Field herping in Australia? How to?

[Bacon]

I'm in need of some tips or places to read up on field herping in Australia. We will be honeymooning there for three weeks this summer (Australia winter), and I'm super excited. I'm also a little scared of the wildlife, so we aren't looking to do anything crazy or reckless.

I've only been on one "herping" tour, and otherwise have only found a handful of snakes on accident. Not for lack of trying though!

We are planning to tourist around Queensland (Cairns area) and Victoria (Melbourne area) so any tips, places to go or things to see would be awesome. Hopefully the season won't be a problem.

[Mikoh4792]

carpet and diamond pythons! Don't know how to find them, but near cairns you should be able to spot some jungle and coastal carpets. Not exactly in Victoria, but north of melbourne there are inlands, and on the east coast there are diamonds.
http://reptilesofaustralia.com/snakes/pythons/spilota.gif

[sharthun]

Cool place to herp! I'm jealous! Lots of venomous species as well.

[Bacon]

Cool place to herp! I'm jealous! Lots of venomous species as well.

That's the part I worry about!

[red ink]

No point going out herping in Vic during winter mate... all that would happen is you get rained on and freeze your arse off. You won't see a single reptile.

You may get lucky up north but seeing as it is winter... well, we all know what reps tend to do in the winter months. You need to get out into the tablelands outside of Cairns to really see anything. Possibly around Kuranda as well if you want to stay close to Cairns.

[Mikoh4792]

No point going out herping in Vic during winter mate... all that would happen is you get rained on and freeze your arse off. You won't see a single reptile.

You may get lucky up north but seeing as it is winter... well, we all know what reps tend to do in the winter months. You need to get out into the tablelands outside of Cairns to really see anything. Possibly around Kuranda as well if you want to stay close to Cairns.

I forgot to consider the seasons. Although I heard you can see diamonds out this time of year. Is this correct?

[MDT]

you get rained on and freeze your arse off.

New brides love this...the cold, rain-soaked scowl on her face is just a cover for the "oh honey, thanks so much for a cold rain-soaked herp hunting honeymoon....it's just what I dreamed of when you said 'Australia'!!!!!" she has burning in her heart.

Keep us updated!

:D

[sharthun]

No point going out herping in Vic during winter mate... all that would happen is you get rained on and freeze your arse off. You won't see a single reptile.

You may get lucky up north but seeing as it is winter... well, we all know what reps tend to do in the winter months. You need to get out into the tablelands outside of Cairns to really see anything. Possibly around Kuranda as well if you want to stay close to Cairns.

Good catch! I forgot about the seasons as well.

[Bacon]

I didn't really have much hope for Victoria, but we will be seeing family mostly there anyway.

As far as Cairns/Queensland, we aren't sticking too close to the city the whole time, we plan to visit Daintree, the table-lands and Undara areas and some others. I hope winter isn't that crummy, I got the impression that in the north it's at least mild?

BTW, I'm the bride ;)

[MDT]

BTW, I'm the bride ;)

WOW! I stand (humbly) corrected and tip my hat to you....
(can you talk to my wife....please?)

:)

[red ink]

I didn't really have much hope for Victoria, but we will be seeing family mostly there anyway.

As far as Cairns/Queensland, we aren't sticking too close to the city the whole time, we plan to visit Daintree, the table-lands and Undara areas and some others. I hope winter isn't that crummy, I got the impression that in the north it's at least mild?

BTW, I'm the bride ;)

You won't see much in the Daintree (cane toads took care of most of that), go on a croc cruise down the river to see the salties while your up there.... Mossman gorge would be good if your lucky you'll see a Boyd's forest dragon. Tablelands for Carpets and scrub pythons. Undara you'll find spotteds, carpets and brown tree snakes. I go up there every year around spring and my favourite spot is the Mareeba wetlands and Julatten area plus the tablelands lakes (Tinaroo and Eacham).

[Christophe]

Be very careful regardless on where you are or what your doing, Especially when flipping almost everything you will find is a "hot"