Nature & Wildlife in Australia
 Nature was inspired when it created Australia. Animals you'll see nowhere else, plants that will amaze
you - and scenery you'll never forget. Rainforest, outback, mountains and savannah paint a colourful palette of magical sights against an azure sky.
Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island is Australia's third largest island and a haven of unspoiled parks, reserves, beaches, dramatic costal cliffs and isolated beaches. Small villages supply
basic needs and traditional farms provide high quality meat, milk, cheeses and eggs from animals that still roam free in fresh, clean air. Taste honey from what is believed
to be the last population of pure Ligurian bees in the world; marron (a delicious freshwater crustacean), sheep cheeses and yoghurt from a dairy where you can watch sheep being
milked.
The island is popular for self-drive and cycling with accommodation in delightful lighthouse cottages, small motels, bed and breakfasts, and camping grounds. Join a personalised
tour with a local who has given up farming for tourism. The fishing and diving are excellent with established tour
operators. Wildflowers are abundant and grow most of the year but are at their best from August to November.
 Koalas have also flourished. You only need to look up to see one curled up and sleepy in a fork of branches. The island is a sanctuary for kangaroos, wallabies, possums,
bandicoots, goannas, dolphins, echidnas, platypus, a multitude of birds and a large colony of rare sea lions which frolic at Seal Bay oblivious to human presence. Cute little
penguins come ashore every evening and the majestic southern right whale arrives in winter to mate and breed. The landscape is unusual with creeping sands, lagoons, caves
and the amazing Remarkable Rocks sculptured for centuries by wind and rain.
Wild Kakadu
Kakadu National Park in Australia's tropical Top End is a vast area (1,975,700 hectares) of lily-covered wetlands, grassy plains, coastal mangrove swamps, eucalypt woodlands
and sheer escarpments. This region of incredibly diverse landforms and wildlife is one of only 17 places on earth that are World Heritage listed for both their natural and
cultural values.
The spacious grassland and woodland areas are home to many animals and birds including kangaroos, dingoes, frill-necked lizards, cockatoos and the rare hooded
parrot and white-throated grass wren. Isolated rocky outcrops and escarpments shelter black wallaroos (a type of kangaroo) and ground creatures such as the Oenpelli
python and the giant cave gecko.
Rivers and billabongs form a network of wetlands through the park, their still waters providing mirror-like reflections of the lilies,
pandanus and paperbark trees lining the banks. The 2.5 million or so birds living in Kakadu range from magpie geese and herons to the dainty little jacana (or Jesus
bird) that tiptoes lightly over the lily pads.
A cruise can teach you about the birds and the park. You may also see a few crocodiles sunning themselves on the banks. Aboriginal people roamed this rich countryside up
to 60,000 years ago, leaving thousands of rock-art sites. Ubirr and Nourlangie Rock in the north-eastern corner of the park are decorated with extensive rock art. Signs
along the walks explain the work and rangers give free, guided tours during holiday periods.
Don't Miss Daintree
Daintree National Park has some of the oldest rainforest on the planet. A spectacular Garden of Eden in far north Queensland, it provides a habitat for crocodiles, snakes
and cassowaries. Download a fact sheet in .pdf format here.
Tasman Peninsula Wildlife
To the east of Hobart, the sheer cliffs of this wild and craggy peninsula provide an excellent vantage point for observing the area's seals, penguins, bottlenose dolphins
and many species of sea birds.
Broome Birdwatch
The mudflats on the shores of Western Australia's Roebuck Bay provide a habitat for some 800,000 birds belonging to migratory water birds, some of which migrate here from
the Arctic tundra.
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