Michael Portillo explores New South Wales by train, travelling 570 miles from Sydney to the mining city of Broken Hill. He explores the origins of Sydney as a penal colony, visiting the Hyde Park barracks where many of the first convicts were housed. He also tours the city's iconic opera house, and volunteers for the lifesaving club at Bondi Beach. In the Blue Mountains, he learns about people's relationship to the land from his indigenous guide, before reaching Katoomba, where he rides the steepest railway in the world.

Armed with his 1913 Bradshaw's Guide, Michael Portillo crosses the south east of Australia from the seat of government in Canberra to the multi-ethnic heart of its second largest city, Melbourne.