Right: The 12 Apostles Marine National Park, Victoria as seen in 2003. The 50-meter high sea stack on the left collapsed on July 3rd 2005.
My wife and I left Seattle's winter for 7.5 weeks exploring some great parks in southern Australia, January 26-March 18, 2004, in the southern summer. Jet lag to Sydney is only -5 hours from Seattle (plus one day), and we adjusted our sleep patterns within two days. We most enjoyed Australia's unique animals and plants, which are exotic to our eyes. In hindsight, we could have shortened the trip to about 4 weeks, going straight to the highlights, which I describe below.
Right: The Australian
national flag (on Kangaroo Island ferry, South Australia)
Australia is a large
country
and the interesting sights are far apart. I recommend flying to each
major
city (see Virgin Blue Airlines),
renting a camper (Apollocamper.com) or
car (Bayswatercarrental.com.au),
and
staying at the convenient Caravan/Holiday Parks for economy (these
external links offer excellent value). A
camper conveniently lets you show up in most parks without a
reservation,
provides a kitchen, and carries all you need without reshuffling
luggage.
A camper would have been especially useful in Tasmania,
where we had to reserve lodging at least several days in advance even
in
"shoulder" tourist season.
I adjusted to driving on the left within one
day; Carol was more cautious but also quickly adapted. Be prepared for
narrower, bumpier roads and fast traffic in Australia (compared to the
USA). We liked the Australian roundabouts which let traffic flow much
more
smoothly than a stop sign.
For a great short trip, go to the beautiful
Sydney area for a few days, then hasten to
Tasmania,
which offers wonderful variety on a compact island. To extend the trip,
consider flying to Adelaide and visiting Kangaroo Island for wildlife,
coastal scenery, and geology. Also worthwhile: fly to Melbourne and
visit
Wilson's Promontory National Park for great wildlife, estuary, &
coastal
scenery; and if you like beaches and waves, add the Great Ocean Road.
The
flight to Perth, Western Australia, is pricey and the driving lengthy
before
you reach interesting places, but once we arrived in the Walpole area,
I really enjoyed the old growth forests of amazingly tall tingle and
karri
trees, which are found nowhere else on earth.
The Bottom Line: I find New
Zealand to be a better travel value than Australia (such as for
variety
of sights, shorter driving distances, wildlife, better exchange rate
for
the US dollar & lower costs). Many of Australia's scenic wonders
(such
as forests, canyons, deserts, mountains, and coral reefs) are equaled
or
exceeded by similar sights that I regularly see in North America. I
best
liked the fascinating native Australian birds, marsupials, reptiles,
eucalyptus
and other wild and unique living things -- visiting the real Australia
beats any zoo or garden. Everybody says that the northern and interior
Australia differ greatly from the southern parts that we saw, and we
may
go there some September or October in a future year, though we have
many
other exciting countries to visit first.
Left: Sydney Opera House and
skyscrapers,
in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Above: Beautiful Sydney Harbor (seen from the great Toronga Zoo).
Left: Sacred Ibis,
a bird commonly seen in Sydney.
One of the many
pleasures of Sydney is the abundant population of unusual flying
creatures,
including big fruit bats (flying foxes) in the downtown Royal Botanic
Garden.
Left: Opera House, Sydney Harbor, New South Wales.
Above right: We loved seeing the wild Sulphur Crested Cockatoos
foraging in the
Royal Botanic Garden and at bird feeders in Kings Cross, Sydney.
Eucalyptus bark peals off into many colorful patterns in Royal
National
Park. This park offers a great 7-mile day-hike loop through native Palm
Forest, bluffs, and beach, a convenient day trip by rental car or
train,
south of Sydney, NSW. A 3-foot long goanna (monitor lizard) surprised
me
with its boldness and size. A pair of huge forest parrots impressed us
also. Best of all, I spotted a rare Lyrebird running silently across
the
trail in front of me.
A small grub forms these wiggly patterns under the bark of the
Squiggly
Bark Gum, Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park (14 miles north of Sydney),
NSW.
Eucalyptus Bark, Royal National Park, NSW.
Blue Mountains National Park (a day trip, west of Sydney, NSW)
offers
many nice hiking opportunities. We walked the "Grand Canyon," a 3-mile
loop through a slot canyon which shelters a spattering stream, tree
ferns,
tree grass (with blooms), and other interesting plants. In the year
2000,
UNESCO listed the Greater Blue Mountains (of which one quarter is Blue
Mountains National Park) as a World Heritage Site.
Fire is a necessary and natural part of the lifecycle of eucalyptus
forest, to the dismay of people in adjacent cities. Ku-Ring-Gai Chase
National
Park (14 miles north of Sydney), NSW
Above: The Grampians (Gariwerd) National Park, located a few hours
from
Melbourne, Victoria, has nice hiking trails and an impressively rich
variety
of native birds & animals..
Above right: Crimson Rosella, Grampians (Gariwerd) National Park,
Victoria.
Left: Whale Rock, and Tidal River, at Wilson's Promontory National
Park, Victoria.
Above right: Attractive lichen covered boulders at Tidal River,
Wilson's
Promontory
National Park, Victoria.
Rainbow Falls, Cape Otway National Park, Victoria. Stay at Bimbi
Caravan Park, and hike 5 miles round trip to this stunning orange
travertine
waterfall located on a remote coast with wild white beaches.
We enjoyed walking the beautiful wild beach at Gibson Steps, at
12 Apostles Marine National Park, Victoria.
Below right: The 12 Apostles are a
spectacular formation of
seastack
rocks (or haystacks) on the Victoria coast, as seen below in 2003. The
50-meter high sea stack on the left collapsed and began washing away on
July 3rd 2005, leaving 8 remaining Apostles in 12 Apostles Marine
National
Park.
Left:
A curious Kangaroo Island Kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus) approaches my camera at the campground at Flinders Chase Visitor Centre. Matthew Flinders named Kangaroo Island after this large brown kangaroo species when he landed here
in 1802, and the species is still common across the Island. It breeds year round with a peak during the summer months.
Be cautious of this species when driving along roads at night.
Left: The campground adjacent to the Visitor Centre at Flinders
Chase National Park is a great place
to view kangaroos, brushtail possums, birds, echidnas, and other
wildlife.
Kangaroo Island, South Australia.
Kangaroo mother with joey at our campsite in Flinders Chase National
Park on Kangaroo Island, South Australia.
We visited a nice koala conservation park on Kangaroo Island for
close views of cute but sleepy koalas. (We also saw wild koalas
sleeping
in trees at Bimbi Caravan Park near Cape Otway National Park, Victoria,
and heard them screech at night in Flinders Chase National Park on
Kangaroo
Island.)
This curious Common Brushtail Possum climbed atop our camper one
night, in the campground at Flinders Chase National Park, one of the
best
places to view wildlife in Australia. Kangaroo Island, South Australia.
I was fascinated by the Remarkable Rocks, which originally formed
as a single granite monolith and became cracked and eroded by seashore
weathering. Flinders Chase National Park, Kangaroo Island, South
Australia.
The Remarkable Rocks.
The lichen-covered Remarkable Rocks at sunset, Flinders Chase
National
Park, Kangaroo Island, South Australia.
We flew to Perth (from Melbourne) and immediately drove our rental
camper southwards towards some unique ecological areas found
nowhere
else on earth.
In Fremantle, we highly recommend visiting
the Fremantle Museum, which succinctly portrays a vivid vision
of
Western Australia history, including the difficult life of early
pioneers
(who, to their loss, ignored the valuable live-off-the-land knowledge
of
local aborigines); Australian concerns over possible Japanese invasion
in World War II; and subsequent importation of dispossessed Europeans
to
populate this large empty continent.
South of Perth, you can swim with wild
bottlenose dolphins at the Dophin Discovery Center in the
bay
at Bunbury. On a cloudy day, we waded into chilly water and joined a
line
of a dozen tourists, as a single dolphin cruised around us. Volunteers
in red shirts enforce the rule of not touching or feeding the dolphins,
in order to keep them wild. We would have been more impressed with this
dolphin experience if the day had been warm enough to snorkel more
comfortably.
(Much further north of Perth I have heard that you can wade in warmer
waters
at Monkey Mia where dolphins approach more closely in greater numbers,
but feeding makes the dolphins less wild there.)
Above right: Fire and decomposition have cleared out the center of
the Giant
Tingle Tree, while growth continues just under the bark. This common
process
on older trees creates these large buttresses. The tingle is a
type
of eucalyptus found only in south-Western Australia, and nowhere else
on
earth. Walpole-Nornalup National Park, Western Australia.
Above: Two pelicans, a boat and a man. Coalmine Beach,
Walpole-Nornalup National
Park, Western Australia.
Pelicans preen on peaceful Coalmine Beach, Walpole-Nornalup National
Park, Western Australia.
The call of the Australian magpie is full of fascinating bells and
whistles, and is found throughout most of Australia.
Page 1 (this page): Sydney,
NSW , VICTORIA , SOUTH
AUSTRALIA , WESTERN
AUSTRALIA
Page 2: TASMANIA: Wombat
, Tasmanian Devil
, Russell
Falls, Mt Field NP , Freycinet NP
, Maria Island NP ,
Cradle Mountain-Lake
Saint Clair NP, Overland
Track
Copyright 2004 by Tom Dempsey. Photographs or text may not be copied without permission. Click here to buy a copy of any image on this page.
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