Wildlife and Wilderness

Australia is a place of exceptional natural beauty where ancient rainforests and vast national parks, rugged mountain ranges and reefs, beaches, and waterways, provide sanctuary to Australia’s wondrous wildlife.

Exploring Australia’s wilderness is not just about the natural but also about the cultural and spiritual significance of these areas to the Aboriginal custodians and their unique relationship to the land and waters of their country.

Australia’s environment is one of the most diverse on earth and its landscape is one of the oldest. Its flora and fauna have evolved in isolation for 45 million years, untouched by the upheavals of the world’s continental plates. The result is a unique, highly specialised and very fragile environment.

Hike, snorkel, climb, dine, surf, ski, and fly through some our most beautiful and awe-inspiring natural wonders, spotting native flora and fauna along the way.

Many of our most cherished National Parks and their surrounds that have become known as Australia’s National Landscapes (many of which include World Heritage listed sites). The majority of the Luxury Lodges of Australia are located near or within these landscapes, all of which have been built in harmony with their natural surrounds.

Australia has more than 20,000 plant species and 2,300 animal and bird species. Most of these are only found in Australia.

The fauna of Australia consists of a huge variety of strange and unique animals; some 83% of mammals, 89% of reptiles, 90% of fish and insects and 93% of amphibians that inhabit the continent are endemic to Australia. This high level of endemism can be attributed to the continent's long geographic isolation, tectonic stability, and the effects of an unusual pattern of climate change on the soil and flora over geological time.

Australia's most famous and unique wildlife include kangaroo, wallaby, koala, wombat, echidna, platypus, emu, galah and the ever laughing kookaburra. Australia has many species of wildlife, roughly there are more than:

450 species of mammals,
300 species of lizards,
140 species of snakes,
2 species of crocodiles,
2,000 species of bony sea fish,
180 species of fresh water fish,
100 species of sharks,
50 species of rays,
750 species of birds,
2,000 species of flies,
5,000 species of bees,
110,000 species of insects and
2,000 species of spider.

Wildlife and Wilderness

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