We had postponed an earlier trip to Australia because of lockdown, but once retired, resurrected our plans and less than a year later were boarding the plane in Heathrow (our first flight in 10 years!). The plan was to fly into Perth, spend some time travelling around Western Australia before flying over to Adelaide to meet up with family and spend time with them in South Australia. We would then part ways and travel south to Victoria before flying up to Sydney to reconvene.
Australasian darter, Perth waterside
Rainbow lorikeet, Kings Park
Nankeen night heron, Matilda Bay
Australian magpie, Kings Park
Red-tailed black cockatoo, Kings Park
Baudin's (or possibly Carnaby's) cockatoo, Kings Park
Laughing kookaburra, Kings Park
Eastern Osprey, Freshwater Bay
Perth is a great city - small, modern, clean, but above all has a lot of space for nature. Several hours after landing saw is in the Kings Park and Botanic Gardens, which alone has records of almost 100 bird species with more than that number again across the wider Perth district.
Elizabeth Quay Bridge
Perth waterfront panorama
We had pre-booked a trip out to Rottnest Island from Perth. Still recovering from the 36 hour journey, we had to make an early start to catch the first ferry across from Freemantle. Although not huge (may be 11 km long by 5 km wide), you could spend a month on Rottnest, such is the wildlife. We probably counted half a dozen ospreys within an hour of landing and all manner of other bird and mammal species, including the endemic quokka.
Leaving Freemantle or Free-o
Rottnest Island quokka
Rainbow bee-eater
Crested tern bathing
Silver gulls
Australian raven
After Rottnest, it was time to pick up our home for the next 10 days and travel down to the south coast.
Western Australia is so biodiverse - around 150,000 species are packed into 45 million hectares, but most impressive is that over 75% of these are endemic - they are not found anywhere else in the wild.
Highlights from our first few days on the road include:
- Lake Clifton thrombolites, among the earliest forms of life on earth;
- waking early on our first morning to photograph pelicans and night herons at dawn;
- sunset at Hamelin Bay;
- Beedlup National Park, with the giant karri trees and miniature red-winged fairy wrens;
- Windy Harbour and our first encounter this holiday with Western grey kangaroos.
We spent a couple of nights at Windy Harbour, a small settlement in the D'entrecasteaux National Park. While it's "only" 118,000 hectares, its beauty is in its isolation - with only one sealed road and several unsealed, access is practically limited to just a small fraction. And it may be a bold statement It is also as natural as you get anywhere in the world.
