The tiny Australian island where you can see koalas, kangaroos, and kookaburras

“Just keep looking up,” our guide instructs us as we start walking through a small tree-dotted park near the ferry terminal on Raymond Island. “Koalas are everywhere.”

It sounds too good to be true, like a practiced line intended to get gullible tourists excited. Why would the cuddly looking marsupials be hanging out so close to humanity? But just a moment later, a member of our group excitedly shouts, “There’s one!” 

Sure enough, there’s a koala, comfortably perched into the notch of a eucalyptus tree, staring down with half-closed eyes. We find another one a few minutes later, languidly munching on leaves in the foliage above. Soon, we spot half-a-dozen more.

This isn’t a glitch or good luck. Less than three square miles and roughly the shape of a crushed bowler hat, Raymond Island is in the Gippsland Lakes in eastern Victoria, Australia, and is officially home to nearly 300 koala bears. Despite their prevalence, koalas aren’t native to the island; they were introduced in the 1950s as part of a successful conservation effort.

How to visit responsibly

Raymond Island has become a popular destination for tens of thousands of tourists every year, even though it’s a bit off the beaten track. Just under 200 miles east of Melbourne, the closest airport, the only way to access the island is by the ferry, which regularly makes the five-minute journey from the town of Paynesville and is free for passengers on foot.

Visitors are encouraged to leave their vehicles on the mainland, where they can also access amenities not available on the island—which is pretty much all of them. Raymond Island has no hotels, shops, or restaurants, though private homes are available to rent and there is also a new coffee van that pops up a few days a week.

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No matter when and where you’re seeking koalas, take an up and down approach. “Keep looking up, because they're in the trees,” says Robyn Peile, president of the Koala Island Foundation, which cares for the koalas and maintains the koala trails. “But also keep your eyes on the ground for koala scat, which can indicate a koala is lurking in the foliage above," Peile adds.

Be on the lookout out for Yogi, arguably the most famous koala on the island. A perennial troublemaker who frequently gets into fights with other koalas, he’s easy to identify since he lost most of his left ear in a scuffle. It’s a reminder to keep your distance and stay quiet, for your safety and that of the animals.

“Everybody thinks they're cute and cuddly, but they are wild animals,” says Shelley Robinson, president of Koalas of Raymond Island, which runs the island’s koala shelter where they rehabilitate sick and injured koalas and care for orphaned baby koalas, known as joeys.

Where to see koalas

“You will see koalas every day of the year,” says Robinson. “If I take someone on a one-hour tour, they’ll probably see 40 koalas."

However, the best time to see the joeys is from September into November, when they emerge from their mother’s pouch and riding on her back. Though koalas can be seen at any time of day, koalas are most active in the early morning and at dusk, when they move around to feed. The rest of the time they’re asleep, so they’re harder to spot. “Koalas sleep 20 hours a day to conserve energy for processing the eucalyptus leaves that they’re eating,” says Robinson.

An easy way to find the lovable fuzzballs is to follow one of the trails in the recently launched app, which guides users on several tours across the island while offering information about various sites. One route is specifically for children, punctuating the experience with activities and games to help keep them engaged. To help navigate the trails, two and four-seater surrey bikes are available from Ride the Koalas.

(Calling all influencers: never pick up a wild animal. Especially a baby wombat.)

Spot other flora and fauna

Koalas aren’t the only natural attraction on Raymond Island. There are over 50 different species of orchids, including the Raymond Island spider orchid. Eastern gray kangaroos are everywhere—Peile estimates there are more than a thousand. Quill covered, ant-eating echidnas are a common sight. “There’s even one poor, lonely wombat,” adds Peile. “It was a rescue that was released on the island.”

Over 170 bird species have been reported, including frequent sightings of laughing kookaburras, tawny frogmouths, and eastern rosellas. In the spring and fall, the island becomes a popular stopover for migratory species, such as Japanese latham snipes, Siberian sharp-tailed sandpipers, and the critically endangered Tasmanian swift parrot.

Even the surrounding waters teem with life, including a small population of endangered Burrunan dolphins, a bottlenose species only found in the Gippsland Lakes and Port Phillip.   

The history of Raymond Island

The Indigenous aboriginal people of the region, the Gunaikurnai, have been in the area for 40,000 years, with the Tatungalung people most closely associated with the island. Their original name for it was Gragin, which has been interpreted to mean stoney, perhaps due to the rocky soil or what is now known as Gravelly Point. They were drawn to the area for the abundant fish, mussels, and eels in the lake and to gather swan eggs, which were considered a delicacy.

The island was settled by colonizers in the mid-19th century and named for William Odell Raymond, a local magistrate. It was once a hub for fishermen, but that ended after commercial fishing was prohibited. A school existed for a short time in the early 20th century, but now students attend school on the mainland. Though there is a thriving community still today on the island, there are no plans for commercial development and not much room for more housing, since large portions of the island are reserved for conservation purposes or under the custodianship of the Gunaikurnai.

“It's a very simple little place, which is why people love it,” says Peile. “If you live in a city, it's mind-blowing to realize that a place like this still exists.”

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