Links to Other Segments and to Related Galleries

Expedition to Tasmania (Segment 1)

Expedition to South Australia (Segment 2)

Expedition to Queensland (Segment 3)

Expedition to Northern Territory (Segment 4)

Expedition to Western Australia (Segment 5)

Bird Species List and Bird Gallery Links for the Entire Expedition to Australia

Landscapes & Scenery of South Australia

Logistics for the Great Pouched Critter Safari of 2025

Master Species List for the Entire Expedition

Montecute Road & Cleland National Park

July 17 – Adelaide Region & Brookfield Conservation Park

Once I got my rental car on the 17th at the Adelaide Airport I was out of town as fast as I could get out!  Well I was upset with the airport and not Adelaide itself, which actually seemed like a pretty nice town with excellent pho restaurants!  That’s all I need. 😉

My first destination was Montacute Road in the Black Hill Conservation Area near Gate 14 where a large number of Victorian Koala sightings were reported in iNaturalist.  I arrived at the center of the cluster and looked in all directions for 360 degrees for several minutes.  I didn’t see any Koalas, which wasn’t really all that surprising.  It was cold and raining.  Then I had the bright idea to simply look above where I was standing, and voila! A large dark brown Victorian Koala was no more than two meters directly above my head!  He looked at me like I was an idiot.  Now I had all three subspecies of Koala under my belt.  Granted, the New South Wales subspecies was captive but I still had the comparison shots I was after.

From there I worked my way through the rural areas and forested areas of the hills east of Adelaide until I reached Cleland National Park, where I did some very successful birding and got a great view of many Western Grey Kangaroos as well as a mainland subspecies of Short-beaked Echidna by the side of the road.  I did go to the Cleland Wildlife Sanctuary too for a look at their captive breeding program for Woylie or Brush-tailed Bettong. Sadly I did not realize that it was impossible to see them even in captive conditions in the middle of the day.  I didn’t spend much time in the park before I started my journey east.

The images below come from Montacute Road and Cleland National Park and the areas east of the mountains heading toward Brookfield Conservation Park.

Brookfield Conservation Park

My main destination on this day was the Brookfield Conservation Park which is famous for being the best place to see Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats in the wild.  The drive takes one through some gently rolling agricultural topography for a couple hours and eventually in to some awesome Outback scrub habitat which is home to the Wombats.  As soon as I arrived at Brookfield, I noticed the gate was closed and I initially thought I was out of luck.  But upon closer inspection, it was clear that you can open it and close with a simple chain securing it for the next visitor.

It took me a whopping two minutes or 100 meters before I saw my first Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat!  A lone individual was perched on top of his mound just near the entrance and gave me nice views.  After this it was one Wombat after another for next two to three hours.  I saw at least two dozen or more Wombats, many of whom were situated in massive burrow complexes that covered hundreds of square meters in some cases (See images below).  Most were fairly skittish but some were very curious of my presence and gave me long prolonged looks which allowed time for great images.

Brookfield is covered by many kilometres of dirt track that occupies many square kilometres of habitat.  The park has three distinct vegetation communities; arid woodland, arid shrubland and mallee. Throughout this area I spotted many Western Grey Kangaroos as well as a male and female Red Kangaroo, which was the first time since 1976 when I spotted a mob near Ayers Rock upon landing at the airport there.

I did a night drive in the reserve as well as at Diagonal Road, a few kilometers west of the Brookfield which also had many iNaturalist sightings.  Again, the weather reached near zero and I did not see any wildlife that night.  I camped in my car at Brookfield and headed north the next morning to reach Warren Gorge for my next targets.

Wilkins Road & Warren Gorge

July 18 – Brookfield to Warren Gorge

The drive to Warren Gorge was absolutely spectacular traveling through remote towns and agricultural stations and wildlands.  I spotted Euros, Red Kangaroos, Red Fox, Emus, Western Grey Kangaroos by the dozens.  It was a great drive for sure.  I arrived at Warren Gorge in the early afternoon.  Here I was hoping for sightings of the Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby, arguably Australias most beautiful macropod with the great coloration on the body and the striped tiger tail…  I believe they are the largest of the rock wallabies as well.

Warren Gorge is a spectacular canyon/geologic feature.  It is definitely a place I could spend some quality time at.  Immediately upon entering the gorge, I was expecting to see Rock Wallabies but nada.  OK it was midday and rather warm, so I thought I simply had to be patient.  Western Grey Kangaroos and Feral Goats were very active though.  But by around 4PM sure enough I found my first Yellow-footed Rock Wallabies hopping through the riparian Eucalyptus woodland in the gorge.  And by the end of the afternoon I had more show in good light and willing to pose for the camera.  This species without a doubt quickly became my favourite of all macropods for my expedition.  Well perhaps with the exception of the Lumholtz’s Tree Kangaroo – how do you beat that…

Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park

Victor Harbor & Port Jervis

July 19

I had a lunch date to make all the way in Victor Harbor on the south coast of South Australia – about 6 to 7 hours from Warren Gorge.  Rather than spend the night in Warren Gorge, I decided to make some time and distance and head south on the inner coastal route passing close to Bumbunga Lake and Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park.  I was especially excited to see Bumbunga Lake as it is one of those amazing pink lakes that are found in Australia.  Evidently it is a seasonal thing as it was not pink at all when I was there – I think I convinced myself that it was a shade of purple but being colorblind, I can convince myself that colors are not actually what they are.  I spent the night at the lake.

The next day I continued my journey south and passed through Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park that was seasonally devoid of birds.  A few egrets and common birds but nothing what Austral summer months can surely produce.  Its vast size and nature however was definitely worth getting a look at. 

I continued south heading to a rendezvous point at Victor Harbor Heritage Trailhead where I met Robyn and Nick for a brief trek and a lovely pub lunch in Victor Harbor.  Great to see them! From there I was on the way to Cape Jervis where I camped for the night before my voyage to Kangaroo Island.

Kangaroo Island

Kangaroo Island was one of the places on my expedition that several people suggested I skip in favor of other mainland destinations.  My main goal there was to see Australian Sea Lions up close for decent images and I was thinking that could only be accomplished on Kangaroo Island – ends up I was right.  So I kept the island on my expedition.  I am so glad I did too – it is spectacular!

On the voyage over (about an hour or so) I overheard someone asking about a coming storm and how it was going to cause ferry cancellations.  Good thing I was eavesdropping because there was indeed a huge wind storm that ended up cancelling all ferries for over 48 hours!  Consequently, I was not allowed to spend the two nights and three days I’d planned for on the island.  In fact all I was going to be able to do was get a bit more than half a day!  Considering how expensive the ferry is (about $350 US), I was very bummed.  This meant I had to everything I could to get as much out of the experience as I could.  Thankfully I had some good advice and had done some good research. 

My first stop was Seal Bay Conservation Park where I spent a couple hours observing Australian Sea Lions.  In that short time I did see quite a bit of behavior ranging from major aggression by bull Sea Lions to pup rearing to sand bathing and much more.  The grey-blue on white coloration of this species is quite beautiful.  I was very impressed with their size as well.  The area only allows beach access with a guided tour but there is a boardwalk that can get you views of some Sea Lions.  I had great views even though I missed the guided tour.

From there I drove quickly to Flinders Chase National Park on the far western end of the island.  It wasn’t long before I started to enter a massive fire zone – evidently over half the island burned in 2019 and the fire scars are still very evident.  Much of the island’s wildlife were killed in these epic fires as well.  Flinders Chase NP has a great new visitors center that I stopped at to gain some information.  There I was able to make very last minute reservations at the Hanson Bay Wildlife Reserve for a day tour (I’d already booked a night spotlighting tour but the wind God had other plans) of their massive private reserve that is filled with native fauna in completely wild conditions.

Hanson Bay is not to be confused with a zoo-like wildlife sanctuary.  Hanson Bay has no fences and no captive animals.  All animals are wild and free moving. What is does have is expansive grasslands and woodlands that much of the island wildlife find desirable.  Consequently it is very easy to see Kangaroo Island Western Grey Kangaroos, Tamar Wallabies, Cape Barron Geese and loads of Victorian Koalas.  In my two hours exploring the reserve, we came across nearly 20 Koalas in the Eucalyptus forests there.  Our naturalist guide was excellent and provide very relevant information on the flora and fauna.  I learned that Koala had been re-introduced to the island.  In much of the literature, some claim that Koalas were not native to island but recent fossil discoveries show Koalas had in fact been native to the island prior to their extirpation.   I was very hopeful to see a Kangaroo Island Short-beaked Echidna but luck was not on my side for that subspecies.  I can’t complain though as I was able to see three of the four subspecies of Echidna in Australia during this expedition.

Sadly I was not able to spend the night on the island as originally planned.  I made the last ferry of the day which was packed with people and cars escaping the island before the massive wind storm’s arrival.  I’m glad I did get off in time because the crossings were in fact cancelled and I would have missed my flight onward to Queensland, my next segment of the expedition.

Adelaide & Surrounds

My final day in South Australia was spent doing some gentle birding in and around the greater Adelaide Metropolitan area.  And of course treating myself to more pho!  After another night sleeping outside the Adelaide airport I made my flight to Cairns the morning of the 22nd.  This evening was not quite as comfy as the first time I slept at the Adelaide airport – the windstorm was quite ferocious!

Great Pouched Critter Safari of 2025 Mammal Species List

(Follow the links on the species below to see the main galleries for each species)

Marsupialia

Macropodidae

1. Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby (Petrogale xanthopus) SA

2. Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia bicolor) QLD, SA

3. Euro or Western Wallaroo (Osphranter robustus erubescens) SA

4. Red Kangaroo (Osphranter rufus) SA

5. Kangaroo Island Western Grey Kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus) SA

Diprotodontia

Vombatidae

6. Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons) SA

Phascolarctidae

7. Victorian Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus victor) SA

Pinnipedia

Otariidae

8. Australian Sea Lion (Neophoca cinerea) SA

Bovidae

9. Feral Goats (Capra hircus) SA

Cetacea

10. Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) SA

11. Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) SA

12. Southern Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae australis) SA

Canidae

13. Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) SA