Where to see Australia's unique wildlife

Australia boasts a weird and wonderful menagerie of creatures on land, sea and air.

Kangaroo

One half of the national coat of arms (the other is the emu), the kangaroo is one of the country’s most celebrated animals. There are four different species of kangaroo: The Red; Antilopine; Eastern Grey; and Western Grey. The Red holds the distinction of being the world’s largest marsupial; some males stand as tall as six feet and weigh in at 200 pounds.

Fast fact: There are more kangaroos than humans in Australia (roughly 50 million versus 25.7 million), with an estimated 15.8 million red kangaroos alone.

Where to see them: You’ll find kangaroos all over Australia. They’re social creatures, so chances are if you see one there are more close by. They rest during the heat of the day, so the best time to catch sight of them is at dawn and dusk.

Kangaroo with its joey — The kangaroo is one of Australia’s most celebrated animals.

Koala

When it comes to the Aussie animal most visitors want to tick off their list, chances are it’s the koala. This impossibly cute tree-dwelling marsupial mammal survives on a diet exclusively made up of eucalyptus leaves. The trees are also their home, with koalas spending up to 19 hours a day sleeping in them before waking up to feed at night, making them largely nocturnal. While koalas have a pouch like kangaroos, they are more closely related to the wombat.

Fast fact: While they look all chubby and cuddly, koalas have seriously sharp claws and when threatened can run as fast as a rabbit.

Where to see them: Due to the fact that they spend most of their time up trees, koalas can be elusive to spot in the wild. Keep an eye out for them along the Great Ocean Road and on Raymond Island in Victoria, and around Port Stephens and Port Macquarie in New South Wales.

A Koala holding onto a branch — Koalas survive on a diet exclusively made up of eucalyptus leaves.

Wombat

These chubby creatures live in burrows and emerge at night to feast on a diet of grasses, bark and roots. Consisting of three species – the Common Wombat, the Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat and the Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombat – wombats are an evolutionary wonder: they have a pouch like other marsupials but it faces backwards so that it doesn’t fill with dirt when they are digging. And its rump consists mostly of cartilage so that when it retreats headfirst into its hole it is almost impossible for predators to get a grip on.

Fast fact: Wombats’ poop is shaped like a cube. The theory is that as they mark their territory by defecating, the shape stops it from rolling away.

Where to see them: Wombats thrive in cool, damp environments, so you have a good chance of spotting them in places like Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park and Maria Island in Tasmania, Wilsons Promontory National Park in Victoria, and the Southern Highlands, less than two hours from Sydney.

Wombat looking at the camera — Wombats live in burrows and emerge at night to feast on a diet of grasses, bark and roots.

Possum

When you are out and about at night in Australia, whether in the heart of Sydney or in the wilds of Freycinet National Park in Tasmania, chances are you will catch a glimpse of either a Common Brushtail Possum or a Common Ringtail Possum, the most prolific of Australia’s 23 species of possums.

With their soft fur and sweet faces, possums are one of the easiest marsupials to spot as they are quite adventurous in the pursuit of food. And if you can’t see them, you’re sure to hear them; researchers have identified at least 18 different sounds made by possums including screeching, hissing and grunting.

Fast fact: Both brushtail and ringtail possums have prehensile tails, which they use as a type of hand to cling to trees and carry things.

Where to see them: Brushtail and ringtail possums are found all over the country and are easy to spot when feeding at night – just look up.

Possum looking into the camera — Possums are one of the easiest marsupials to spot.

Wallaby

A marsupial cousin of the kangaroo, wallabies are widely found across the country. Smaller than kangaroos, there are some 30 species of wallaby in Australia including the Rock Wallaby, Swamp Wallaby and the Tammar Wallaby, all of which hop to get around, tend to be more active at dawn and dusk, and carry their young in a pouch. Unlike kangaroos, however, wallabies are solitary creatures.

Fast fact: If a wallaby becomes pregnant while she still has a joey (baby) in her pouch, she can pause the gestation of the new embryo until its sibling has vacated the space.

Where to see them: Wallabies are widespread and plentiful, which means you are in with a good chance of seeing these delightful little creatures in any of Australia’s abundant National Parks.

Kookaburra

Australia is home to abundant birdlife, but none is more genuinely wondrous than the kookaburra. Also known as the Laughing Kookaburra, this Kingfisher is famous for its loud and clear call that sounds like a hearty belly laugh but is actually a method to warn other birds off its territory.

Fast fact: Kookaburras are believed to pair for life, so when you see one bird its mate will most likely be nearby.

Where to see them: Found predominantly on the East Coast, you will usually hear them before you see them.

Kooraburra — Kookaburras are famous for their loud and clear call that sounds.

Tasmanian Devil

Found exclusively on the island state from which it gets its name, this carnivorous marsupial is actually a lot like its Looney Tunes cartoon persona, a snarling, irascible whirlwind of teeth and attitude. With a vocabulary of growls, grunts and snarls, they are vociferous (and slightly vicious) when threatened or protecting their food.

Fast fact: Further cementing its reputation, the Tasmanian Devil has the most powerful bite of any animal in the world based on its size.

Where to see them: As the devil is nocturnal, it is difficult to see in the wild; instead visit the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park in Taranna, an easy drive from Hobart, Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, north of Hobart, or Devils @ Cradle Wildlife Park near Cradle Mountain National Park.

Two Tasmanian Devils — Tasmanian Devils are found exclusively on the island state from which it gets its name.

Also watch out for…

Echidna

This little egg-laying mammal is covered in sharp spikes and eats a diet largely made up of ants, hence its alternative name, the spiny anteater. They thrive in all manner of habitats, too.

Emu

The other half of the coat of arms, this flightless bird is the second biggest in the world after the ostrich; they can grow up to 6.5 feet tall. You’ll find them across mainland Australia.

Emus crossing the road — Emus are the second biggest birds in the world after the ostrich.

Platypus

One of only two egg-laying mammals in the world (the other is the echidna), the platypus has a ducklike bill, webbed feet, is covered in fur and sleeps 14 hours a day on average.

Dingo

Australia’s native wild dog, dingoes are found throughout the mainland states, including in the Northern Territory, and are known for their characteristic howl.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

You’ll hear these cheeky native birds screeching loudly during the summer months as they dart from tree to tree or hang upside down from electricity wires.

Quokka

Native to Rottnest Island in Western Australia, the cuddly quokka is quite possibly Australia’s happiest marsupial, whose delightful grin has featured in many a cute selfie and social media post.

Video credit: Visit Victoria/Tourism Australia

The Grampians just might be the ultimate antidote for the metropolis, writes one returning Aussie ready to disconnect from the modern world and reconnect to the Great outdoors.

There are no kangaroos back in Chicago: they’re all here in the Grampians/Gariwerd . In the heart of the Grampians National Park’s main gateway town, Halls Gap, pods of eastern greys are eating grass beside my parked rental car beneath the stars. Next morning, when I see the backyard of my rented villa on the edge of town for the first time, there are kangaroos feeding beside a slow-moving creek, lined with river red gums.

Five hundred metres up the road, 50 or so of them are eating by the side of the road in a paddock. I pull over to watch and spot three emus. Yellow-tailed black cockatoos fly overhead towards the tall green mountains just beyond town.

‘Kee-ow, keee-oww’… their calls fuse with the maniacal cackle of a kookaburra (or 10). Gawd, how I’ve missed the sound of them. Far above, a wedge-tailed eagle watches, and there you go: the ‘great birds of Australia’ trifecta, all half a kay from the town limits.

Exchanging city chaos for country calm

kangaroos near Halls Gap, Grampians National Park — The park is renowned for its significant diversity of native fauna species. (Image: Visit Victoria/Robert Blackburn)

I’ve come to the Grampians to disconnect, but the bush offers a connection of its own. This isn’t just any bush, mind you. The Grampians National Park is iconic for many reasons, mostly for its striking sandstone mountains – five ridges run north to south, with abrupt, orange slopes which tumble right into Halls Gap – and for the fact there’s 20,000 years of traditional rock art. Across these mountains there are more than 200 recorded sites to see, created by the Djab Wurrung, Jardwadjali and Gunditjmara peoples. It’s just like our outback… but three hours from Melbourne.

I’ve come here for a chance at renewal after the chaos of my life in America’s third-largest city, Chicago, where I live for now, at the whim of a relative’s cancer journey. Flying into Melbourne’s airport, it only takes an hour’s drive to feel far away from any concept of suburbia. When I arrive in Halls Gap two hours later, the restaurant I’m eating at clears out entirely by 7:45pm; Chicago already feels a lifetime ago.

The trails and treasures of the Grampians

sunrise at Grampians National Park /Gariwerd — Grampians National Park /Gariwerd covers almost 2000 square kilometres. (Image: Ben Savage)

Though the national park covers almost 2000 square kilometres, its best-known landmarks are remarkably easy to access. From my carpark here, among the cockatoos and kangaroos on the fringe of Halls Gap, it only takes 60 seconds’ driving time before I’m winding my way up a steep road through rainforest, deep into the mountains.

Then it’s five minutes more to a carpark that serves as a trailhead for a hike to one of the park’s best vantage points, The Pinnacles . I walk for an hour or so, reacquainting myself with the smells and the sounds of the Aussie bush, before I reach it: a sheer cliff’s edge lookout 500 metres up above Halls Gap.

walking through a cave, Hollow Mountain — Overlooking the vast Grampians landscape from Hollow Mountain. (Image: Robert Blackburn)

There are hikes and there are lookouts and waterfalls all across this part of the park near town. Some are a short stroll from a carpark; others involve long, arduous hikes through forest. The longest is the Grampians Peaks Trail , Victoria’s newest and longest iconic walk, which runs 160 kilometres – the entire length of Grampians National Park.

Local activities operator Absolute Outdoors shows me glimpses of the trail. The company’s owner, Adrian Manikas, says it’s the best walk he’s done in Australia. He says he’s worked in national parks across the world, but this was the one he wanted to bring his children up in.

“There’s something about the Grampians,” he says, as he leads me up a path to where there’s wooden platforms for tents, beside a hut looking straight out across western Victoria from a kilometre up in the sky (these are part of the guided hiking options for the trail). “There are things out here that you won’t see anywhere else in Australia.” Last summer, 80 per cent of the park was damaged by bushfire, but Manikas shows me its regrowth, and tells me of the manic effort put in by volunteers from town – with firefighters from all over Australia – to help save Halls Gap.

wildflowers in Grampians National Park — Spot wildflowers. (Image: Visit Victoria)

We drive back down to Halls Gap at dusk to abseil down a mountain under the stars, a few minutes’ walk off the main road into town. We have headlamps, but a full moon is enough to light my way down. It takes blind faith to walk backwards down a mountain into a black void, though the upside is I can’t see the extent of my descent.

Grampians National Park at sunset. (Image: Wine Australian)

The stargazing is ruined by the moon, of course, but you should see how its glow lights up the orange of the sandstone, like in a theme park. When I’m done, I stand on a rocky plateau drinking hot chocolate and listening to the Aussie animals who prefer nighttime. I can see the streets of Halls Gap off in the distance on this Friday night. The restaurants may stay open until 8pm tonight.

What else is on offer in The Grampians?

a boat travelling along the Wimmera River inDimboola — Travelling along the Wimmera River in Dimboola. (Image: Chris McConville)

You’ll find all sorts of adventures out here – from rock climbing to canoeing to hiking – but there’s more to the Grampians than a couple of thousand square kilometres of trees and mountains. Halls Gap may be known to most people, but what of Pomonal, and Dimboola, and Horsham? Here in the shadow of those big sandstone mountains there are towns and communities most of us don’t know to visit.

And who knew that the Grampians is home to Victoria’s most underrated wine region ? My disconnection this morning comes not in a forest, but in the tasting rooms and winery restaurants of the district. Like Pomonal Estate, barely 10 minutes’ drive east of Halls Gap, where UK-born chef Dean Sibthorp prepares a locally caught barramundi with lentil, pumpkin and finger lime in a restaurant beside the vines at the base of the Grampians. Husband-and-wife team Pep and Adam Atchison tell me stories as they pour their prize wines (shiraz is the hero in these parts).

dining at Pomonal Estate — Dine in a restaurant beside vines at Pomonal Estate. (Image: Tourism Australia)

Three minutes’ drive back down the road, long-time mates Hadyn Black and Darcy Naunton run an eclectic cellar door out of a corrugated iron shed, near downtown Pomonal. The Christmas before last, half the houses in Pomonal burnt down in a bushfire, but these locals are a resilient lot.

The fires also didn’t stop the construction of the first art centre in Australia dedicated to environmental art in a nature-based precinct a little further down the road (that’s Wama – the National Centre for Environmental Arts), which opened in July. And some of the world’s oldest and rarest grape vines have survived 160 years at Best’s Wines, outside the heritage town of Great Western. There’s plantings here from the year 1868, and there’s wines stored in century-old barrels within 150-year-old tunnels beneath the tasting room. On the other side of town, Seppelt Wines’ roots go back to 1865. They’re both only a 30-minute drive from Halls Gap.

Salingers of Great Western — Great Western is a charming heritage town. (Image: Griffin Simm)

There’s more to explore yet; I drive through tiny historic towns that barely make the map. Still part of the Grampians, they’re as pretty as the mountains behind them: full of late 19th-century/early 20th-century post offices, government offices and bank buildings, converted now to all manner of bric-a-brac stores and cafes.

The Imaginarium is one, in quirky Dimboola, where I sleep in the manager’s residence of an old National Australia Bank after a gourmet dinner at the local golf club, run by noted chef and teacher, Cat Clarke – a pioneer of modern Indigenous Australian cooking. Just south, I spend an entire afternoon at a winery, Norton Estate Wines, set on rolling calico-coloured hills that make me think of Tuscany, chit-chatting with owners Chris and Sam Spence.

Being here takes me back two decades, when I lived here for a time. It had all seemed as foreign as if I’d driven to another planet back then (from Sydney/Warrane), but there seemed something inherently and immediately good about this place, like I’d lived here before.

And it’s the Australian small-town familiarity of the Grampians that offers me connection back to my own country. Even in the better-known Halls Gap, Liz from Kerrie’s Creations knows I like my lattes with soy milk and one sugar. And while I never do get the name of the lady at the local Ampol station, I sure know a lot about her life.

Kookaburras on a tree — Kookaburras are one of some 230 bird species. (Image: Darren Donlen)

You can be a local here in a day; how good is that? In Chicago, I don’t even know who my neighbour is. Though each day at dusk – when the kangaroos gather outside my villa, and the kookaburras and the black cockatoos shout out loud before settling in to sleep – I prefer the quieter connection I get out there in the bush, beneath these orange mountains.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

Sleep beside the wildlife on the edge of Halls Gap at Serenity .

Playing there

abseiling down Hollow Mountain — Hollow Mountain is a popular abseiling site.

Go abseiling under the stars or join a guided hike with Absolute Outdoors . Visit Wama , Australia’s first environmental art centre. Check out Dimboola’s eccentric Imaginarium .

Eating there

steak, naan bread and beer at Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap — Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap serves a great steak on naan bread.

Eat world-class cuisine at Pomonal Estate . Dine and stay at much-revered icon Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld. The ‘steak on naan’ at Halls Gap brewhouse Paper Scissors Rock , can’t be beat.

Dunkeld Arboretum in Grampians National Park — The serene Dunkeld Arboretum.

For Halls Gap’s best breakfasts head to Livefast Cafe . Sip local wines at Great Western’s historic wineries, Best’s Wines , Seppelt Wines and Norton Estate Wines .

two glasses of beer at Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap — Sink a cold one at Paper Scissors Rock.

Where to see Australia’s unique wildlife