Photograph of Koala

Koala by Michael Halliday.

SOUTHEASTERN AUSTRALIA


Photograph of Wombat

A young Wombat by Michael Halliday.

Best Wildlife in Southeastern Australia


Mammals
Koala, (Duck-billed) Platypus, Red, Eastern Grey and Western Grey Kangaroos, Black (Swamp) and Red-necked (Bennett’s) Wallabies, Common and Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats, Short-beaked Echidna, Tasmanian Devil, Eastern Quoll, Greater, Squirrel and Yellow-bellied Gliders, Common and Mountain Brushtail Possums, Common Ringtail Possum, Southern (Tasmanian) Bettong and Grey-headed Flying Fox. Also a chance of Spotted-tailed Quoll, Brush-tailed Phascogale, Rufous-bellied (Tasmanian) Pademelon, Long-nosed Poteroo, Southern Right Whale (mostly from June to October, in Great Oyster Bay, Tasmania), Bottlenose Dolphin and Australian Fur Seal.


Birds
Emu, Superb Lyrebird, Satin Bowerbird, Superb and White-winged Fairywrens, Plains-wanderer, Little Penguin, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Australian Owlet Nightjar, Rainbow Bee-eater and the Tasmanian endemics; Tasmanian Native Hen, Green Rosella, Black-headed, Strong-billed and Yellow-throated Honeyeaters, Yellow Wattlebird, Forty-spotted Pardalote, Tasmanian Thornbill, Tasmanian Scrubwren, Scrubtit, Dusky Robin and Black Currawong, as well as Black Swan, Cape Barren Goose, Australian Shelduck, ducks including Pink-eared, Stubble Quail, Hoary-headed Grebe, Shy Albatross, Short-tailed Shearwater, Australasian Gannet, Australian Pelican, Black-faced Cormorant, White-faced and White-necked (Pacific) Herons, Brown and Grey Goshawks (including white morph), White-bellied Sea Eagle, Little Eagle, Spotted and Swamp Harriers, Black and Brown Falcons, Australian Hobby, Australian (Purple) Swamphen, Banded and Masked Lapwings, Hooded and Red-capped Plovers, Black-fronted, Inland and Red-kneed Dotterels, Sooty Oystercatcher, White-headed (Black-winged) Stilt, Latham’s Snipe (mostly Sep-Mar), Little Buttonquail, Pacific Gull, Brush and Common Bronzewings, Crested Pigeon, parrots such as Australian King, Ground, Orange-bellied (most likely Sep-Feb on Tasmania), Superb, Swift (most likely Sep-Feb on Tasmania) and Turquoise, Musk and Rainbow Lorikeets, Cockatiel, Crimson Rosella, Galah, Little and Long-billed Corellas, Yellow-tailed Black, Gang-gang and Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Fan-tailed and Pallid Cuckoos, Horsfield’s and Little Bronze Cuckoos, Tawny Frogmouth, Laughing Kookaburra, Azure, Red-backed and Sacred Kingfishers, White-throated Treecreeper, Southern Emuwren, honeyeaters including Blue-faced and Crescent, Eastern Spinebill, Black-eared Miner, Rufous Bristlebird, thornbills, White-browed Scrubwren, Striated Fieldwren, Southern Whiteface, Grey-crowned and White-browed Babblers, Eastern Whipbird, woodswallows including White-browed, Grey and Pied Butcherbirds, Grey and Pied Currawongs, Australian Magpie, Ground Cuckoo Shrike, White-winged Triller, Varied Sittella, Golden, Gilbert’s, Olive, Rufous and Red-lored Whistlers, Grey Shrike Thrush, Grey Fantail, Magpie-lark, Forest Raven, White-winged Chough, Apostlebird, Flame, Pink, Red-capped, Rose and Scarlet Robins, White-backed Swallow, Brown and Rufous Songlarks, Bassian Thrush, and Beautiful and Diamond Firetails. Also a chance of Brolga Crane, Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo, Powerful, Sooty and Tasmanian Masked Owls, Budgerigar, Australasian Bittern, Freckled Duck, Crimson and Orange Chats, Black, Regent, Painted and Pied Honeyeaters, Eastern (Crested) Shrike Tit and Pilotbird.

Invertebrates
Weedy Sea Dragons may be seen off Portsea Pier, at the end of the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne, and at the dive site known as Studio One, Deep Glen Bay, Tasmania.

Other Natural Wonders of Southeastern Australia

Twelve Apostles Limestone sea stacks off the coast of Victoria, southwest of Melbourne, which rise to 65 m (213 ft).

Best Sites for Wildlife in Southeastern Australia

Photograph of Hooded Plover

Hooded Plover by Mark Harper.

Photograph of Plains-wanderer

The unique Plains-wanderer is endemic to Australia and best looked for with local guides in the Deniliquin area of Southeastern Australia. It can be seen only at night, when this female was photographed with an 'instamatic' camera by Nigel Wheatley in 1993.

Best Times for Wildlife in Southeastern Australia

The peak time to be in Southeastern Australia is October-November, when the southern spring usually begins, although Superb Lyrebird is most likely to be heard singing and seen displaying in the southern autumn and winter.

Recommended Books etc. for Southeastern Australia

Bradt Wildlife Guide: Australian Wildlife by S Martin. Bradt Travel Guides, 2010.

Traveller's Wildlife Guide: Australia, The East by L Beletsky. Arris Books, 2006.

An Ecotraveller's Guide: Australia by H Robinson. Arris Books, 2003.

A Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia by P Menkhorst and F Knight. OUP, 2010 (Third Edition).

The Mammals of Australia edited by S Van Dyck and R Strahan. New Holland Publishers, 2008 (Third Edition).

Field Guide to Australian Mammals by C Jones and S Parish. Steve Parish Publishing, 2006.

Birds of Australia by K Simpson and N Day. PUP, 2010 (Eighth Edition).

The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds by P Slater. New Holland Publishers, 2009 (Second Edition).

The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia by G Pizzey et al. Harper Collins, 2008 (Eighth Edition).

The Complete Guide to Finding the Birds of Australia by R Thomas et al. Frogmouth Publications, due 2011 (Second Edition).

A Complete Guide to Reptiles of Australia by S Wilson and G Swan. New Holland Publishers, due 2011 (Third Edition).

The Complete Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia by M Braby. CSIRO, 2004.


Michael Morcombe eGuide to The Birds of Australia.

Trip Reports for Southeastern Australia

Many trip reports, some for Southeastern Australia, are posted on the websites listed here. On some of these websites some reports are independent and some are posted by tour companies who organize tours to Southeastern Australia. These tour companies and others also post their own reports on their websites, which are listed under 'Some Organized Tours to Southeastern Australia' below.

Local Guides and Tours in Southeastern Australia

The costs of organized tours partly reflect the quality of the tour leaders. Some leaders are certainly better than others and many companies claim their leaders are the best but even the best rely at least to some extent on the exceptional skills of the local guides they employ. If you are travelling independently, employing such local guides will greatly increase your chances of seeing the wildlife you wish to see.


Accommodation in Southeastern Australia


Some Organized Tours to Southeastern Australia

There are many tour companies who organize tours to see mammals, birds, other wildlife and other natural wonders. The cost of these tours vary considerably according to such variables as the airlines used, the number of days the tours last, the number of sites visited, the number of people in the group (an important consideration if you wish to see such wildlife as rainforest mammals and birds), the number of tour leaders, the standard of accommodation and transport, and the percentage profit the company hopes to make. Generally, where the number of days tours last and the number of sites visited are similar, the cheapest tours are those that use the cheapest airlines, accommodation and local transport, that have the largest groups with the least number of leaders, and that make the least amount of profit. The most expensive tours tend to be those which are exceptionally long, use the most expensive accommodation (ridiculously lavish in some cases, even for single nights) and which make the most profit. Some tour costs partly reflect the quality of the tour leaders. Some leaders are certainly better than others and many companies claim their leaders are the best but even the best rely at least to some extent on the exceptional skills of the local guides they employ.

While tour companies organize tours with set itineraries many also organize custom tours for individuals and private groups who instead of taking a tour with a set itinerary want to follow their own itinerary to suit their own personal tastes, whether it be mammals, birds, other wildlife, other natural wonders or even man-made attractions, or a mixture of them all. Many organized tours with set itineraries are also fast-paced and target as many species as possible, whether they are mammals, birds or other wildlife or everything, which usually leaves little time to enjoy the best sites and individual species, but on a custom tour those taking part can specify the pace and the sites and species they wish to concentrate on. Custom tours also suit people who like to travel with people they already know, rather than with a group of strangers, and people with partners with different interests. Individuals and small groups will almost certainly have to pay more than the price of an organized tour with a set itinerary but a large group of friends may be able to travel for less than the price quoted for a set tour.

Tour companies who are running organized tours to Southeastern Australia in the next couple of years include the following. Many of these also offer custom tours.