Chlidonias presents: Bustralia
- Thread starter Chlidonias
- Start date
Outer Harbour, again
Today was supposed to be more bad weather, but just like yesterday it was not. I am still hoping to get to the Gorge Wildlife Park while in Adelaide, and that was going to be either today or tomorrow, but I got bogged down in the morning trying to book the next few moves after Alice Springs. There are limited bus times to get out to Gorge, so now that will have to be tomorrow instead.
It is really quite remarkable that Adelaide, which isn’t a large city, supports four excellent zoos – Adelaide, Monarto, Cleland, and Gorge.
I didn’t leave the hostel until around 11am. I was expecting rain but it wasn’t windy like yesterday, so decided to go back out to Outer Harbour and see what I could see in calmer conditions.
First I went over to the zoo to pick up my membership card which I’d purchased the other day. They had said it would take 7 to 10 days but I didn’t have that long so just went there anyway, and it was ready.
I walked through the Botanic Gardens to get to the zoo – there were lots of young rabbits everywhere! – and I couldn’t miss the flying foxes outside the zoo gates, so those were my mammals for the day taken care of.
From the zoo I walked along the north bank of the Torrens River for a few kilometres and then back down the other side to King William Street from where I could get to the train station. I saw a Reed Warbler along the river amongst the more usual city birds. I can’t see a Reed Warbler without in my head adding to the name with “Reed Warbler, smartest warbler alive”.
At Outer Harbour it was a little breezy but definitely not what one would call “windy”. The outer breakwater was covered in hundreds of cormorants, far more than yesterday. I think they are mostly Black-faced but there are certainly Pied Cormorants as well, because one flew past me. Without the gale the cormorants were more active, flying about and fishing, so I got better views than yesterday.
I was just musing over how the weather forecasts had been so inaccurate, and wondering if Australians call something else rain, when it suddenly started hammering down out of nowhere. Luckily there was a picnic shelter just nearby and I ran over to it. The effectiveness of this was not great – the rain was coming in sideways – so I stood with my back to the weather. The backs of my trousers were drenched, but the rain passed by within five minutes and the sun dried them quickly while I continued walking to the beach.
I was pleased to see a pair of Australian Pied Oystercatchers on the beach, and there were a few Caspian terns, loads of Great Crested Terns flying past, and even a Pacific Gull. There weren’t any Sooty Oystercatchers, and no sealions. I had read that sealions and fur seals frequent the breakwaters, but think that the sealions should be on the beach not the rocks. In any case, I didn’t see any.
The most interesting thing of the day was finding that the beach was covered in hundreds of soft balls of what looked like brown fur. I couldn't imagine what they could be other than something to do with seals, but when I looked them up online I discovered that they are in fact the matted remains of sea grasses (Posidonia australis) rolled into shape by wave action.
I found a few other nice items as well. In the photo below there is what I think is an Ornate Boxfish Aracana ornata at top right, while the lower one looks like some kind of Smooth Boxfish (Anoplocapros). The shell is a Razorfish or Razor Clam Pinna bicolor.
Bird tally for the day was 40 species, mostly just the common sorts of birds I see every day here other than the shore birds I mentioned for Outer Harbour.
Today was supposed to be more bad weather, but just like yesterday it was not. I am still hoping to get to the Gorge Wildlife Park while in Adelaide, and that was going to be either today or tomorrow, but I got bogged down in the morning trying to book the next few moves after Alice Springs. There are limited bus times to get out to Gorge, so now that will have to be tomorrow instead.
It is really quite remarkable that Adelaide, which isn’t a large city, supports four excellent zoos – Adelaide, Monarto, Cleland, and Gorge.
I didn’t leave the hostel until around 11am. I was expecting rain but it wasn’t windy like yesterday, so decided to go back out to Outer Harbour and see what I could see in calmer conditions.
First I went over to the zoo to pick up my membership card which I’d purchased the other day. They had said it would take 7 to 10 days but I didn’t have that long so just went there anyway, and it was ready.
I walked through the Botanic Gardens to get to the zoo – there were lots of young rabbits everywhere! – and I couldn’t miss the flying foxes outside the zoo gates, so those were my mammals for the day taken care of.
From the zoo I walked along the north bank of the Torrens River for a few kilometres and then back down the other side to King William Street from where I could get to the train station. I saw a Reed Warbler along the river amongst the more usual city birds. I can’t see a Reed Warbler without in my head adding to the name with “Reed Warbler, smartest warbler alive”.
At Outer Harbour it was a little breezy but definitely not what one would call “windy”. The outer breakwater was covered in hundreds of cormorants, far more than yesterday. I think they are mostly Black-faced but there are certainly Pied Cormorants as well, because one flew past me. Without the gale the cormorants were more active, flying about and fishing, so I got better views than yesterday.
I was just musing over how the weather forecasts had been so inaccurate, and wondering if Australians call something else rain, when it suddenly started hammering down out of nowhere. Luckily there was a picnic shelter just nearby and I ran over to it. The effectiveness of this was not great – the rain was coming in sideways – so I stood with my back to the weather. The backs of my trousers were drenched, but the rain passed by within five minutes and the sun dried them quickly while I continued walking to the beach.
I was pleased to see a pair of Australian Pied Oystercatchers on the beach, and there were a few Caspian terns, loads of Great Crested Terns flying past, and even a Pacific Gull. There weren’t any Sooty Oystercatchers, and no sealions. I had read that sealions and fur seals frequent the breakwaters, but think that the sealions should be on the beach not the rocks. In any case, I didn’t see any.
The most interesting thing of the day was finding that the beach was covered in hundreds of soft balls of what looked like brown fur. I couldn't imagine what they could be other than something to do with seals, but when I looked them up online I discovered that they are in fact the matted remains of sea grasses (Posidonia australis) rolled into shape by wave action.
I found a few other nice items as well. In the photo below there is what I think is an Ornate Boxfish Aracana ornata at top right, while the lower one looks like some kind of Smooth Boxfish (Anoplocapros). The shell is a Razorfish or Razor Clam Pinna bicolor.
Bird tally for the day was 40 species, mostly just the common sorts of birds I see every day here other than the shore birds I mentioned for Outer Harbour.
There's a relatively cheap way to see sea lions and fur seals if you can get down to Victor Harbor: Seal Island Tour | Victor Harbor Wildlife Boat Tours | The Big Duck — The Big Duck Boat Tours
I only had one more day in Adelaide, and I used it to go to Gorge Wildlife Park. Tonight I'm off on a twenty-hour bus ride to Alice Springs.
What do you reckon that your chance of seeing wild thorny devils is?
What's that number below one?
Seriously, though, I never thought about it! I'll do some reading.
They’re actually reasonably common in suitable habitat up that way, especially around Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. The issue is the best way to find them is by road cruising during the day and that is impossible to do on any sort of public transport or tour, plus they’re very small so very hard to spot.
I've seen Thorny Devils by walking the trails around Yulara, but only in summer. It might be too early for them to be out this time of year. Still too cold.
For Alice, walking along the Todd River from ANZAC Hill to the Telegraph Reserve always delivers great wildlife.
For Alice, walking along the Todd River from ANZAC Hill to the Telegraph Reserve always delivers great wildlife.
I saw a thorny devil at the centre of Australia fuel roadhouse - a raven had just killed it and was attempting to fly with it, but i chased them causing the raven to drop the devil... it was like picking up blackberry branches! Surprisingly sharp to the touch.... the raven had impaled it on its soft tummy
Many of our towns are ranked as dangerous, especially our majour cities and inland towns. Most people living here have no idea the travel warnings foreign countries have out on us. We live with the crime and think nothing of it because its normal or 'just don't go near that end of town its a bit rought' mentality. Sydney for example has one of the highest danger warnings in some countries. Where I am a bit north, very touristy, also has warnings at time for travellers.
Keep your wits about you and you can basically go anywhere without much issue.
If Melbourne confuses you, wait till you get to NSW!.
You can use contactless payment, or get an opal card. You need to tap on and of. Or it will charge you the max daily fee of 20 something. If you visit Taronga for example, you can use the same card for the train, ferry and bus. If you're not on the younger and spritely side, you'll want to catch the bus from the ferry to the main gate. That hill is fun to walk down not up.
Where are you getting this from? I have never heard of Australia attracting any sort of travel warning for crime, and for good reason - the idea that we are a high crime country is a myth advanced by media and certain political movements for their own advantage.
Please provide links to these supposed travel warnings.
I just checked 5 countries for the travel recommendations on Australia (so the advice of the Ministry of Foreign affairs) and all of them give Australia as safe to travel, but use your common sense. As in watch your belongings and take the normal precautions to avoid theft, pick-pocketing etc.
How is Sydney's public transport confusing? Using the Opal card is really straight-forward in my experience.
This is just nonsense. There is a big difference between government travel warnings and general crime statistics. No government puts out travel warnings against Australia - it is considered a very safe country.
I've never been worried about travelling in Australia before. The only reason I brought up a town like Alice is because it was mentioned in another thread as being dangerous, which I looked into because as a solo backpacker who is walking around alone a lot of the time I need to be aware of any issues I might encounter, and I discovered the general crime statistics for them.
For what its worth I arrived in Alice yesterday and, as far as that afternoon went, it just seems like a typical country town...
When I was at the Alice Springs Reptile Centre yesterday, there was a guy doing a talk about Thorny Devils and he was saying that they aren't found around the town but at Uluru they are very common (he said he saw six or seven a couple of days before when out there).
So if you are going to Australia, I guess Uluru is the place to look for them, given most tourists to the Outback will be going there anyway.
@Chlidonias are you going to tell us about your trip to Gorge wildlife park?
I was there only a week or so ago and loved it, id like to hear your perspective.
I was there only a week or so ago and loved it, id like to hear your perspective.
Yes that will be the next post. First I need to write out the list and upload photos and so forth.
Was that deliberate?
I spent some time in Alice Springs in the early 1990's on more than one trip. Thoroughly enjoyed the place. The only 'crime' I saw was the police van rounding up drunks but I'll admit I was ensconced in the motel after dark so never thought about it. Seemed quite an 'arty' place. Out of town we saw stuff like Black-footed(?) rock wallaby, tawny frogmouth, Major mitchells/leadbetter cockatoos, red kangaroos, bustard, budgies(!) and a load of other birds I can't remember now. I loved the Spinifex pigeons though- look out for them, the ones we found ran toward us when they saw we had food. Don't forget the Desert Park if you can get there.
Gorge Wildlife Park
Beach-Stone-Curlews
This was my final day in Adelaide – in the evening I would be taking a bus to Alice Springs (20 hours away) – and so I was going to Gorge Wildlife Park which is at Cudlee Creek, about 30km out of Adelaide city. This was the fourth Adelaide zoo I’ve visited over the last week. First was Adelaide Zoo itself, then Cleland Wildlife Park, then Monarto Safari Park, and now Gorge.
It is not difficult to get to Gorge with public transport, but the schedules are limited. First I took a bus to the Tea Tree Plaza Interchange - lots of buses go there from the city every few minutes, it takes about half an hour, and you can use your Metrocard. Then from there I had to take a LinkSA bus, which costs AU$6.10 (they don’t take the Metrocard) and which takes another half an hour, but it only runs three times a day on weekdays (at 9am, 10.10am and 2.03pm), and twice a day on Saturdays (10.10am and 12.20pm). The destination bus stop is at the Cudlee Creek Caravan Park, which is at the junction between Gorge Road and Redden Drive - the Wildlife Park is about 300m up Redden Drive.
At its heart Gorge is a native wildlife park with a heavy emphasis on birds, but it has a fair few exotic mammals scattered about. The layout lacks any sort of cohesion so navigating it requires multiple backtracks and constant consulting of the map, and signage is often poor (frequently non-existent), but I really liked this park, perhaps more so than Adelaide Zoo. It's certainly not a better zoo than Adelaide Zoo - it is much more chaotic and unpolished, and obviously smaller in area - but it felt more interesting.
Like many wildlife parks in Australia it has a sort of “home-spun” look to it. Enclosures are mostly simple cage- or aviary-style, and the macropods are in large walk-through paddocks.
Brush-tailed Rock Wallabies
There are aviaries scattered everywhere. They are mostly well-planted, and most contain a mix of species. I counted 123 bird species there, and I almost certainly missed some because the signage for the birds was extremely poor. Many aviaries had a notice saying that the signage was being upgraded and a simple laminated list of species was tacked up instead, but even this was usually wrong. Other aviaries lacked identification signage entirely. Even the rarest birds (in an Australian context) were totally unsigned, like the NZ Scaup, Paradise Ducks, and Canada Geese.
It was very frustrating because you just don't know what to look for or whether you've seen everything. It’s not like these are all just common birds either - one small aviary was totally unsigned and I only accidentally saw (on a second pass by) a Grey-headed Honeyeater and an Inland Dotterel in there as well as the other birds I’d seen earlier.
Grey-headed Honeyeater
I was there for about four hours, taking three to make my way leisurely around the whole park, and then the last hour going back to various aviaries for photos.
Dusky Woodswallow
My ranking for the four zoos would go Adelaide Zoo first, then Gorge, then Cleland, and then Monarto as number four. All of them are really good zoos, but the open-range zoos (e.g. Monarto) aren’t that interesting to me, and Cleland didn’t really grab me.
Topknot Pigeon
I have posted a full species list and walk-through here: Gorge Wildlife Park, September 2025 [Gorge Wildlife Park]
Royal Spoonbill
Beach-Stone-Curlews
This was my final day in Adelaide – in the evening I would be taking a bus to Alice Springs (20 hours away) – and so I was going to Gorge Wildlife Park which is at Cudlee Creek, about 30km out of Adelaide city. This was the fourth Adelaide zoo I’ve visited over the last week. First was Adelaide Zoo itself, then Cleland Wildlife Park, then Monarto Safari Park, and now Gorge.
It is not difficult to get to Gorge with public transport, but the schedules are limited. First I took a bus to the Tea Tree Plaza Interchange - lots of buses go there from the city every few minutes, it takes about half an hour, and you can use your Metrocard. Then from there I had to take a LinkSA bus, which costs AU$6.10 (they don’t take the Metrocard) and which takes another half an hour, but it only runs three times a day on weekdays (at 9am, 10.10am and 2.03pm), and twice a day on Saturdays (10.10am and 12.20pm). The destination bus stop is at the Cudlee Creek Caravan Park, which is at the junction between Gorge Road and Redden Drive - the Wildlife Park is about 300m up Redden Drive.
At its heart Gorge is a native wildlife park with a heavy emphasis on birds, but it has a fair few exotic mammals scattered about. The layout lacks any sort of cohesion so navigating it requires multiple backtracks and constant consulting of the map, and signage is often poor (frequently non-existent), but I really liked this park, perhaps more so than Adelaide Zoo. It's certainly not a better zoo than Adelaide Zoo - it is much more chaotic and unpolished, and obviously smaller in area - but it felt more interesting.
Like many wildlife parks in Australia it has a sort of “home-spun” look to it. Enclosures are mostly simple cage- or aviary-style, and the macropods are in large walk-through paddocks.
Brush-tailed Rock Wallabies
There are aviaries scattered everywhere. They are mostly well-planted, and most contain a mix of species. I counted 123 bird species there, and I almost certainly missed some because the signage for the birds was extremely poor. Many aviaries had a notice saying that the signage was being upgraded and a simple laminated list of species was tacked up instead, but even this was usually wrong. Other aviaries lacked identification signage entirely. Even the rarest birds (in an Australian context) were totally unsigned, like the NZ Scaup, Paradise Ducks, and Canada Geese.
It was very frustrating because you just don't know what to look for or whether you've seen everything. It’s not like these are all just common birds either - one small aviary was totally unsigned and I only accidentally saw (on a second pass by) a Grey-headed Honeyeater and an Inland Dotterel in there as well as the other birds I’d seen earlier.
Grey-headed Honeyeater
I was there for about four hours, taking three to make my way leisurely around the whole park, and then the last hour going back to various aviaries for photos.
Dusky Woodswallow
My ranking for the four zoos would go Adelaide Zoo first, then Gorge, then Cleland, and then Monarto as number four. All of them are really good zoos, but the open-range zoos (e.g. Monarto) aren’t that interesting to me, and Cleland didn’t really grab me.
Topknot Pigeon
I have posted a full species list and walk-through here: Gorge Wildlife Park, September 2025 [Gorge Wildlife Park]
Royal Spoonbill