Today has been set aside as an arrival day. Own arrangements for arrival at the hotel and meet this evening for a welcome dinner, where you will meet your Inala guide and have a chat about the tour itinerary.

Accommodation: Brisbane hotel (en suite room)

Meals included: D

This morning we will make our way from the city of Brisbane to Lamington National Park (around 2 hours’ drive), which contains the largest tract of subtropical rainforest in Australia, including large stands of magnificent Antarctic Beech Nothofagus (Lophozonia) moorei that defines Australia’s connection with Gondwana. This 212km² UNESCO World Heritage site is extremely biologically diverse, with a rich assemblage of birds and mammals, and over 60 reptiles and 30 amphibians. We will spend the day walking around the tracks close to our accommodation which are full of birds and reptiles during the day.

Specialties of the park we should see today include Regent Bowerbird, Australian Logrunner, the amazing Paradise Riflebird, Green Catbird, Satin Bowerbird, Crimson Rosella, Australian King Parrot, Lewin’s Honeyeater, Red-browed Finch, Bassian Thrush, Eastern Whipbird, Large-billed Scrubwren & Wonga Pigeon. We will take a break in the late afternoon to watch Red-legged Pademelons, Red-necked Pademelons and Whiptail Wallabies feed on the lawns before an early dinner. After dark we’ll head out into the surrounding forest looking for nocturnal mammals including Short-eared Brushtails (Bobuck), Common Ringtail Possum, Sugar Glider and Central Greater Gliders, Brown Antechinus and Fawn-footed Melomys.

Accommodation: O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat (en suite rooms)

Meals included: B L D

Today we have a full day to explore the areas further from the lodge with chances of birds like Albert’s Lyrebird, White-eared & Black-faced Monarchs, Yellow-throated Scrubwren, Russet-tailed Thrush, Eastern Whipbird, Wonga, Topknot and White-headed Pigeons, Wompoo Fruit-dove, Rose, Pale Yellow & Eastern Yellow Robins and the stunning Noisy Pitta. In ridge-top woodland nearby we will hopefully connect with Glossy Black-cockatoo, Variegated Fairywren, Pacific Baza, Red-browed Treecreeper and Buff-rumped Thornbill as well as hopefully the shorter-furred, northern form of that most familiar of Australian animals, the Koala.

After another early dinner we will spotlight for owls like Sooty Owl & Australian Boobook, as well as a good chance of the bizarre Marbled Frogmouth, and any mammals or other nocturnal fauna we missed the previous night.

Accommodation: O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat (en suite room) as for last night

Meals included: B L D

This morning we will leave O’Reilly’s after another look around for anything we may have missed so far, and head out west of Warwick towards some more open, drier woodlands with a range of different birds. Here we will look for birds like Squatter Pigeon, Speckled Warbler, Black-eared Cuckoo, Turquoise Parrot, Little Lorikeet, Plum-headed Finch, Painted Button-quail, Hooded Robin, White-winged Fairywren, Diamond Firetail and a range of honeyeaters like Painted (rare), Striped, Black-chinned, Yellow-tufted & Fuscous. The critically endangered Regent Honeyeater is also a chance here. Mammals include the chance of Black-striped Wallaby, Red-necked Wallaby and Eastern Grey Kangaroo.

Accommodation: Warwick (en suite rooms)

Meals included: B L D

After a little more birding in the morning we’ll head out past Toowoomba, birding along the way through the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range at a few places like Lake Broadwater Conservation Park where we should hopefully find a good range of waterbirds and waders including Red-kneed Dotterel, Pied Stilt, Pink-eared Duck & Musk Duck.

Dry woodland birds include Grey-crowned Babbler, Jacky Winter, Red-backed Kingfisher, Apostlebird, White-throated & Western Gerygone, Red-winged Parrot and Dusky Woodswallow. Spring migrants should hopefully include White-winged Triller, Pallid Cuckoo, Rufous Songlark and White-browed Woodswallow.

Then we will drive up to the Bunya Mountains, an isolated patch of the South-east Queensland rainforest and the most westerly of its kind. This area is also one of the last refuges of the Bunya Pine, the last surviving species of the genus Araucaria in the Bunya group (fossils of this group can be found in South America and Europe). This group was diverse and widespread in the Mesozoic Era (particularly 150-200 million years ago). These trees grow to a height of around 45m and produce football-sized cones containing edible kernels which were used as a traditional indigenous food source.

Accommodation: Bunya Mountains area

Meals included: B L D

We will spend a full day in the mountains. We’ll be looking for fruiting rainforest trees that hopefully bring in a range of pigeons like Superb, Rose-crowned and Wompoo Fruit-doves, Topknot Pigeon, Brown Cuckoo-dove, as well as Cicadabird, Spangled Drongo, Varied Triller and Australasian Figbird. Late in the afternoon, we’ll head to a site near Crow’s Nest to search for Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby, keeping an eye out for birds like Channel-billed Cuckoo, Grey Goshawk, Leaden Flycatcher, Pale-Yellow Robin, Azure Kingfisher and Scaly-breasted Lorikeet.

Accommodation: Bunya Mountains area

Meals included. B L D

We will leave early this morning and head north-east for the coast and the Great Sandy National Park. Recently classified as an Important Bird Area (IBA), we’ll explore the coastal heathlands and dry rainforest scrub of this world-renowned area and look for a few of the more difficult to find specialties like Black-breasted Button-quail, Southern Emu-wren, Lewin’s Rail, Brush Bronzewing, White-cheeked, Scarlet & Mangrove Honeyeaters, Red-backed Fairywren, Little Wattlebird, Tawny Grassbird, Rufous Shrike-thrush, Pheasant Coucal and King Quail. We can spotlight here after dark too and with a bit of luck might see Eastern Grass Owl.

Accommodation: Rainbow Beach

Meals Included: B L D

We will have a full day here to explore this region, visiting habitats ranging from shoreline and estuary, through dry littoral scrub, rainforest patches, woodland, and open heathland. Black-breasted Button-quail will be a major target this morning, as well as other species like Beach Stone-Curlew, Black-necked Stork, Pheasant Coucal, Fairy Gerygone, Spectacled Monarch, Emerald Dove and Brush Cuckoo, plus a range of terns and shorebirds at a nearby well-known landmark.

In the afternoon we will explore the heathlands and edge habitats in the Great Sandy NP, looking for birds like Southern Emu-wren, King Quail, White-cheeked Honeyeater and Tawny Grassbird, as well as the rather tricky Eastern Ground Parrot; on dusk we should hear their beautiful piping song. With a bit of good fortune we may see Eastern Grass Owl quartering the heath before it gets dark, after which we’ll head back for a late dinner.

Accommodation: Rainbow Beach

Meals Included: B L D

After another morning to explore the area if we still need birds like Black-breasted Button-quail, we’ll make our way south, stopping at various locations along the way for mangrove species like Mangrove Gerygone, Mangrove Honeyeater and Torresian Kingfisher, plus various waders and waterbirds, after which we can make our way back to Brisbane.

Accommodation: Brisbane (en suite rooms)

Meals included: B L D

Those leaving us this morning will make their own arrangements to transfer to Brisbane Airport for their departure.

Accommodation: none

Meals included: B