Melbourne and Phillip Island (1 Viewer)

[pandachris]

Hello

Some of these might be daft questions but I've asked a few in my time and answered some too.

We're visiting Australia for the 1st time for 3 weeks in late-March to mid-April 2017. My primary reason is to see one of my children who has been in Australia since about 2011 but we want to spend as much time enjoying the birds and other wildlife as possible. My rough itinerary is 3 nights in Sydney at the start and a couple at the end, 4 or 5 nights near Melbourne and the remainder (11 to 12 nights) in the north.

One of our other passions is live comedy and by coincidence, the Melbourne Comedy Festival is on when we are there. I'm sort of thinking that Phillip Island, despite some fairly hefty mass tourism should be on our itinerary. Assuming that we will rent a car, does it make sense to stay in Melbourne and drive for a couple of days (+/- 2 hours each way) or do we ignore one night of comedy and overnight? Also assuming that we would like to see penguins but are perhaps less drawn by the Penguin Parade which is presumably thronged by non-birding tourists, does anyone have any recommendations for somewhere to stay?

Also we'd like to see Koalas. Are those on the island genuine or introduced?

Finally, we should have at least one telescope with us. Any good locations for sea watching? Birds and/or cetaceans?

 

[Colin Clark]

Comedy Festival is fantactic - you'll have a scream...!!

Penguins can be seen on the breakwater at St Kilda just a short tram ride from the City. The penguin parade, in my view, is highly overrated. If you do go to Philip Island you can often see penguins under the boardwalk at The Nobbies during the day. Instead of the penguin parade a much better "David Attenborough" experience is to head to the Cape Woolamai Shearwater Rookery at dusk. You can sit among the burrows on the cliff top and the birds just crash-land around you. It is awesome and highly amusing watching them tumbling and falling as they are pretty bad at landing on the ground.....

The usual place for wild koalas is to head west out of Melbourne on the Great Ocean Road. At a place called Kennet River there are stacks of them in the trees up Grey River Road. On this trip you can also visit Cape Addis for sea-watching of the conditions are good and there are other good birds along the trip if you have time. The scenery is stunning too....

Both Philip Island or Great Ocean Road can be done as a day-trips but you'd be fairly late-ish back after the Shearwaters though.... Plenty of comedy shows start after 10pm though so there would still be time for a cheeky one if you had the energy....! Also there are very few comedy shows on Mondays so that would be good day for your tour if it fits in with your timing.....

 

[MJB]

For the shearwater experience mentioned by Colin, it's worth overnighting on Philip Island afterwards - we found it a very welcoming place and the RSL Club had much better food than some elsewhere!
MJB
PS RSL = Returned and Services League, roughly equivalent to British Legion in UK, but with restaurants that usually welcome all, whether or not you've served.

 

[pandachris]

Thanks both. Useful information. We're veterans of many comedy festivals and aficionados of the famous (or notorious) Bob Slayer so used to ridiculous finish times. One of his Edinburgh Fringe shows this year ran 24/7. However it seems likely that we won't be there on a Monday.

Is Cape Addis the same as what Google Maps call Point Addis Marine National Park? Close to Anglesea?

Seeing the Shearwaters up close sounds intriguing so perhaps we will overnight on Phillip Island. We should be there midweek so hopefully crowds will be smaller.

Supplementary question. Are there any Twitter bird sightings feeds, either local or national. My partner has been finding @BirdCentralPark very useful on recent business trips and not many weeks go by without me checking @sosbirds and even contributing some times.

 

[Colin Clark]

Yeah - Point Addis is the spot - close to the famous surf spot Bell's Beach.....

For sightings you can check out.....
http://www.eremaea.com/BirdlineRecentSightings.aspx?Birdline=1

or eBird

 

[pandachris]

Thanks Colin.