RTW Trip Day #75: Finding Koala's in the Wild at Whites Hill Reserve and the Daisy Hill Koala Centre

12 December 2025

Steps: 13,495

Although we had already seen our fair share of koalas at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary a few days earlier, we wanted to try our luck spotting a koala in the wild. It always feels more rewarding when you see an animal in its natural habitat.

I started researching “where is the best place to see koalas in the wild in Brisbane,” but everywhere we looked seemed to be hit and miss. Koalas don’t move much and tend to sit high up in the trees, which makes them notoriously hard to spot!

Whites Hill Reserve

In the end, we decided on Whites Hill Reserve, which is a free park, around 20 minutes from our hotel. We hired a car and set off, not really knowing what to expect.

There’s a short loop walk with a viewpoint overlooking downtown Brisbane, so even in the worst case scenario we knew we’d get a nice skyline view. We reached the main viewpoint without seeing a single koala and were starting to doubt our luck… and then Jess suddenly shouted, “I’ve found a koala!”

It was such a special moment. We sat there watching the koala for around 20 minutes, barely able to believe our luck. As we continued along the loop trail, we spotted another koala, even closer and easier to see than the first.

By the end of the walk, we had spotted five koalas in total, far more than we ever imagined. Before leaving the reserve, we let the girls burn off some energy at the playground, which has a great play structure, a zip line, and even a ninja-style obstacle course.

Daisy Hill Koala Centre

As we had the car, we ventured further from downtown to the Daisy Hill koala centre, as Evelyn really couldn’t get enough koalas! It’s a free centre that focuses on providing information about koalas, as well as educating on how to protect them and their habitat.

The centre only has 3 koalas (compared to the 100 koalas they have at the Lone Pine Sanctuary) but they are really close and easy to view from the boardwalk.

Inside there are plenty of interactive information boards. Interactive activities, and even a dress up koala vet section, which of course our girls just loved.

At 2pm a ranger gave a 20 minute talk about the koalas that was great (we learned some new information) and then the koalas were brought out some fresh eucalyptus leaves to eat.

Now koalas don’t move fast, but when the fresh food comes along, they all spring into action, climbing down and eating the leaves.

Considering that the centre is free to visit, it was great to learn some new facts about the koalas and see them up close again. Evelyn got quite emotional as she left as she knew she wouldn’t see another koala for a long time, poor girl.

In the evening we had to go shopping for some warm clothes. The weather in New Zealand is looking a little cooler, to say the least, and we really didn’t have any jeans, hoodies, or anything like that, so a quick trip to Uniqlo did the trick.

We have absolutely loved our time in Brisbane and will definitely be back one day. We’d love to explore more of the coastline, and I’m sure Evelyn is already itching to see a koala again.

Tomorrow morning we set off for New Zealand, where we’ll be spending just over three weeks exploring with our local guide - aka Susie’s brother Michael - to help show us around.

Previous Day #74: Exploring Southbank and Streets Beach

Next Day #76: xxxxxx

Read About Our Itinerary here