The best places to see 10 more iconic Australian animals in the wild
Last updated on March 15th, 2025 at 03:28 am
Its all about where to find Australian animals in the wild!
Following on from my earlier post “Where to find Australia’s animals – the Big Five in the wild!” I am now sharing details on where to find 10 other iconic Australian animals in the wild.
First – A Quick Guide to help you plan your trip
Insurance – Click here for travel cover with SafetyWing – almost any nationality, its ok if you are already traveling, up to 64 years old. Or click here for cover with EKTA – any nationality, any age and its ok if you are already traveling!
Internet – get a highly rated yesim eSim before you go – click here for yours
Accommodation – book a hotel with booking.com or Tripadvisor, or, a hostel with Hostelworld
For the best walks get AllTrails so you have offline maps to guide you.
Car rental – compare prices and get the best deals with Rentalcars.com
Tours and Activities – find the best tours with GetYourGuide or Viator. These are my top picks for you:
- Port Lincoln – Eyre Peninsula Day Tour
- Oceans to Mountains Explorer: 3-Day Great Ocean Road Tour
- Litchfield National Park and Jumping Crocodile Cruise
- Wallaby / Kangaroo sunrise tour from Mackay
- For lots of wildlife the Tasmania Wilderness and Wildlife Guided Tour
Okay, so on to where to find the next 10 Australian animals in the wild! All up – fifteen iconic aussie beasts!
1. Where to find Australian Emus in the wild
First and foremost – despite Kangaroos and koalas being the top two Australian animals people want to see in the wild, the other animal on Aussies Coat of Arms (along with the kangaroo) is in fact the emu – therefore let’s start with where to find emus!
Emus can be tricky to find despite there being plenty – I don’t know why but they aren’t just hanging around on the roadsides – well sometimes they are, but its very luck of the draw. But these are some places you can be fairly sure to see them!
In South Australia
The best place by far is probably Coffin Bay National Park on the Eyre Peninsula near Port Lincoln. This is a virtual guarantee and you might see very large groups of emus. Perfect!
The salt lakes in Coorong National Park are great for all kinds of birds – and that includes the emu. Like for many animals – go early in the day for your best chance of seeing them. Try the 25km Nukan Kungun hike in the National Park – found on AllTrails here. You are likely to see kangaroos, wombats and emus on that!
Para Wirra Conservation Park also has a lot of emus. It’s about an hour north-east of Adelaide – where you might also see kangaroos and koalas.
For a great day trip where you will definitely see koala, kangaroo and emus in the wild, book this Port Lincoln – Eyre Peninsula Day Tour.
In Victoria
The Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve consistently has emus walking around. Halls Gap and Wartook in the Grampians and Wilsons Promontory National Park in Gippsland are both places where you are very likely to see emus too.
This Oceans to Mountains Explorer: 3-Day Great Ocean Road Tour will give you a great chance of seeing emus as it goes to both Tower Hill and the Grampians. And you will definitely see koala and kangaroos as well!
In NSW
Not so easy unless you go west! In Mutawintji National Park and Sturt National Park you are likely to see mobs of emus in the desert. There are quite a few sightings in Kosciuszko National Park too. Many of the national parks have emus- but they just might not be around when you are.
In ACT
Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and Namadgi National Park are the best place to spot emu. Take this 4 hour Wildlife tour from Canberra and get to see platypus as well as koala and hopefully emu too! (Plus learn about the Space tracking station and the unusual Aussie story behind that!)
In Queensland and WA
The favorite spot in Queensland is in the outback town of Yaraka who claim to have more emus than people!
In WA emus are common but a favorite spot is Exmouth which has a ‘friendly population’ of emus! You are sure to see them there, and probably on the road between Exmouth and Coral Bay.
2. Where to find the most fearsome Australian animal in the wild – the croc!
Warning: Crocodiles are all over the northern part of the country and the salt water crocodiles (salties) in particular. You haven’t got a chance against if you go into the salties territory – the water. Assume there are crocodiles everywhere and don’t go swimming unless you know it is definitely safe – National Parks will have signs.
August to Nov is the best time for large numbers of crocs.
Saltwater Crocodiles
I once lived right by the Mary River, and back then you couldn’t look over the bridge on the Arnhem Highway without seeing a bunch of the big salties (Saltwater crocodiles) below! Mary River National Park, especially at Shady Camp, is still the place to go to see them with the largest population of crocs! I absolutely recommend getting up close to them on a tour – don’t try any other way!
Nearby Kakadu National Park has 10,000 of them. This is definitely another perfect croc viewing spot, especially at the purpose built platforms at Cahills Crossing and Yellow Water. Just do not go swimming. People have and, of course, they were eaten!
Also the wonderful Litchfield National Park is nearby and gets crocs. Its a great place for a day trip and swimming (In the croc-free billabongs) but you will also get to see the famous jumping croc!
In northern WA there are plenty of crocs – the Kimberley has a number of places you may see salties especially at Crocodile Hole!
From Darwin choose and book one of these great trips:
- A favorite for me – a small group croc trip on the Mary River (that’s just me being sentimental)
- A small group Litchfield National Park and Jumping Crocodile Cruise
- A Litchfield National Park Day Trip with the croc jumping as an option.
- The Croc Bus to the Famous Jumping Crocodile Cruise. I prefer to see more but this is good if you are short on time!
- A perfect 6-hour Berry Springs Nature Park + Jumping Crocodile Cruise – that’s because I love swimming at Berry Springs – its hard not to!
Another good place is in Queensland at the Daintree River – there are not so many crocs, but you can take a cruise with a high chance of seeing them. If you were lucky you might see one from the road ferry too.
I like this 1 hour trip as it is solar powered and so lacks noise!! But if you have time do explore the Daintree area more. This is a 5/5 star Amazing Daintree Rainforest Tour Waterfall Hike, Lunch, Swim & Crocodile Cruise
Freshwater Crocodiles
And then there are the freshies… (freshwater crocodiles)
Windjana Gorge National Park is a perfect place to see freshwater crocodiles and so is the Katherine Gorge. Although they say they wont kill you – check with locals before you get in!
A great trip from Darwin with hot pools, and, a gorge cruise and seeing freshies and more is this Katherine Gorge – Nitmiluk National Park – Full Day Tour.
For accommodation in Darwin book a hotel with booking.com or Tripadvisor, or, a hostel with Hostelworld
3. Where to find Possums in the wild
The easiest place to see possums in the wild is in the city!
In Melbourne the CBD parks – especially Flagstaff and Fitzroy Gardens have plenty of possums after dark.
In Sydney – you will find them in Hyde Park, Centennial Park, and the Botanic gardens.
Of course you will find them in your backyard, and in parks all across the cities. Just tell a local you want to see one. They might laugh but will point you int he right direction!
Equally the roads at night in Tasmania are good grounds for seeing possums in your headlights – almost guaranteed. Definitely guaranteed in Narawntapu National Park where you will have to drive slow to not kill them!
4. Where to find one of the cutest Australian animals in the wild – Quokkas!!
The only easy place to see these cute little marsupials (something like a tiny kangaroo) is on an Rottnest Island near Perth in Western Australia. Here you are guaranteed to see them.
They are also found in the south-east of Western Australia, but if you want to be sure, you need to go to Rottnest. Get a ferry from Fremantle or Perth. Its absolutely great to stay on the island but a day-trip is also good. These are a a few fun trips from Perth and Fremantle that take in more than just the quokkas:
- Rottnest Island Segway Tour
- Rottnest Island ‘Snorkel and Sail’
- Rottnest Island Skydive and Ferry Package
- Rottnest Island Ferry and Bike Day Tour (from Fremantle)
- Rottnest Island Ferry and Bike Day Tour (from Perth)
5. Where to find Kookaburra in the wild
On my balcony in Manly, Sydney!
Kookaburra are actually the world’s largest kingfisher – an absolute giant for that species! They are found over most of Australia and again it is luck of the draw as to seeing them, but if you are in Australia for any length of time you should at the very least hear them. Its a real treat – soooo looooud but fun!
Laughing Kookaburras live in eastern Australia, Tasmania and the south-west of Western Australia. The Blue-winged Kookaburra can be found in central northern and north-western Australia.
Go camping in or near forest or woodlands on the east coast for a very high chance of seeing them. Around Sydney try the Botanical Gardens, and Centennial Gardens, or the walks around Manly and near Toronga Zoo. Morning and evening are the best times.
6. Where to find Goanna / Lace Monitor in the wild
Lace monitors (goannas) are huge lizards and can be found all over the east coast of Australia in bush, and most national parks.
Again its luck of the draw but a couple of good places I’ve seen them in the Sydney area are Hallets Beach and Bobbin Head in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. Also further up the coast, Jimmy’s Beach, near Hawks Nest is a good spot. But if you look at this list you will see most national parks have them foraging around.
In Queensland, apart from national parks, the goanna is often found in Brisbane itself, especially the suburbs of Sinnamon Park, Chapel Hill, Pullenvale, Daisy Hill, Oxley, The Gap, Enoggera and Springfield.
7. Where to find Dingoes in the wild
They are all over Australia except Tasmania, but the only place to see purebred dingoes is on K’gari (Fraser Island) in Queensland.
On the mainland, because dingoes can interbreed with dogs, pure bred are thought to be possibly extinct now. If you go to Fraser Island you are likely to go on a tour and are pretty sure to see a dingo or two.
Your best bet to see dingoes is to go on a tour of K’gari – unless you have a 4wd and can go alone. These are some highly rated tours. I went on a two day tour and that was perfect – and of course saw dingoes too!
A remote K’gari by boat tour from Hervey Bay
A relaxed pace 2-day tour of the island
On another trip I stayed for a week on the island which gave me a lot of time to explore. If you have time I recommend it. I stayed at the Kingfisher Bay Resort which was nicely laid out and well organized – and has trips on the island too.
Fun fact: In Sturt National Park NSW, you can see the historic Dingo Fence that runs east to south-west along the eastern third of Australia and along the western and northern boundary of Sturt National Park. It was originally built in the 1880’s to keep dingoes away from sheep flocks Its 5,614km and is the world’s longest fence.
8. Where to find another of the aggressive Australian animals in the wild – the Cassowary
The huge Cassowary are endangered and only found in north Queensland.
They are unusual, dinosaur-aged, flightless birds. The males hatch the eggs and raise the chicks rather than the females. There are supposed to be only about 4000 left in the wild. The best time to see them is summer and in the early morning or late afternoon.
The main areas you are most likely to see them in the wild are on the Cassowary Coast! This includes Etty Bay, Bingal Bay and Mission Beach. If you are very keen, definitely get AllTrails and walk the Dreaming and Musgravea Trails near Mission Beach where they might be foraging.
Etty Bay is a favorite place. Stay at the Etty Bay Caravan Park for even more chance to see them – they do visit the campground at times. Otherwise wait quietly on the beach morning and evening. Its better to sit and wait than walk around.
Other good areas are the Daintree Rainforest at Cape Tribulation, the Atherton Tablelands, and the Girringun National Park near Ingham, or the Barron Falls National Park in Kuranda.
I have only ever seen one – that was near Cape Tribulation. Be wary if you do find one, they can be aggressive – especially when dad is with his chicks!
9. Where to find other cute Australian animals in the wild – wonderful Wallabies
Wallabies are actually just smaller species of kangaroo and are also found across the country. But its worth mentioning a few places you can find some really cute small ones. (See the feature image!)
In Queensland, wallabies are famous for their morning bounce on the beach at Cape Hillsborough National Park. Take this sunrise tour from Mackay. Just don’t miss it!
And if you want to see cute – try the Rock Wallabies on Magnetic Island – in the evening you are sure to see them by Geoffrey Bay. (That’s where the feature pic was taken.)
In ACT you can see Brush-tailed Rock-Wallabies in Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.
In Tasmania there are plenty of Bennett’s, or red-necked wallabies, in Freycinet National Park. They are often seen morning and evening at the park’s campsites and picnic areas. South Bruny National Park has plenty of wildlife, including wallabies morning and evening near the Fluted Cape entrance.
In the Northern Territory black-footed rock-wallabies are found throughout the MacDonnell Ranges and around Alice Springs especially in the Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve, Heavitree Gap, and Olive Pink Botanic Garden.
South Australia has plenty of Wallabies in Flinders Chase National Park especially around the campground and visitor center.
In Victoria swamp wallabies and black wallabies live in Phillip Island especially around Cape Woolamai, Smith’s Beach and Ventnor Beach.
10. Where to find one of the most elusive Australian animals in the wild -Tasmanian Devils!
Tasmanian Devils are not easy to spot in the wild!
I was quite lucky to see one in Narawntapu National Park – and they are seen there. Another likely place to get a glimpse of a Tasmanian Devil in the wild is in the Tarkine Reserve.
If you don’t see them in either spot, there is a mass of other wildlife as well, so you might see platypuses, echidnas, wombats, bandicoots, possums, gliders and quolls. It’s definitely worth a shot.
The other fantastic place to see Tasmanian Devils is Cradle Mountain – especially if you book to stay at the Discovery Park. It has luxury to basic cabins as well as powered and unpowered sites. They have guided walks and plenty on offer so you will see wildlife (including Tasmanian Devils) with them!
Not quite wild, but you can book a 1-hour lunchtime tour, or this nighttime feeding tour, where you will see them up close in a sanctuary!
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or in neighbouring New Zealand
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