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.
Recent Awards
WINNER Best for Wildlife Conservation at the World Responsible Tourism Awards London • 2014
WINNER Seatrade Cruise Award for World’s Most Innovative Shore Excursion • 2017
WINNER TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014
Speciality areas
- Birds
- Land Mammals & Marsupials
- Reptiles & Amphibians
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.
About the region
Mungo, NSW
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.
Quick facts
- Some of the world's most dramatic and rugged coastal scenery
- Wet hinterland rainforests a sanctuary for numerous marsupials and parrots
- You Yangs key habitat for Koalas
- Western Plains prime opportunity to see kangaroos and raptor birds
About the region
You Yangs & Great Ocean Road
The You Yangs and Great Ocean Road region is only a short distance southwest of Melbourne and is characterised by dramatic coastal scenery, wet hinterland rainforests, spectacular heathlands and vast grassy plains.
The You Yangs are the best known granite ridges in the area, rising 350m above the Werribee Plains. The grasslands and low woodlands around the You Yangs are home to more than 200 bird species such as White-naped, White-plumed, New Holland and Brown-headed honeyeaters, Laughing Kookaburras, White-winged Choughs, Eastern Yellow Robins, as well as a key habitat for Eastern Grey Kangaroos, possums and Koalas.
The Great Ocean Road region stretches from Geelong to Portland in south-western Victoria with the limestone rock formations and cliffs being one of Australia’s most famous landscapes. The Twelve Apostles are 20 million year old limestone towers that rise dramatically out of the sea; a result of being pounded for centuries by the raging Southern Ocean, with other striking natural features in the area including the Loch Ard Gorge and the Blowhole.
Inland from the coastal landscape lies the cool, wet hinterland rainforests. Home to Eastern Kangaroos, Swamp and Red-necked Wallabies, possums, Southern Brown Bandicoots, Short-beaked Echidnas, King Parrots and Crimson Rosellas, the Great Otway National Park is a landscape of tall eucalypts and Myrtle Beech dominated forests, rushing waterfalls, cascading streams and tranquil pockets of fern gullies. These forests are alive with vividly red and green coloured Australian King-parrots, Crimson Rosellas, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos as well as 38 species of butterfly.
Our experiences guides tell it like it is
