Wijkmark Photography

This is the first post from our recent travel to Tasmania. Tasmania is well known for its natural qualities with excellent bushwalks in extensive areas of pristine temperate rainforests, mountains and highlands as well as wild and scenic coastal regions. The wildlife is however also both interesting and abundant and since I wanted to photograph some of these animals during our travel I decided to spend some time in the somewhat less known Narawntapu National Park. This is an area of long sandy beaches, dunes, hills, forest and savanna-like open grasslands and wetlands in northern Tasmania.

The savanna-like grasslands of Narawntapu seen from a nearby hill.

Although I knew that this is an excellent area for wildlife watching, I was surprised by the abundance of marsupials as we first reached the area just before sunset. Wombats were grazing on the open grassland and Tasmanian pademelons and Bennett’s wallabies where everywhere. The first night was however spent on setting up the camp and eating a late dinner, so I prepared my camera gear for the next morning instead.

As I went out around 5:30 in the cold and fresh morning the animals were gone. No wombats were in sight and I saw no wallabies grazing in the open areas, only a single pademelon passed by on the path from the camping area to the grasslands. I decided to walk further, crossed the first open grassy area and passed through some bushes and low trees to find that the grassland continued on the other side. About two hundred meters in front of me was a dense stand of ferns. This is where I first saw the forester kangaroos (or eastern grey kangaroo, Macropus giganteus) that are common in this area. A group of animals suddenly appeared in the ferns as they rose up and turned their heads towards me. This is the second largest species of Kangaroo and males grow to about two meters tall. Despite overcast conditions and dull light I took some shots hiding behind some low bushes, but the animals were shy and didn’t allow me to come much closer.

A group of forester kangaroos in Narawntapu

I soon learned that the evenings are much better with many more animals out grazing in the open. They are also less shy and more focused on grazing and fighting with each other than in the mornings.

Forester kangaroos boxing

Some of them are real fighters.

This is also true for the wombats (this species is the common wombat Vombatus ursinus) that are solitary and territorial animals that hide in burrows during the days. Wombats are the closest living relatives to the Koala. Many of the wombats in Narawntapu are used to the presence of humans and can be watched and photographed from a short distance, but females with young are typically much shyer and photographing those demands more patience and caution in order not to disturb the animals.

A wombat taking a break while digging a burrow.

One of the first nights a spotted at two females with young, but after that they were gone. However, persistence often pays off and after nearly a week with cloudy evenings and only solitary animals I was finally lucky to find two females with their young. By approaching them very carefully and staying low and quiet in the grass I got the shots I was looking for without scaring the animals. I was also lucky enough to finally have some great evenings with perfect golden sunlight.

Wombat female with young.

Great golden sunlight the last minutes before sunset.

Wombat female with young just after emerging from the burrow.

There is also a variety of birds, snakes, frogs and other animals to see in Narawntapu so there is much more to discover in this exciting place, but after a while we had to leave in order to see more of Tasmania. More of my images of Tasmanian wildlife can be seen in this gallery.

Bennetts’s wallaby

A real savanna-sunset our last night in Narawntapu

Next post will be from the mountains of the wild Southwest National Park, an entirely different environment in Tasmania!