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Published: December 19th 2022
1. Wauchope Jade Koala
One of the rescued Koala, Jade with her and Baz' JoeyNice early start and breakfast on the go as we’d already used our single set of wooden cutlery for dinner last night! We also wanted to get to the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie when they opened at 08:30 to see the Koala’s being fed their morning leaves.
We were greeted on the way in by one of the many volunteers there who explained what they do and ran through their current resident koala’s on the status board which detailed when they arrived, what the issue was and the cause if known, and what they were doing to help them. The issues ranged from disease (Chlamydia mainly), dog attacks, falling from tree’s, car strikes and a little joey being orphaned when his mum drowned in a swimming pool.
They had some lifetime residents there too who unfortunately can’t be released, one was brought in during the 2019 bushfires and although living happily there wouldn’t survive in the wild. Some were missing eye’s, others were found wandering and cannot be released as no one knows where their original colony was. It was sad, but also fascinating to hear and read the stories. The centre is run by volunteers who do
2. Pelican at Lemontree
Stopped at Lemontree Passage for lunch with the Pelicans an amazing job and their aim is always, where possible to release safely back into the wild.
The lifetime residents were out in pens, the ones they are treating were in a clinic away from the public, as were the young koala’s they are working on releasing soon. The idea being they don’t want them to become too used to people – just as they would be wary of humans in the wild, they need to ensure these ones act the same when released.
As one of the first people there this morning, we were very lucky to see a young joey cuddled up with its mum in their enclosure, the dad was the 2019 bushfire survivor called Baz, the mum, Jade was found in a nearby town where koala’s haven’t been seen for 80 years, sitting on a tree stump in the middle of town, completely away from her normal habitat so unable to be released into the wild as they don’t know where she originated from. The Koala’s are named using the place where they are found along with something relevant to the person that found them.
This is totally free to visit, it’s not
3. Tanilba Boardwalk
A fallen tree in Tannilba Bay that still lives! a huge display of koala’s or anything like a wildlife park e.t.c. but it’s a wonderful place to see and appreciate the hard work that goes into keeping the koala’s safe and protected.
On the way out we stopped in the Koala-sium, which is a museum type display all about koala’s common misconceptions (i.e. they’re lazy….. they’re bears e.t.c.) and you could play sounds of koala mating calls, see their ‘skat’ (poop!). There was a skeleton of a previous occupant who’d been there as he’d developed a serious curviture of the spine and wasn’t able to live in the wild anymore. You could feel pelts from a koala, possum, wallaby and a wombat.
We’d just about finished reading the display when we noticed a bit of a commotion behind us and turned to see a massive spider on the floor between us and the exit! One of the volunteers noticed too and went to get a box to put over it, meanwhile there were about 8 people snapping pictures while trying to decide if it was real! Then one guy said he’d seen one of the legs move so we were all now convinced it must be real!
4. Bearded Dragon Lizard
No Koalas bute we did find a Bearded Dragon The volunteer came back with her box, then called another staff member over, the latest arrival leaned over and said “Nope, that’s fake” then nudged the, what we now know was a plastic, spider across the floor with her foot! No one fessed up to the practical joke, but it was very amusing.
Panic over, we had a wander around the gift shop, then left a donation in their fundraising box towards this amazing cause, as well as signing their visitor book. We spent about 30mins here, but it was a great visit and definitely something I’d recommend to anyone travelling through here.
We then had a 3 hour drive to get to our next stop, Nelson Bay. This was somewhere that was also on the ‘best places to see wild koalas’ list. The highest number of recorded sightings was an area just above Nelson Bay called Tilligerry Habitat and Taniba Bay Boardwalk so this is where we headed. Before stopping there though, we went to Lemon Tree Passage at the end of the same small peninsula, we sat here overlooking the marina and the pelican’s flying around, swimming and preening on the water’s edge while we had
5. Eastern Yellow Robin
And an Eastern Yellow Robin lunch.
Once we were finished, we parked up in the car park and walked around the Tilligerry Habitat. This was an amazing place, full of wildlife, within minutes we’d spotted a bearded dragon lizard sunning itself on the path, a kookaburra, an eastern yellow robin and what we think was a small Australian water dragon. What we didn’t see however, was a bloody Koala!
It was such a lovely walk, when you emerged out the other side onto the boardwalk it ran along the beach and the views were just stunning. There was an area of forest here which was completely scorched and it smelt as though this was a recent thing, we assumed this was a planned burn to reduce the impact of a real bush fire as it hadn’t touched the boardwalk! This was confirmed when we bumped into a local while we were taking photo’s of the beach and got chatting to him. He’s lived in Australia for over 20 years now in various places and when we mentioned out quest to see a Koala he said…… ‘Ha! Good luck with that!’. So it’s not just us then! Apparently they’re near impossible to spot unless
6. Australian Water Dragon
And an Australian Water Dragon you catch them at the right time and place!
He did clear up a question we had about the really loud insect noise we’ve been hearing in the rural areas, both driving around and also walking around. They are cicadas, who can produce a call in excess of 120 decibels at close range, apparently this is approaching the pain threshold of the human ear! Plus they gang up together to make it extra loud to scare away birds and attract females. No wonder it’s so loud!
After extracting all the information we could from our new buddy, and finding our way back through the habitat to the car, we spent the next hour or so driving back inland, then out again to Nelsons Bay. This was actually a lot more touristy and as such was pretty busy and everywhere charged for parking, so we didn’t hang around here just enjoyed the scenery for a while before setting the sat nav to our final destination of the day – Parramatta, on the northern outskirts of Sydney. We are staying at Punthill Norwest Apartments in a one bed apartment, it’s quite cosy, but has a full kitchen as well as
7. Taliba Bay
Taliba Bay from the boardwalk a separate lounge/diner, it’s really nice and perfect for what we need. We’re staying here for our last 3 nights in Australia.
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