Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 359

range of other Aussie icons including wallabies
and kookaburras (probably the country's loudest
bird, with a piercing laughing call). As dusk
descends there's another treat in store - the
sight and sound of thousands of fruit bats
taking flight to forage; the noise is so intense it's
enough to wake a koala.

490 koala
spoTTing,
brisbane

If there's an A-list of
Australian wildlife
then the koala is
right at the top of it,
and many tourists
arrive in the
country hell-bent on
hugging one at a zoo
or wildlife park. You
can't blame them:
koalas seem almost
as if they've been
designed to appeal
to humans, all cute
fluffy ears, thick fur
and big brown eyes; colonial settlers first coined
the term “koala bear” as these animals reminded
them of childhood teddies. These are not bears
at all though but wild marsupials - closely
related to the wombat - and seeing one in its
natural habitat is an altogether more rewarding
experience.
One of the best places to spot koalas is in the
eucalyptus forest surrounding Brisbane, just
an hour's drive from the city. The only catch is
that these animals are notoriously shy and very
well camouflaged - so if you're with a guide who
knows their hangouts your odds of seeing one
will be much improved. One such expert is Dr
Ronda Green of Araucaria Ecotours. A trained
zoologist, Ronda and her son Darren and have
been tracking koalas for years. They'll soon
have you peering through binoculars looking
for freshly stripped branches and tell-tale claw
marks, while watching your step for dry, cigar-
shaped droppings - all clues to koalas being in
the vicinity. With luck, you'll spot the star of the
show diligently chomping its way through the
forest canopy or dozing way up above (koalas
spend up to eighteen hours a day asleep so don't
expect them to pose for photos).
During the rest of the tour you'll encounter a

Need to know Araucaria Ecotours ( W www.
learnaboutwildlife.com; T [phone])
runs wildlife day tours of one to three days
from Brisbane (A$99) and Gold Coast resorts
(A$130), which include lunch and refreshments.
Longer tours into the outback and specialist bird-
watching trips are also available.

491 a View oVer paradise aT
lord howe island, ausTralia

A cuddly koala: these shy
creatures spend up to 18
hours a day asleep

A small speck in the Pacific, 600km from the
nearest landmass, Lord Howe Island is one
of Australia's best-kept secrets. With its lush
tropical forests, white sandy beaches and lack of
other people, you could be forgiven for thinking
you'd arrived at a tropical Eden or perhaps the
set of the TV show Lost . In fact the island is part
of New South Wales (Sydney is “just” 700km
southwest) but thanks to its World Heritage
status and strict limits on visitor numbers (no
more than four hundred at a time, which is still
more than the island's population of 350) its
unique environment has been preserved.
As soon as you set foot on Lord Howe your eye
is drawn to Mount Gower (875m), pretty much
all that remains of the now extinct volcano
that formed the island. One of only two guides
approved to lead the exhilarating trek up it
is Jack Shick, a fifth-generation islander. For
A$40 he can get you to the top and back in
approximately eight hours. Along the way he'll
point out some of the island's rarest plants and
sea birds, demonstrate how to climb a palm
tree and throw in a bit of local history. Shick's
father was one of the first conservationists on
the island and was instrumental in saving the
endemic Lord Howe Island woodhen - if you're