I’m so excited to share my three-week ecotourism trip through Tasmania, Australia. This 50-minute podcast is the first of a multi-part podcast series I created from the audio that I took along my June 2025 trip (and you can pair that with the gorgeous photos I posted on https://www.facebook.com/InTunetoNature ) to get a feel for this extraordinary place, and its animals, like wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, seals, whales, sheep, cows, and birds like cockatoos, forest ravens, magpies, wrens, and kookaburras. Often I’m adding in my own audio commentary and context as an American traveler and animal and environmental advocate, but other times I’m just quietly recording the voices and sounds around me, particularly the other animals there. Across the full series exploring Tasmania (or lutruwita, as the Aborignal Palawa people have called their homeland for 40,000 years), the itinerary I’ll take you on is first a quick visit to Melbourne on the front end of the trip (hello city Cockatoo), and then we spend a week traveling through Northern and Eastern Tasmania, starting at beautiful Dove Lake in Cradle Mountain National Park (where I see my first wombats), through the second largest city, Launceston, and the wine and agricultural region, over to the East Coast to the iconic wineglass bay in Freycinet National Park (this is Part 1). And then in future podcasts, I take the ferry to Maria Island (with so many wild animals, including kangaroos) and Port Arthur historic convict site, then South, over to the largest city, Hobart, for a week for my participation in the Conference on Communication and Environment at Univ of Tasmania, and a post-conference on Deep Ecology with esteemed activist John Seed (and we also get to meet two of their biggest environmental activists who started the Green Party in Australia, Christine Milne and Bob Brown). Then before flying out of Melbourne, on the mainland of Australia, I share my tour of the Great Ocean Road where I got to see my first wild koalas up in the eucalyptus trees, and a kookaburra, black and white magpies, and kangaroos at their gorgeous national parks. Note: all the animal audio and photos here are of wild/free-living animals (no one was captive in a zoo or sanctuary), which did limit the number of other animal species I interacted with (no Tasmanian Devils or platypuses this time), but I felt it was a more natural and respectful way to interact (it was the animal individual's choice to get near me or allow me nearer to them). And I had an amazing time, and was elated for every wild animal I saw (even wrens or swamp hens at outdoor bistro tables), plus I enjoyed the human Aussies I met as well. Love their accents! As part of my compensation for the resources used and greenhouse gas emitted from my international trip, I made some donations to the Tasmanian Land Conservancy and the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania and the Friends of Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary. "In Tune to Nature" is a weekly radio show airing Wednesdays at 6pm Eastern Time on 89.3FM-Atlanta radio and streaming worldwide on wrfg.org (Radio Free Georgia, a nonprofit indie station) hosted by me, Carrie Freeman, or Melody Paris. The show's website and my contact info can be found at https://wrfg.org/intunetonature/ Tell me about wild life experiences you have had in Australia or any comments on my Tasmania trip, and I might mention it on a future show. Thank you, friends! Take care of yourself and others, including other species, like wombats! Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on In Tune to Nature do not necessarily reflect those of WRFG, its board, staff or volunteers.
