Catriona Rowntree

The host of Australia’s longest-running travel show on serendipity and a life spent in perpetual motion.

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I’m from a long line of travellers.

My great-great-great-grandfather, Thomas Stephenson Rowntree, was a ship captain who brought the first paying (as opposed to penal) customers to Australia. I think he’d look at me – I’ve been travelling professionally for 23 years, can you believe – and think: chip off the old block. My Scottish grandfather, Andrew, was a world traveller. I can’t recall a childhood holiday spent at home – Mum and Dad would hire a Halvorsen each Easter, a beach house each summer, or take the four kids on epic drives.

My parents’ perpetual motion and sense of adventure set me up beautifully for this way of life.

There’s no airs or graces behind the scenes at Getaway. I’m often changing in bathrooms at petrol stations or in the back of a car. My needs are pretty simple – I need clean, yes, but I don’t need anything too flash.