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Australian
Wildlife Overview Tour
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Tour
departs
9.00am
Wednesday
(BOOKINGS
ESSENTIAL!)
from
Brisbane Transit Centre (Roma Street), your city or
southside accommodation
(other
by arrangement with sufficient advance notice: may incur
additional cost)
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RATES:
please
click
here
for prices of our tours
(in Australian dollars)
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Southeast Queensland and northeast New
South Wales
harbour the third highest diversity of species in Australia, including
many icons such as kangaroos, koalas, platypus, wedge-tailed eagle and
laughing kookaburra. It is also has some of Australia's best scenery,
many habitat types, and a good climate throughout the year. While
traveling through this wonderful part of the country you will be given
an overview of Australia's major wildlife groups to give you a better
understanding of what makes Australia so different from other regions,
and insights into fascinating behaviour and ecology of our local
species. We will of course also seek
many animals in the wild and also introduce you to some rare and
threatened species in a wildlife park dedicated to conservation
breeding (here you will also see northern species such as crocodiles
and cassowaries). |
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Accommodation:
choose from the beautiful secluded bed-and-breakfast
Cougal Park, or the
campground at Andrew Drynan Reserve.
Like a
4-day
tour with more marine life included?
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    DAY ONE of the
wildlife
tour
We leave
the city and head straight to the eucalypt forests (typical
'Aussie bushland) of the Daisy Hill State Forest. Here you are
introduced to some of the important families of bushland plants and
what they mean to wildlife, as well as some of the local birds,
arboreal and terrestrial termite mounds, and - if we are in luck
- koalas.
In the
winter months, and sometimes in warmer parts of the year, we
also see wallabies still out grazing on the grassy stretches (they will
soon stretch out to sleep during the day under the shelter of the
forest.
After a
cuppa under the gumtrees (during which you will be given your
Australian wildlife book) we will enter the Koala Information
Centre for a closeup look at a couple fo captive koalas (no touching),
a native beehive and interpretive displays.
  If time permits we'll
have a quick look for waterbirds at the Eagleby
Wetlands (almost always ducks, swamphens, swans, egrets, often
kingfishers, grebes, stilts, swans, spoonbills, herons, occasionally
glossy ibis, magpie goose, black-necked stork) before heading on
for a tasty and filling lunch, usually at Everydays Cafe in Beaudesert
(there is also a very good Chinese restaurant in town if you prefer).
Kangaroos,
wallabies and waterbirds are the focus of our next search,
in Kooralbyn (an Aboriginal name for a local snake). No matter if it's
raining - the kangaroos don't seem to mind much and we can usually get
closer to them and to the red-necked and whiptail wallabies anyway by
staying in the vehicle and quietly cruising nearer (some excellent
photo opportunities here). If we do leave the vehicle we either watch
them from afar, or gradually approach by walking not directly towards
them but as though we're going straight past, and backing off if they
show any signs of nervousness.
 On
to the Araucaria property to visit
the Scenic Rim Wildlife Ecology Centre,
have
a
cup
of
tea/coffee
and sit and wait by the creek just before dusk
in the hope of seeing wild platypus. While waiting, we often see
turtles, catfish, cuckoodoves, honeyeaters, kingfishers and other
wildlife. The platypus are more predictable in the latter half of the
year, when they are breeding and don't stray far from their nests, but
they are around throughout the year (they disappeared for a little
while after a major flood in early 2008, but are back again in our home
creek).
  Campers will help
erect
the tents (provided by us) that will be their home for the next two
nights, and all of us (campers and others) head off looking for
possums, owls and other nocturnal wildlife in the eucalypt
forests and rainforests. Success varies greatly, but
possibilities include red-necked wallaby, red-necked pademelon, koala,
common brushtail possum, mountain brushtail possum, greater glider,
squirrel glider, sugar glider, fruitbats, barn owl, boobook owl, tawny
frogmouth, owlet nightjar, carpet python, various frogs and king
cricket. Guests staying at the Bed and Breakfast can then settle into
their rooms at Cougal Park and enjoy
a delicious home-cooked dinner (campers also
join in for dinner here if there are B&B guests on the tour). If
there are only campers on the tour,
we will head to Rathdowney Hotel,
a typical Aussie pub, for a hearty country meal. Click here for more
details on your accommodation/camping.
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 DAY TWO
of the wildlife
tour
 Rise early if you
wish
to do some birdwatching in the forests at Cougal
Park or birding and platypus-spotting along the creek next to the
campground. After breakfast we head to the wonderful Border Ranges
National Park (continuous with the Lamington NP on the Queensland side
of the border). where we spend the day exploring the World Heritage
rainforests.
Don't expect to see mammals - they are mostly nocturnal, although do
very occasionally make an appearance), but we always hear and usually
see a good variety of birds, and very often goannas, skinks and carpet
pythons in the warmer months.
We visit
both a warm subtropical rainforest with giant trees, palm
groves and a waterfall, and a small area verging on cool temperate
rainforest with the Gondwanan-linked Anarctic beech trees, the tallest
moss we've ever seen, tall Araucaria trees (hoop pines) and
massed treeferns along the creek. Nearby there is also a magnificent
specimen of one of the few remaining large red cedars. We also get our
first view of Mt Warning, the centre of the gigantic shield volcano
that form the mountain range we are standing on.
Springtime
(September to November) is an especially good time here,
with the reptiles getting more active and many birds breeding and
calling. Summer and autumn can be good for seeing fruit-eating birds
and reptiles, and late autumn to winter is the time to listen for
Albert's Lyrebird males performing their extraordinary repertoire of
mimicry.
  We
sometimes
also
see
koalas
in
the
tall
eucalypt forests near the rainforest.
It's now
time to head back to. Cougal Park and/or Andrew Drynan
Reserve. If there is time before dinner you may like another go at
platypus-viewing or exploring the Scenic Rim Wildlife Ecology Centre
and nature trails at the Araucaria property, or otherwise just relax
and freshen up for dinner. Let us know if you would now like an
early night or if you would like to do a bit more spotlighting for
frogs, possums and other nocturnal creatures.
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DAY THREE of the wildlife
tour
 After breakfast we skirt
around the southern side of the ranges formed by the Tweed volcano (the
centre of which is now known as Mt Warning), stopping along the
way to look for freshwater turtles and see a large grove
of grass-trees, some of which must have been here since
before white settlement, and finally get a further view of Mt Warning.
We stop briefly at the Rainforest Information Centre in
Murwullimbah ( "place of many possums")
to view the interpretive displays, and continue on towards the coast.
At Fingal we walk through coastal banksia woodland, to a natural
sandy beach with pounding surf, which we follow to the basalt cliffs,
the easternmost flows of ancient lava. From the clifftops we often see
dolphins and sometimes turtles and stingrays. We usually see terns, and
sometimes gannets, ospreys or sea eagles. We also view basalt columns
similar to the Giant's Causeway of Ireland.
The Wildlife Park we now visit was
started by the zoologist David Fleay in the 1950'2. David was the
first to ever breed the platypus in captivity, and one of the last
people to interact with a living thylacine. He was successful in
breeding many rare species and when in his 80's he handed his precious
property over to National Parks for a low sum, and they have continued
to breed rare and endangered species to ultimately be returned to the
wild, which some of them, such as the Proserpine rockwallaby now
have been. Here we see animals you will not see in captivity
anywhere else in the world, such as the mahogany glider, the Julia
Creek Dunnart and Lumholtz tree kangaroo, and it is also an opportunity
to see northern species such as cassowaries and both Australian species
of crocodile. It is one of the few places we can watch the platypus
swimming under water, using its rubbery bill to seek vibrations and
electrical impulses from its prey. There are also animals that bring
themselves in from the surrounding bush and make the park
their home, from eastern water dragons to nankeen night herons and
magpie geese.
Hundreds of thousands of large and noisy
fruitbats ('flying foxes') have usually begun to get very restless with
the approaching dusk by the time we arrive at their colony in an outer
Brisbane suburb. We watch as more and more summon up their courage (no
one seems to want to be first in case it is still light enough for an
eagle to be watching) and finally they all head off for a night of
foraging on fruit and nectar.
Then it's time for farewells at your
accommodation or transport. Remember to take your new wildlife
booklet with you. |
