Conservation Tour to Australia – Reef and Rainforest Ecology

Today, you’ll pass through the International Date Line—meaning you’ll lose a day at the beginning of the trip but will gain it back during your return home.

Your 24-hour Tour Director will meet you at the airport and remain with your group until your final airport departure. You’ll also have a private coach and driver while touring for the next eight days. Your base for the next two nights will be Cairns, where daily breakfast will be included.

Cairns, considered the gateway to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, is a city in tropical Far North Queensland. Its Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park tells the stories of the indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with music and dance. Northwest of the city, Daintree National Park spans mountainous rainforest, gorges, and beaches.

Possible sites include St. Monica's Cathedral, the Botanical Gardens, City Place, Palm Cove—with its hundreds-of-years-old trees, Wharf Street, and Cairns Esplanade.

Enjoy dinner in a local restaurant.

"We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience." - John Dewey Every evening of the program, we’ll set time aside to update your Reflection Journal and share thoughts and impressions that have come up during the day.

Meet with the Wet Tropics Management Authority (WETMA), charged with managing the Wet Tropics UNESCO World Heritage Site, and learn about the unique biodiversity in this region and its significance.

A guided tour of the Cairns Aquarium showcases animals that live in the Wet Tropics area, from the rainforests to the Great Barrier Reef, covering 10 distinct ecosystems along the way including the mangroves, the rainforest floor, and the reef drop-off zone.

Attend the various informative wildlife talks and presentations held throughout the day.

Try the zipline at the Cairns Zoom and Wildlife Dome, which allows you to soar with the birds.

Enjoy dinner in a local restaurant.

After collecting camping gear, ferry to the pristine Fitzroy Island. A fringing coral reef surrounds the island, part of the inner Great Barrier Reef, providing a sheltered home for a variety of fish and coral species.

Fitzroy Island National Park and the surrounding reef and waters form part of the traditional land and sea country of the Gurabana Gunggandji people. Your guides will welcome your group and describe the creation of Fitzroy Island through a traditional bedtime story about a big mountain (Kobaburra) surrounded by coastal plains, which were later flooded by the seawater. The island and its surrounding waters are of major cultural significance to the Gurabana Gunggandji people, as they were used for hunting and gathering, fishing, totemic values, and ceremonies.

Enjoy the Secret Garden Walk, a simple track winding its way through Fitzroy Island's lush jungle flora. It’s a peaceful walk allowing you to be completely immersed in nature.

Working with a marine biologist, participate in ongoing field-research projects. All programs have been designed to garner greater connections to local reef systems and allow for more awareness and understanding of natural habitats and synergies.

Snorkel with a marine biologist, learning about the coral and fish of the fringe reef system.

Enjoy swimming and beach time.

Tonight, your group will camp on the island.

This evening, you’ll have dinner as a group and your daily reflection around a bonfire.

Spend time in a kayak or on a stand-up paddleboard this morning, further exploring the fringe reef.

Visit the turtles at the rehabilitation center. The volunteers will guide you through and explain why the turtles are there, how the team cares for them, and how you can help the turtles.

Today, lunch is included.

Late this afternoon, you’ll return to Cairns. Your base for the night will be Cairns, where breakfast will be included.

This evening, you’ll have dinner as a group in a local restaurant.

Take an interpretive guided walk along Tin Creek with Hartley's Crocodile Adventures. Learn about Tin Creek's significance to local ecosystems and assist in tree-planting activities along its banks. Your private guided tour around the park will include a koala talk and pat, kangaroos and wallabies, quolls, wombats, cassowaries, the Birds of Prey aviary, alligators, and a large crocodile being pole-fed by its keeper. Also, tour the wetlands on a lagoon boat cruise and watch crocodiles, birds, and the coastal melaleuca habitat’s other wildlife.

At Daintree Discovery Centre, your group will be introduced to the significance of fragile environments—the biology, ecology, and antiquity of the forest environment. Experience the 23-meter-high Daintree Rainforest Canopy Tower, the 10-meter-high aerial walkway, and the over 900 meters of elevated rainforest boardwalks.

This evening, your group will be based in Cape Tribulation, where dinner and breakfast will be included.

At night, the rainforest heaves with the breath of dragons, the croaks and clicks of insects, the scurrying of bandicoots, and the slow, deliberate slither of snakes.

Join a half-day workshop at James Cook University's Cape Tribulation Observatory and Research Center. The Daintree Rainforest Observatory is the ideal place to connect to principles of biology, ecology, and biodiversity. This is one of the few areas in the world where the reef meets the rainforest and the only place where two World Heritage Areas sit side by side. *Participants over the age of 16 may experience the canopy from above by going up in the rainforest canopy crane.

Swim at Crystal Cascades, a secluded freshwater swimming hole hidden in the tropical rainforest. A series of small waterfalls flow into large pools surrounded by boulders and rainforest trees hang over the water, keeping it cool and refreshing. This is largely a locals-only spot, unreachable by public transport, and a perfect place to soak up the beauty of the tropics.

Return to Cairns for the night.

Enjoy dinner in a local restaurant.

No trip to Cairns is complete without a visit to the outer Great Barrier Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and easily one of the world's top natural wonders. During your two days exploring the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef, you’ll see how the coral thrives in the clear water, creating spectacular gardens and drawing a mosaic of marine life. Among the 1,800 species of fish and 450 species of coral, you can expect to see turtles, Wally—the gigantic wrasse, giant clams, fan corals, sea cucumbers, staghorn coral gardens, and just about the whole cast of Finding Nemo.

This morning, you’ll transfer from Cairns to the outer reef. Your captain will head toward Moore Reef, and you’ll have fantastic access to this underwater universe. Upon your arrival, snorkelers will delight in viewing the incredible array of life and colors that exist just below the surface.

Today, lunch is included.

In the afternoon, you’ll transfer to your live-aboard boat—your home for the next two days! The boat is a comfortable 25-meter catamaran, specifically designed for Queensland cruising. While onboard, you’ll enjoy freshly cooked meals with accommodations in a quad- or twin-share cabin with its own bathroom and air conditioning.

After an incomparable night out at the reef, you’ll wake to the sunrise, a hot breakfast, and time for snorkeling. Using your field guide, you can identify a host of hard and soft corals, such as the whimsical elephant ear, broccoli, and spaghetti corals, as well as more mobile beauties, like luminescent parrotfish, the chocolate-dipped damsel, and the Picasso triggerfish.

Today, lunch is included.

You may be lucky enough to interact with Dwarf Minke Whales that migrate here in the winter. The Minke Whale’s inquisitive nature brings them close to boats, and they display some extraordinary behavior such as spy hopping, where they lift their head out of the water and observe the boats above the surface. Often Minkes are seen tail-slapping the water, which may be an acoustic signal to other whales in the vicinity, and are known to breach, but not as much as the Humpback Whale, which is also seen on the Great Barrier Reef in the winter months.

Your base for the next night will be Cairns, where breakfast will be included.

Enjoy dinner in a local restaurant.

This evening, you’ll make the final entries in your Reflection Journal and share some of the most significant observations and perspectives that have taken shape throughout your Conservation and Biodiversity Tour in Australia. We’ll also discuss how these experiences may be most relevant for us all as we return home.

Your rewarding and enjoyable Australia’s Reef and Rainforest program comes to an end as your Tour Director accompanies your group to the airport on your final day.