Australia's most famous animal is the one Cairns is worst at, unless you cross the range.
Visitors arrive expecting kangaroos the way they expect the reef, and the coast around Cairns does not deliver them. It is not that they have gone; it is that this was never their country.
Here is where they are, and what you will find instead if you stay on the coast.
Kangaroos are animals of open grassland and dry woodland. They need room to move and grass to eat. The strip between the ranges and the sea around Cairns is tropical rainforest, mangrove, cane and suburb, and none of it suits them.
Cross the range and the country changes completely. Within an hour of Cairns the forest opens into the farmland and dry woodland of the Atherton Tablelands, and that is where the mobs are.
So the answer is not a wildlife park versus the wild. It is a matter of driving in the right direction.
Australia's most famous animal is the one Cairns is worst at, unless you go inland.
Three types of country, ordered by how likely you are to succeed.
Open farmland with forest edges, which is ideal. Look at dawn and dusk on the paddocks around Atherton, Mareeba, Yungaburra and Malanda. Eastern grey kangaroos and agile wallabies are the usual sightings. You are looking at the edges of fields, not into the trees.
A privately run reserve on the drier western side of the Tablelands, known for a resident colony of rock-wallabies that are used to people. It is the most reliable wild-ish sighting in the region and it is not a zoo, which some people prefer.
Unromantic and effective. Mown grass next to cover is exactly what they want. If you are staying on the Tablelands, look at the edges of any open ground in the last hour of light.
You may see an agile wallaby at the edge of cane country or on a quiet verge north of the city at dusk. That is a wallaby rather than a kangaroo, and it is a bonus rather than a plan.
Dawn and dusk are when kangaroos are active and also when they are hardest to see from a moving car. If you are driving the Kennedy or Palmerston highways at those hours, slow down. Most hire agreements exclude driving between sunset and sunrise for exactly this reason.
If you want certainty, or you are travelling with children who will not tolerate a maybe, a wildlife park settles it.
| Where | Adult | Child | Family | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rainforestation, Kuranda | $23 | $14 | $60 | Koala and Wildlife Park alone; kangaroo and wallaby hand-feeding |
| Rainforestation, Big Nature | $71 | $43 | $185 | The same park plus the Army Duck and the Pamagirri experience |
| Hartley's Crocodile Adventures | $50 | $25 | $125 | Wallabies alongside the full crocodile and cassowary programme |
| Wildlife Habitat, Port Douglas | $50 | $30 | $130 | Walk-through habitats, so the animals are around you |
Published prices from each park. Child bands are 4 to 14 except Hartley's, which is 4 to 15.
Rainforestation at $23 for the wildlife park alone is the cheapest way to hand-feed a kangaroo, and it sits in Kuranda so it folds into a railway and cableway day. The park is open 9:00am to 3:30pm.
Wildlife Habitat in Port Douglas at $50 is the one to pick if you want the animals loose around you rather than behind a fence, since the design is built around walk-through habitats. Full comparison in our guide to Cairns zoos and wildlife parks.
Here is the part that makes up for the disappointment. The rainforest has its own macropods, and they are far more interesting than another grey kangaroo on a paddock.
Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo is a kangaroo that climbs, and it lives in the Tablelands rainforest around Yungaburra and Malanda. Rare to see, heavily sought by guides, and the sighting people talk about for years.
Musky rat-kangaroos are tiny, ancient and genuinely common on rainforest boardwalks. Most visitors walk straight past them because they are scanning the canopy. Walk quietly on the Daintree boardwalks and look at the leaf litter instead.
Pademelons are small forest wallabies that come out at the edges of clearings in the late afternoon. Rainforest lodges and picnic areas are the reliable places.
Our wildlife guide ranks everything in the region by how likely you are to see it, which is a more useful way to plan than a list of what exists.
The practical warning, and it is not a small one.
Kangaroos and wallabies on the road at dawn and dusk are a real hazard on the Kennedy and Palmerston highways and on Tablelands back roads. They move unpredictably, they travel in groups, and a second animal often follows the one you just avoided.
Three rules: slow down through the last hour of light and the first hour of the day, do not swerve, since hitting an animal is survivable and leaving the road often is not, and plan to be back on the coast before dark if you are self-driving the Tablelands.
Our self-drive day trips guide covers which drives work from Cairns and why night driving is the one to avoid.
Tell us what you most want to see and we will build the day around it, inland for kangaroos or into the rainforest for the strange ones. Amber replies from Cairns, usually the same day.
Read the guide →Kangaroos are an inland animal, so if you stay on the coast you will not see one. Cross the range to the Atherton Tablelands and look at the edges of open paddocks at dawn or dusk, or go to Granite Gorge near Mareeba for the resident rock-wallabies. For a certainty with children, Rainforestation at $23 for the wildlife park alone is the cheapest hand-feeding in the region and it fits into a Kuranda day. Then spend your attention on the animals this region does better than anywhere: tree-kangaroos, pademelons and the musky rat-kangaroos you are currently walking past on every boardwalk.
Not on the coast. Kangaroos need open grassland and dry woodland, and the strip between the ranges and the sea around Cairns is rainforest, mangrove, cane and suburb. Cross the range to the Atherton Tablelands, about an hour inland, and the country changes completely.
The Atherton Tablelands at dawn or dusk, on the paddocks around Atherton, Mareeba, Yungaburra and Malanda. Granite Gorge near Mareeba has a resident rock-wallaby colony used to people. For a guaranteed sighting with hand-feeding, Rainforestation at Kuranda is $23 adult for the wildlife park alone.
Broadly size and habitat: kangaroos are larger animals of open country, wallabies are smaller and often live in scrub, rock or forest. Around Cairns you are far more likely to see agile wallabies, pademelons and rock-wallabies than a large grey kangaroo.
Yes, at Rainforestation in Kuranda, which is $23 adult, $14 child and $60 family for the Koala and Wildlife Park on its own, or $71 adult as part of the Big Nature Package. The park is open 9:00am to 3:30pm.
Dawn and dusk, when they come out to graze on open ground. That is also when they are hardest to see from a moving car, so if you are self-driving the Tablelands at those hours, slow down and plan to be back on the coast before dark.
No. The beach images people have in mind are usually from other parts of Australia. The northern beaches here back onto suburb and rainforest rather than open grassland, so it is the wrong habitat entirely.
A privately run reserve on the drier western side of the Tablelands near Mareeba, known for a colony of rock-wallabies that are habituated to people. It is the most reliable close encounter in the region that is not a wildlife park.
Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo is a rainforest kangaroo that climbs, found on the Atherton Tablelands around Yungaburra and Malanda. It is rare to see and it is the sighting local guides get most excited about.
Most likely musky rat-kangaroos, which are tiny, ancient and surprisingly common on rainforest boardwalks if you walk quietly and look at the leaf litter rather than the canopy. Pademelons, which are small forest wallabies, come out at clearing edges in the late afternoon.
It is the riskiest time to be on inland roads. Kangaroos and wallabies move unpredictably and often in groups, so a second animal follows the one you avoided. Slow down, do not swerve, and note that most hire agreements exclude driving between sunset and sunrise.
Yes, on a Tablelands day, which takes you into the right country and usually runs early enough or late enough to catch them at the edges of paddocks. A Kuranda day with Rainforestation gives you the guaranteed version instead.
Occasionally at the edges: an agile wallaby on a quiet verge or beside cane country north of the city at dusk. It is a bonus rather than something to plan a day around.