This article examines a selection of content from the Australian travel magazine ‘Holiday and Travel’ published between 1947 and 1951 with a focus on articles and advertising promoting North Queensland as a travel destination. The content surveyed reveals a variety of themes from wellness, relaxation, and recreation to calls for further development of regions, contrasting with articles highlighting the virtues of the natural beauty of the North. The articles highlighting the burgeoning development of tourism construct this new industry as a pathway to economic success with little commentary on potential environmental impact. This provides important historical context for the increasing tourism development which took place in the state in the second half of the 20th century and beyond. In some articles the spectre of the Second World War emerges as the benefactor of infrastructure which facilitates easier travel. This article argues that the magazine continued some of the trends in travel writing begun in the interwar period, while also operating in a new post-war context, wherein writers incorporated an active intent to offer readers a mental transition from the challenges of the war years to a potential future of leisure, relaxation and economic prosperity through travel.