Bunya pines near the edge of Bunya Mountains National Park

Our Bunya Mountains tour is a relatively new one, developed because:

1. We visited with 6 guests on a customized tour a couple of years ago and loved the forests and peacefulness there.
2. Our name is Araucaria, and althugh we regularly see giant hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii) growing naturally in the forests, we don’t see the even more giant bunya pines (A. bidwillii) in the wild on our usual travels – and they really are something to see!

A few days ago we headed off that way on a 2-day  tour with a lovely from Germany who were especially keen to see the bunya forests, and their son who is living in Australia.

So, off we went out west, up the range to Toowoomba, down again to the flat farming country and finally the climb towards the Bunyas.

While enjoying bunya burgers and bunya pies for lunch (made with meat, bunya nuts and some delicious herbs and spices) at Poppies Restaurant, this red-necked wallaby posed for us in front of an Australia flag and an Aboriginal flag, and a kookaburra joined in, sitting in the tree to the left – nice little collection of Australiana for our visitors!

Red-necked wallaby and Australian flags, Bunya Mountains

Silky Oaks Chalet,Bunya Mountain

We all agreed the chalet Silky Oaks (which Darren and I had stayed in with guests on our last visit) was quite delightful. Great views, polished timber floors, bathrooms upstairs and downstairs and fully self-contained.

As soon as we had unpacked our things we  walked across the road and into the forest, beneath towering bunyas, although trying not to stay too long under any of them, as this is the time of year they drop their massive cones.

A tall bunya pine in the national park

Looking up into a bunya

I had been thrown by a horse two weeks earlier when he was startled by a bunya cone falling at home from a tree that was inside our house many years ago decorated for Christmas and is now much taller than the house.

The cones are BIG! Here are a couple that had fallen near the accommodation, one of them open and showing the nuts that are so important to the Aboriginals. They used to gather from many kilometres away to feast on the nuts for several weeks whenever there was a good crop.

Bunya cone fallen and broken apart

Cones on a bunya

The following morning we chose a walking track that didn’t go under too many of the bunyas! Darren let us off at Westcott parking area and we started off on the track to the Paradise parking area, through a great variety of vegetation.

We started off through a ‘bald,’ a grassy area of which there are several on the mountain

Grassy 'bald', Bunya Mountains National Park

Grass Trees, Bunya Mountains National Park

We were soon in rainforest, then came out into eucalypt  forest with some tall grass-trees that would have been around since before white settlement in Australia.

We stopped to admire good views across the Darling Downs from the clifftops, then continued on into more forest, with tall strangler figs and plenty of ferns and lianas.

Ferny forest floor on the walk towards Paradise, Bunya Mountains National Park

Car Park at Paradise, Bunya Mountains National Park

Lunch that day was at the Bunya Gallery Cafe, including a bunya salad

Bunya nut salad

A wedgetail eagle (Australia’s largest raptor) happened to pass by while we were dining. Other birds we had seen included king parrot, crimson rosella, superb fairy-wren, brown cuckoodove, brush turkey and various others.

‘Magical’ and ‘idyllic’ were two of the oft-repeated words from our guests during our stay, and we’re looking forward to our own next visit.

Then we received a request for  one-person weekend wildlife camp, and this lady was only in Australia for one week (from Hong Kong) and really wanting to see some wildlife. She was happy to accept the uncommon routing for the weekend.

Our first stop was, as usual, Daisy Hill STate Forest and Koala Centre.

While walking I encouraged her to feel the texture of the sandpaper fig leaves, and some very alert ants rushed defensively out of the nest they had made between two of the leaves.

Ants on the alert at Daisy Hill

A little further on, amongst the paperbark tea0trees, we saw these large caterpillars, which appear to be one of the hawk moth species.

Caterpillars at Daisy Hill

After visiting the koalas in the centre (sadly we didn’t find any wild ones on our walk that day) we headed towards Canungra, making a sudden stop at Tamborine as we saw these impressive black-necked storks striding across the paddock

Black-necked storks in paddock between Tamborine and Canungra, Queensland

After a good meal at the Outpost, Canungra we continued up the mountain to O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat, where Denis took our guest walking in the rainforest while I attended Mike’s lecture, which recounted his rainforest experiences from his first-ever camping at the age of twelve, in a gully which was  inundated with rain that night, through teenage adventures, a PhD in botany and taking his own children walking and climbing.  He was lamenting that universities nowadays don’t teach enough basic natural history or encourage their students to get out and experience the forests firsthand.

Dr Mike Olsen (left) and Peter O'Reilley, before Mike's talk for the Vince O'Reilley Memorial Lecture

I then took our guest (who had already been on the treetop walk and botanic garden) to see a satin bowerbird’s bower (and the artist himself showed up as well) and we found red-necked pademelons grazing in the campground.

On to Kooralbyn, and the usual eastern grey kangaroos, whiptail wallabies and red-necked wallabies still grazing despite the development of more and more residential area around them nowadays.  We also drove past the Kooralbyn Resort, which has apparently been recently bought and is to be ‘restored to its former glory’, having languished for several years after the previous owner became bankrupt (owing a massive $60 million)

Kooralbyn Resort February 2012

Maybe it will be looking different soon (and more inviting!).

The platypus didn’t appear at their usual haunts at home, although they had been seen frequently over the past week. After sunset we headed out spotlighting. First stop – the campground toilets. The green treefrogs didn’t disappoint us here: two of them looked down on us from the entry wall, and high in a gum tree nearby sat a barn owl.

On our way to the NSW border we came across a carpet python lying on the road, so after photographing him we gently encouraged him to move into the safety of the long grass nearby

Carpet python on Lions Road

We doubled up the tour with taking some observations of animals along the Lions Road section (on the NSW side of the border) of the proposed CSG pipeline.  We are concerned about the effects on the wildlife if this construction goes ahead, but without ‘before’ recordings we’ll have nothing to compare the ‘after’ situation with, so on behalf of Scenic Rim Wildlife I’m recording what animals are present now.

This night (Saturday 4th February) we saw a sugar glider, a great barred frog and a beautiful bandybandy and heard several other frogs (emerald spotted tree-frog, sedge frog and several others). The bandybandy was crossing the road that leads down to the Border Loop lookout, and this appears to be the route to be taken by the pipeline from the valley, to join Lions Road, which it will then follow.  Many thousands of animals have been falling into the trenches dug for similar pipelines out west, and if this construction (very unpopular amongst residents of the area) goes ahead, we want the company to ensure that they will at least erect temporary wildlife-proof fences until everything is covered over again.

When we started to move the bandybandy off the road he threw himself into the defensive loops they use to startle their predators, which made it very easy to gently slip a small branch underneath him and lift him to the safety of the forest floor.

Bandybandy crossing the CSG pipeline route at the Border Loop, off Lions Road

Bandybandy throwing himself defensively into coils

See http://wildlifetourism.org.au/discussions/threats-to-australian-wildlife/coal-seam-gas-and-australian-wildlife/ for further concerns about impacts of CSG extraction on wildlife.

After dinner that night, Darren set up the spotting scope to view the moon’s craters, and took our guest spotlighting on our own property, seeing bandicoots, wallabies, barn owls and a brushtail possum, and our guest settled down for her second-ever night of camping (and first time ever in Australia)

On Sunday morning, after looking through the wildlife ecology centre and the butterfly trail and exploring a scrubby gully on the Araucaria property, we headed to Everyday’s Cafe for lunch and on to Beenleigh to view the fruitbat colony and Eagleby Wetlands for the World Wetlands Day talks, which I attended while Darren led a walk looking at pelicans, black swans and other waterbirds.

[photos coming soon]

Dr Margaret Greenway told us how the Ramsar Convention was formed many years ago in Iran, and how Australia was one of the 18 countries involved (now there are over 100) in the international agreements for conservation of wetland habitat.  Eagleby is part of a larger wetland area connected with southern Moreton Bay.  Barry Fitzpatrick spoke on how the current legislation on development and the emphasis on finding threatened species and then ways of mitigating threats to these is  not sufficient to protect the remaining, unreserved wetlands in this driest of all continents.

Not our usual schedule for a wildlife weekend camp, but our guest agreed it was a very interesting and rewarding one.

Lamington National Park birding trip

We had to gently explain to our beautiful guest that we do not feed the wildlife here

A  male regent bowerbird sitting on our picnic table and a dispute between a rosella and a bird of paradise were two of the memorable events at our first birding trip for 2012  to the O’Reilly’s section of  Lamington National Park.

Red-browed finches, crimson rosellas and king parrots awaited us when we first alighted from the tour vehicle, the finches seeking scraps from the parrot-feeding area.

Our walk through the forest to the treetopsproduced the usual three species of scrubwren (white-browed, yellow-throated and large-billed), brush turkey, eastern yellow robin  and logrunner. We could hear noisy pittas, black-faced monarchs and eastern whipbirds but failed to spot them.  We did also see lewin’s honeyeaters, brown thornbills, pied currawongs and satin bowerbirds.

In the botanic gardens section was either a female or an immature male paradise riflebird (the world’s only subtropical bird of paradise) having some kind of dispute with a crimson rosella in one of the trees.

rifledbird&rosella

The riflebird seemed to have the most formiddable ‘weapon’ but suddenly flew off to another group of trees.

Our picnic was keenly watched by several birds, and we were joined by the beautiful fellow in the picture above, but he finally got  the message that we weren’t feeding him.

A stroll down Wishing tree track to the little swinging bridge above the pretty gully of  treeferns revealed either a Bassian thrush or a russet-tailed thrush (we saw him to briefly to be sure), a red-legged pademelon (they don’t come out of the forest as often as the red-necked) and finally a glimpse of the monarch.

Bridge in ferny gully, Wishing Tree Track

Our birdlist for O’Reilly’s that day included  paradise riflebird, regent bowerbird, satin bowerbird, green catbird, eastern whipbird (heard), logrunner, yellow-throated scrubwren, white-browed scrubwren, largebilled scrubwren, brown thornbill, black-faced monarch, noisy pitta (heard), Lewin’s honeyeater, eastern spinebill, thrush (russet-tailed or Bassian), rufous fantail, red-browed finch, pied currawong, Australian magpie (in the open grassy area), Torresian crow (ditto), crimson rosella, king parrot, wonga pigeon, white-headed pigeon (heard), fan-tailed cuckoo (heard) and (of course) brush turkey.

We called at Eagleby Wetlands on our return trip to Brisbane, where we saw a pair of swans with young cygnets (they may look like ducklings but we agreed they were not ‘ugly’)

Swans and cygnets at Eagleby Wetlands January 2012

Other birds we saw that day at Eagleby included azure kingfisher sitting prominently on an exposed tea-tree branch above the water, greater egret, cattle egret, wood duck, hardhead duck, black duck, grey teal, purple swamphen, dusky moorhen, Eurasian coot, masked lapwing, little black cormorant, darter, rainbow lorikeet, crested pigeon, welcome swallow, noisy miner, magpielark and red-backed fairy-wren.

Viewing meteors

The night sky at Currawinya is far from any towns, April is officially within our dry season, and we will be there on moonless nights, so our view of stars and other heavenly bodies should be brilliant.

On  the nights of 21st and 22nd April we may be treated to the Lyrids Meteor Showers, which are said to sometimes produce about 20 meteors per hour, with dust trails that last several seconds.

Unfortunately they are most likely to appear after midnight, but we can sleep in hammocks under the stars on those nights (or if you prefer a tent you could venture out at that hour).

Our hammocks are very comfy

Dawn on the Paroo River

Watching Major Mitchell cockatoos near St George

Day 1. Sept 10th. Brisbane to St George

Many tourism brochures are written as though the outback starts in the cattle farms just 50km inland.  I don’t feel we’re in the outback until we’ve past all the farmland, all the cotton crops etc. and onto free-range country or wilderness, with red soil and semi-arid vegetation. Thus our first day took a us a few hundred kilometres west to the edge of the outback, the town of St George, stopping briefly for morning tea, lunch and birdwatching, and to show our English guest his first wild emus. The end of the day saw us strolling along the Ballonne River, watching woodswallows and white-plumed honeyeaters, a hearty pub meal and settling into our ‘luxury’ accommodation for the trip, a motel with private shower and toilet   Day2.

Royal spoonbill feeding near bridge at St George, QIueensland

Just after dawn Darren dropped us at the edge of town so we could walk across the bridge into the outback, but pausing for birdwatching as we did so. A royal spoonbill was swishing his bill around in the water below, two beautiful night-herons sat in company with great egrets on the trees overhanging the water, and a raptor – either a little eagle or a whistling kite flew quickly overhead and out of sight.   Soon we were stopping the vehicle again for a group of Major Mitchell cockatoos feasting on native cypress cones. We were cautious at first not to disturb them but they seemed unperturbed by our presence as we tried all angles for photos.

Major Mitchell cockatoo near St George, Queensland

Spiny-cheeked honeyeater near St George, Queens;and

red kangaroos near Bollon

A red-winged parrot was more wary, flying in for a brief feed and continuing quickly on his way. A spiny-cheeked honeyeater perched above us for a short time. Our English guest soon saw his first wild kangaroos. We saw both reds and greys, but the photo to the right is of two red kangaroos – a female (they are grey in colour) and a young male, probably her offspring. On our way to Bollon, we also saw several groups of emus, a wedge-tailed eagle and a brown falcon.   As we reached Bollon, three emus were casually strolling across the road in the middle of the township.

Emus stroll through the town centre, Bollon, Queensland

It was mid-afternoon when we reached our first unsealed road, travelling south of Eulo on red sands to the start of Currawinya National Park, our main destination for the next couple of days, and we saw quite a few kangaroos and emus.

The road towards Currawinya National Park, Queensland

At the Royal Mail Hotel, Hungerford, our guests tried the trick of throwing money, wrapped around a couple of 20c pieces and periced by a drawing pin, to the ceiling as a donation to the Flying Doctor service

Throwing money for the Flying Doctor Service, Hungerford, outback QUeensland

Day3 Our day started with a birdwalk, seeing the ubiquitous emus as well as white-plumed honeyeaters, woodswallows and a whistling kite, and Darren  changing a flat tyre. While feasting on a big breakfast al fresco and chatting with a couple of pilots of light aircraft who’d flown in for the night, spiny-cheeked honeyeaters and grey shrike-thrushes visited the trees nearby. And instead f the usual noisy miners, the shrubs were occupied by yellow-throated miners Darren had a go at riding a “backwards bicycle” – turning the handlebars to the right made the bike turn left, and vice versa, so a fair bit of concentration is needed

"Backwards bicycle" at Hungerford

The RAMSAR-declared lakes were full of water but not as many birds as we had hoped.  Still, we saw plenty of pelicans, black swans, terns and a few other species, and PLENTY of emus.

pelicans flying over the lake, Currawinya Mational Park

red kangarooo, lake at Currawinya Natioal Park, outback Queensland

The Granites rise suddenly from the surrounding plains, giving an entirely different feel to the landscape, and we always enjoy exploring these.

Approaching the Granites

As we left, ur guest Andrea spotted a Central Australian bearded dragon on a tree. He sat motionless, apparently convinced his camouflage was fully effective, as we approached for a better view, and was still in the same position as we left.

viewing a bearded dragon near the Granites, Currawinya National Park

We tried to find the ranger for a second time but the office was – as for the day before – unoccupied.  I had tried a couple of weeks previously to ring to book our campsite, but there is no online booking for this park, and no one at head office was able to give me the number of the ranger’s office.  I finally had found the number from the owner of the Hungerford pub, and left a message on their answering service, so that plus the form I filled in and left in the box outside the office had to suffice, but Ialways like to chat a bit with the rangers when we visit. After looking around the old wool-shed, we continued north towards our campsite at the Paroo River, stopping along the way to watch the full moon rise.

Full moon rising at Currawinya National Park, Queensland

After a three-course meal of soup, coconut lentil curry and pavlova under the full moon, we settled into our ‘beds’. One guest had brought a swag that she set up facing the river so she could watch for waterbirds in the moonlight and see the sunrise without leaving bed. The rest of us strung comfortable hammocks between the trees and viewed the procession of stars and moon through the night any time we awoke.

Day 4

The moon set as the sun was rising.   Several white-headed herons flew lazily by, as did a whistling kite.  A black-eared cuckoo fossicked  on soil and tree-trunk, and we saw many white-plumed honeyeaters and woodswallows in the trees.

These white-browed woodswallows were a romantic-looking pair

The small town of Eulo had some drama recently as the general store caught fire and burnt to the ground,  and a gas cylinder torpedoed across the road, setting fire to the verandah of a house – a verandah on which a lady was standing at the time. It seemed strange to see the empty space and burnt-out petrol bowsers

The date farm was temporarily closed, so we couldn’t pick up a bottle of their delicious date liqueur or relax in a warm mud bath

At the nearby lagoon we watched yellow-billed and royal spoonbills, black-fronted dotterells and a little friarbird, in addition to the usual magpielarks and willy wagtails, then spent that night in the Eulo Queen Hotel.

We headed pre-dawn to the well-known birdwatching spot by the waterhole a few kilometres out of town, but this time it was rather disappointing, except for a red-capped robin and a rufous whistler in the nearby woodland.

Bowra is a former cattle station near Cunnamulla long known as a birding hotspot and now belonging to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.  We had originally planed to spend a couple of nights here but had shortened our trip, but decided to take a quick look anyway. The highlights were a river lined with river red gums and a male emu with a beautiful brood of chicks

a male emu with chicks at Bowra, outback Queensland

Our final night was spent once again in St George, where in the morning we watched a small flock of red-rumped parrots feeding on the lawn, presumably on fallen seeds or grass seeds

red-rumped parrots in St George, Queensland

And finally back to Brisbane, missing the red sands, emus and major mitchells and looking forward to next year’s excursion out west

.

Walking is the only way you’ll visit this area – there are no roads, and I recall it as my first experience, in my early teens, of looking out across a landscape that is probably much the same as the Aboriginals viewed long before the coming of white explorers.

Last month Darren and I walked from Binna Burra to the circuit(altogether the walk is more of a “figure 9″ than a circuit, coming back along the stem on the return journey) with two keen bird photographers from USA and two students from Griffith University.

This is a great walk for variety of habitat.  It could be done in three hours on energetic walking, but then you would miss so much of what makes it special.

The routes starts in the warm subtropical rainforests of the Border Track from Binna Burra  but you see changes in the forest as you gradually (very gently) climb upwards (e.g. more treeferns), then start heading down again.

There is one little gully apparently kept just a bit cooler than the surrounding area by the water running through and the local wind pattern, so I was surprised when I first saw  Antarctic beech trees growing here – they are more typical of the cool, high-altitude rainforest

As the rock type changes from basalt to rhyolite you find yourself walking through open forest.

A little further you can either follow the sign that points towards Dave’s Creek or (as we often prefer) head to the left to do the circuit in the opposite direction.

Suddenly you come across Surprise Rock looming up from the forest – a good spot to sit for a mid-morning snack

The view from here is great, and that day we had some very active spinebills nearby feeding on banksia flowers

One part of the cliff gives a new meaning to “rockface” and seems awed by the view

Another 20 minutes’ walk brings you suddenly to a very resistant type of rhyolite which supports only mallee heath.

This day it was alive with spinebills and Lewin’s honeyeaters feasting on banksia nectar

There’s a bit of relentless uphill walking on the return journey, but not really steep, and it’s pleasant to sit for a while and take a break while surrounded by forest.  And certainly worth it to experience the variety of habitat and scenery on this route.

Last week we arrived at Eagleby just in time to see a pair of very amorous swans.

In the rainforest along the Border Track near Binna Burra early this week, we heard a strange grunting and saw two female red-necked wallabies pursued by an excited male.

Somewhere in the distance the strange wailing Siamese-cat calls of the green catbirds was another sign of things stirring – you just don’t hear them much during winter.

Spotted pardalote at Daves Creek

Further down the track towards Daves Creek was a spotted pardalote which hopped around the shrubs in the open forest.  Usually you hear these gorgeous little birds all day and never see them, as they pursue insects way overhead in the canopy of eucalypts and other trees. Since this one stayed so long in the shrubs  I assume he (or she) was waiting for u to leave so eh could on with burrowing into a soil bank to make a nest (extraordinary to think of these tiny birds with their tiny bills doing this).

Eastern spinebills flitted around nearby, feasting on banksia nectar, every now and then a couple pairing off for a dash through the air, typical of honeyeaters in courtship mode.

Regent bowerbird at O'Relilys

The following day we visited another section of Lamington National Park, at O’Reilly’s Guest House.  Two weeks earlier we had searched unsuccessfully for bowerbirds, which generally head down into the valleys for winter (although we occasionally saw a female or young male that had stayed on the mountain during the cold months).  This time, I was just explaining to our guests that we were unlikely to see many, if any at all, when I saw a brilliant flash of yellow go past and sure enough, it was actually a male regent. Excitedly, I dashed over, still holding a handful of corn chips which were part of my rather unhealthy breakfast that morning (we had left Brisbane at 4.30am), and suddenly there were three regents on my arm stealing the chips.  I’m not sure whether the staff member who came out of the lodge with a handful of raisins believed me when I said the feeding had not been intentional (especially when some of the birds that came to him were diverted by the striking  colour of my chips and repeated the performance).  A little embarrassing, and I wanted to tell him that I had actually written and spoken publicly about not feeding the wrong foods to birds, and had written about this in a policy on tourist-wildlife interactions for Wildlife Tourism Australia, but he walked off before I had a chance to do so.

Satin bowerbirds

There were plenty of satin bowerbirds around also – here is one of the adult males with either an adult female or an immature male (difficult to tell until the males start changing colour with maturity – and they take a few years to do so).

We were told that one of the bowers near the lodge had been demolished by a brush turkey and the bowerbird had rebuilt it, but at 90 degrees to its original orientation.  Was this to somehow make it more difficult for the brush turkey?  Easier for the female? An artistic expression he thought more attractive?  A different bird doing it? Or he really didn’t care which way it faced?

satin bowerbird bower

For those who are not aware, the bower is the male’s clever and artistic little structure (which takes him some practice to perfect) to attract the female.  It is not a nest – she builds this and raises the brood on her own while he attracts more females to his bower.

We’re looking forward to more and more bird activity as spring really gets going.

Wildlife Tourism Australia stall at Green Day Out

We used the Araucaria tour vehicle to cart gazebo, tables and displays to Gecko’s “Green Day Out” on the Gold Coast for the Wildlife Tourism Australia display.

The day attracted a fair crowd despite being wet and windy and various organic foods, environmental technologies and environmental issues were on display.

The following day we took adavantage of a special offer and headed out on the Spirit of the Gold Coast for whale-watching.  The whales were not especially playful that day, but we did see a few blows and tails – always great to see!

Last week Darren and I  had fun taking a group of International Students Ambassadors (through Brisbane Marketing) on a day-tour last week, showing them a couple of places we visit on our 3-day Wildlife Overview tours and  our Tamborine Mountain day- tour.

Students aged from early twenties to mid-thirties, and from places as diverse as Bangladesh, Singapore, Mexico, China, Sri Lanka, France, Ecuador, India and Indonesia joined us for the day.

We started with a gentle bush-walk at Daisy Hill, through eucalypt and tea-tree forests, seeing a wild red-necked wallaby and finding scratch-marks of koalas but no wild koalas that day.

Two sleepy koalas awaited us in the Daisy Hill Koala Visitor Centre, and one managed to lift his head and look at everyone for perhaps a minute or two.

A walk to a waterfall was next on the agenda, followed by an excursion into the canopy at Skywalk on Tamborine Mountain, and a stroll through the tsall forest floor to giant trees and mountain streams.

Clouds were darkening and a light sprinkle fell, so we abandoned our idea of a picnic in the national park and headed to the shelters of Jubilee Park in Beaudesert to feast on corn wraps filled with salad, Camembert, other cheeses, olives, avocado, hummus and other goodies.

Our final destination for the day was Kooralbyn, where we found another red-necked wallaby and plenty of  whiptail wallabies (below)  and eastern grey kangaroos.

Darren and I were delighted to see it wasn’t just the kangaroos that were jumping …

Some of their comments and photos can be seen on the Araucaria Facbook

red kangaroo - male

Our outback tours go to the true outback – not just some rural area that someone chose to call ‘outback,’ as we so often see in tourism literature.

In September and November we’ll be heading off way out west – leaving behind crops and intensive farms -  into the red sand country, land of mulga and saltbush, with eyes open for emus, red kangaroos,Major Mitchell cockatoos, sand goannas, stumpy-tailed lizards and whatever else we might see along the way.

Major Mitchell cockatoos in Curaawinya National Park

Watching birds at a waterhole in Bowra Station

We’ve extended the usual 6 days to 8 days in September to give us an extra day at Bowra, a former cattle station and one of the birding ‘htspots’ now belonging to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.

The November trip will be 10 days, incorporating our usual route for the three-day wildlife overview tour as well (rainforests, coastal habitats etc.)

This is not a luxury trip – no five-star hotels (there just ain’t any out where we’re going), and you’ll be riding in a troopie, a reliable Toyota 4WD very popular with folk who live out there, so that in itself is part of the experience.

But we don’t ignore comfort. No long walks, and not much walking at all in the hot part of the day (the animals also take ‘siesta’ time in the heat, so the best times for finding them is early morning and late afternoon).

Camping at Paroo River

Emu father and chicks cross the rosad in Currwinya National Park

We stay  in little outback hotels with cosy beds and good meals, with a couple of nights in motel, a night or two in former shearer’s quarters (another genuine Aussie experience and one night camping by the Paroo River (you can choose to be in a tent or in a hammock under the stars – and on the September trip there’ll be a full moon that night).

And for just a little luxury, you can opt to  sip wine or tea and snack on nuts and dried fruits while relaxing in a mudbath in the tiny town of Eulo ($60), then rinse off with warm Artesian water, cake yourself in ancient mud, rinse again and smother yourself with locally-made moisturizer. Your skin feels great for days afterwards.

Not everything is dry out there.  Two vast Ramsar-listed lakes are important breeding sites for waterbirds. Recently the roads to them have been flooded, but hopefully we’ll be able to reach them by spring.

Large outback lake, Currawinya National Park

Sample of bilby fence

Currawinya  also harbours the offspring of captive-bred bilbies released here several years ago.  We won’t be able to enter that area, but we will insect a sample of the long fence that was erected to exclude rabbits, cats and foxes, and will also visit captive bilbies before leaving the coast, and learn something of the behaviour and ecology of these strange little creatures.

Let us know if you might be interested in joining us for either of these tours.

outback sunset