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Educational Tours Australia

Educational Tours Australia (ETA) runs nature-based and other educational tours and programmes for schools, universities, colleges, and various special interest groups.

students at a waterhole

Tours and programmes include our 3, 7 & 10 day biology & ecosystems study programme , and our more holiday based activity & sightseeing tour . There are also some "Trip reports" of our previous tours and programmes.

We are a small company with biology and ecotourism qualified staff . When you make enquiries, you will be dealing with the guides directly. Apart from our set itineraries, given enough lead time we can also develop an itinerary for your group that focuses on many different special interest subjects, including ecotourism, birdwatching and geological study. We also hire out Damon Ramsey and Jane Moores to tour companies and organizations as Biology and Ecotourism guides & lecturers.

ETA is based in Cairns (North Queensland) and specializes in what we think is the best part of Australia. However, our itineraries have also included other parts of the country.

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Study Tours

  • Ecosystem Guide Books

    Accompanying our biology programmes and tours are the Ecosystem Guide Books. The first in the series, "Rainforest of tropical Australia", has been released. It is available in all good bookstores in Cairns and in souvenir shops and info centres throughout the rainforest areas of North Queensland. If they haven't got it, ask them to order it in! It's RRP is $35.

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Plants

Syzygium: australian 'apples' and lilly-pillies
There are about 500 species in the genus Syzygium, with almost 60 species in Australia. The flowers are often showy, and dominated by many colourful shaving brush like stamens. They develop fleshy fruits that are also often colourful.
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Birds

Boobies and Gannets
Boobie and baby
Boobie and baby
Boobies and Gannets are rather large, robust seabirds. They have big heads, strong beaks and look a little bit like a large, ocean going duck. Their feet are big and fully webbed. Their walk is a cute, duck-like waddle. When flying, their body is often described as ‘torpedo’ or ‘cigar’ shaped. The 9 species are found all over the world. While Boobies are more tropical in distribution, Gannets inhabit the colder, temperate seas. They are essentially an ocean going bird, and are only really found on land when nesting. They were given the derogatory name of ‘Booby’ from the Spanish word bobo which means fool or clown. They may plunge dive for prey from heights of up to 20 or 30 metres, with heights of 100 metres reported. Their nostrils are small and not externally visible and close to prevent seawater entering the nostrils when hitting the surface at high speeds. The air sacs under their skin are particularly well developed in the frontal region of the body and likely serve to cushion the body during their steep dives.
 

Mammals

Rock Wallabies
There are about 15 species of 'Rock Wallabies', Petrogale spp. Many of them look very similar to each other, and before the use of genetic testing to determine species, there was were thought to be far fewer species. They are generally very small kangaroos that live within rocky outcrops.
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