Chasing Kangaroos in the Grampians Australia

Before we moved to Australia, I believed that kangaroos would be hopping around everywhere.

They don’t. They don’t hang out in the city center. They aren’t lounging in the city parks.

In fact, we didn’t cross paths with kangaroos in the wild for a few months. But when we finally did, the experience was truly captivating. In the small town of Halls Gap, located in the Grampians National Park, about 3 hours northwest of Melbourne, kangaroos DO hop around everywhere! They DO hang out on street corners and in the parks!

Suburbia problems in Australia!

Do you see the joey's head popping out of the pouch?

We watched kangaroos as they slowly munched on the grass in front of businesses and people’s homes. They also littered the grass with lots of natural fertilizer. They eyed us with suspicion as we tried to get closer to get a better photo.

Sometimes, the kangaroos would stop in the middle of eating and suddenly, seemingly effortlessly, bound away down the street. We always saw them in clusters together which is known as a mob – a mob of kangaroos. I have to wander if more kangaroos than people lived in this small town. We saw dozens of kangaroos on Heath Street as we walked into the city center for breakfast or dinner.

Caught in the act of feeding from its mother.

The best place for kangaroo spotting in Halls Gap was right behind our motel, the Kookaburra Motor Lodge. The family-run motel faces a large open field, so all we had to do was open our patio door, pull up a chair, grab a glass of wine and watch the kangaroos in utter fascination. I was amazed to watch these nimble creatures bound through the air with the forested-mountains as the scenic backdrop.

THIS is the Australia that I wanted to see!

There’s something about viewing kangaroos in the wild that is simply stunning, especially if you’ve never seen them before. I assume for Australians that seeing kangaroos gets a bit tiresome like seeing deer in the U.S. But we had a good time, and I took more than 200 photos of kangaroos, which I edited down to 100.

Generally, the best times to view kangaroos are either at dawn or dusk. However, in Halls Gap, we saw kangaroos at all times of the day. Late afternoon or early evening provided the best light to photograph the kangaroos.

Here are a few other Australian critters we saw from our motel’s patio:

Sulphur-crested cockatoo – I couldn’t resist feeding it a rice cracker.

Honeyeater, or possibly a wattlebird, which is in the same family. They use their beaks to drink nectar out of flowering trees.

A blue fairy wren darts around on the patio.

If you love the outdoors and want to see kangaroos up-close, I’d highly recommend a weekend trip to visit the Grampians.

Would you like to see kangaroos up-close too?

Read More