New south wales: koalas?
Dear all,
I will be in Sydney in mid-November: is there any chance to see koalas in a 2-3 days trip from Sydney? does anyone have any thoughts on the best area to see this species in New south wales?
Thanks
Nicolas
11 Comments
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Mike Richardson
I saw wild Koalas in Port Stephens, NSW (two and a half hours north of Sydney) but it was just over 10 years ago. I seem to remember that a local man lead a short walking tour around the neighbourhood to find them. Hopefully someone will come along with some more up-to-date information.
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phil telfer
Had the same issue 4 years back. The best info. i could get was also near Port Stephens at the coastal resorts of Hawks nest and Tea gardens. There’s a visitor centre in Tea gardens and a small reserve nearby where a few Koalas live. I didn’t see any but only had a couple of hours and a local i spoke to had 2 koalas in his garden the week before. So they’re around but not numerous, hopefully you’ll get some better info. phil.
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Vladimir Dinets
I would try asking at Australia birding listserve, http://birding.aba.org/maillist/AU
You can also ask about some birds so that moderators don’t delete your RFI. -
Andrew Taylor
An email to the Hunter Birding list https://au.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/hunterbirding/info (covers area several hours drive north of Sydney) would probably get suggestions about where to look at Port Stephens.
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nicogaidet
Just back from Syndey. I had few days to visit the North and the South of Syndey.
I saw one wild koala at the Tilligerry Habitat State Reserve in Tanilba Bay on the Tilligerry Peninsula (Port Stephens). The reserve is small (15 hectares) and apparently only holds 2 resident individuals. I looked for koalas around Lemon tree passage (East of Tilligerry Peninsula) as well as at the Jean Shaw Reserve at Hawks Nest (opposite Port Stephens) with no success. During spotlighting in Wallingat National Park (Wallingat Forest Drive) I only saw two common brushtail possums and an unidentified wallaby. I saw two pods of bottlenose dolphin very close to the shore at Myall Lakes NP, and one eastern grey kangaroo.
In the South, in Booderee NP (Jervis Bay) eastern grey kangaroos were common, as well as echidnas (4 sightings in a day) and swamp wallabies, but spotlighting was unsuccessful. During spotlighting in Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, near Jamberoo, greater gliders were common (8 individuals seen along 1 km of the road just outside the entrance gate that borders the reserve, plus one echidna and a brushtail possum).
During a pelagic trip from Sydney, we only saw bottlenose dolphins but the sea was rough.
Nicolas
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vmassard
Hello,
You’ll probably get better advice in no time but for a start…
On a road trip north from Sydney in 2011, we made a small detour to Salamander Bay, in the Port Stephens area and managed to see one early morning before we even started looking for them. Exact location was Joe Redman Reserve (in fact just a public garden and probably not the best spot). The koala we saw was on the move.
Good luck,
Vincent