MEETING CELEBRITIES IN AUSTRALIA – KANGAROOS AND KOALAS, Guest Post by Caroline Hatton at The Intrepid Tourist

Wild kangaroos: joey sipping milk, Halls Gap, Victoria, Australia

My friend Caroline Hatton, a children’s book writer and frequent contributor to this blog, captured these images in Australia in November 2023, springtime Down Under.

Why Australia? Because it was on my husband’s bucket list well before the phrase was coined. A long-time dream of his was to see exotic Australian animals in the wild, including koalas and kangaroos, the top celebrities.

We thought that seeing them in a wildlife sanctuary first would give us a better idea of what to look for in the wild. And that calibrating our eyeballs to the size of target species at various distances would increase our chances of spotting them.

Relaxed kangaroo, Healesville Sanctuary, Victoria, Australia.

To pick where to seek such guaranteed sightings upon arrival, we ranked the species we most wanted to see, and cross-referenced them with urban zoos, non-zoos and closer-to-natural sanctuaries near Sydney (New South Wales) and Melbourne (Victoria), two destinations for many choices of flights from the U.S.

The Healesville Sanctuary, a two-hour drive from Melbourne, won hands down. There, napping kangaroos and koalas presented front, back, and side views, and one kangaroo even scratched an ear with a back toe. Starting our tour of Australia in the state of Victoria turned out to be optimal because that’s where we found all the wild kangaroos and koalas we saw on our entire trip.

 KANGAROO MOBS

 A kangaroo mob is a group of kangaroos, a fun word that seems to suggest that they’re up to no good.

The first place where we went looking for wild kangaroos was the Anglesea Golf Course, named on many web pages about driving the scenic Great Ocean Road. Without paying for a guided tour, only one side of the golf course perimeter fence was approachable. Our itinerary brought us there at noon, nap time for the animals, so our chances of success were dim. All we saw was one pair of sleepy kangaroo ears above the grass in the shade of distant trees.

Wild kangaroo family outside our rental cabin, Halls Gap, Victoria, Australia.

Doe and joey outside our cabin. Doe licking forearms to cool down.

Two days later, after reaching the western end of the Great Ocean Road in Warrnambool, we drove inland for two hours to the town of Halls Gap, a vacation destination in low mountains, the Grampians. Tons of wild kangaroos live there! Good places to look for them include the town park and any other open grass, such as any meadow and the golf course.

Fate spoiled us with the wild kangaroo stampede in this video. During a torrential downpour, at first, all the kangaroos in the meadow outside our rental cabin sat still as statues… until they suddenly all hopped away for reasons unknown to us.

Wild doe and joey, Halls Gap.

The town park was all theirs, its lawns littered with generations of kangaroos. Like tourists, they lounged, dozed, and snacked (on grass). Moms brought their offspring to the park to play and enjoy quality mommy-and-me time. The “roos” generously left paved paths and benches to us humans. After work hours, this video shows locals exercising at the park, the kangaroos kickboxing, oblivious of the human jogging past.

LONE KOALAS

What surprised me about koala sightings was how un-subtle they were. The glaring contrast in size and shape between slim eucalyptus (“gum”) leaves and obese fur balls made detection unavoidable.

Wild koala near Kafe Koala, Australia.

To look for wild koalas on the Great Ocean Road, an obligatory stop is at Kafe Koala on the Kennett River. Parking lot attendants (“wild” parrots) watch for food crumbs, like pigeons in Paris or Venice. There, tour buses let passengers out, perhaps as much for souvenirs and snacks as for walks up the dirt road looking for giant pompoms perched high in the gum trees.

When we arrived mid-afternoon, we were the only ones there. Gums are so tall that before looking up at those near me, tipping my head back as far as my neck would bend, I made sure my feet were securely planted on even ground, so I wouldn’t fall over.

Wild koala scratching--a high action shot!

My first wild koala was awake! Scratching! Changing venue in this video. Then I noticed the drops, falling one at a time, seconds apart, drawing a graceful arc against the tender blue sky in the steady breeze. My koala was urinating! How many lucky tourists can say they witnessed such a rare event?

We saw four more koalas on that hour-long walk. One reached for leaves and munched on them. One male bellowed, part of his job description during the mating season.

Another koala destination off the Great Ocean Road is a few miles inland of Cape Otway, along the dirt road to Bimbi Park, a campground. While my husband drove as slowly as possible, we both scanned treetops ahead and on the sides, but not too far in the forest, only as far as we might be able to detect our targets.

See the wild koala, spotted from inside the car?

“STOP! KOALA!!!” I shouted a second before taking the above photo through the windshield. We saw two more koalas on this 15-minute drive, enough to make us happy.

Other wildlife we saw in 25 days spent in three states (Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania) included many wallabies, pademelons, wombats, possums, echidnas, bats, water dragons, and oh, so many colors and species of birds! But that’s another story.

All text and photos, copyright Caroline Arnold. www.theintrepidtourist.blogspot.com

KANGAROO ISLAND, Australia, Part 1: Penneshaw, American River, Flinders Chase

Remarkable Rocks, Kangaroo Island, South Australia

For many years, people have told us--if you like watching wildlife and spending time outdoors, you should go to Kangaroo Island. So we did. And we were rewarded with plenty of bird and animal sightings plus opportunities to hike and explore the many trails and beaches, taking hundreds of photographs along the way. Located a short distance (a 45 minute ferry ride) off the Australian coast south of Adelaide, Kangaroo Island stretches more than 100 miles from end to end. It is the third largest island in Australia (after Tasmania and Melville Island in the Northern Territory) and more than a third of it is dedicated to parks and wilderness protection areas.

Bottlebrush

We arrived in December at the beginning of the Australian summer, but before the busy holiday season, so at many of the places we visited we saw few other people. We spent five nights on the island, two at the east end, making our base near Penneshaw, and three nights at the west end, staying at the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Retreat, close to the entrance to Flinders Chase National Park.

Galahs, a kind of cockatoo, are common in Australia and often considered to be pests

After getting off at the ferry landing we stopped in Penneshaw at the Kangaroo Island Visitor Information Center, which is packed with brochures, maps, and helpful people at the desk. Our first and last nights were at the Figtree B and B at Baudin Beach a few miles up the road. After dinner that night at the Penneshaw Hotel in town, we came back to find cockatoos roosting on the wire overhead and a kangaroo calmly munching plants right in front of our porch. (Kangaroos are found all over the island, but seen mainly at dusk and dawn.)

Beginning of Beach and Bush trail in American River decorated with feathers found by hikers

On our second day we headed for American River to take a walk through the forest in search of endangered black cockatoos (which we never found) although we did spot a variety of water birds along the beach, including a flock of black swans. When we got back to our car we noticed a koala taking a nap in the eucalyptus tree right over the parking lot. 

Oysters and King George Whiting fish sandwiches for lunch in American River

For lunch we had fish and oysters, farmed locally. Throughout our stay in Kangaroo Island the food was fresh and delicious.

Displays in the Flinders Chase Park Headquarters tell about fossils of prehistoric marsupials found in the park. On the patio outside the visitor center kids can dig for "fossils" in a large sand pit.

After lunch it took most of the rest of the afternoon to drive to the other end of the island, where, after checking into our hotel, the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Retreat,  we went to the Flinders Chase park headquarters to get maps, a parking permit, and advice on hiking and sightseeing in the park.

Numerous burrow entrances can be seen around the edge of the platypus pool--but no platypuses.

The next morning we took the trail from the park headquarters to the platypus pools. It is almost impossible to see platypuses in the wild–they are nocturnal and spend most of their time under water. (The best place to see a platypus is in a zoo, which I have done.)

Rosenberg goanna. It can grow to be a meter long.

But, even though we didn’t see any platypuses, we spotted numerous birds along the trail and had a surprise encounter with a very large lizard (a Rosenberg goanna) hunting for birds and small animals in the underbrush.

Cape de Couedic Lighthouse

In the late afternoon we headed for Cape de Couedic and Remarkable Rocks, arriving as the sun was sending golden beams across the landscape. From the lighthouse at the top of the point we followed a long walkway down the cliff to Admirals Arch, a natural opening in the rocks framing the beach on the other side. Below the path we could see and smell hundreds of fur seals jousting with one another at the edge of the waves.

Fur seals at Cape de Couedic

On our flight to Australia we had watched a film called December Boys, about four orphans from the outback having a summer holiday at the beach. It was filmed mostly on Kangaroo Island and was the perfect preparation for our trip. A key part of the story takes place at Remarkable Rocks.

At Remarkable Rocks at sunset

After visiting Cape de Couedic went back to the turnoff for Remarkable Rocks, drove the short distance to the parking area, and took the path to this amazing natural phenomenon. The giant rocks are  perched on a natural platform above the ocean, as if placed by giant hands. We were buffeted by a warm summer wind, but it was not hard to imagine how harsher winds, rain, and sand had sculpted these fantastic shapes over time. It was the perfect ending to our third day on Kangaroo Island.
Part 2 of our stay on Kangaroo Island to be posted next week.