3 weeks in Australia - itinerary questions (1 Viewer)

pandachris · Jan 9, 2017

We’re visiting Australia for our first time in March/April for three weeks. Although not exclusively a birds/wildlife holiday we will be able to devote a lot of time to the natural world. We are thinking that we will spread our time between a small number of locations. We will almost certainly go for at least one day of guiding in each location. Our inbound flight gets us into Sydney at 06:30. We’ve managed long-haul before quite well, although this is considerably further than previous excursions to Central America, South East Asia and southern Africa (irrelevant to jet-lag) and our flight out of the UK leaves at 22:00 so we’re hopeful that we can manage a full 1st day with an early night.

We’re prepared to rent cars where appropriate and we have an ok budget.
Our tentative itinerary looks like this at the moment:

Day 1 Sydney
Day 2 Sydney
Day 3 Sydney
Day 4 Sydney
Day 5 Melbourne
Day 6 Melbourne
Day 7 Melbourne
Day 8 Melbourne
Day 9 Melbourne (possible overnight on Philip Island)
Day 10 Melbourne
Day 11 Darwin
Day 12 Darwin
Day 13 Darwin
Day 14 Darwin
Day 15 Cairns/Daintree
Day 16 Cairns/Daintree
Day 17 Cairns Daintree
Day 18 – Cairns/Daintree
Day 19 – unallocated
Day 20 – unallocated
Day 21 Sydney
Day 22 return to UK

Much of the schedule is flexible. The Sydney days are pretty much fixed. We want to be in Melbourne over a weekend, for the comedy festival. We can move things around, lengthen or shorten sections or scrap them altogether. Any ideas about how to spend the spare days? Should we simply add extra days in areas we’ve already considered or is there somewhere we should consider in order to see birds and other wildlife?

pandachris · Jan 10, 2017

I'm still interested in answers to the above but having done a bit more research I'm finding a stop in Alice Springs more and more appealing, especially because of the significantly different habitats. It's not cheap to get to, though (I've eliminated "The Ghan" from my calculations) so I'm wondering now if we should drop one of Cairns and Darwin and have longer in the other and in Alice Springs. In terms of birds and other wildlife in early April, which would people who have some experience of the regions prefer? Darwin+ Cairns; Darwin + Alice Springs; Cairns + Alice Springs.

MJB · Jan 10, 2017

pandachris said:
I'm still interested in answers to the above but having done a bit more research I'm finding a stop in Alice Springs more and more appealing, especially because of the significantly different habitats. It's not cheap to get to, though (I've eliminated "The Ghan" from my calculations) so I'm wondering now if we should drop one of Cairns and Darwin and have longer in the other and in Alice Springs. In terms of birds and other wildlife in early April, which would people who have some experience of the regions prefer? Darwin+ Cairns; Darwin + Alice Springs; Cairns + Alice Springs.

April is the end of the rainy season in the Top End (Darwin-Kakadu-Arnhem Land) and Queensland (roads in general but also south of Cairns are often impassable because the floodways are full). I've always visited after June.

April is the start of the tourist season in Alice, the average day temperatures being 28C, but night can drop towards zero. The waterholes normally are full, good news for swimmers. If you want to bird the settling ponds south of Alice, there's an on-line safety exam to pass, but best plan to visit at the weekends, when volunteer guides are not at their work - you will need to organise this in advance, despite what the water organisation says on its website. If you are going to do any exploration beyond the tarmac, rent a 4WD ahead of time - they go quickly in-season.
MJB

RobHynson · Jan 11, 2017

Hi Chris.

for Sydney the best spot to visit is the Royal national park, you could probably spend a couple of days there. Further afield from Sydney is the Capertee valley which is about 3 hours west of Sydney and Barren Grounds apporx 2.5 hours south of Sydney. Have you thought about doing a pelagic?

If you want to maximise how many species you see I'd minimise your time in Melbourne as there is quite a lot of overlap with Sydney. There are a few species in Melbourne you wouldn't get in Sydney but spending more time somewhere near Cairns or Darwin or adding a stop to Alice Springs would be more productive.

Darwin and Cairns will be wet as the wet season will have just finished. I don't think there will be any issues getting around the Cairns sights as most of them are at higher elevation. Darwin has the advantage that there is some very good birding within 30 mins of the city, there could be some road closures but you should be OK getting about. I'd extend your Cairns part of the trip and consider going inland a bit from Cairns to Georgetown.

Hope this helps.

Rob

pandachris · Jan 12, 2017

Thanks both. Really helpful. I'll do a bit more research based on what you have said.

pandachris · Jan 12, 2017

A pelagic definitely appeals, btw. Any recommendations?

pandachris · Jan 19, 2017

A bit more research done. Based on advice above I'd decided to miss Darwin out and add Alice Springs but the cost of flights from Cairns to Alice Springs was prohibitive, insofar that it is actually cheaper to fly Cairns - Darwin - Alice Springs than it is to go straight from Cairns. So Darwin is back on.

Our revised itinerary looks like this. We have opted for an extra day in Sydney because we want to go and meet the Castellers de Sydney (we are members of the vibrant London group) and because my eldest has reminded me that there are other things to do as well as birdwatching.

Day 1 Sydney
Day 2 Sydney
Day 3 Sydney
Day 4 Sydney
Day 5 Sydney
Day 6 Melbourne
Day 7 Melbourne
Day 8 Melbourne
Day 9 Philip Island
Day 10 Melbourne (airport hotel - we'll probably have the day on Philip Island)
Day 11 Cairns/Daintree
Day 12 Cairns/Daintree
Day 13 Cairns/Daintree
Day 14 Darwin
Day 15 Darwin
Day 16 Alice Springs
Day 17 Alice Springs
Day 18 Alice Springs
Day 19 Sydney
Day 20 Sydney
Day 21 return to UK

That's pretty much fixed as we have paid for the flights.

A few questions:

Any recommendations for places to stay in Philip Island, Cairns, Darwin and Alice Springs? Preferably somewhere with birds/wildlife close by so if one of us fancies a lie-in one day the other can find some entertainment.

Are there any decent Twitter feeds for bird sightings? Even Shropshire has one. I haven't found much so far. Failing that, any alternatives?

Are there any recommended bird guides for Cairns, Darwin and Alice Springs. I was thinking one day in each location.

Finally, is there anything else that would be useful to know if that I probably don't know?

Andrew Whitehouse · Jan 19, 2017

For bird sightings, you could keep an eye out here:
http://birding-aus.org/messages/
Ebird is also used a lot in Australia, so you can keep an eye out for reports on there.

Dave456 · Jan 19, 2017

There is some information about Sydney in the Information Wanted Forum
Have a nice trip

RobHynson · Jan 24, 2017

Do you have dates for your time in Sydney? For pelagics you have 3 options within a few hours from Sydney. Sydney, 2nd Saturday of the month, Port Stevens, 3rd Saturday of the month and Kiama, 4th Saturday of the month. Info in the links below. Let me know if you book a pelagic as I may well be on the boat.

http://www.sossa-international.org

http://www.sydneypelagics.info/

The best place to look for recent sightings is eremaea http://www.eremaea.com/BirdlineRecentSightings.aspx?Birdline=6

Some Australian birders use Ebird but eremaea is where interesting sightings are posted.

The best place to stay in Cairns is as close to the esplanade as possible. When I was up last month we stayed within a few mins of the esplanade and there are lots of birds to be seen, the mudflats are great for shorebirds and the trees and grass have a good variety of birds.

For Darwin I don't think it matters to much where you stay. I've been up there twice and both times the locations for birding near the city are pretty close.

I can't remember much about Alice Springs as I stayed there one night at the end of a long outback trip before flying home. The city isn't big so anywhere you stay will be fairly close to good birding habitat. Don't miss the olive pink botanical gardens, they have a resident Western bowerbird with a very accessible bower along with some other good inland species.

As for Guides, in Cairns Martin Cachard is the guy to speak to. He works for solarwhisper boat tours on the Daintree which is well worth a visit http://www.solarwhisper.com/

I'll have a think about bird guides for Alice and Darwin.

Cheers.

Rob

pandachris · Jan 28, 2017

Cheers Rob. We've had to budget our leave very carefully because of other commitments and aspirations so we arrive in Sydney on Sunday 26th March and leave for Melbourne the following Thursday. Even that is a day longer than expected but we want to go and meet your local castellers for their weekly practice in Hyde Park.

I'll have a look at your suggestions. You reckon actually in Cairns rather than Daintree or the Atherton Tablelands?

We managed to find a late flight on the Friday night, so we can head out straight after work and we return to the UK on the Sunday of Easter Weekend so we have a free day to recover, but with two trips to Spain, one to New York and one to Berlin planned this year we were cutting it fine on holiday allocations. More time would have been nice, but so it goes.

RobHynson · Feb 2, 2017

Definitely stay in the tablelands, Kingfisher park would probably be the best place to stay, the birding within the grounds is amazing and you are really close to mount Lewis.

MJB · Feb 2, 2017

RobHynson said:
Definitely stay in the tablelands, Kingfisher park would probably be the best place to stay, the birding within the grounds is amazing and you are really close to mount Lewis.

We found Golden Bowerbird and Blue-faced Finch (Parrotfinch) while based at Kingfisher Park.
MJB

pandachris · Feb 23, 2017

Thanks for the suggestions. After a bit of debate and research, we’ve booked Kingfisher Lodge for 3 nights including a day’s guiding. I don’t think we would have spotted this without these recommendations and it looks like we might see some species that would otherwise have been tricky.

We’ve almost finished booking stuff now and our itinerary looks like this:

26/03/2017 Sunday Sydney
27/03/2017 Monday Sydney
28/03/2017 Tuesday Sydney – guide
29/03/2017 Wednesday Sydney
30/03/2017 Thursday Sydney
31/03/2017 Friday Melbourne
01/04/2017 Saturday Melbourne - guide
02/04/2017 Sunday Melbourne
03/04/2017 Monday Philip Island
04/04/2017 Tuesday Melbourne
05/04/2017 Wednesday Kingfisher Lodge
06/04/2017 Thursday Kingfisher Lodge
07/04/2017 Friday Kingfisher Lodge
08/04/2017 Saturday Darwin
09/04/2017 Sunday Darwin
10/04/2017 Monday Alice Springs
11/04/2017 Tuesday Alice Springs
12/04/2017 Wednesday Alice Springs
13/04/2017 Thursday Biota, Bowral
14/04/2017 Friday Sydney
15/04/2017 Saturday Return flight

I think we’ll ‘self-guide’ at Darwin based on the info on http://laurieross.com.au/findingbirdsarounddarwin/
We’re hoping to get a day’s guiding around Alice Springs but haven’t had a response to our enquiry yet.

For our first day in Sydney, when we arrive at 06:30 I’ve pencilled in some time at the Olympic Park including Lake Belvedere and the Waterbird Refuge. Lake Belvedere is pretty obvious on Google Maps (it’s the big blue bit that says Lake Belvedere) but where’s the Waterbird Refuge? I should have access to a car (and possibly a driver, too, if my eldest decides to accompany us). I can see parking in the Olympic Park. Does it tend to be busy on a Sunday morning?

pandachris · Mar 3, 2017

My eldest has objected to my idea of going to the Olympic Park on the Sunday because he has the day off and wants to show us some of 'tourist Sydney'. Are there any localities in the main tourist areas that we should try to include? I'm thinking that the Botanic Gardens will have some wildlife and should count as tourism.

We might well go to the Olympic Park on Monday morning so I'm still interested in directions to the Waterbird Refuge is possible.

RobHynson · Mar 4, 2017

The botanical gardens should have a few birds to see, best of all will be the resident powerful owls and buff-banded rails. The Owls change their roost tree but the park staff may know of the current roost.

I don't know Olympic park that well as I prefer to go out to the pitt town area but I'll find out the best way to get to the waterbird refuge, I've been there but it was a long time ago.

Cheers.

Rob

pandachris · Mar 6, 2017

Thanks Rob.

Are there any particular locations to look for the rails? I see that there are a couple of ornamental pools in the middle.

mjh73 · Mar 13, 2017

Hi Chris

What were you hoping to see around Melbourne? I can provide some advice and, if you haven't already lined up a guide, might be able to take you out. I've done some ad hoc guiding for overseas visitors but I haven't launched my website / company officially yet!

Rare / unusual sightings will be on the Australian Twitchers FB page https://www.facebook.com/groups/718576241555767/ , and Eremea bird line as previously mentioned. Bear in mind birders are thinly spread across a large area so there isn't the same level of frantic rarity activity as the UK.

Cheers

Mike

pandachris · Mar 13, 2017

Thanks Mike.

I don't really have any target species. I'd like to see a Lyre bird, though I think they are possible on our guided day in Sydney. We're just looking forward to seeing the birds and wildlife of a whole new continent. The closest either of us has been to Australia so far is Singapore.

We've got a guide lined up for Saturday 1st and we have a plan, developed from ideas on here and from our guide for Friday 31st - early arrival into Avalon from Sydney, pick up rental car, possibly head for a short visit to Serendip Wetlands Reserve and then head west towards Kennett River in search of Koalas, possibly via Point Addis dependent upon conditions, then into Melbourne aiming to get to the hotel sometime after 18:00. I'm not sure how achievable that is and obviously we're flexible. The priority for my partner is Koala but it sounds like that should be reasonably straightforward. I fancy a bit of sea-watching, although we're not bringing out 'proper' telescopes. We'll have a cheap, light-weight one that we've only used once and which seems to be ok optical quality for the price.

On Sunday 2nd I think we'll head to St. Kilda to look for penguins but haven't got further with my thinking that that - perhaps a half day drive somewhere, then we're off to Phillip Island the next day for one night. I sort of feel that we should have a look at Melbourne as well and the above doesn't give us much headroom, so if you can recommend anywhere within or close to the city that is also touristy, that would be good.

We start on the final day from Phillip Island but I was thinking of heading perhaps to Sherbrooke Mountains or Bunyip NP before finishing up at an hotel close to Tullamarine for our flights to Cairns.

mjh73 · Mar 15, 2017

Serendip is good, but I'd be inclined to drive past it into the You Yangs if you were looking for somewhere (other than Western Treatment Plant!) near Avalon. Serendip does have a number of captive breeding programs running that will be cool to see. But the You Yangs is a nice park, has good birding and occasionally turns up Mallee birds from further north / west.

Not sure if you are aware but the penguins are a dusk time thing at St Kilda by the way, daytime they will be out of sight in their burrows. If you are staying on Philip Island anyway you could do the Penguin Parade there the following evening- sure it's commercial, but you may get short-tailed shearwater coming in at the same time.

For somewhere near to Melbourne that is birdy and touristy I'd probably go to Royal Park that is adjacent to the zoo. It has some nice eucalyptus stands, and a small wetland that can turn up interesting birds. We also have a botanical gardens on the Yarra River close to the city centre which is (of course!) much better than Sydney's

If you have a half day free on the Sunday I am already guiding someone at Western Treatment Plant and you're welcome to join if the logistics can be worked out.

I'd definitely recommend Bunyip on the way back if you can. Sherbrooke is good too, but Bunyip is a bit further east and typically has some cooler birds that we don't get in Sherbrooke / Dandenongs.

If the guide you are struggling to get a reply from in Alice Springs is Mark C., I can see if I can get hold of him directly if you like?

Good luck

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