The Great Barrier Reef and Uluru missed out on being crowned one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, Oz has arguably some of the world's most stunning landscapes.

1.Uluru

Uluru is a sacred site to the indigenous Anangu people, who request individuals not to climb the sandstone monolith 450 kilometers (280 miles) southwest of Alice Springs in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Once known as Ayers Rock, it's 348 meters high (1,142 feet) with a circumference of 9.4 kilometers (5.8 miles). It's famed for the different hues that bathe it, particularly at sunrise and sunset.

2.Great Barrier Reef

The only living thing on Earth visible from space, the Great Barrier Reef was born 25 million years ago. The world's largest reef system that stretches for 3,000 kilometers off the Queensland coast has 400 different types of coral and 1,500 species of tropical fish. Beautiful but precious, pollution and increased tourism threaten its future.

3.Shark Bay

Some 800 kilometers north of Perth on Australia's west coast, Shark Bay's W-shaped coastline of rocky limestone, white sand dunes and cliffs is 1,500-kilometers long. The bay has many shallow peninsulas and is home to 10,000 dugongs, as well as many threatened species, dolphins and the world's most diverse sea grass. Historians say it was where Europeans first landed and deemed it "no good."

4.The Pinnacles

A three-hour drive north of Perth, these limestone formations were created 30,000 years ago when the receding ocean left deposits of seashells on shore. The Pinnacles rise several meters out of the sand in the Nambung National Park, which is home to grey kangaroos, emus and reptiles.

5.Twelve Apostles

Erosion created these limestone stacks that are viewable from the Great Ocean Road, off the Victorian coast, where they continue to erode. In spite of being named the Twelve Apostles, there were only nine when they were named — but after a recent fall, there are now eight. Their base erodes at a rate of 2 centimeters a year.