How to Find Wild Kangaroos in Australia

Every Australian visitor is eager to see kangaroos, but expecting to see a wild kangaroo hopping through downtown Sydney is like thinking you’ll run into Bambi on New York’s Fifth Avenue. Most visitors to Sydney, Australia settle for a visit to the Taronga Zoo in order to see a kangaroo. But you can rent a cabin, hire a car and in just four hours find yourself hanging with wild, grey kangaroos on Pebbly Beach or Depot Beach, near Murramarang National Park on the eastern coast of Australia.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Accommodations
• New South Wales Road Map
• Rental Car
• Camera
• Bathing suit (“bathers” in Australia)
• Water shoes
• Sun hat
• Sunscreen

1. Know that both Pebbly Beach and Depot Beach (near the New South Wales city of Durras) are frequented by dune-loving wild kangaroos and wallabies. There are many cabins for rent in the area, as well as campgrounds, and there is also one luxury hotel, the Murramurrang Resort. This area has wild, natural beauty but virtually no tourist development. Expect a quiet few days of hiking (“bushwalking” in Australia), relaxing, swimming, and beachcombing (see Resources).

2. Rent a car. All the major international agencies are present in Australia, and your US driver’s license is valid there. Be prepared though—-you will be driving on the left-hand side of the road (see Tips).

3. Be sure to pack your bathing suit and water shoes to protect your feet from rocks, as well as from the bite of the potentially lethal cone shell, which lives in warm, shallow waters. Australian natives routinely wear not only sunscreen but also sunhats, as the ozone layer is particularly thin in this part of the world.

4. Buy a map of the state of New South Wales and plot your course down the Princes Highway. This breathtaking coastal drive takes about an hour longer than the motorway, but it is worth it. You will find yourself pulling to the side of the road and grabbing your camera to capture the beauty of Australia’s east coast.

5. 
   Feeding a Crimson Rosella Parrot

   There are many little towns along the Princes Highway. Stop along the way to buy groceries for your cabin, because once you reach Depot Beach, it will be a long drive to a convenience store. Shop knowing that you will spend quiet evenings on the porch of your cabin, sipping drinks, taking photographs and feeding the wild birds that abound in this undeveloped area.

6. Schedule a day trip into Murramarang National Park, where you can visit a rainforest habitat and historic Aboriginal sites if you have enough time.

Tips & Warnings

• Hectic, unfamiliar city streets are not a place to try driving for the first time on the “wrong side of the road.” Instead, reserve your car at the airport, and take a taxi or shuttle bus to pick it up. This will allow you to get as much practice as you need while you are still in the airport parking lot, and you can get directly on the highway, which quickly becomes a wide open road as you head south.
• Automatic transmissions are not the norm in Australian rental cars. Be sure to request an automatic when you reserve the car.
• Read “In a Sunburned Country” by Bill Bryson, or better yet, listen to the audio book on the long plane ride to Australia. To call him a travel writer is a gross understatement. His funny, folksy writing (and hilarious delivery if you listen to him read) will give you a sense of the breadth and history of the Australian culture that tourists rarely see.
• If it gets too quiet, there are restaurants, a movie theater (“cinema”), shopping and art galleries twenty minutes further south in the larger town of Batemans Bay.
• Consult with your US car insurance company to be sure that you will be covered if you have an accident in Australia. You may find that it makes sense to buy the rental company’s supplemental insurance coverage.
• Kangaroos in Australia are very similar to deer in North America—they tend to come out and graze at dusk, and often wander into the road. Use care when driving in the Murramurrang National Park area, especially at twilight.

Resources

• “The Age” Travel Section—Durras
• “Outside”—Lost Coast Found
• Pebbly Beach Holiday Cabins
• Depot Beach Cabins (photos)
• Murramarang Resort Hotel