Western Australia

Red-eared Firetail © Imogen Warren/Shutterstock

A new offering to showcase the remarkable diversity of Western Australia’s southwest corner. This concise itinerary allows ample time to appreciate this unique part of Australia in comfort, with excellent birding, mammal, and photographic opportunities.

Western Australia is an astoundingly large and old part of the Australian island continent, making up roughly one-third of the entire landmass. Most of the state is arid desert and semiarid shrubland, resulting in one of the least-inhabited regions on Earth. Away from its desert interior, tucked into the southwest corner, the vast majority of the state’s population resides. Here, cold fronts sweeping up from the Southern Ocean allow for ample moisture to support a wonderfully diverse array of unique plants and animals. This superb part of Australia is infrequently visited by overseas travelers, but it will be our focus for this exciting new offering.

We have the chance to see all 16 of the endemic birds found in this region, as well as several more near-endemics that only just make it across the border into South Australia. Some of the highlights include huge Baudin’s and Carnaby’s black-cockatoos, gorgeous Red-eared Firetail, the prehistoric and extremely localized Noisy Scrub-bird, strange Western Shrike-tit, a huge variety of beautiful parrots, endemic fairywrens, and an array of honeyeaters. Mammal opportunities are also good, especially in the beautiful open woodlands at Dryandra, where the amazing Numbat is often a decent chance, as well as Short-beaked Echidna and the impossibly cute Honey Possum. Over this short trip we should expect to see 120–150 bird species.

Our circuit has us starting and ending in the capital of Perth, from where we initially head inland to “the wheatbelt” and the remnant forests at Dryandra, before moving south to the windswept coastlines around Albany and Cheynes Beach, after which we follow the coast westwards to the tall Karri forests around Pemberton and the Margaret River wine-region. Perth is also an excellent base for further exploration of the southwest or catching a domestic flight to Broome and the Kimberley in the north of the state, should you wish.

Excellent to very good accommodations throughout; great food; easy terrain; good roads and comfortable vehicles; climate can be warm to hot, but also with a good chance of passing rain and cold winds on the southern coast.

Numbat © Ken Griffiths/Shutterstock