Western Australia – An Outback Journey From Esperance To Cue

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Tara

You never really appreciate the vastness of Australia until you drive it. After birding the forests, mountains and southern coast of Western Australia, the next destination after Esperance was Nallan Station outside Cue. This involved an epic journey of 1150 kilometers which seemed like forever but is really nothing compared to the whole of Australia.

There was no way I could drive that in one day so I decided to break the trip a little more than halfway at the mining town and former Gold Rush centre of Leonora. This meant the first day would be 390 km (4 hours) to Kalgoorlie for a lunch stop, then a further 235 km (3:25) to Leonora. The second day would be 512 km to Cue with a lunch stop at Mount Magnet.

There isn’t much to look at while on the road but it was worthwhile to keep an eye out for nomadic parrot species such as Major Mitchell Cockatoos, Budgerigars & Cockatiels. Unfortunately, I wasn’t lucky enough to spot any parrots other than these guys in an aviary at a petrol station.

There are a few waterholes along the way, might be worth a look. You are more likely to see water birds and raptors. Lunch stops are few and far between. We ate at KFC in Kalgoorlie on the first leg (first cheap place I saw after buying fuel) and on the 2nd leg we got sandwiches at Mt Magnet which is an interesting little Outback town. Fuel is really expensive, figure on $1.70 – $1.85 a litre and always top up the car before leaving a town.

Hotel Review: Comfort Inn Bay of Isles Motel Esperance

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Tara

I chose the Comfort Inn Bay of Isles Motel Esperance mostly for its location, right smack dab in the middle of Epserance and walking distance to a reputed Rock Parrot habitat on the beach near the pier. It was also easy driving distance to other birding hotspots.

While rooms are available for 20,000 Choice Rewards points, I don’t recommend it as the rates are very high for redemptions in Australia. If one must collect Choice points, you would be better off using them in Europe where decent hotels can be had for 8000-10,000 points.

The best way to maximize a booking here is to earn airline miles by booking through Pointshound.

The rooms are fine, exactly what you would expect of a budget chain hotel – clean, free wifi, cable tv and a swimming pool.

Choose this place for the location and convenience, you’ll be fine with it as long as you aren’t expecting a wow factor.

Birding Around Esperance

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Tara

Almost a year ago, I did a post on using Esperance as a gateway to the southern coast of Western Australia and Cape Arid National Park. A couple of months ago I finally had a chance to visit and try my luck at finding Rock Parrots. There are several places they are known to be found as shown on the map below. The Twilight Beach area is to the west of Esperance and a prime habitat. In the past, they have been seen near the pier right in town, but unfortunately at the time of my visit there was construction going on and the whole area was blocked for safety reasons. Then there is the Bandy Creek area to the east of Esperance which is the yellow highlighted section that has the red dot.

Esperance Rock Parrots

The scenery was gorgeous and we did see a few honey-eaters but no Rock Parrots. I had hoped the water around the windmill would have attracted some but no luck.

The next morning it was time to try Bandy Creek. This map has a bit more detail. You can see where the road ends, there is a car park there and a few trails heading off into the dunes that have the kind of bushes Rock Parrots would be attracted to.

This is a popular place for locals to go fishing and walk their dogs so there were a few people around. I went down to the beach, then walked back up to find a rock I could sit on and watch and listen. After about 20 minutes, I saw a flash of green as two small Rock Parrots (which I recognized as being similar in size to Elegant Parrots) shot out of a bush and flew over a sand dune. I attempted to follow but there is just no way I had the physical fitness to clamber up and down sand dunes and they escaped un-photographed much to my frustration! I waited a while longer hoping they would return but they didn’t. You can’t win ’em all!