Pottle

Are there destinations within one or two driving days of Sydney where one might reasonable expect to see kangaroos and koalas in their natural habitat. This is to be a short visit of twelve nights in September that includes five pre paid nights in Sydney. More city excursions are of little interest.

margo_oz

Koalas are tricky - and not often seen around SYdney.

Kangaroos, etc., are a better bet. Search this site for Euroka Clearing (or wait for Alan)

My favourite is down the south coast - Pebbly Beach, or Green Patch, on Jervis Bay, for kangaroos (or wallabies - didn't ask), and colourful birds.

I was at Pebbly Beach with some friends, a couple of years ago, and I was carrying some chocolated caramel slices for morning tea. I got mobbed by the roos! We were standing nose to nose - 'twas a bit scary - but I wasn't going to give up those slices, my sweet-toothed favourite. My friends were useless, no help at all, doubled up convulsed with laughter! Message - don't carry sweet things - they can smell them, and want them Don't feed the animals.

Pebbly Beach is at the end of a narrow, winding, dirt track, and most rental car companies don't allow you to take their previous cars off the hard surface. If this is the case, Green Patch is good, and Jervis Bay area is just fascinating.

Alan

Hi, Pottle!

In more than sixty years of living in Australia, I have never seen a koala in its natural habitat. You will probably have to settle for Traonga Park Zoo, Featherdale, or the Koala Park at West Pennant Hills.

Kangaroos, however, as margo says, are everywhere. Hire a car and drive west of the Blue Mountains and you're bound to run into one (which won't please the hire car company one bit). The nicest place to see them within a ninety-minute drive of Sydney is Euroka Clearing at Glenbrook, but you really do need to hire a car to get there, or else take one of the conducted tours (mini-buses only, the tour coaches can't get in). If you hire a car, be prepared to violate (just briefly) the stipulation about not going off the sealed road, as the last four or five kilometres is gravel.

Margo's Pebbly Beach experience sounds like the best of all, if you can count on the 'roos being there when you call. The trouble with seeing any animal in the wild -- this is true of Euroka, too, but it's fairly reliable -- is that you can't be sure that the animal will co-operate and position itself where you can get a look. That's why western NSW is the only sure bet... the further away from the coast you get, the greater the 'roo population.

Alan

That zoo is "Taronga"... sorry! (my fingers haven't warmed up yet).

RalphR

Koalas are indeed tricky and, even when you do find them, they look like blobs way up in trees. Have seen them in the wild on just a few occassions, but nowhere close to Sydney. The Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve in Canberra (4 hrs from Sydney) used to have a koala enclosure where you could see them in an environment pretty close to wild, living on real trees, in real forest. Not sure if it still exists (it's been a while). Kangaroos and emus at Tidbinbilla as well, ranging free.

Paul_S

Hi Pottle,

Koalas can be seen in the wild on the Tilligerry Peninsular at Port Stephens. There is a Koala Preservation Society operating there that take people on guided walks through the bush to see the Koalas in their natural habitat.

Port Stephens is a 2.5 hour drive north of Sydney and is a fabulous place for taking in the delights of beautiful waterways and national parks.
Plenty of Kangaroos there as well as dolphins adventures and other sea creatures.

The website for the preservation society is:

http://www4.tpg.com.au/users/hkps/locality.htm

I am sure you could arrange a guide if you send an e-mail to them.

Cheers

Paul_S

Paul_S

Hi Pottle,

I just thought I would post the website for this tour as it pretty much covers all you want and more:

http://www.countryroad.net.au/tours/...tstephens.html

Cheers

Paul_S

ctd02

Unfortunately Tidbinbilla in Canberra lost all (or all but one) of its koalas in the fires in 2003 - most of the reserve was burnt out. I worked there for a while (many years ago) and was involved in a koala count - even then I only saw about 5 of the things, up in the tree tops. The roos are still around, and the reserve itself (while no where near as good as it was) is only 30min drive from central Canberra, so you can visit Canberra and the reserve over a couple of days if you wanted.

Have been to Pebbly Beach many times, and if you go in the morning or towards sunset you will almost be guaranteed kangaroos (during the heat of the day they just sleep under the trees). In addition you will be mobbed by parrots. Its a great place, the road isnt really that bad, only the last few 100 metres is a bit rough. Its not 4WD area, any decent car will make it without a problem.

From Sydney, however, its a 3-4hr drive. You can get the train to (I think) Nowra, but you will then need a car for about a 90 min drive. There is no public transport. So its not really a day trip.

The South Coast is quite beautiful. You can stay at Pebbly Beach - there are some self catering shacks (literally, this is not 5 star, the nearest restaurant/supermarket is probably 20min drive) that are available for rent. Otherwise Mollymook/Ulladulla is about 30min away, Batemans Bay about 20min and Jervis Bay about 1hr (driving times).

RalphR

ctd02: That's a shame about Tidbinbilla. I think I had heard news to that effect. I have fond memories of the place from the days I used to live in Canberra. I trust it will all regenerate with time....Ralph

tropo

There is a lovely drive south of Sydney. Depart Sydney via Liverpool on the Hume Highway, drive until you see the turnoff for Southern Highlands, turnoff and go through Bowral, etc, then take the road to Robertson, via Wildes Meadow & Burrawang (beaut historical village store), then down to Fitzroy Falls, then down into Kangaroo Valley (no kangaroos), lunch at the Friendly Inn, then out the other side of the valley, on Camberrawa Mountain (fantastic rainforest enroute), then down through lush dairy country, to Kiama. You could stay the first night at either KIama or Gerrora (if you visit Gerrora - make sure to have dinner/drinks at the Fishermans Club on the hill overlooking the coast for 180 degrees. Now if you had extra time, you could drive a bit further south to Jervis Bay, white sands, and aqua blue water. In the Jervis Bay National PArk, at a place called Green patch, the wild birds will land on your head, looking for a feed)
To return to Sydney, take the PAcific Highway through Wollongong, right up to Sydney. This Round trip from Sydney, via Kiama, is an easy 1 night/2 day trip.

Neil_Oz

Pottle, I can't see any great advantage in seeing a koala in the wild as opposed to, say, the Koala Park at Pennant Hills, which is maybe 30 minutes from the city centre. They're pretty inactive beasts at the best of times, and like other Australian marsupials nocturnal.

You don't have to drive 30 minutes from Canberra to see kangaroos either. I live 3 km from the city's centre, and walking the dog in the nearby bushland surrounding Mt Ainslie (which rises behind the Australian War Memorial) I often come across them. In times of drought, like now, they encroach further and further into the suburbs in search of food. Be aware, though, that they're wild animals and you shouldn't expect to walk up and pat them (sorry if this is stating the bleeding obvious). If cornered or threatened the large males can be vicious and have been known to disembowel dogs.

Some wildlife species are under severe threat as a result of human settlement and the replacement of vast areas of native forest by grazing and farming land, others have exploded in numbers -especially kangaroos. Canberra is an interesting case in point - less than 100 years ago the area had few human inhabitants and was a sparsely-treed plain. Now, with a human population of over 320,000, over 12-15 million introduced native and exotic trees and a large man-made lake, the city is swarming with possums, birdlife and of course kangaroos.

tropo's suggested drive sounds good. Many variations on that theme are available, including routes that could take in Canberra (which itself is about 3 hours from Sydney).

pat_woolford

The last time I saw a koala around Sydney was in the '70's at Bilgola Plateau on the northern beaches. We'd invited some newly arrived Brits for a bbq - out of the dark came Mum koala down the tree which was only a few feet from us, baby on back. The baby detached itself from Mum and actually bumbled into the house, checked out the living room with Mum patiently waiting at base of tree, but keeping a beady eye on it. It ambled back to her when she swiftly reclaimed it and shot very swiftly back up the tree. We all sat there gob-smacked, the Brits were impressed but thought it was an every-day sighting for us. Sadly, due to urban encroachment, traffic and dogs, those days are over.

Alan

topping for jblauner