The Queensland town of Winton has been certified as an International Dark Sky Community.
The town has committed to managing its light pollution and installed warm bulbs in its streetlights.
Winton Shire Council and tourism operators believe the certification will attract stargazers wanting to experience the natural night sky.
I like to do astrophotography in my freetime and I can recommend tools like light pollution maps and the Bortle scale to check out your surrounding area.
It gives a good idea where better skies might be not too far away. For where I live in Germany, there are bortle 4 skies (scale goes up to 9, the lower the less pollution).
I can see the Milkyway in the southern sky during summer from the driveway, but as soon as you get to a “bigger” city that starts to become harder/impossible.
I visited LaPalma (Canary Islands) a few years ago and that was one of the best experiences I ever had:
Up at the highest peak (> 2400 m) watching the sun set and having the night take over. Milkyway as clear as you can imagine! LaPalma is doing a lot to keep it that way, and I hope more cities would care for our beautiful nightsky the way they do.
Italy also has great skies, especially the more rural areas, here is one example from 2023:
Beautiful skies, do you have more of your photos available somewhere online?