Animals of Australia’s East Coast

One of my favorite pleasures when visiting new places is encountering the local wildlife. Not at zoos or in cages, we like to see the animals in the wild! And we’ve had a great time spending time with the animals of Australia’s East Coast. Picture the animals you can only see in Australia and we’ve been fortunate to get up close to a lot of them! Here are some of our best sightings and places to see animals of Australia’s East Coast.

Australia’s East Coast

We spent almost four months in the state of Queensland, the second largest and third most populous state in Australia. For reference, Queensland is 7 times larger than the United Kingdom, and is home to 5.5 million people.

Queensland occupies the northeast coast of Australia, from Gold Coast up to Cairns. We sailed from Gold Coast up to Townsville, with plans to make it to Cairns next year.

Highlights of Queensland include beaches and coastlines, beautiful islands in the Coral Sea, the capital city of Brisbane, The Great Barrier Reef, and awesome animals. Although we did have a few issues with the boat in Queensland, we loved all the great sights and amenities.

Other than Queensland, we’ve seen animals of Australia’s East Coast in New South Wales, from Coffs Harbor down to Sydney. We’ve only been in about half of Coastal NSW, but we’ve seen a lot of wildlife.

Koalas

australians and koalas

Have you heard of drop bears? If you have, you’ve likely been to Australia. Drop bears are the deadly type of koala which jumps out of trees and attacks unsuspecting tourists. So you’ve always got to be on guard! Since we’ve all been forewarned that Australia is full of dangerous animals (true), it’s not much of a stretch to believe there are deadly koalas (not). Drop bears are a joke Australians play on tourists. A lot of tourists apparently “fall” for it. All the koalas we’ve seen stay snuggled up in the trees and are non threatening to humans.

Seeing koalas in the wild is a must do for visitors to Australia, as it’s the only place you can see them in their natural habitat! To spot a koala in Australia, look up in the trees.

koalas are endangered

While we’ve had good luck spotting koalas in the wild, it’s not that easy. You need to know where to go. In fact, koalas are endangered, and have been since 2022. As they only live in Queensland, New South Wales, and the Capital Region of Australia, these areas are doing their best to protect them. This means moving them to islands where there are no threats from dogs and deforestation, and limited threat from motor vehicles. Many of the best places to see koalas in the wild are on islands or protected spaces on the mainland.

Koalas are among our favorite animals of Australia. Cute and safe, they live in, and hide in, the trees.

where to see koalas in queensland

We’ve managed to spot cute koalas in all the areas they’re known to hang out. In Queensland, we’ve seen koalas in North Stradbroke Island, Magnetic Island, and Coombabah conservation area near Gold Coast. Of those three places, Magnetic Island and Coombabah are your best bets, because we saw multiple koalas there.

Kangaroos

Kangaroos outnumber people in Queensland. 5.5 million people live in a state 2.5 times the size of Texas, and over 20 million kangaroos. There are more kangaroos in Queensland than anywhere else. So you’d think we’d see them all the time. Unfortunately, we don’t. They tend to avoid busy areas and roads, which is smart of them.

Outside of urban areas, kangaroos are everywhere. At first they reminded me of deer, mostly in their faces and fur. But, their front paws are so tiny for such big bodies and they move very differently from deer. Kangaroos get quite big, especially the males. We’ve gotten to see some kangaroos with joeys in the pouches, which is incredibly cute.

The best places we’ve spotted kangaroos in Queensland were on North Stradbroke (Straddy) Island and Coombabah Lake Conservation Area. We didn’t have that much luck when we went to the Hinterlands, but they are there too. Considering they outnumber people 4 to 1, of course they’re everywhere!

Wallabies and Rock Wallabies

Wallabies and rock wallabies are related to kangaroos. To me, wallabies look exactly the same as kangaroos, but I only saw them once running in a Townsville park. They’re cute and jump like kangaroos, but are quite different. For example, their pouches are located between their legs instead of the bottom of their bodies, and their teeth are flat versus a kangaroo’s curved teeth. They differ in other ways as well, but those are two examples.

Rock Wallabies live on Magnetic Island, and you can coax them out with some food that looks like kibble. Rock wallabies have feet designed to grip the rugged terrain of their habitat, a key difference from wallabies.

Dingoes

K’Gari Island is an impressive World Heritage Site, with unique and diverse landscapes. It’s also the only place we saw dingoes in the wild, another of the amazing animals of Australia’s East Coast. Dingoes are dangerous though! We were happy to see them from the safety of our tour bus.

Goannas

We’ve seen lizards in the Caribbean and Americas, but Australia has it’s own special breed and it’s big. Called the goanna, it’s a pretty common animal. We saw a massive goanna while hiking the Whitsundays, and another on a hike in Port Mac.

Spiders

We see spiders everywhere in Australia, especially when hiking. We’ve learned to bring a stick and wave it in front of us when hiking in Australia, because spiders weave their webs quickly and take up a lot of space. I think many of these spiders aren’t dangerous, but we’d rather be safe than sorry.

This spider photo bombed my beach shot in Newport, Sydney, New South Wales.

Humpback Whales

If you’re in Australia during whale season, head to Queensland. Many towns along the coast from Gold Coast to Townsville offer tours by boat and helicopter to see these gigantic marine creatures. We saw them many times when we were sailing from one harbor to another, awed by their size and agility, and also trying to avoid getting too close with our boat.

If you want to see humpback whales in Australia, go to coastal Queensland between May and October.

Besides whales, we’ve seen lots of dolphins, some turtles, and some rays. We saw dolphins several times in Port Mac and Newcastle, New South Wales.

We’ve even seen dugongs, which are similar to manatees, but they are very camera shy, at least when I’m around!

Platypus

We’ve only seen platypus once, when we ,made a road trip to the Queensland Hinterlands. They’re really rare, so we feel very lucky to have seen it. Australia is truly amazing if you like animals, and they’re so different from the ones back home.

Jellyfish

Jellyfish are everywhere in Australia, and there are a lot of different kinds. The worst kind are the stingers, because they are potentially lethal, and at the very least, painful. If we do go snorkeling or scuba diving, we’ll wear wetsuits to protect ourselves. Other jellyfish aren’t dangerous, but in Sydney and Pittwater we’ve seen so many, it’s deterred us from going in the water.

We saw these bluebottles while walking some beaches on the coast in Port Macquarie. If they’re in the ocean, avoid swimming, as apparently the sting is extremely painful.

In Sydney, we see a lot of moon jellyfish. While they do sting, they are not dangerous to humans.

The jellyfish swarming the waters in Pittwater are called jelly blubbers. Apparently not dangerous, their sting is very mild. However, they are too big and too plentiful.

Australians are tough people. They have no problem swimming with swarms of jellyfish. We’ve seen them. I’d rather go to the pool.

As you can see, the animals of East Coast Australia are plentiful and varied. I love the kangaroos and koalas! Would that we could only see the cute creatures, but Australia is also home to the dangerous ones that sting you and more. We haven’t seen everything yet!

Share your tips in the comments on where we can see more animals of Australia in the wild! And let me know if you would swim with those jellyfish?