Home
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.

Read more...
 

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.

    Read more...

Plants

Cycads
Cycads belong to the division Cycadophyta. They were one of the dominant plant forms back in the Mesozoic, the 'Age of the Dinosaurs', when they would have comprised much of the forest as flowering trees do today. Many species of cycads are toxic, containing the lethal compound macrozamin, (including the species found in the rainforests here), and it has even been suggested that this high toxicity initially evolved in this ancient group to deter predation by dinosaurs.
Read more...
 

Birds

Anhingas
Anhingas
Anhingas
The Anhingas were once placed in the same family as the Cormoramts and Shags; they are now recognized as not being as closely related as once assumed. Depending on the author, there are either 2 or 4 species of Anhinga. These birds are found all over the world, and subsequently have quite a few different names. The name ‘Anhinga’ is used mainly in the Americas, and was originally a Brazilian name for the bird. It is now the genus name. It may catch it’s fishy prey with a fast stabbing action of the bill. This behaviour has given the bird the other common name of ‘darter’. When swimming on the surface of the water, their body is usually under the waterline and only it’s neck and head are seen, giving it the appearance of a snake, and thus resulting in another common name ‘Snake bird’.
 

Mammals

Bats - general
A group well represented in the tropical rainforests of Australia are the bats. This is one of the most successful groups of mammals in the world, and in Australia there are at least 70 species; almost a quarter of this continent's mammals.
Read more...