How do I get to Charleville and home from Adelaide?

Charleville Airport has regular flights from Brisbane. Your guide meets you there just after lunch on Day 1; please arrive on a morning flight rather than one landing in the afternoon. The tour finishes in Adelaide on Day 8 in the late afternoon, with drop-off at the airport or your hotel; please don’t book an outgoing flight before 19:00.

What is the level of physical activity?

Easy to moderate. Birding is done mostly on foot from the vehicle at a series of stops, with short walks of up to a few kilometres on flat or gently uneven ground at Sturt National Park and the two sanctuaries. Days are long: early starts, full days in the field and some driving after dark for spotlighting. The two transit days (Cunnamulla to Tibooburra, and Tibooburra to Berri via Wentworth) cover around 500km and 300km respectively on outback roads, broken up by birding stops rather than driven straight through. Suitable for travellers of average fitness who are comfortable with long days and remote travel.

Will we see a black-eared miner, a malleefowl or a grey falcon?

There’s no guarantee with any of the three. The black-eared miner has more than 200 known colonies at Gluepot and is seen on most departures; malleefowl is also recorded regularly there. Grey falcon is the hardest of the three; it breeds at Bowra, but the species is uncommon everywhere, with an estimated 1,000 breeding pairs across arid Australia, so a sighting is a highlight rather than something to expect.

Can I book a twin spot (half-twin share) if I am travelling on my own?

Yes, half-twin shares are available on request and are only offered if there is a suitable same-sex match on tour. If no suitable match is available, a single supplement will apply; please contact our team to discuss your options before booking.

Can I book a private departure?

Yes. We can run this tour as a private departure, subject to guide and accommodation availability. Contact our team with your preferred dates and group size for a quote.

Gluepot Reserve & Bowra Sanctuary Birding Safari: Charleville to Adelaide

Q: What bird species might we see?

More than 20 species are the specific focus of this itinerary, among them black-eared miner, malleefowl and red-lored whistler at Gluepot; Hall’s babbler, chestnut-breasted quail-thrush, Bourke’s parrot and grey falcon at Bowra; and gibberbird, cinnamon quail-thrush, flock bronzewing, inland dotterel, orange and crimson chat in the channel country in between. Your guide carries a species checklist and keeps a running list for the group each day.

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Dates

5 May 2027

2 Sept 2027
Trip Type Birdwatching
Twin Share Maximum of two adults
$ 8,690
Single $ 9,790

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Martin Allen

Martin came to Australia from the UK in 2008 and currently lives in Sydney. Martin has enjoyed all wildlife since a young lad but a trip to Costa Rica in 2002 ignited his passion for birds. He particularly enjoys bird photography and works as a casual bird keeper at the zoo when not leading birding tours around Australia.

Duration

8 Days

Group Size

7 People

Activity Level

Easy to Moderate

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About This Tour

Eight days of outback birding from Charleville to Adelaide, through Bowra Sanctuary, Sturt National Park and Gluepot Reserve, looking for black-eared miner, grey falcon and Hall's babbler.

This eight-day tour runs south-west from Charleville, Queensland, through the channel country of far south-west Queensland and far western New South Wales, and on to Adelaide, South Australia. Spend three nights in Cunnamulla, one in Tibooburra, one at the remote Packsaddle Roadhouse, and two in Berri.

The tour centres on two conservation properties and one national park. You spend two full days at Bowra Sanctuary near Cunnamulla, an Australian Wildlife Conservancy property where Hall’s babbler and chestnut-breasted quail-thrush are resident, and grey falcon breeds (a species listed as endangered nationally, with an estimated 1,000 breeding pairs across its whole arid-Australia range). A full day in Sturt National Park around Tibooburra targets cinnamon quail-thrush, gibberbird and flock bronzewing across the park’s gibber plains. The tour finishes with a full day at Gluepot Reserve, a BirdLife Australia property in the South Australian mallee, where malleefowl is present in good numbers and black-eared miner (listed as endangered, and once thought close to extinction) now has more than 200 known colonies across the reserve.

One family ran Bowra as a cattle station for five generations before the Australian Wildlife Conservancy bought it in 2010. Gluepot was a sheep property on a marginal pastoral lease before BirdLife Australia bought it in 1997, after a ten-week public appeal raised funds from more than 2,400 people and organisations; it now sits within a connected block of mallee reserves covering roughly 1,000,000 ha across the Riverland. The Federal Court recognised Sturt National Park's 325,329 ha as Wongkumara and Malyangapa Country in July 2024, as part of a native title determination covering 48,000 km² of channel country across Queensland and New South Wales.

Who is this tour for?

Birders working through an Australian or outback list: black-eared miner, malleefowl and red-lored whistler at Gluepot; Hall's babbler, chestnut-breasted quail-thrush, Bourke's parrot and grey falcon at Bowra; and gibberbird, cinnamon quail-thrush, flock bronzewing and inland dotterel in the channel country between Cunnamulla and the Riverland. A genuine interest in birds is assumed rather than prior birding experience — the guide handles identification throughout. The tour also suits travellers who want to see three very different conservation stories up close: a BirdLife reserve, an Australian Wildlife Conservancy sanctuary, and a national park, on Country in three states.

Highlights

Explore Bowra Sanctuary over two full days, across waterholes, mulga and gidgee, for Hall’s babbler, chestnut-breasted quail-thrush, Bourke’s parrot and spotted bowerbird.
Watch for the grey falcon, listed as nationally endangered and one of the few raptors that breed in Bowra Sanctuary.
Spotlight Bowra after dark for eastern barn owl, tawny frogmouth, Australian owlet-nightjar and reptiles.
Cross the gibber plains of Sturt National Park for cinnamon quail-thrush, gibberbird and flock bronzewing.
Walk the mallee at Gluepot Reserve for malleefowl, striated grasswren and the endangered black-eared miner.
Look for the red-lored whistler, a species with around 2,000 mature birds, roughly half in the Riverland.
Stay a night at Packsaddle Roadhouse, a single building on the Silver City Highway between Tibooburra and Broken Hill.
Birdwatch at the junction of the Murray and the Darling at Wentworth, reliable for waterbirds and regent parrot.
Cross three states in eight days, from the channel country of south-west Queensland through far western New South Wales to the South Australian mallee.

An experienced bird and wildlife guide for all eight days.
Seven nights accommodation in en-suite rooms.
All meals: seven breakfasts, eight lunches and seven dinners.
All park and reserve entry fees and excursions listed in the itinerary.
Transport in a private, air-conditioned 4WD vehicle.

This itinerary the other way round

Your guide meets you at Charleville Airport just after lunch for the drive to Cunnamulla for your first dinner together. The route crosses the plains of central Queensland, broken up by eucalypt-lined creeks, where you may spot budgerigars, Australian bustards, singing bushlarks, brolgas, Australian pratincoles, and spotted harriers before dark.

Overnight: Cunnamulla.
Meals: D.