World Trip Reports
Eastern Australia October/November 2010
Took a little while, but then it was a long trip:
astern Australia October, November 2010
'Roos, Yaks, and meat pies (and the odd bird)
Introduction:
Oz has to be pretty high on the list of anyone that has even just a vague interest in birds and nature. I always thought Australia must be as close to birder's heaven as it gets: lots of endemic birds, great wildlife, cold beers, and people that speak English (sort of).
It took a few years to safe up the necessary cash, but with Ha working 3 jobs at the same time we finally scraped together the funds to contact BirdQuest and join one of their tours. We had initially planned to do the West Coast in 2009, but due to work we had to postpone the trip a year and do the East Coast instead. I wasn't really happy about that initially as the original trip would have included Christmas Island, but we did not want to wait another year either.
Costs:
BirdQuest trips are not exactly cheap, on the other hand they do offer outstanding (in my opinion) itineraries and Ha and I figured we might as well go the whole 9 yards. Thus, we coughed up a fair bit of dosh for a trip that would last 5 weeks in total.
Continued here: http://www.hannostamm.com/eastern_australia_october.htm
An epic read Hanno - great stuff.
Cheers
Mike
Hmmm. Apart from the wildlife it seems you didn't like Aus very much. Sorry to hear that. In the case for the defense I would argue that Aus is much more affordable if done independently, and I'd strongly advise this with the current strong dollar.
As for Cairns, if you had contacted me I would have happily shown you all of those birds and not charged you a cent. 
I also would have found you some species you appear to have missed. Be that as it may...
As for the food, I would certainly agree that it can be hit and miss, but again I would have given you advice as to where to go for excellent Italian, Mexican, Seafood, International Cuisine etc, though probably not the sort of quality Asian food you're used to.
One final point: Red-collared Lorikeet occurs in the Top End, not Cairns.