⛺ Dryandra and Barna Mia trip

I was asked by a visiting friend from Switzerland to take him on a hike, but in the middle of summer in Perth that's tricky to organise. Usually we would hike outside of summer to avoid the heat of the day, or it's necessary to do shorter walks early in the morning. I also wanted him to see the wonderful bush and native creatures we have and one in particular was the numbat. Where do you go for numbats (other than the zoo)? Dryandra Woodlands!

So when it looked like there was a few days of reasonable temperatures we quickly organised a trip and departed on Saturday morning. By lunchtime we'd left Perth and arrived at the edge of the Wheatbelt. We stopped at Boyagin Nature Reserve (pronouced Boodjin by the Noongar people) and walked to the top of Boyagin Rock (50 m in height). It's a granite outcrop, surrounded by sheoak thickets, a mix of open woodland and bush including wandoo, marri and york gums.

Probably because it was the middle of the day we didn't see any wildlife other than flies and a few twittering birds (rainbow bee eaters, fantails and possibly a red-capped robin) while walking through the trees. On the rock itself it was very hot without shade so we didn't stay up too long enjoying the 360 degree view.

Continuing on to Dryandra we drove through the Lions Village (an old foresting settlement turned into accommodation) and reached the Congelin Campground where we set up our tents and ate burgers for dinner. Then we left for a highlight of the trip; Barna Mia.

Camping at Dryandra Woodland NP

If you want to spot elusive numbats and other unique species in beautiful bushwalking terrain then this is the place to go.

Kim's NJ AdventuresKim Lapere

Barna Mia

Barna Mia is a predator-proof sanctuary that offers nocturnal tours where visitors can discover the threatened native mammals in a natural setting. On our previous visit to Dryandra we unfortunately missed out on going on a tour, so this time we made sure to book in, and it was definitely worth it.

Inside there is a stunning mural by Ian Dickinson and we were shown a presentation of the animals and reasons for the sanctuary.

Then we were equipped with red torches (it doesn't affect the animals nocturnal vision) and followed the guide to a feeding area with some benches. The animals were somewhat hesitant but so long as we chatted quietly and didn't make any sudden moves they gained confidence and emerged. We moved to multiple feeding stations and were lucky to spot all the different species in the sanctuary.

The woylies or brush-tailed bettongs were first to arrive and least concerned about our presence. Some had young in pouches that were probably getting too old and large to be in there much longer. The pouches were practically dragging on the ground, poor mothers! We saw woylies at the campsite beyond the sanctuary too, yet despite their seeming abundance in Dryandra they are endangered.

A brushtail possum also joined in once or twice, despite not being one of the endangered species. We had a finer-featured mala (rufous hare-wallaby) stay hesitantly, a quenda (southwestern brown bandicoot) and later in the evening the chubby-tailed boodies or burrowing bettongs (they store excess nutrients in their tails) as well as elusive bilbies staying mostly in the bushes.

Driving home we also noticed other creatures such as tawny frogmouths, a wallaby and even a gecko by the toilets. A few days later I referred to my photos to put together a scene in my nature journal of the evening. I did resort to being creative with their actual colours.

In the morning we drove around trying in vain to spot a numbat (or even an echidna) but had to do with some bird-spotting instead. We saw rainbow bee-eaters, rufous tree-creepers and heard parrots. At lunchtime we decided to walk around the Ochre Trail (5 km loop) with beautiful views, the ochre pit, a dazzling neon yellow dragonfly, Christmas spiders and some large fungus.

We drove around the Darwinia Trail but had no luck with the numbats, who were probably hot like us in the afternoon heat and needed a siesta. In the evening we cooked dinner and went for a brief nocturnal night stalk on the Congelin Siding Trail towards the Congelin Dam. There were woylies and possums about and an owl did screech too. In the distance we heard a boobook. We may have seen a quoll however it was too far away to be sure.

The next morning we packed up and left, this time sadly without having spotted a numbat or echidna. Until next time!