Animals/wildlife in australia

Koalas in the wild bit hard to find, they spend most of their day stoned on eucalypt tips in top of trees; if your going to Philip Island then you may want to go along the Great Southern Road as a number of koala colonies along there, koalas are largely nocturnal. O'Carrollyns Eco Retreat at One Mile Beach which is in NSW north of Sydney has big reserve around property. Kangaroos are plentiful in different parts in central, ie west of the Great Dividing Range -- wallabies are on east coast more. Try doing searches on 'wild koalas' and 'wild kangaroos' in Thorntree or Google.

That is good advice! thank you :)

Just remember that koalas arent the cute, cuddly animals people think. Your best chance of petting one is in a zoo or sanctuary under supervision.

You won't get to pet penguins. You won't get to pet many Australian animals (and many people would say you simply shouldn't) and definitely not in their natural habitat. Many/most Australian animals are nocturnal and your best chance of seeing them is in a zoo (which is not ideal obviously) or a sanctuary such as on Philip Island for koalas or the penguin parade on the same island.

You just need to be respectful of animals. In some cases because they are good at defending themselves - racing across a car park screaming 'Ohmygodohmygod' to pick up/pet a koala contains a high risk of discovering how long and sharp their claws are. As well, disturbing animals - shoving your cretinous iPhone into a penguin's home as some do - is just a straight-up knob move.

A couple of suggestions for Victoria.

Healesville Sanctuary is great for Australian wildlife. While it is a zoo as such it is done very well. You can pat kangaroos and koalas. A fantastic Australian wild bird display with the birds feeding on the wing. You can also see platypus which are very rare to see in the wild.

http://www.zoo.org.au/healesville

The penguin parade at Phillip Island is where every evening at sunset you see the penguins coming in from the ocean. While touristy it is done very well.

http://www.penguins.org.au/attractions/penguin-parade/

There are quite a lot of wild koalas along the Great Ocean Road if you know where to go. The last couple of times I’ve seen a lot on the road into Cape Otway light house.

Wilson Promontory is good for wild life (kangaroos, emus and wombats) in the wild. In the evening and at night the wombats wander around the camping grounds grazing.

Thank s for the tips guys! Yeah i definitely don't want to pet anything that doesn't want to be petted. But even just being able to see animals up close and outside of a zoo is worthwhile to me. Thanks, habby! will check out the above!

You can come and pat the possums that live in the trees outside my place and spend their nights fighting and running about. Heck, I'll even let you come and pat the rat that lives in the trees too!

Seriously, though, I've seen Koala colonies along the Great Ocean Road. Just remember not to try to pat them unless you want to either make them run away or spend time at a medical clinic being patched up! You could also head to Gunnedah in NSW "the koala capital of the world".

Don't try to pat the big red kangaroos, either.

You will find penguins at St Kilda pier (I'm not sure if they are there all the time), if you aren't heading out to Phillip Island.

You could also head to the slightly unusual location of Sydney Opera House to see some wildlife - we have a New Zealand fur seal that spends its holidays there.Sydney Opera House fur seal

If you head to rural Australia then you'll find all kinds of animals - kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, possums, goannas, pelicans, penguins, echnidnas, emu and dingoes are probably the easiest to spot. There is plenty of other wildlife, but it's normally less visible/nocturnal.

But if you really want to actually touch these things then you'll need to go to a wildlife sanctuary and do it the proper way.

My daughter lives in the middle of suburbia in Brisbane and at times has had Mummy Possum and her baby living under the eaves of her unit.

You can see kangaroos and emus up close just outside Canberra at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.
Kangaroos are common in many residential areas of Canberra that back on to reserves and can often be seen at dusk, though not to pet.
However those at Tidbinbilla are so used to seeing people, they are very tame and will come right up to people. The emus will attempt to steal your food, sometimes straight off your BBQ!
The picnic areas near the playground, on the right, not long after the entrance are best for roos and emus, and the nature reserve further in the park has plenty of roos, wallabies and even platypus (though these are hard to see) and some koalas (again, not that easy to see).
Tidbinbilla is about 40 minutes outside Canberra, and you will need a car to reach it. Also along that route is the NASA Deep Space station, which makes it a great day out