Half-hour webinars, each followed by 10 minutes Q&A
Starting 3.00 pm (Queensland time) Monday, 21 July 2025. Then the third Monday of every month.
Ronda K. Green
See below for the schedule for the next few months
This is a fantastic opportunity to make our wildlife better known.
Even many Australians – including any in the tour industry have little idea of our biodiversity or how special the area surrounding Brisbane is for wildlife experiences.
In 2032, there will be a lot of visitors to SE Queensland for the Olympics. Many of these will want to see something of our wildlife while they are here.
Wouldn’t it be great if all our tour operators, hotel staff, even restaurant waiters and service station workers could be knowledgeable about the amazing diversity of wildlife that can be seen close to Brisbane, both in the wild and in captivity, where to see them, how to watch them with disturbing them, and some fascinating facts about them.
The Olympics offer an excellent opportunity to let international folk know there is a lot more than kangaroos, koalas and kookaburras in Australia.
And while the initial idea for this series of webinars, initiated at Wildlife Tourism Australia’s 2022 conference, was to inform tour operators and other folk likely to meet lots of international visitors in 2032, these webinars can of course be enjoyed by our visitors themselves while planning their trips, and by anyone else either living in Southeast Queensland or planning to visit.
The Scenic Rim, just a little south of Brisbane, along with the NE corner of NSW, is part of the region boasting the third highest biodiversity in Australia. We have many of the famous species here – kangaroos, koalas, platypus, kookaburras, wedge-tailed eagles, lyrebirds, bowerbirds, carpet pythons, etc. Also, many kinds of habitat: various forms of rainforest and eucalypt forest, sheoak-dominant riparian vegetation, creeks, rivers, mountain heath, brigalow …
Then there are regions such as the Gold Coast, Moreton Bay and Sunshine Coast with whales, turtles, dugongs, coral, mangroves and tea tree wetlands, and Bribie Island, which has been recorded as harbouring more bird species than Kakadu. We don’t have cassowaries, wombats, Tasmanian devils, red kangaroos, emus or penguins in the wild (although they can all be seen in well-run wildlife parks), but for any nature-lover visiting our country for a short time, there is an amazing diversity of wildlife within easy access from Brisbane.
Hence, along with the Scenic Rim branch of Wildlife Queensland, we are about to launch a series of short webinars on wildlife that can be seen within a short drive from Brisbane (and will also mention a few that are not so easy to see but we think would be good for people to know about).
These webinars will run at 3.00 pm on the third Monday of every month over the next couple of years, starting from July 2025.
For details, including Zoom link, please contact Ronda at chair@wildlifetourismaustralia.org.au
Schedule for this year (2025):
21 July The amazing diversity of wildlife in southeast Queensland. Can you explain WHY it is part of the region that has the third highest biodiversity in Australia? Do you know which of our local birds are found nowhere else except the SE Qld and NE NSW? Can you tell keen bird watchers where and how to find them? Can you give nature-lovers advice on short drives from Brisbane to see a variety of habitat types and wildlife? What about some well-run wildlife parks where they can see the species they are unlikely to encounter in the wild?
18 August Platypus and Echidna: Laying eggs is just the start of their oddities! Do you know how they use electricity, what colour a platypus glows under UV light, and the many reasons we should NEVER refer to echidnas as porcupines? What advice would you give someone wanting to see a platypus? Many local residents haven’t seen one in the wild, but despite some conservation issues they’re still reasonably common. Twice in my own tours (Araucaria Ecotours) we’ve had a father(one from USA, one from Austria) bring a young daughter to Australia for the sole purpose of seeing a platypus on her birthday, and one American lady told us she’d been waiting 50 years to see one.
15 September Kangaroos, wallabies and potoroos. No, wallabies are not all alike! And there are more species to be seen around the Qld/NSW border than in any other part of Australia . Some like rocky mountain slopes, some prefer eucalyptus forests forest with plenty of grass, in both rural and suburban areas, while others live under dense rainforest. Eastern grey kangaroos (which are called Macropus giganteus for a reason!) can be found in great numbers in some easily-reached places. Australians are often a bit blasé about kangaroos and wallabies, but international visitors still find them fascinating, even quite unbelievable. How much can you tell them about what behaviours to watch for, and how best to approach for photos without disturbing them?
20 October Koala. It’s not hard to see why they are, along with kangaroos, the most popular of our animals with international guests, and they’re found in the wild only in eastern Australia (tending west safari as Adelaide). Can you advise visitors where to see them, and perhaps the unusual features to look for on their hands and feet? How to look for signs that they have recently been around even if proving a bit elusive? What season they’re most active?
17 November Gliding possums. We have five species of gliding possum in the region, arguably as cute as koalas, and they soar through the air (well, glide actually). None are easy to find in the wild. Would you like a few tips on increasing your chances of seeing them, and how to ensure you don’t disturb them? Can you tell visitors where to see them in captivity if they don’t have time to attempt seeing them in the wild?
15 December Other possums. Can you explain the differences between the opossums of the Americas and the possums of Australia? What do they eat (it’s not the same for all species)? Which ones have successfully colonised our suburbs and which are strictly forest-dwellers? How do you tell the city-dwelling possums apart?
A summary of information from each webinar will be posted on both the Scenic Rim Wildlife website and the Wildlife Tourism Australia website, including:
- species
- special features of the species
- behaviour
- ecological roles
- endemism (whether found only I our region, only in eastern Australia, etc.)
- conservation status
- where to see them, both in the wild and in well-run captive situations (we won’t be saying where to see the rarest and most vulnerable, or those which could be targets for poachers – the black market pet trade is an ongoing problem)
- how to watch them without disturbing them
More details soon …
Remember:
These webinars will run at 3.00 pm on the third Monday of every month over the next couple of years, starting from 21 July 2025.
For details, including Zoom link, please contact Ronda at chair@wildlifetourismaustralia.org.au
