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As many of you will know, I spent a year living in Australia and absolutely fell in love with the country's magical wildlife. So when Wildlife Worldwide asked whether I would be interested in leading a dedicated photography tour there, I of course jumped at the chance. That was when Covid decided to pop its head up and the first couple of departures were postponed for 2 whole years. Finally, in December 2022, I was given the chance to take the helm for our very first departure. We started our adventures in the city of Melbourne and soon headed towards the city of Geelong and the You Yangs. Here we joined local naturalist and koala expert Roger, who we hoped would find us this arboreal member of the marsupial family. We were in luck.  We then headed into the city of Geelong as we went to visit the colony of grey-headed flying foxes that call the mature trees home. It was here that we were also treated to some incredible views of eastern rosella. This colourful species of parrot are usually shy and rarely pose like this individual felt compelled to do.   The next day, we headed to the nearby Serendip Sanctuary to photograph the resident eastern grey kangaroos and a wealth of other species that call this area home.  It was a great first couple of days getting back in the swing of things with Australian wildlife. I absolutely love being with macropods (the family of marsupials to which kangaroos belong) and getting so close to such a big mob was absolutely fantastic. With a great couple of days behind us, it was time to return to Melbourne for a night before our flight across the Bass Strait and on to Tasmania.    We started our stay in Tasmania by exploring the area's northern wilderness regions. Here the group enjoyed some wonderful views and photography of some truly iconic Australian species, including wombat, echidna and Bennett's wallaby.  Finally, after a magical couple of weeks down under, we headed south to Bruny Island. The undoubted highlight here was the chance to see and photograph the diminutive, but critically endangered forty-spotted pardalote.  It wouldn't be long before I would be back on Australian soil, hoping to photograph more wildlife in Victoria and Tasmania
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Coming towards the end of our amazing road trip meant heading back northwards. We would end up going back up the east coast we now know relatively well. We will be saying goodbye to friends along the way but first there were a few more destinations we wanted to visit. In New South Wales far south, is the coastal town of Narooma. My girlfriend and I fell in love with Narooma and its beautiful watery lifestyle. Amazing beaches, a crystal clear tidal lagoon and some noisy locals all made it it one of our favourite spots. By noisy locals, I don't mean the human inhabitants, instead I am talking about the small population of Australian Fur Seals. We spent an afternoon watching these playful and rather characterful individuals, only wishing we had more time spend with them and this beautiful setting.     After leaving Narooma we headed on, northwards up the eastern seaboard of New South Wales. This meant we were heading past one of my favourite places in Australia. I have already mentioned and highlighted Kangaroo Valley on this blog but I had to pop in once more and catch up with the Wombats. There was one particularly obliging and inquisitive individual but it was a little on the skinny side. It wasn't just the wombats that knew how to pose of the camera, a Kookaburra that seemed to be completely at ease around people, posed perfectly on a fence post as I snapped away.     The next stop is Sydney so you will have check back here to see what adventures I had in a city I know quite well.
Having travelled down the New South Wales coastline it was time to head inland on this last part of our Aussie adventure. Our first stop was in the rural town of Goulburn, there wasn't much in the way of wildlife there but we had heard of a place called Kangaroo Valley. This, as you might expect, is a valley home to plenty of Kangaroos but it wasn't these critters we were after. We had also heard that the valley was home to a thriving population of Wombats. Up until now we hadn't found any wombats so we really hoped that we might be in luck ... we certainly were as you can see below!  Wombat  Wombat We then headed further inland, across the Hay Plain towards the farming town of Mildura in northern Victoria. This is one of Australia's fruit growing capitals but nearby is the remote Mungo National Park. We headed out early on morning driving off the main highway onto a gravel road, an incredibly long gravel road of nearly 100 kms. After a few hours, we finally arrived at this wild landscape in search of the Red Kangaroo. This was the only chance on our trip to Australia that we might see this incredible desert survivor, so we had to make the effort. We struck gold, not only seeing the Red Kangaroos but also the Western Grey Kangaroos and wild Emus.  Red Kangaroos in Mungo NP  Emu in Mungo NP  Emu  Western Grey Kangaroo The next leg of the inland part of our journey took us across another state border to South Australia. We followed the Murray River from Mildura towards the riverside town of Mannum. Nestled right on the edge of the winding river it was a bird-watcher's paradise with a very obliging community of Brush-tailed Possums just to top it off. The possums were fantastic and we loved the mother with her young baby, the images just don't really show the difference in their size. The next morning we awoke to a valley full of a thick mist and I knew I had to go to the waters edge and see what subjects I could find. The Black Swans and the Galahs were just superb and so cooperative, it was a truly magical morning.  Brush-tailed Possum with baby  Young Brush-tailed Possum  Black Swan at dawn  Galahs warming up in the morning sun  Black Swan in the mist over the Murray River  The next part of our journey is to the magnificent Kangaroo Island so come back soon and check it out!
Urban kangaroos, possibly my favourite subject to photograph in all of Australia, so far at least. Well, I might have become a little addicted, scratch that ... I am definitely addicted. There is nothing really in the world that compares to the kangaroos and the wallabies of Australasia, with their deer-like head, long muscular tail and their incredibly energy efficient motion. For me though, they are characterful and just utterly beautiful ... i don't needy any excuses to just keep photographing them.  Grey Kangaroo, Toorbul  Grey Kangaroo, Toorbul  Street Kangaroo, Toorbul  Grey Kangaroo, Toorbul  Grey Kangaroo, Toorbul  Grey Kangaroo, Toorbul  Grey Kangaroo, Toorbul All the images above were taken on one glorious evening, I was alone with the kangaroos and the lighting couldn't have been better. I went back the next day and had further luck ...  Grey Kangaroo, Toorbul  Grey Kangaroos Toorbul  Grey Kangaroo, Toorbul  Grey Kangaroo with Joey, Toorbul  Juvenile Kangaroo, Toorbul The female with the joey in her pouch was particularly obliging, you just can't describe how wonderful it is to be so close to these animals. Another fantastic evening with these charismatic marsupials and I have a feeling there might be another few to come before I leave the area.
Australia is rightly famed for its unique wildlife, the most iconic of these has got to be the kangaroo. On the Pacific coast, the species of kangaroo you will encounter is the Eastern Grey, this is a large mammal and one that you need to respect. Sadly, more often than not there seems to be some sort of conflict with the growing population and expanding towns and cities. This is certainly the case in the small towns to the north of Brisbane, both the small towns of Beachmere and Toorbul are home to Eastern Grey Kangaroos. Beachmere is undergoing a new phase of development with large swathes of swampy bushland being drained and turned into now housing estates. It seems that there has been little evaluation of the environmental impacts and I came across a group of Kangaroos still trying to forage on a vast construction site. 
Eastern Grey Kangaroo standing in front of a soil heap on the building site.
A lone kangaroo watches across the destroyed habitat
Toorbul is a slightly different proposition to Beachmere, there seems to be little new development here but there is plenty of established housing. Here the kangaroos have made their homes among the parks and gardens of the local community and have little fear of people. It seems to be quite a harmonious situation but perhaps it isn't all as it quite seems. After an hour or so an absolute idiot came towards the small group of kangaroos on a mini motorbike and drove straight at them. All the kangaroos panicked with one poor youngster, who you can see in the portraits towards the bottom of this post, falling over right in front of me and desperately scrabbling to try and avoid the bike. It was horrific to see and really showed me the worst in humanity, the individual paused beforehand and purposefully accelerated towards them, seemingly proud of his vile act. It was then that I decided to leave this group alone so not to stress them out any further than their ordeal with one selfish and bizarre individual. 
A mob of Kangaroos in Toorbul
Even kangaroos need a good scratch
A large male keeps a close eye on me
Here is the poor young kangaroo that panicked as the motorcyclist approached, thankfully it was very calm and relaxed beforehand when I was watching it. 
Eastern Grey Kangaroo
Eastern Grey Kangaroo
Eastern Grey Kangaroo
After the amazing sightings of Platypus in Eungella NP, we headed further inland hoping to visit Carnarvon Gorge. We first stopped off in the gemfields and stayed in the small community of Sapphire, where I got up close and personal to an amazing Oscillated Velvet Gecko which was searching for a meal in the extraordinary heat.  Oscillated Velvet Gecko After this short stop we continued southwards to the amazing Carnarvon Gorge but sadly it didn't go quite as we had planned. We were hoping to stay there for 4 nights, that way we could make the most of this amazing destination. Unforunately, after only 1 night we had to leave, a large rainstorm was forecast and we could be cut off for a couple of weeks. We got to spend one afternoon enjoying the local wildlife though and it was great from a photographic point of view. With close encounters of both Swamp Wallabies and Eastern Grey Kangaroos the highlight.  Swamp Wallaby  Swamp Wallaby  Swamp Wallaby  Swamp Wallaby  Eastern Grey Kangaroo  Eastern Grey Kangaroo with Joey  Eastern Grey Kangaroos As the sun started to set a Kookaburra appeared in the trees above me and started to laugh until the light was no more. I took a single silhouette as my final image of the day.  Kookaburra silhouette After our couple of nights in Port Stephens, it was time once more to move northwards along the eastern coast of Australia. Our next stop on this journey was Port Macquarie. Here we decided to stay close to Flynns Beach and make the most of the gorgeous coastline. We arrived around lunch time and set up our tent under the shade of the gum trees, after which Vic was reading her book and happened to look up and see this little fella ...  Our first Koala In the afternoon we went for a little walk and enjoyed the wonderful beaches and seascapes.  Vic posing above the beach  Kookaburra on the beach The next day the Koala seemed to be a little elusive and we were struggling to spot it, eventually (with the help of a campsite member of staff) we spotted it high in a gum tree. We were luck to also have a regular influx of Rainbow Lorikeets. We then headed down to the coast to enjoy the colours and scenery at sunset.  Rainbow Lorikeet
After a wonderful evening, watching the world go by and photographing the rocky shore at the edge of the beach, we headed back to camp for the evening knowing that tomorrow we would be moving on again. This time to Coffs Harbour. There was one last wildlife encounter before we left though and this time it was a really intimate experience with the Koala who climbed down the tree next to us and headed back up another tree. With a leap to a third tree it settled itself down and posed for a few images. Sadly, the leap was impossible to photography ... imagine a leaping Koala shot!
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