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Echidna Walkabout Nature Tours

Echidna Walkabout Nature Tours

Echidna Walkabout Nature Tours was founded by Roger Smith and Janine Duffy in 1993, with the vision to bring people and wildlife together for mutual benefit.  

The team believes that observing and connecting with wildlife is a key element in enriching the lives for people of all backgrounds; whether this interaction is for pleasure, new experiences and learning, for connection to the land or the basic needs for humans to breathe clean air and drink clean water via healthy ecosystems.  

Increasingly, wildlife needs people too, as climate change and environmental pressures place our precious environments at risk for future generations. This has been central to the development of the company’s touring philosophy. When guests travel with Echidna Walkabout Nature Tours, part of the trip involves travellers contributing to a project that actively helps wildlife; from removing ghost net from a remote beach, to pulling out an invasive weed to save the local Koala population.

Echidna Walkabout Nature Tours is internationally-recognised in wildlife in the wild conservation travel, and winner of the 2014 World Responsible Travel Award. Our extensive policies with respect to conservation and social enterprise are available for your reference. As a social enterprise tour company, we invest more than 50% of our profit into our mission. Most of that investment is through our Koala Research Project, and through in-kind and direct financial support to the Koala Clancy Foundation. 

We strongly support the concept of privately-owned land to increase the habitat available to wildlife – this is essential if wildlife is to survive the upcoming challenges of climate change. Through Koala Clancy Foundation we plant koala food trees in river valleys and along creeks on private farmland near Melbourne – returning the indigenous flora to that denuded environment.

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Speciality areas

  • Birds
  • Land Mammals & Marsupials
  • Reptiles & Amphibians

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Quick facts

  • Features unbroken chain of precious forests stretching from the Snowy River alpine area to the sea
  • Giant Alpine Ash forests and woodlands ideal for spotting shy forest dwellers and marsupials including gliders
  • Prime region for seeing Superb Lyrebirds, parrots, cockatoos and migrant cuckoos in warmer months
  • Ramsar protected Gippsland Lakes District sanctuary for abundant water birds

About the region

East Gippsland

East Gippsland is located in the eastern corner of the state of Victoria where the warm South Pacific Ocean meets the cold Southern Ocean. Arguably, no other Australian region boasts such a diversity of ecosystems in a concentrated area, from magnificent lush rainforests, coastal heathlands, giant eucalypt groves, pristine rivers and estuaries, through to white sandy beaches.

East Gippsland is one of the few regions in the world that has a large unbroken chain of forest stretching from the alps to the sea. These mighty forests are critical sanctuaries for many bird species such as Superb Lyrebirds, Yellow-bellied and Greater Gliders, King Parrots, Eastern Whipbird, Powerful Owls, Satin Bowerbirds, robins and many honeyeater species. 

This region is amazingly rich in fauna with 50 native mammals; two Monotremes (Platypus, Echidna), 6 Dasyurids (Dunnarts, Quolls), 2 Peramelids (Bandicoots), 17 Diprotodonts (Kangaroos, Wallabies, Possums, Gliders, Koala, Wombat) and 23 native placentals (Dingo, Seals, Bats, Flying-foxes); 19 amphibians and 36 species of reptile including the 2.5m Lace Monitor and the 3m Diamond Python. 

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About the region

Mungo National Park

Mungo National Park is located in south-western New South Wales and is located approximately 875 kilometres (544 miles) west of Sydney and 580 kilometres (360 miles) northwest of Melbourne. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Willandra Lakes Region, an area of 2,400 square kilometres (930 sq mi) that incorporates seventeen dry lakes.

The Mungo landscape is composed of ancient dry lake basins (playas), dunefields, sand plains and lunettes. The lakebed soils consist of grey and red heavy clays, whilst the sandplains consist of  sandy loam red, brown and pale soils. But it is the lunettes that are the most iconic landscapes in the region, composed of four major layers of sediment, representing different geological eras. Wind and water have carved lunettes into spectacular formations, with the dramatic Walls of China one of the best examples.

Australian Aboriginal People have lived and hunted beside Lake Mungo for 50,000 years and is the traditional meeting place of the Muthi Muthi, Nyiampaar and Barkinji Aboriginal Nations. Significant archaeological remains have been discovered in the region, with the Mungo Man, the oldest human remains discovered in Australia, and Mungo Lady, the oldest known human to have been ritually cremated.

Mungo National Park offers a unique insight into climate change, its effect on human habitation and the environment over many thousands of years. Mungo National Park is also home to many arid land animals and birds including kangaroos, rare parrots and cockatoos, birds of prey, reptiles and many others. Skeletal remains of extinct marsupials, the forebears of Australia’s unique suite of wildlife, are still found around Lake Mungo. Today the land boasts 2 of Australia’s 5 species of great kangaroos, many rare and beautiful parrots, birds of prey, reptiles and a rich arid land flora.

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Meet our guides

  • Meet our guides

    Janine Duffy

    Janine considers herself one of the luckiest people alive.  Her passion and enthusiasm for wild animals, conservation, community education and social causes is infectious to all who spend time with her. So what does a typical three months for this Wildlife Guide, Koala Researcher and Marketer look like? She was guiding in the You Yangs in September when “Wurdi”, the first baby of famous Koala Clancy, was found during a Koala Conservation Day for Locals; a bi-weekly event she started in 2014.  Later that month she was watching Little Egrets...

    Meet our guides

    Janine Duffy

    Janine considers herself one of the luckiest people alive.  Her passion and enthusiasm for wild animals, conservation, community education and social causes is infectious to all who spend time with her. So what does a typical three months for this Wildlife Guide, Koala Researcher and Marketer look like? She was guiding in the You Yangs in September when “Wurdi”, the first baby of famous Koala Clancy, was found during a Koala Conservation Day for Locals; a bi-weekly event she started in 2014.  Later that month she was watching Little Egrets on saltpans in the Loire Valley, France, followed by dinner with friends at a tiny restaurant that serves only seasonal food.  Two days later, in London, she talked with leaders of the responsible travel movement about developing wildlife tourism in Australia.  In October she met with Melbourne tour operators to design a volunteering program to plant trees for wild koalas, and gave koala talks to the local farming community.   In Mungo National Park in The Outback, she found Bearded Dragons basking, Shingleback skinks snuggling together under a bluebush (unusually for lizards, they mate for life) and a 1.2metre Sand Goanna. She guided a birding group in November across a saltbush plain beside the flooded Darling River, as hundreds of Red-rumped and Blue Bonnet parrots flew up from under her feet.  The next day she was wildlife scout in Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, walking quietly through spinifex, listening for the tiny, insect-like song of the endangered Mallee Emu-wren, and locating Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, Regent Parrots and pink Major Mitchell Cockatoos.
  • Meet our guides

    Roger Smith

    A bushman from childhood, Roger grew up navigating the sweeping deserts of north-west Victoria, searching for wildlife. Today, Roger spends much of his time imparting his wealth of knowledge to guides and travellers, and taking a lead role in protecting and preserving local habitats that have given him so much joy to share with others. In June, during southern Australia's winter, Roger was training future Wildlife Guides to read the body language of wild mobs of Eastern Grey Kangaroos. Kangaroos in their truly wild state are flighty, and gauging...

    Meet our guides

    Roger Smith

    A bushman from childhood, Roger grew up navigating the sweeping deserts of north-west Victoria, searching for wildlife. Today, Roger spends much of his time imparting his wealth of knowledge to guides and travellers, and taking a lead role in protecting and preserving local habitats that have given him so much joy to share with others. In June, during southern Australia's winter, Roger was training future Wildlife Guides to read the body language of wild mobs of Eastern Grey Kangaroos. Kangaroos in their truly wild state are flighty, and gauging their tolerance is a skill that Roger loves passing on. Throughout the winter Roger also volunteered his time to defending the You Yangs from a mining threat that would have endangered the lives of many wild koalas, and to proposing that the region develop its nature tourism potential instead. During July, Roger organised two groups to travel to Botswana & South Africa with Echidna Walkabout's South African-born Wildlife Guide, Martin. He spent two nights in a treehouse overlooking Kruger with elephants smashing trees nearby and he helped repair a flat tyre while a White Rhino and her calf watched on. His highlight was filming a female leopard as she climbed out of tall acacia and disappeared into the African bush. In August he guided a small group to Australia's Top End and watched as 70 Brolgas danced on the floodplain of the Mary River. Nearby a 2 metre Water Python curled around his boots before moving on to find a tree to climb. He pointed out a tawny-coloured Dingo running along beside the vehicle. Nature has always been Roger's solace; helping others to find a connection to nature is his goal.
  • Meet our guides

    Martin Maderthaner

    An expert in the great wildlife destinations of the world, Martin was trained as a Safari Guide in southern and eastern Africa and worked for some of the world’s top safari lodges. In 2007, he brought his skills to Australia and is now a leader in providing interpretation across a diverse array of Australian habitats. In September, on a private concession near Kruger, he walked with a breeding herd of elephants. The herd was so quiet that only a breaking branch alerted him to their presence – Martin and the...

    Meet our guides

    Martin Maderthaner

    An expert in the great wildlife destinations of the world, Martin was trained as a Safari Guide in southern and eastern Africa and worked for some of the world’s top safari lodges. In 2007, he brought his skills to Australia and is now a leader in providing interpretation across a diverse array of Australian habitats. In September, on a private concession near Kruger, he walked with a breeding herd of elephants. The herd was so quiet that only a breaking branch alerted him to their presence – Martin and the local guide organised the group and approached slowly, without sound, stopping just 100 metres from the herd for a thrilling ten minutes.   Back in Australia in October, Martin led Wildlife Journey trips to East Gippsland, and watched a White-bellied Sea-eagle pluck a fish from between a pod of Burunnan Dolphins.  The day before he photographed four wild Short-beaked Echidnas, seven Wedge-tailed Eagles, Rainbow Lorikeets, Eastern Rosellas, Eastern Grey Kangaroos and Koalas. A month later, as Echidna Walkabout’s chief bird guide, he set up his spotting scope to show guests close-ups of 1,000 Red-necked Stints & 500 Curlew Sandpipers foraging at Australia’s best birdwatching site – the Western Treatment Plant.  He also reported rare sightings of a Grey-tailed Tattler, Square-tailed Kite, a large flock of Topknot Pigeons and three glorious Turquoise Parrots.