Wildlife of the Homestead — Southern Highlands Guide

One of the great joys of staying at The Burrows is the wildlife. The property sits in a quiet pocket of bush and pasture, and patient, quiet guests are often rewarded. Dawn and dusk are the magic hours. Keep your voice low, move slowly, and you may share the place with kangaroos, a waddling wombat, an echidna, possums in the trees and — if you're very lucky and very still — a platypus in the river. Here's who you might meet.

Around the Homestead

Paddocks, gardens & trees

Our Regulars

Eastern Grey Kangaroo

Macropus giganteus

Dawn & dusk Paddocks & clearings

Our most familiar neighbours. Soft grey-brown, they graze the paddocks in loose "mobs" in the cool of early morning and evening, resting in shade through the heat of the day. Mothers often carry a joey in the pouch — you may spot a head or a pair of legs poking out.

How to watch Sit quietly on the verandah at dusk and let them come to you. They'll often stop grazing, sit up and study you, then relax if you stay still. Give mothers and joeys plenty of room.

Our Regulars

Common Wombat

Vombatus ursinus

Dusk & night Burrows & grassy edges

Sturdy, low-slung and endearingly grumpy-looking, wombats are powerful diggers that shelter in deep burrows by day and emerge at dusk to graze on grasses. Famously, they produce cube-shaped droppings, which they use to mark territory on logs and rocks.

How to watch Look for them grazing on the grassy margins after dark — a torch held low will catch them. Watch for burrow entrances around the property. They're solitary and surprisingly fast if startled, so admire from a distance.

Our Regulars

Short-beaked Echidna

Tachyglossus aculeatus

Daytime, warm hrs Garden beds & bush

One of the world's only egg-laying mammals (a monotreme, like the platypus). Covered in spines, with a long snout for snuffling out ants and termites, an echidna will curl into a ball or dig down if it feels threatened. Utterly harmless and rather charming.

How to watch Often seen ambling across the garden or bush on warm days, busily nosing through leaf litter. Stand still and quiet and it may carry on foraging right past you. Never try to pick one up.

Our Regulars

Brushtail & Ringtail Possums

Trichosurus / Pseudocheirus

Night Trees & rooflines

Our nocturnal acrobats. Possums sleep in tree hollows by day and come alive after dark, leaping between branches and foraging on leaves, flowers and fruit. The larger brushtail has a bushy tail and can be quite vocal — those throaty hisses and clicks in the night are usually them.

How to watch Step outside after dark and shine a torch up into the trees — you'll often catch their eyes reflecting back. Listen for rustling and the occasional dramatic territorial call.

Our Regulars

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Zanda funerea

Daytime Overhead & tall trees

Among the largest of our native parrots — big, dusty-black birds with bright yellow cheek patches and yellow tail panels. They travel in pairs or noisy family flocks, flying on slow, lazy wingbeats. Their call is an unmistakable drawn-out, mournful "kee-ow", like a rusty gate, that carries a long way. They feed on seeds and prise wood-boring grubs from branches, and love the pine plantations nearby.

How to watch Often heard before they're seen. Folklore says they herald rain. Look for torn-open pine cones and shredded branches where they've been feeding.

Our Regulars

Australian Magpie

Gymnorhina tibicen

All day Lawns & verandah

Our most charismatic locals. This bold black-and-white family is friendly and clever — they recognise faces and have one of the most beautiful songs in the bush: a rich, warbling carol, especially at dawn. Ours are quite happy to march up demanding a snack (please don't oblige — see the note above).

How to watch They'll likely introduce themselves. Enjoy their carolling at first light. In spring (roughly Aug–Oct) magpies can swoop to protect nests — if you walk the property then, the local family knows residents and is generally relaxed, but give any swooping bird space.

Down at Paddy's River

The special one

If You're Lucky

Platypus

Ornithorhynchus anatinus

Dawn & dusk Paddy's River

The most magical sighting of all, and a genuine privilege. The platypus is one of the world's strangest and most wonderful animals — a duck-billed, web-footed, egg-laying mammal that hunts underwater for insect larvae and small crustaceans. They're shy, mostly active at dawn and dusk, and easily disturbed, so a sighting is something to treasure.

How & where We've seen one in Paddy's River, reached via the vacant neighbouring block past the dam. Arrive before sunrise or around dusk, settle quietly on the bank well back from the water, and watch the surface for tell-tale rings and ripples, then a low brown shape that dives with barely a splash. Absolute stillness and silence are everything. No torches on the water, and please don't enter the river or disturb the banks — this is their home.

Also Keep an Eye Out

Other locals

Beyond the regulars, the bush around Penrose is full of life. A few others you may notice during your stay:

Crimson Rosellas & King Parrots

Trees & feeders nearby

Vivid splashes of crimson, blue and green flashing through the canopy. Rosellas are common and confiding; the larger king parrots are quieter and especially striking.

Kookaburras

Dawn & dusk chorus

The famous laughing call ringing across the paddocks at first and last light is the laughing kookaburra — Australia's largest kingfisher, and a fine hunter of insects and small reptiles.

Wallabies

Bush edges

Smaller and stockier than the kangaroos, swamp and red-necked wallabies favour the thicker cover at the bush margins, bounding away if surprised.

Lyrebirds & Bush Birds

Gullies & ferny bush

In the nearby gullies of Morton National Park, listen for the superb lyrebird's astonishing mimicry — it can imitate other birds and even mechanical sounds with eerie accuracy.