Australia: Sydney to Northern New South Wales

[Previously, I have written blog posts that synthesize retrospectively what we experienced during a preceding time period, organizing the information using the perspective gained over a number of weeks. We are currently traveling in Australia on a 6-month road trip around the continent, and it does not look like there will be time to write such blog posts on this trip. Eileen suggested I instead use my nightly field note entries without further editing; this post represents a trial of that approach. If I feel further info is needed, I will put it in square brackets, as done for this paragraph.]

2026/05/01

Tomorrow we start on our long-anticipated 178-day trip to Australia. I started researching Australia in 2019 but my efforts were stymied by COVID, wildfires, and unavailability of RVs that could be driven on unpaved roads. Finally in late 2023, Gallivanting Oz [a fabulous travel agency for camper rentals] negotiated an exception for us to drive up to 20km on dirt roads in a Cruisin Seeker, a 24-foot motorhome. Planning this trip consumed most of my time for about 7 months in the intervening 2.5 years. I ended up booking in advance all reservable campgrounds and activities, which is good in removing uncertainty about where we will sleep, but leaves us no flexibility.

We start under difficult circumstances. Eileen broke the radius bones in both of her arms in a fall in Oaxaca 7 weeks ago; she still is on Meloxicam and the maximum dose of Tylenol, and is very limited in what she can do. I strained my shoulder helping her up into our truck, so between us we only have one good arm.

 

2026/05/02-05: Flights

We are ready to give up on flying American Airlines. For the third time in a row, we have had delayed departures and been unable to make connections with generous layovers. The last two were supposedly due to weather, this one to a plane maintenance issue. Our straightforward itinerary to Sydney has gained a third leg and been extended 24 hours. We got into a hotel in Fort Worth about 2:30 a. m. and returned to DFW at 10 a.m. We then flew to LAX and had a 7-hour layover before the final 15-hour flight.

Our luggage made it and we picked up the camper; took possession of a lithium power station I purchased ahead of time; shopped at Bunnings for gear; shopped at Woolworths for food; and drove to camp. Driving on the opposite side of the road was very difficult, and the camper is wide compared to lane widths. Saw several birds during the day but counted Willie Wagtail in camp as the first official species of the trip.

 

2026/05/06: Wattamolla area, Royal NP, NSW

It took a lot of unpacking, repacking, and organizing to be able to head out this morning. We did a ca 1.5mi RT hike into prime Ausbos [coastal heath] habitat where we were lucky to see our prime target, Rockwarbler, very well. That was our only lifer. It was a beautiful walk and most of the drive was gorgeous.

 

2026/05/07: Barren Grounds Nature Preserve and Budderoo NP, NSW

When we arrived in the morning at 2100ft elevation, it was 48F with a wind chill of 34F and wind gusts to 38mph! I thought we would not see anything, but we managed a few species and two CHG habitats [Campbell, Hesse, and Gregory, “Habitats of Australia, New Guinea, and the Solomons”, an excellent new book listing 65 native habitats in Australia]. Of several low probability targets, we detected only Beautiful Firetail, which I heard and Eileen saw briefly in flight.

 

2026/05/08: Taren Point Shorebird Reserve, Woolooware Bay, NSW

I spent the morning unpacking and rearranging, making good progress. We spent a couple of hours shopping, split into two sessions by lunch. Finally, we visited Taren Point, where the tide was quite high. There were very few individual shorebirds and species, but that included a flock of 8 Gray-tailed Tattlers, a long-sought lifer! They have usually migrated north by this date, so it was a welcome surprise to see them.

 

2026/05/09: Pelagic Trip from Sydney

This was a strange pelagic; we went 24mi straight-line offshore, to the edge of the Continental Shelf, and then cut the engine, lay down an oil slick, and waited for an estimated two hours.The only new things that came in to the slick were four Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, but we did get excellent views of them. We also saw four albatross taxa superbly and repeatedly. The list for the day was pretty anemic, with no lifers, but the familiar species seen well made it a good day at sea. Favorites were the storm-petrels and Buller’s Albatross.

 

2026/05/10: Cumberland SF, NSW

After mass, we spent several hours walking through this state forest, also having a rather gourmet lunch at the cafe, which was very crowded as it was Mother’s Day. Nice rainforest vegetation below a canopy of Eucalyptus nearly 100ft high. Beautiful ferns. We saw only very common species here but got the trip list up to 53. It was nice to see Galah again. After checking in at camp, we tried for bats and feather-tailed gliders at a known site but only succeeded in disturbing sleeping Silvereyes.

 

2026/05/11: Capertee Valley, NSW

A half-day drive brought us to the Southern Hemisphere’s largest enclosed valley. We only had time to cover three birding sites (a valley birding trail map lists 19 stops); the third, Coco Creek, was very good, adding 4 trip birds. We tried to get into camp early, but were ambushed by macropods [kangaroos, etc.] on the way into Coorongooba CG [campground]. We identified 3 species, two of them lifers. Other favorites today included Spotted Pardalote and Superb Fairywren.

 

2026/05/12: Capertee Valley, NSW

A delightful day of birding at three sites and stopping along the road. Added a new mammal family via Common Wombat and a new bird family via Eastern Shrike-tit! Eileen had 8 life birds and I had 7, indicating that we did not cover this type of habitat in 2004. After dark, we investigated snarling sounds outside the camper and found four Common Brush-tailed Possum!

 

2026/05/13: Capertee Valley to Myall Lakes NP, NSW

A day of transit with a mammal search at Mungo Brush CG. We had only one mammal but it was a doozy: Short-beaked Echidna! Our driving time in Google Maps was around five hours; it took us about 30% longer not including stops, which added about 1.5 hours including a cell signal break. I will probably get a little more comfortable driving closer to the speed limit, but I doubt we will ever get this below a factor of 1.2x, and all my planning was done based on 1.1x (the number I use in the U.S.), so we are in for some long days. The drive was enjoyable, crossing the Great Dividing Range in a leisurely fashion.

 

2026/05/14: Ash Island, Hunter Wetlands NP, NSW

An extensively rainy day, with dingoes going through our site in the morning; several hours of birding in nice wetlands at mid-day; and a nail-biting drive into the mountains in rain on a wet gravel road with many stream crossings. Camp was at 1400ft and Superb Lyrebirds were everywhere. Recorded bats for an hour in misting weather; 3 spp detected, no positive IDs. Favorite birds today were White-necked Heron, Striped Honeyeater, and Mistletoebird.

 

2026/05/15: Transit

Recognizing that we’d never complete the itinerary of the next two days given driving times, we gave up the hopeless task of looking for Rufous Scrubbird to save about half a day. Torrential rain in Port Macquarie caused us to miss a rainforest walk, so we went shopping at Bunnings and Woolworths instead. I booked a site at a caravan park farther north, reducing our driving tomorrow to two hours or less. We did no birding today except stopping for incidental sightings, the best by far being lifer White-headed Pigeon.

 

2026/05/16: Coast, Valla Beach to Red Rock, NSW

Briefly birded at four sites today, all on the immediate coast, hampered to various degrees by rain. We got a late checkout at our campground at Valla Beach and spent the morning getting the camper organized. I also did surgery on the dinette table and our camp neighbor Andrew helped me aim the camper backup camera so it actually would be useful. The CG was quite birdy and beautiful Scaly-breasted Lorikeets landed in the next site.

The Urungu Boardwalk looked like a great birding spot but we had little time before it started to rain; though we saw no Beach Thick-Knee, Eileen caught up on Sooty Oystercatcher. The Corindi River Mouth had an impressive expanse of sand but still no Thick-Knees, though Royal Spoonbills were a treat. Stayed at a HipCamp site, which was very nice; saw White-cheeked Honeyeater and recorded four bat species in only about 20 minutes before rain started. I identified three of these, all, of course, lifers.

 

2026/05/17: Iluka Rainforest Walk, Bundjalung NP

We had a lovely long walk in this superb Littoral Rainforest, looking for Noisy Pitta, without success. But we worked out some tricky IDs (Large-billed Scrubwren and Brown Gerygone) and heard Wonga Dove and Brown Cuckoo-Dove well. As I started on dessert at lunch, I checked the driving time to our campsite, far inland, and was appalled: we might arrive a hour or more after sunset! We took off and I drove relentlessly, completing the 3:09 drive according to Google Maps in just 3:28, arriving exactly at sunset!

 

2026/05/18: Old Wallangarra Road and Sundown NP, Qld

A rather disappointing day of birding; Wallangarra Road turned up hardly any grassland birds, for which it is noted, and Sundown NP was very pretty but virtually silent and birdless. We did add one delightful trip bird, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, and one life mammal, Swamp Wallaby.

We’ve now been in Australia for two weeks. It has been challenging, principally due to difficult driving and longer than expected driving times. The cell signal is atrocious; we get a signal most places but it disconnects within minutes! We have to go in and out of airplane mode constantly to get it to reconnect. Thus, we can’t really use the phones to call each other and nobody can call us.

The camper is brand new — we are the first to rent it. It’s OK, but it is wide for the narrow lanes in metropolitan areas, and the gas and brake pedals are small and close together, both issues making learning to drive on the opposite side of the road more difficult. We have had quite a bit of rain and the vehicle’s windshield wipers are schizophrenic, making driving in rain tiresome.

If we are hooked up to power in a campground, we can use the microwave, air conditioner, and heater, but so far that’s only happened twice in two weeks. Cooking otherwise is a challenge, with only a small grill rather than an oven, plus a cooktop. Australian food seems bland and I’ve still not found a breakfast I like. Eileen has found no non-carbonated cold drink to her taste, though she has tried several coffees she likes.

The camper came with two lithium rather than lead acid batteries, a big plus, but also a large all-electric fridge-freezer, convenient but no doubt power-hungry. The batteries do not seem to charge above ca 13.1V (~60%) no matter how long we drive, though they do charge fully overnight with AC. I suspect that the charging system was not upgraded when they went to lithium. Fortunately, we have not gone below 50% battery capacity so far.

Healthwise, Eileen has stopped taking Meloxicam and Tylenol for her arms, a big milestone, though she still has pain at times, and getting in and out of the cab is hard for her. I am still having bad leg cramps at night; I’ve never before had them last so long after long flights.

Our bird list stands at 114 spp; Eileen has 13 lifers, while I have 11. We’ve seen 12 mammals, 9 of them lifers. Lastly, we have confidently identified 12 CHG habitats; it’s been fun analyzing the vegetative structure and composition of the places we’ve visited and driven through.