Gladstone, Queensland

Gladstone sits on one of the world’s great natural harbours, where the Southern Great Barrier Reef begins. Couples marry on the marina foreshore, in the botanic gardens beneath the Toolooa Bush, and out on Heron and Wilson Islands — coral cays close enough to reach for a wedding weekend.

Inland the Boyne Valley and Mount Larcom give sandstone and grazing country, and Agnes Water and Seventeen Seventy are an hour north for a barefoot beach ceremony. It is a working harbour city with reef islands on its doorstep, which is a rarer combination than it sounds.