50 million years of geographical isolation has led to a unique evolutionary sanctuary of plants and animals. Bilbies and bandicoots, emus and echidna, possums and platypus, koalas and kangaroos, wallabies and wombats, Australia is home to an exceptional range of species with more than 80% of the native mammals, frogs, reptiles and flowering plants found nowhere else in the world.

From the reef to the rainforest from the beach to the bush, in the outback or in the cities, Australia offers a unique collection of life’s most memorable wildlife encounters:

The iconic kangaroo bounds across outback plains in the Red Centre and hops through the Blue Mountains’ wilderness. See them lazing on the fairways of Anglesea’s golf course or share the vista with them from your mountain top spa overlooking the Hunter. Join a nocturnal rainforest ramble to catch a glimpse of the elusive tree kangaroo or hire a bike on Rottnest Island to see scores of Quokkas scurrying through the scrub.

Cute and cuddly, the koala can be spotted dozing in the treetops on Philip Island, chewing on the eucalypts of Noosa’s stunning National Park or posing for a photograph in Sydney’s Taronga Zoo.

Platypuses play in the icy lakes of the Cradle Mountain National Park and wombats wander through the Victorian High Country. Sugar gliders leap through the canopy of the rainforest in the Gold Coast Hinterland and dingoes roam the beach on Fraser Island.

Listen to the infectious laugh of a kookaburra and spot brightly coloured parrots in trees across the country. Australia is an ornithologist’s utopia with opportunities to watch wedge tailed eagles soar high above Tasmania’s wilderness, a flightless long legged emu running across the Flinders Ranges outback or rare seabirds nesting on Kangaroo Island. See the daily Pelican feeding on the Central Coast or breakfast with the birds in Port Douglas’ Rainforest Habitat. Tour the Daintree to spot an elusive Cassowary or cruise the Kakadu wetlands to see Jabiru, egrets and kingfishers. Watch the captivating dance of a pair of brolgas in the Kimberley or the nightly penguin parade on Philip Island. Listen for a rare Lord Howe Island woodhen rustling in the Kentia Palms or wake up to a serenade of birdsong in your rainforest tree house in Queensland’s Scenic Rim.
Follow in the fossilised footsteps of dinosaurs on the beach at Broome and cruise the mangrove lined waterways of the North West with giant crocodiles. Frilled neck lizards scurry across the Red Centre’s parched earth and goannas laze on the rocks around the quiet waterholes of the Top End.

Ride the waves with dolphins in Byron Bay or swim with these friendly creatures in Bunbury. Join a whale watching cruise from Fraser Island or countless other vantage points along the east coast. See Southern Right Whales breed along the Great Ocean Road and watch rare blue whales and their calves take refuge in the calm waters of Geographe Bay. Swim with turtles on the Barrier Reef and watch hatchlings make the perilous journey from their Heron Island nests. See sea lions basking on Kangaroo Island’s beaches and snorkel with the seals off the Mornington Peninsula. However nothing can quite compare to a swim with the gentlest of giants, the Whale Sharks that visit the Ningaloo Coast each year between April and June.

An underwater kingdom of more than 500 species of tropical fish reflecting every colour of the rainbow dart between the technicolour coral gardens of the Great Barrier Reef, whilst Tasmania’s icy streams and glacial lakes are brimming with wild trout and leaping salmon. Join the fish feeding frenzy on Lord Howe Island’s Ned’s Beach or watch the fishermen feed dozens of swirling sharks in the remote waters of Arnhem Land.

Australia’s collection of flora is equally impressive. From the Daintree’s oldest living rainforests to the ancient Huon Pines that tower over Tasmania, from the prehistoric cycads that shelter in Kings Canyon to the recent discovery of the Wollemi Pine in the Blue Mountains previously believed to have been extinct since the Jurassic Era.

Proud Boabs punctuate the landscape of the North West, whilst waterlilies dance on billabongs in the Top End and subtropical rainforests blanket the craters of extinct volcanoes along the east coast. Walk through a stunning carpet of wildflowers (September to December) or amongst the canopy of towering Karri trees in Western Australia’s South West. From the ubiquitous eucalypts across the nation, tropical palms and blooms, cool temperate rainforests and fern lined gullies or the arid desert grasslands; Australia is also home to a wonderfully diverse range of flora.