Impressive, powerful and smart. Janine Duffy investigates the true nature of this nice-looking Australian native

Wombats are not cute!

Wombats are impressive. Wombats are powerful. Wombats are smart. They are certainly nice-looking, but cute is too diminutive a word for Australia's most powerful native.

One night at Cape Conran in south-eastern Australia, I travelled out alone in search of a satisfying method of watching wild wombats. The country is thick coastal scrub, so wombat viewing is only possible along the roadside verge and in the grassy areas around the picnic ground. Wombats are plentiful at Cape Conran, but nervous of humans. Many times I had been frustrated by glimpses of a wombat dashing for the scrub, never to been seen again.  

I hoped to work out a way of approaching wild wombats without upsetting them.  

Wombats are dignified creatures who resent bright lights and noise. I discovered that wombats would sometimes stick around if I stopped the moment I saw them and turned my car headlights down. They would then tolerate a slow, quiet approach on foot as long as I didn't shine a bright light in their face.  

On this night I rounded a corner to find a female Bare-nosed (Common) Wombat grazing ahead on the roadside. I stopped immediately, turned headlights down, but it wasn't soon enough – she dashed into the bushes. Pity, she was such a big healthy girl! I would have loved to have spent some time with her. I was so disappointed that I just sat there, in the cabin of the Landrover, listening.  

I noticed that the crashing sound wombats make in the undergrowth had ceased. She hadn't gone far. I couldn't see her, but I wondered – is she just waiting for me to leave?  

So I waited, freezing cold with the car windows open, but not willing to make a sound. It was 10 minutes before she reappeared, hesitantly poking her intelligent eyes out of the bush. I didn't move ... except to smile.  

Finally she emerged, her sleek chocolate brown body in full sight. Oh glory! Time stopped and I wanted nothing but to sit here and watch her forever. For probably 10 minutes I watched her while she grazed on the short grass by the road.  

As it does, time started again and I wanted to understand. Did she re-emerge because she accepted my presence, or did she think I had gone? So I cleared my throat, softly. She dashed into the scrub. Damn! But then she stopped, head in the bushes, body still exposed. She waited. I waited. She turned around and resumed her grass feast.

Now I was really curious. Her reaction suggested two possibilities: either she accepted me and was learning/becoming accustomed to me; or the level of noise/disturbance governed her reaction.  

After a few more minutes I cleared my throat again. She stopped grazing for a moment, looked in my direction, but returned to her dinner. I did it again, louder. This time no reaction. My curiosity was satisfied – she was learning to accept me! Over the next half hour she grazed and I watched. I made as much noise as I liked – coughing, talking to her softly, moving around in my seat, eating. I wasn't rowdy, but I was making the sort of noises that groups of people can't help making. And she was fine with it.

Eventually I had to leave, my need for sleep overpowering. By this time she was so accustomed to me that even the starting of the Landrover engine wasn't enough to rouse her.  

To experience wombats in the wild you need to travel to south-eastern Australia. The cool forests of Victoria (Melbourne) and New South Wales (Sydney) are home to wombats, but they are best seen on cool nights. Tasmania and the islands of Bass Strait are the best place to see them – the cooler temperatures year round allow for wombat viewing even in the daytime.

Our four-day Wildlife Journey to Far East Gippsland east of Melbourne is great for wombat viewing in the cooler months of September, October, November, April and May. In fact, it was research for this tour that gave me this beautiful experience.

Wombats are known to be the most intelligent of marsupials. They are also very large when full grown – up to one metre in length and 40kg in weight. Few native creatures are strong enough to challenge them – only humans are a real threat – so wombats have become like the elephants of Australia: authoritative, confident, assured. This makes a wombat a dangerous adversary if cornered, but luckily, they are defensive animals who rarely attack without reason.

Can you see why wombats are so much more than 'cute'?

Nature Tours, a social enterprise, in 1993. They now employ 16 passionate conservationists and guide over 8,000 travellers every year to see koalas, kangaroos, crocodiles, wallabies, eagles, cockatoos, goannas, wombats and emus, in a respectful way in their natural habitats. They also run the not-for-profit Koala Clancy Foundation – a charity set up to improve and create habitat for koalas.

Janine hopes her stories can help others connect with nature.