There are so many exciting opportunities for hobbies in Australia. I love that living in a new country means you get to embrace the Australian culture and consider different types of hobbies to those that were available to you in your home country.
Trying out a new Australian hobby is a great way to find your feet in Australia, meet some new people and get settled. It also gives you something to focus on rather than spending your time feeling homesick. When you relocate to Australia from overseas, I really encourage you to try out some new Australian hobbies!
Australia has such an incredible climate and so much outdoor space, so it’s natural that many Australia hobbies are outdoor pursuits. Hobbies in Australia allow you to enjoy the sunshine while being outside in nature.
Are you ready to find yourself a new hobby in Australia?
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Popular hobbies in Australia | Aussie things to do
Here is a list of some of the most popular hobbies in Australia and popular interests in Australia that you might want to try.
Surfing
Of course, the most iconic and most popular hobby in Australia is surfing. With over 12,000 incredible beaches and 60,000km of coastline it makes total sense that surfing is one of the most fantastic Australian passtimes.
The ocean and beach life are a huge draw for families moving to Australia, so surfing is a big part of Australian culture. Surfing is something you can do alone for fun, or you can book into a lesson or a course to get the basics down. You don’t need to be the best at this hobby – it’s the kind of Australia hobby where you can give it a try and do it for fun. It’s one of those great typical Australian activities that you can enjoy without being competitive. It’s what Australians do for fun, and you can too – it has a low bar to entry so you can just give it a try and see if you like it before investing too much money in this activity!
Surfing is also a social sport where people meet their friends at the beach to share the hobby – surfing can quickly become a way of life in Australia! I know a few people who begin taking surf lessons and it soon took over their lives to become a major life passion. And you don’t need to be a teenager to give it a try – some of my friends who surf were in their 40s and 50s when they first took up the hobby.
While surfing might traditionally be one of those Australian interests that people think of as men’s hobbies in Australia, but surfing is really a great sport for EVERYONE!
Search for Australia surf lessons on Experience Oz
If surfing sounds a bit too tricky, bodyboarding is a lot of fun too and it’s a great way to get more confident in the water. My kids absolutely love it!
Stand up paddleboarding
If you’re more interested in leisure in Australia that is a little calmer (but still challenging on the muscles), stand up paddleboarding is worth a try. It’s an Australian hobby you can do on calm waters, rivers and lakes. You can get inflatable paddleboards (which makes bringing them to the beach easier) or hard paddleboards if you’ve got a roof rack.
You can also easily begin paddleboarding by hiring a board, so you don’t need to invest in your own immediately – you can try a few times before you buy your own. I love having a go at Noosa on the canals or at Currumbin on the Gold Coast (on the calm side where the creek feeds into the ocean). I find it really relaxing and enjoyable and my kids think it’s so much fun too.
Some people even do yoga on stand up paddleboards – now that is a hobby in Australia that takes some serious skill!
Shop for stand up paddleboards on Amazon
Skiing
Did you know that Australia actually gets more snow than the Swiss Alps! There are ski resorts in New South Wales and Victoria and it’s a very popular winter hobby in Australia. It’s a pretty epic way of life – you can spend your summers in the ocean and your winters on the slopes!
Skiing is one one of the most popular hobbies in Australia for people who live close to the slopes in New South Wales and Victoria (it’s so easy to pop by for a weekend of skiing when you live nearby!), but even if you live a bit further afield you can easily visit on a skiing holiday to try out this popular hobby in Australia.
Fishing
Fishing is one of those popular hobbies in Australia that is pretty easy to get started with – it’s something you can do from the beach, from a pier or from a boat if you have access to one. If you’ve never been before, you can also find fishing lessons to teach you the basics, or as my kids have done, make friends with locals who love to fish and they can teach you!
Our kids did a fishing lesson with 2BentRods a couple of years ago through a local council activity programme and one of them ended up well and truly hooked! You do need to start this sport off safely though as there are some dangerous fish in Australia so you need to know what you’re doing.
We’re still pretty new to this hobby so we love hanging out with friends who are more experienced at fishing so they can help us identify fish and help us when we have any issues with our fishing gear. As this is one of the most popular leisure activities in Australia, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find somebody to help you get started.
This is another of the hobbies in Australia you can get started with fairly cheaply – you can get a great rod and gear set up for well under $200.
Shop for fishing gear on Amazon
Jetskiing or waterskiing
Watersports like jet skiing and water skiing are hobbies you can do in Australia that no longer need to be out of your reach! Lots of families here own their own jet skis or motorboats so it’s common to go out on the water at weekends to enjoy some watersport fun!
You don’t need to own your own (but you certainly can if you fall in love with these fast-paced water-based Australia hobbies!)
Ball sports
I won’t pretend in any way to understand the different types of football in Australia but know there is soccer, Australian football (AFL), rugby union and rugby league. Sorry, that’s about as far as my understanding of ball-based popular hobbies in Australia goes!
For kids, there are also offshoots of these including touch football and Oz tag. Plus you’ve got all of the other usual sports like cricket, tennis, softball, basketball, volleyball and handball to name a few. Sports is absolutely HUGE in Australia, and most kids do some kind of sport as a hobby in Australia. Some schools have a specialism in specific sports so if your child has a particular interest in something, consider a school where that sport is valued.
Why not search out your favourite ball sport as a hobby in Australia? There are often adult teams if you search around in the local community groups (and if there isn’t one, maybe you can start one up!)
Lots of hobbies in Australia!
There are loads of different types of hobbies in Australia for you to try! It doesn’t hurt to give lots of them a try and see how you like them.
Mostly you can get started with little or no investment by booking a class or hiring the equipment a few times before you can see if you like it enough to buy your own gear. Moving country is a great opportunity to try something new. Make the most of your leisure time in Australia by trying out some fun new hobbies.
What is your favourite hobby in Australia?
