Hitchhiking may be his best bet there 
Chlidonias presents: Bustralia
- Thread starter Chlidonias
- Start date
Looking forward to this thread! Excited to see how you’ll fare without a car in some of these places, in my very limited experiences with non-urban Australian public transport it’s not too hard to get to the towns themselves but getting anywhere outside of the towns (like a wildlife watching spot) is an issue.
If you’re still in Melbourne for a few more days and want to do some birding I’ve got a couple spots I’d like to reccomend that are public transport friendly.
There’s Sherbrooke Forest and Banyule Flats that you’ve already been although the latter I find to be overrated in terms of output.
If you take the 86 tram up to Bundoora (40m-1hr tram ride from the CBD) and get off at stop 61 and walk through Main Drive onto La Trobe avenue you’ll reach Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary which is a fenced reserve that offers some of the best bush birding in suburban Melbourne. Mostly common species but there is potential for a huge variety here, some of the more interesting species include Gang Gang Cockatoos, Australian King Parrot, Black-faced Cuckooshrike, Grey Shrike-thrush, Scaly-breasted Lorikeet and more. It might be a bit late in the season but there might still be a few Robins around (they migrate to highlands in the spring), Nangak Tamboree gets Pink (female only), Rose, Scarlet and Flame Robins. Most visits I’ll record 20-25 species with some in excess of 30.
If you take the train to North Williamstown Station and walk down Bay View street you’ll end up at Jawbone Reserve which has tons of waterbirds including Great Crested Grebes, Pied Stilts, Blue-billed Ducks, Royal and Yellow-billed Spoonbills and more, there’s also Pelicans here, lots of New Holland Honeyeaters, White-plumed Honeyeaters, Silvereyes and European Goldfinches. It’s a good spot for Swamp Harrier and sometimes also White-bellied Sea Eagle. Once you’re done here, you can keep going on the train towards Altona Station, walk down to the beach and then walk along the Esplanade to Apex Park. There’s usually birds along the estuary here although it’s too early for the migratory shorebirds that occur here like Red Knot and Bar-tailed Godwit. If you keep going you’ll end up at Truganina Park which is a great little woodland birding spot, there’s currently Pallid, Horsfield’s Bronze and Shining Bronze Cuckoos here which may interest you, I went recently and had Singing Honeyeater and Little Grassbird among other birds. It’s also by far the best spot in Melbourne for Brown Quail.
If you’re still in Melbourne for a few more days and want to do some birding I’ve got a couple spots I’d like to reccomend that are public transport friendly.
There’s Sherbrooke Forest and Banyule Flats that you’ve already been although the latter I find to be overrated in terms of output.
If you take the 86 tram up to Bundoora (40m-1hr tram ride from the CBD) and get off at stop 61 and walk through Main Drive onto La Trobe avenue you’ll reach Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary which is a fenced reserve that offers some of the best bush birding in suburban Melbourne. Mostly common species but there is potential for a huge variety here, some of the more interesting species include Gang Gang Cockatoos, Australian King Parrot, Black-faced Cuckooshrike, Grey Shrike-thrush, Scaly-breasted Lorikeet and more. It might be a bit late in the season but there might still be a few Robins around (they migrate to highlands in the spring), Nangak Tamboree gets Pink (female only), Rose, Scarlet and Flame Robins. Most visits I’ll record 20-25 species with some in excess of 30.
If you take the train to North Williamstown Station and walk down Bay View street you’ll end up at Jawbone Reserve which has tons of waterbirds including Great Crested Grebes, Pied Stilts, Blue-billed Ducks, Royal and Yellow-billed Spoonbills and more, there’s also Pelicans here, lots of New Holland Honeyeaters, White-plumed Honeyeaters, Silvereyes and European Goldfinches. It’s a good spot for Swamp Harrier and sometimes also White-bellied Sea Eagle. Once you’re done here, you can keep going on the train towards Altona Station, walk down to the beach and then walk along the Esplanade to Apex Park. There’s usually birds along the estuary here although it’s too early for the migratory shorebirds that occur here like Red Knot and Bar-tailed Godwit. If you keep going you’ll end up at Truganina Park which is a great little woodland birding spot, there’s currently Pallid, Horsfield’s Bronze and Shining Bronze Cuckoos here which may interest you, I went recently and had Singing Honeyeater and Little Grassbird among other birds. It’s also by far the best spot in Melbourne for Brown Quail.
There's no intention for this this to be a comprehensive trip - I'm just taking the bus to towns which have interesting sites nearby. If I can't get somewhere without a car then I'm not going there.Uff, getting around them parts of Aus without a car is very optimistic. Especially the NT is gonna be hard I think. Even just going to Territory Wildlife Park will be a struggle, let alone any of the good wildlife areas. But it's gonna be interesting to read how you get on and will keep my fingers crossed for ya.
In one of the other Australian threads it was mentioned that Alice Springs is a dangerous city, which was news to me. I had only ever thought of it as a tourist town. But apparently it is not "just a bit" dangerous there - last year was ranked as the 18th most dangerous city in the world! Another town I looked at, I think it was Mt Isa, had a danger rating of 100/100 (where 0/100 is no crime). It is a common thread across NT and inland QLD.
I read anecdotal statements online saying town X is really dangerous and other anecdotal statements saying the opposite, but generally it sounds like during the day there may not be much trouble but at night stay out of sight. It mostly revolves around alcohol, drugs, and youth crime.
I've never been to any of them yet, so I don't know the reality.
During the day it's fine, at night it can be risky depending on where you are (especially for tourists and those who aren't as 'aware'). You just have to be vigilant; as you do when in any new city honestly.
Is the 'danger' concentrated in the small towns or does it extend to the rural areas and the outback in between?
It was a bit unfair to label some towns in inland and northern Australia "extremely unsafe". You landed in Melbourne? Some suburbs in that city are much less safe than most inland towns.
Just take normal precautions anywhere you go and you'll be OK. Enjoy.
Well said Steve and quite correct
Living in Melbourne and having stayed in Darwin/Alice Springs in the past though I can say Melbourne in the city is much safer at both day and night. Still dodgy in some areas, but I think the best advice is just to take precautions as should be done anytime when travelling.
Most major cities will have parts which are deemed unsafe - but I'm not going to those parts of Melbourne. If I was, then I would have said the same thing as I did about the towns. I'm not sure how it's unfair to say "many of the towns across inland and northern Australia are described as being extremely unsafe" when that is exactly how they are described. You can't Google information on Alice Springs or Mt Isa (to use the two earlier examples) without that being a focus of results.
Thanks for this. I went there today, got 35 species including Gang-gangs which are a bird I have never been able to find on any other visits to Australia!
Congrats on your wild lifer, I’ve been to Nangak Tamboree quite a lot over the last half decade or so as it’s my local patch, it’s really a wonderful spot despite being so close to suburbia. Gang Gang’s are such beautiful birds and it’s such a privilege to be able to see them so close to home, I find the best way to spot them is to listen to their quite distinctive call which sounds like a creaky door, you can sometimes hear them munching on nuts and leaves up in the treetops too.
I definitely wouldn’t want to be in certain suburbs at night, lots of gang related violence around but that’s with most major cities.
Wait, what about Romper Stomper?
Some confused musings on Melbourne public transport
For travel within Melbourne you need a Myki card because the buses don’t take cash any more. I did have a card from last time I was in Melbourne but I couldn’t find it, so I had to buy a new one. At the airport there was a machine for doing so. Me and machines though...
I selected the option to buy a card and the screen came up to choose either “top up with Myki money” or “top up with Myki pass”. I selected the first one and the machine said to present my card. I can’t present my card, I said to the machine, I’m trying to buy a card - you’re supposed to be presenting the card to me. The machine didn’t reply, so I cancelled it and tried again. This time when I selected “top up with Myki money” I got the screen asking how much money I wanted to put on the card, but there was nothing pressable on the screen and nowhere to put in the amount you wanted to put on the card.
I gave up on that and bought one at the Southern Cross train station when I got into the city.
Travel with the Myki card covers all the trains, buses and trams, and the cap for a whole day’s travel is just AU$11. In theory.
I used it on the first day to take a train about an hour to Geelong, then a bus for another hour to Queenscliff, back again to the city, and then on a tram out to St Kilda and back. I hadn’t been going to use the card on the second day (I was just going to go to some places within the city centre area which are either walkable or covered by the free central-city tram zone), so I’d only put $20 on it. But then I decided to go to Bundoora and I would have been slightly under on funds ($9 when I’d need $11). I went to the counter at Southern Cross to put a few more dollars on it.
The lady looks at my card on her computer and says I have only $3.50 on it. No there should be $9, I say. No, because I didn’t tap off the trams she tells me. Now, literally everything you read (including on the Myki website and on the trams themselves) says you tap on and off for buses and trains, but only tap on for trams. She acknowledged that “is what they say”, but said that if you don’t tap off the tram the card doesn’t know you’ve got off so it deducts more money. That doesn’t make any sense, I said, if you don’t need to tap off a tram and the daily cap is $11, then it shouldn’t matter either way. She didn’t seem to understand what I was saying. I just put another $10 on the card and left it at that.
I now had $13.50 on the card, and the next morning (today) I took the tram out to Bundoora to visit Nangak Tamboree (the La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary). I tagged on – the reader said I had $13.50 – but decided not to tag off at the other end because you’re not supposed to, whatever that lady had said. I think tagging off might even deduct more money off the card because it’s probably going to read it as another boarding? Anyway, on the way back I likewise tagged on but not off. Afterwards I checked the card at one of the little card-checking machines by a tram stop and apparently there is still $13.50 on the card.
I’m very confused.
For travel within Melbourne you need a Myki card because the buses don’t take cash any more. I did have a card from last time I was in Melbourne but I couldn’t find it, so I had to buy a new one. At the airport there was a machine for doing so. Me and machines though...
I selected the option to buy a card and the screen came up to choose either “top up with Myki money” or “top up with Myki pass”. I selected the first one and the machine said to present my card. I can’t present my card, I said to the machine, I’m trying to buy a card - you’re supposed to be presenting the card to me. The machine didn’t reply, so I cancelled it and tried again. This time when I selected “top up with Myki money” I got the screen asking how much money I wanted to put on the card, but there was nothing pressable on the screen and nowhere to put in the amount you wanted to put on the card.
I gave up on that and bought one at the Southern Cross train station when I got into the city.
Travel with the Myki card covers all the trains, buses and trams, and the cap for a whole day’s travel is just AU$11. In theory.
I used it on the first day to take a train about an hour to Geelong, then a bus for another hour to Queenscliff, back again to the city, and then on a tram out to St Kilda and back. I hadn’t been going to use the card on the second day (I was just going to go to some places within the city centre area which are either walkable or covered by the free central-city tram zone), so I’d only put $20 on it. But then I decided to go to Bundoora and I would have been slightly under on funds ($9 when I’d need $11). I went to the counter at Southern Cross to put a few more dollars on it.
The lady looks at my card on her computer and says I have only $3.50 on it. No there should be $9, I say. No, because I didn’t tap off the trams she tells me. Now, literally everything you read (including on the Myki website and on the trams themselves) says you tap on and off for buses and trains, but only tap on for trams. She acknowledged that “is what they say”, but said that if you don’t tap off the tram the card doesn’t know you’ve got off so it deducts more money. That doesn’t make any sense, I said, if you don’t need to tap off a tram and the daily cap is $11, then it shouldn’t matter either way. She didn’t seem to understand what I was saying. I just put another $10 on the card and left it at that.
I now had $13.50 on the card, and the next morning (today) I took the tram out to Bundoora to visit Nangak Tamboree (the La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary). I tagged on – the reader said I had $13.50 – but decided not to tag off at the other end because you’re not supposed to, whatever that lady had said. I think tagging off might even deduct more money off the card because it’s probably going to read it as another boarding? Anyway, on the way back I likewise tagged on but not off. Afterwards I checked the card at one of the little card-checking machines by a tram stop and apparently there is still $13.50 on the card.
I’m very confused.
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I’m just as confused as you are, I’ve never had an issue like that before, must have been a glitch in a system or a technological error.
Can you use a standard contactless bank card on the public transport in Melbourne? Or even Google/Apple pay on your phone now that you're very high tech since your last trip?
I was very pleased to find that at some point in the 7 years between my visits to Singapore, you can now use any contactless card/device instead of needing a special card.
I was very pleased to find that at some point in the 7 years between my visits to Singapore, you can now use any contactless card/device instead of needing a special card.
Not yet, alas.
I'm trying my best to remain a tech-ignorant old codger, but the world is not making it easy!
I wouldn't be so quick to say that. If anything it's getting worse as of late honestly.
You have to physically order one (which comes in the mail) or you can go to one of the customer service windows; which it appears you did at Southern Cross.
Yes you have to touch on and off even on trams. It's a bit confusing but from what I understand, if you only have a short travel ie. tap on at Flinders and get off at Southern Cross, you won't have as much money deducted. The price of your travel then goes up the further you go, so if you don't tap off, your essentially paying the full price for travel on that day.
If you touch off the tram it should read as 'touched off' on the screen. It wouldn't touch you on twice.
EDIT: I also think because you travelled to Geelong (out of Melbourne), the zoning and therefore fare prices may be different for the bus there as well.