Nature and wildlife

New South Wales

Bundyi Cultural Tours

The Riverina region of New South Wales holds millennia-old Aboriginal secrets, many of which are revealed on a Bundyi Cultural tour with local Wiradjuri man Mark Saddler. Experiences can last from a couple of hours to a full day – whichever one you choose, you’ll gain eye-opening insights into the Aboriginal communities who hail from the Wagga Wagga region, around a five-hour drive south-west of Sydney. Discover “scar trees” and ancient shell middens, and then glimpse sacred sites including Galore Hill Scenic Reserve and The Rock Nature Reserve – Kengal Aboriginal Place. This spiritual Dreaming and ceremonial location is believed to be where the Creator of all things, Baiame, left his dingoes before ascending to the sky. Your adventure will also give you a taste for bush tucker, whether in its raw form (try saltbush) or infused in Mark’s wattleseed damper; pick a longer tour and he’ll also prepare a delicious barbecue lunch. 

Ngaran Ngaran Culture Awareness – Yuin Retreat

See some of the prettiest coastal scenery of New South Wales while gaining an insight into traditional culture, on a two-night Aboriginal experience with Ngaran Ngaran Culture Awareness. The two-day, two-night Yuin Retreat invites guests to come, walk and listen to a sacred Dreaming of Djirringanj country, heartland of the Yuin people. Experience ceremony and Dreaming stories that have been passed down to connect to Country with tour highlights including a traditional smoking ceremony, sunrise beach ceremony and traditional reflections yarning circle. Enjoy resort-style accommodation and Aboriginal cuisine, including local seafood with a range of native spices. This tour is based in Narooma and the neighbouring village of Tilba – about four-and-a-half hours’ drive south of Sydney. Transfers are available from Moruya, Sydney and Canberra airports.

Sand Dune Adventures – Quad Bike Tour

Enjoy exclusive access to a sandy adventure wonderland on this exhilarating quad bike tour of the largest mobile sand dunes in the Southern Hemisphere. Sand Dune Adventures, located at Port Stephens, is run by the local Aboriginal Land Council, so while there’s plenty of action, there’s also lots of bush tucker and cultural lore thrown in as well, and all proceeds go back into the local community. Learn about the history of the Worimi people who called this area home for thousands of years. Guides will point out huge middens – mountainous piles of pipi shells and animal bones – half-buried by the sands that move between one and four metres (three and 13 feet) every year.

The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney – Aboriginal Bush Tucker Tour and Aboriginal Harbour Heritage Tour

Discover the rich culture of the Gadigal People and their deep connection to Country on an Aboriginal Bush Tucker Tour or Aboriginal Heritage Harbour Tour at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. Led by a First Nations Education Officer, the tours provide a unique opportunity to learn about native flora and fauna and their significance and use by Aboriginal Peoples. On the traditional land of the Gadigal people, one of twenty-nine Aboriginal communities of the Sydney region, the Gardens were and continue to be a significant cultural site for Aboriginal people. The one-hour Aboriginal tours provide a unique opportunity to learn about the uses of native trees and plants by Australia’s First Nations People to make bushfoods, medicine, tools and technology. 

Wajaana Yaam Gumbaynggirr Adventure Tours

Feel the sand between your toes, hear the sound of water lapping against the shore, and see the fish darting through the crystal-clear water as you paddle through the spectacular surrounds of Gumbaynggirr Country, on the New South Wales Mid North Coast, with Wajaana Yaam Gumbaynggirr Adventure Tours. The 100 per cent Aboriginal-owned and operated company offers 2.5-hour stand-up paddleboarding and kayaking excursions on three idyllic waterways within the Solitary Islands Marine Park: Coffs, Moonee and Red Rock Creeks. You can also sign up for a full-day cultural experience, which includes a paddle, morning or afternoon tea, lunch and a guided walking tour at a culturally significant site in the Coffs Harbour area. Experience the language, culture and traditional bush tucker of the Gumbaynggirr people as your Aboriginal guide brings the Dreaming to life by sharing ancient stories written in the extraordinary natural landscape.

Northern Territory

Davidson’s Arnhemland Safaris

Davidson’s Arnhemland Safaris is located at Mount Borradaile (a 50-minute flight east of Darwin). This iconic eco-lodge, and its accompanying suite of activities are sanctioned by the area’s Traditional Owners, whose link to the area dates back 50,000 years. Tailored tours capitalise on the immense splendour and tranquillity of this pocket of Arnhem Land, especially its water-filled features such as the billabong beneath Mount Borradaile and nearby wetlands, alive with crocodiles and long-legged water birds. Your stay includes all meals, tours and activities, as well as permit fees (this land cannot be accessed publicly, so all visitors must have a permit). The lodge serves fine-dining fare in a relaxed communal space fringed by a serene pool.

Kakadu Cultural Tours

Kakadu Cultural Tours specialise in the broader Ubirr region, including one of the most sacred and stunning sites at Kakadu National Park, Ubirr itself. In the company of predominantly Aboriginal guides, guests can take a cultural cruise along Alligator River; embark on a one-day 4WD culture and heritage tour of Arnhem Land and Northern Kakadu; or take a two- or three-day stay at Hawk Dreaming Wilderness Lodge, a beautiful abode in an otherwise restricted area of northern Kakadu National Park, or Anbinik Kakadu Resort, architecturally designed accommodation in Jabiru township. Kakadu Cultural Tours take guests beyond the main ‘galleries’ (large conglomerations of outdoor rock art) to restricted-access billabongs, secret art sites and living floodplains.

Kakadu Tourism

Brimming with thunderous waterfalls, verdant wetlands and ochre-toned escarpments, Kakadu is the world’s largest terrestrial national park, equal in size to the nation of Switzerland. Amplifying the power of Kakadu’s natural beauty are its Aboriginal culture and traditions, as nurtured by Traditional Owners. Kakadu Tourism, a collective of accommodation and tour offerings including two excellently positioned hotels and several tour options, offers guests the ability to tap into these twin features of the park. The signature experience is Kakadu’s must-do Yellow Waters Billabong cruise. Mostly led by Bininj Aboriginal guides, this experience puts you face-to-face with the magnificent wetlands, home to 60 species of birds and a plethora of buffaloes and crocodiles.

Karrke Aboriginal Cultural Experience & Tours

The breathtaking Watarrka National Park (Kings Canyon), located in Australia’s Red Centre, provides the ultimate backdrop for the one-hour Aboriginal Cultural Tour by Karrke. Learn about dot painting, tools, weapons, bush tucker and medicinal plants used by the Central Australia desert people during this hands-on experience. Be introduced to native foods such as bush tomato, discover the significance of dot painting and see how mulga wood is shaped into tools such as spears, hunting clubs and boomerangs. There is also an opportunity to ask questions about Luritja and Pertame (Southern Arrernte) language and culture, and how people have thrived in this extreme but often bountiful landscape for tens of thousands of years.

Lords Kakadu and Arnhemland Safaris

Swim in clear pools serenaded by waterfalls, trek through ancient rock art galleries, and uncover Aboriginal cultural stories of the Northern Territory’s Top End, alongside one of the state’s most lauded and experienced guides. Among many other sites, Lords Kakadu and Arnhemland Safaris takes in Arnhem Land, gems within Kakadu including the lesser-known Koolpin Gorge, and indulgent retreats such as Bamurru Plains, Davidson’s Arnhemland Safaris’ eco lodge and the 100 per cent Aboriginal-owned and operated Cicada Lodge in Nitmiluk National Park. Lords also incorporates its own accommodation into trips with an exclusive ‘bush camp’ for 12 guests set within Kakadu. It’s furnished with comfortable beds and a fire pit for night-time meals and tale-telling.

Nitmiluk Tours

Three hours south-east of Darwin lies a network of 13 towering gorges, through which snakes the Katherine River. This is Nitmiluk National Park: home to the Jawoyn people and a riot of rugged beauty. Nitmiluk Tours, a 100 per cent Aboriginal-owned company, lets you enjoy the best of Jawoyn country and culture via its smorgasbord of cruises, hikes, cave tours, swims, canoeing trips and scenic helicopter flights – not to mention its accommodation offerings, which include everything from a camping ground and cabins, through to the luxurious Cicada Lodge. Be sure to walk to the first gorge lookout point for sunset or sunrise – or, if you find yourself closer to Katherine, join one of Nitmiluk Tours’ guided walks through the fascinating Cutta Cutta Caves. 

SEIT Outback Australia

Uluru’s Traditional Owners, the Aboriginal Anangu, have called the park home for 60,000 years. SEIT – which stands for Spirit, Emotion, Intellect and Task – serves to share this heritage with visitors via small group tours and off-the-beaten-path experiences. SEIT’s powerful Patji tour takes you beyond the main park’s boundaries to the homelands of Uluru’s traditional family. Over afternoon tea, sit with Aboriginal people to hear stories of their epic fight for land rights in Central Australia, plus other intimate accounts of Aboriginal life in the region.

Venture North Safaris

Design a private trip, or join a four- or five-day safari in luxury 4WD vehicles: Venture North offers multi-award-winning luxury 4WD safaris, which travel to Arnhem Land, Kakadu and Garig Gunak Barlu National Park from Darwin. Take in a visit to the art-mad Aboriginal community of Gunbalanya, where you’ll embark on a moving rock art tour with an Aboriginal guide, traverse the stone country and wetlands of Kakadu, and stay at Venture North’s exclusive bush bungalow campsite, which features views across the clear waters of Cobourg Marine Park, plus rustic, comfortable rooms dotted among native foliage.

Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia – Ayers Rock Resort

In the sand dunes beside Uluṟu rests Ayers Rock Resort, an accommodation and cultural experience collective comprising five different stays and more than 65 tours. The resort offers a restful base from which to explore the awe-inspiring Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park and its famous monoliths (both 348-metre /1,141-foot high Uluru and the lofty domes of Kata Tjuta), as well as to connect you more fervently with the rich Aboriginal culture and landscape of the Red Centre. Take a camel ride into the sunset; meander through the lush greenery at Uluru’s base – viewing rock art that illustrates the site’s Creation stories as you walk; or dine under a canopy of stars at a Sounds of Silence dinner, an atmosphere-laden evening of food, culture and astronomy held amid sand dunes and silent surrounds. Experience fine dining on a private dune with Tali Wiru, or take a guided tour of the new Gallery of Central Australia (GoCA) which provides a platform for the Indigenous community to share their stories and their culture.

Queensland

Adventure North Australia – Daintree Dreaming Tour

Adventure North Australia offers close to a dozen experiences departing from Cairns and Port Douglas, from day trips to three-day journeys that take you to hard-to-access areas of Cape Tribulation. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to spear fish, catch a crab or fossick for bush tucker, here is your chance. After learning these techniques with guidance from Kubirri-Warra brothers Linc or Brandon Walker, you’ll cook up your haul and enjoy it with damper, a traditional bread. Go off-road in 4WDs to access some of the most important sights Tropical North Queensland has to offer, including excursions to far-flung corners of the state. The Walkers share their knowledge of the environment and traditional foods while following in the footsteps of their ancestors. Full-day and multi-day trips take you through the World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest, to sacred Aboriginal beaches and ancient rock formations.

Culture Connect

Far North Queensland is a spectacular amalgam of rainforest, reef, beach and outback, and Culture Connect, a tour company based in Cairns, offers visitors wonderful ways to connect with ancient Indigenous culture in the region. At Normanby Station, a vast cattle property outside Cooktown, Traditional Owners the Harrigan brothers introduce guests to their way of life as cattlemen and as guardians of extraordinary galleries of Aboriginal rock art. Back on the coast, another pair of brothers, Linc and Brandon Walker, invite visitors to join them on Cooya Beach, traditional Kuku Yalanji fishing grounds, to learn everything from how to throw a spear to search for plants used to create medicine.

Dreamtime Dive & Snorkel

Queensland’s Dreamtime Dive & Snorkel experience offers guests a rare opportunity to explore the Great Barrier Reef accompanied by Aboriginal guides from the region, whose traditional ownership of sea country stretches from the Frankland Islands south of Cairns to Port Douglas in its north. Departing from Cairns, guests embark on a day-long adventure of guided snorkel tours and learning about the ancient relationships between people, marine creatures and the ecosystem they’ve shared for tens of thousands of years. Launched in late 2018 by Reef Magic Cruises, it is the first – and only – experience that celebrates north Queensland’s Aboriginal maritime heritage.

Flames of the Forest – Aboriginal Cultural Experience

Flames of the Forest’s Aboriginal Cultural Experience involves heading into the World Heritage-listed Wet Tropics rainforest, near Cairns, for a seven-dish banquet dinner served under a silk canopy illuminated by hand-made crystal chandeliers. Cultural experiences are interwoven with the dinner, as your Kuku Yalanji hosts share music, ceremony and storytelling, as well as inviting guests to spend some time sitting quietly, listening to the sounds of the rainforest at night. The food is modern Australian, locally sourced where possible, and features plenty of bush tucker ingredients accompanied by a selection of premium Australian wines.

Pamagirri Aboriginal Experience at Rainforestation Nature Park

Pamagirri Aboriginal Experience at Rainforestation Nature Park offers unique experiences in the beautiful World Heritage rainforest in Kuranda, just 30 minutes from Cairns. Watch dance performances by the Pamagirri Dancers, and take a Dreamtime Walk to learn and master the skills of boomerang and spear throwing. The Pamagirri Indigenous Guides come from different language groups across Queensland, but all share a strong connection to culture. Other experiences include the Pamagirri Mini-Mob and the Pamagirri Art Experience.

Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia – Mossman Gorge Centre

Aboriginal-owned Mossman Gorge Centre is located 20 minutes’ drive north of Port Douglas in the World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest, where the Kuku Yalanji people have lived for centuries. It is also the starting point for their multi-award-winning signature experience, the Ngadiku Indigenous Guided Dreamtime Walks. Ngadiku means ‘stories and legends from long ago’ in local Kuku Yalanji language, and that’s exactly what you can expect on this memorable rainforest exploration. Learn about bush foods and bush medicine, pick up skills such as how to make ‘bush soap’, and experience a traditional smoking ceremony. The guided experience ends with bush tea and damper.

Walkabout Cultural Adventures

Discover where two World Heritage sites meet – the Wet Tropics Rainforest (home of World Heritage-listed Daintree) and the Great Barrier Reef – and learn about the environment and wildlife from an Aboriginal perspective with Juan Walker or one of his knowledgeable team at Walkabout Cultural Adventures. On these deeply personal, intimate tours, guests will cruise mangroves scanning for mud crabs in tidal flats, forage for pipis in the shallows and learn how to throw a spear to catch their next meal. Take a guided rainforest walk at Mossman Gorge and visit several culturally significant locations around Port Douglas and the Daintree area. Half-day, full-day and private journeys are all available. 

South Australia

Wilpena Pound Resort

If you want to visit one of the oldest landscapes on Earth, a good place to start is Wilpena Pound Resort in South Australia’s dramatic Flinders Ranges, the only accommodation within the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park. The Resort, owned and operated by the Adnyamathanha Traditional Owners, offers a range of guided Aboriginal cultural tours that include 4WD tours to visit 550-million-year-old fossil sites and ancient rock engravings, walking tours to Old Wilpena Station and scenic flights over extraordinary Wilpena Pound, an 800-million-year-old natural amphitheatre. Located 430 kilometres (267 miles) north of Adelaide, the Resort provides a range of accommodation options from motel rooms and safari-style 'glamping' tents, as well as powered and unpowered bush campsites. 

Tasmania

wukalina Walk

This four-day/three-night fully accommodated Aboriginal owned and guided hiking and cultural experience takes place within the magnificent landscape of wukalina (Mt William National Park) and larapuna (Bay of Fires) in North-East lutruwita (Tasmania). Enjoy innovative world-class accommodation, traditional foods, and cultural interpretation as you walk palawa Country. wukalina Walk involves two main days of hiking and a day dedicated to sharing some of the cultural practices that connect First Nations peoples to their Ancestors, such as shell-stringing and clapstick making. You will be well fed and will sleep in comfort. First, at the purpose-built coastal standing camp called krakani lumi (resting place) in timber pavilions. The last night is spent in a beautifully renovated lightkeepers cottage.

Victoria

Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne – Aboriginal Heritage Walk

Long before Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens were established in 1846, these lands were used as a camping and meeting place by the local First Peoples. To learn more about the traditions that have been passed down through countless generations, the daily Aboriginal Heritage Walk explores the ways that spirit, connection and land intertwine in Aboriginal culture. The 90-minute experience includes a traditional smoking ceremony, an introduction to bush medicines and samples of native bush foods. Understanding which plants were best suited for which purpose and when was the best time to harvest them was essential knowledge for Australia’s earliest inhabitants; this is an excellent opportunity to gain insight into the traditional way of life.

Worn Gundidj @ Tower Hill

Ever wanted to try your hand at throwing a returning boomerang? That is just one of the skills you may pick up on a 90-minute walking tour at Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve, run by local Aboriginal cooperative, WG Enterprises. Found along Australia’s most scenic drive, the Great Ocean Road (near Melbourne), the reserve is known as a wonderful place to get up close with local wildlife such as koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, emus, echidnas, possums and sugar gliders, as well as approximately 160 different species of bird. Examine artefacts from axe handles to possum cloaks and perhaps enjoy a didgeridoo performance, as well as getting an introduction to local bush foods. There will also be the opportunity to learn more about the area’s many histories, from the turbulent forces that shaped its geology to the Aboriginal era, right through to European settlement.

Western Australia

Borrgoron Coast to Creek Tours

Bardi man Terry Hunter of Borrgoron Coast to Creek Tours enjoyed a unique bush childhood on Australia’s oldest continuously operating pearl farm – and you’ll learn all about this, and much more, on his captivating two-hour walking tour on Western Australia’s Dampier Peninsula, north of Broome. Blazing red dirt meets bone-hued sand and turquoise seas in this ruggedly beautiful corner of the Kimberley region, which is lapped by the world’s largest tropical tides. Discover how the Bardi Jawi people have lived to the rhythm of the tides for tens of thousands of years as you explore the dramatic landscape surrounding Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm. Terry’s Coast to Creek tour is highly interactive – you’ll forage for bush foods, learn how to find fresh water on salty tidal flats, seek out medicinal plants and hear extraordinary stories. Cooking oysters while they’re still stuck onto the rocks is a particular highlight – just one of many bush secrets the charismatic Custodian will share with you. For those seeking a slower pace, join Terry’s one-hour Culture and History tour where you’ll hear the stories that shaped the pearling industry.

Kingfisher Tours

No-one knows Western Australia’s ruggedly beautiful Kimberley region quite like its Traditional Custodians. Kingfisher Tours primarily uses local Aboriginal guides to lead its single and multi-day explorations of this extraordinary wilderness area in the state’s north-west. This allows you to gain a deeper understanding of its key places, from the World Heritage-listed Purnululu National Park with its beehive-shaped Bungle Bungle Range, to the jaw-dropping four-tiered Punamii-Uunpuu (Mitchell Falls), and the lonely islands scattered along the wild Kalumburu Coast. Tours depart from Broome or Kununurra and most begin with a scenic flight over the spectacular Kimberley landscape, followed by a traditional Welcome to Country ceremony. The greeting sets the tone for meaningful hikes to rock art, 4WD adventures to a remote Aboriginal community, and forging unforgettable connections around the campfire. These all-inclusive, small group experiences run from April/May to September.

Koomal Dreaming

Wadandi man and guide Josh Whiteland adds another dimension to Margaret River’s winemaking appeal by connecting you to its Noongar culture. Expect your skin to tingle as Josh plays the didgeridoo in Ngilgi Cave’s natural amphitheatre. He may share his knowledge of bush foods and medicine, show you how to make Aboriginal tools and fire, take you on a short walk on the Cape to Cape Track or to the top of Cape Naturaliste lighthouse for stunning ocean views. He could cook you a barbecue lunch where you can savour meats such as kangaroo seared by flames, with tangy native herbs in a tranquil bush setting. A day with Koomal Dreaming is unlike any other.

Narlijia Experiences Broome

Local Yawuru man, Bart Pigram, shares generational knowledge and ancient stories of Broome’s saltwater Yawuru people through his fascinating Mangrove Discovery tour and the Beach to Bay Tour Experience. In Yawuru Aboriginal language, Narlijia means ‘true for you’ and Bart embraces the opportunity to create a deeper connection between cultures. Hear the Dreamtime stories of the region, visit ancient shell middens, discover the significant marine ecosystem of Roebuck Bay and Dampier Creek and learn to identify certain flora, fauna and sites that are still traditionally used by the Djugun and Yawuru people. Bart’s tours combine ancient stories, cultural artefacts, and family history with the pearling phenomena that Broome was built on.

Ngurrangga Tours

Owner of Ngurrangga Tours, Clinton Walker, is a descendant of the Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi people, Traditional Owners of the West Pilbara in the north of Western Australia. And there are no better tour guides to this vast swathe of red dirt than Walker and his team, who hold deep knowledge of their country – ngurra – passed down from Elders and are passionate about bringing visitors to the Pilbara in general, but to the Burrup Peninsula in particular. The peninsula is virtually unknown yet is home to an estimated million Aboriginal rock carvings, some dating back as far as 40,000 years. Walker is also armed with lightning-quick humour: on Ngurrangga’s Instagram feed, he describes a goanna scurrying away from the sound of his boots as “fast food”.

Waringarri Aboriginal Arts & Tours

An artist dances in the afternoon light, telling a story with his movements through the red-dust landscape. The Aboriginal Elder has led a group to Thegoowiyeng, a hilltop lookout in Western Australia’s Kimberley region that’s also a Dreaming site and a vessel of cultural history. Afterwards, he’ll reveal surreal rock formations that tell stories of his childhood. This is just one of the immersive experiences offered by Waringarri Aboriginal Arts & Tours. More than 100 artists come to this community-owned art centre to create; some lead interactive tours of the centre, while others guide adventures into traditional lands, sharing the rich culture of the Miriwoong people. Guests experience a traditional welcome, taste Aboriginal bread and pick bush fruits. They learn the connection between land and identity, and see how it emerges in paintings, carvings, ceramics and textiles. They feel the heartbeat of the world’s oldest living culture, still pulsing after more than 60,000 years. 

Wula Gura Nyinda Eco Cultural Adventures

Learn about the deep spiritual connection that the local Nhanda and Malgana people have with Gutharraguda, the traditional Aboriginal name for Western Australia’s Shark Bay, which translates to “two waters”. Wula Gura Nyinda’s guides will teach you how to understand “the way Country talks to you” and give an insider’s view of local Aboriginal culture through animal tracking, tasting bush tucker and traditionally caught seafood, and identifying the uses of various medicine plants, as well as didgeridoo lessons and Dreamtime stories. A range of active adventures are on offer, from a tour of Little Lagoon on stand-up paddleboards (SUPs), 4WD bush tucker tours or kayak adventures and fully catered overnight or multi-night exclusive escapes on secluded beaches that provide an experience unlike anywhere on Earth.