Australian Animals Colouring Pages: Facts and Activities

Looking for Australian animal colouring pages for a toddler or preschooler? You can start with our free koala and sea turtle pages, and below you'll find a short, true fact for each of ten favourite Aussie animals to read aloud while little hands colour. We've also added a few easy activities that go past colouring, and some tips for printing on A4.

Every fact here comes from the Australian Museum or another public source, linked so you can check it or read more.

Why pair colouring with a fact or two

A colouring page is a natural pause. Your child is busy and settled, and you're sitting right next to them. That makes it a lovely moment to share one small, surprising thing about the animal on the page.

Keep it to a sentence or two. Wombat poo comes in cubes, and the platypus closes its eyes underwater. Little ones remember the funny facts and ask for them again next time.

A lot of printable packs online are made overseas, and some get the animals wrong. One popular US pack lists a sloth among its Australian animals, and sloths aren't Australian at all. So it's worth knowing a few true facts to go with the pictures.

Ten Australian animals to colour, with a fact to share

Koala

Koalas eat the leaves of certain kinds of gum tree (eucalypts), plus a few flowers and stems. A baby koala, called a joey, spends about six months in its mum's pouch. Koalas in Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT are now listed as Endangered. (Australian Museum)

Colouring idea: grey fur, a big dark nose, and a green gum branch to hold.

Kangaroo

The red kangaroo is the largest marsupial alive today. Its joey stays in the pouch until it is around 235 days old, which is nearly eight months. Red kangaroos mostly eat grass. (Australian Museum)

Colouring idea: a reddish-brown coat and a tiny joey peeking out of the pouch.

Wombat

Wombats are among the world's largest burrowing animals and dig their homes with strong legs and flat claws. They munch on native grasses, sedges and rushes. (Australian Museum)

The fact every child loves: wombat poo is shaped like little cubes. Scientists found that the shape comes from the wombat's gut, and because cubes don't roll away, wombats leave them on rocks and logs as smelly messages for other wombats. (UGA Today)

Platypus

The platypus is a mammal that lays eggs. When it dives for food, it closes its eyes, ears and nostrils, and finds its dinner with its bill, which can sense tiny electrical signals from bugs and larvae. (Australian Museum)

Colouring idea: a brown body, a dark bill and some blue ripples of creek water.

Echidna

The echidna lays one egg at a time, and its babies are called puggles. It breaks into ant and termite nests with its claws and snout, then flicks its long, sticky tongue in and out to catch them. (Australian Museum)

Colouring idea: spiky spines in browns and creams, and a line of ants marching past.

Emu

The emu is Australia's tallest native bird, standing between 1.6 and 1.9 metres. It can't fly, but it has long, powerful legs. Here's a surprise for little ones: it's the dad emu who sits on the eggs, and fresh emu eggs are a dark bluish-green. (Australian Museum)

Colouring idea: a nest of green eggs. Ask what colour your child thinks they should be before you share the answer.

Kookaburra

The kookaburra's famous "laugh" isn't really a laugh. It's a call that tells other birds to keep out of the family's patch, and kookaburras often sing it together in a chorus. They are among the largest birds in the kingfisher family. (Australian Museum)

Colouring idea: a brown and cream bird with a big beak, sitting on a branch with its family.

Quokka

Quokkas are one of the smallest kinds of wallaby. They live in the south-west of Western Australia, including on Rottnest Island near Perth. A quokka joey stays in the pouch for about six months. (Australian Museum)

Green sea turtle

Adult green sea turtles eat seagrass and algae. They're called "green" not because of their shells, but because that diet gives their body fat a greenish colour. In Australia they nest in places such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Gulf of Carpentaria. (Australian Geographic)

Colouring idea: our free sea turtle page is a good one for this. Add some wavy seagrass underneath.

A threatened animal you may not know

Once your child knows the famous ten, try one that's less well known. Bush Heritage Australia has free colouring-in pages of threatened native animals, including quolls, bandicoots, dunnarts and red-tailed black cockatoos. It's a gentle way to show that Australia has many more animals than the ones on postcards.

Quick fact table for the fridge

Animal	One fact to share	Lays eggs or has a pouch?
Koala	Eats gum leaves	Pouch
Red kangaroo	Biggest marsupial alive	Pouch
Wombat	Does cube-shaped poo	Pouch
Quokka	One of the smallest wallabies	Pouch
Platypus	Closes its eyes underwater	Lays eggs
Echidna	Babies are called puggles	Lays eggs
Emu	Dad sits on the eggs	Lays eggs
Kookaburra	Its "laugh" means keep out	Lays eggs
Green sea turtle	Named after its green fat	Lays eggs

The last column turns into a simple sorting game: point to an animal and ask, "Pouch or egg?"

Easy activities that go past colouring

None of these need anything more than the page, some crayons and a few minutes.

Pouch or egg sort. Colour a few animals, cut them out, and sort them into two piles: animals with a pouch and animals that lay eggs.
Colour guess first. Before you start, ask what colour the animal really is. Then share the fact. Emu eggs are a great one for this.
Draw the home. Add the animal's home around it: a gum tree for the koala, a burrow for the wombat, a creek for the platypus, seagrass for the turtle.
Animal sounds. Kookaburras are easy to copy. Have a go at a "koo-koo-kaa-kaa" chorus together.
Spot it for real. Next time you visit a zoo, a wildlife park or the bush, take a finished page along and see if you can find the real animal.
Make it a calm-down page. A single animal with big, simple shapes works well as a quiet activity before naps or bedtime.

For teachers, the fact table and the pouch-or-egg sort work as a short whole-class warm-up. Each child colours one animal, then the class sorts the pictures on the board.

Printing tips for A4

Many free colouring pages, ours included, are US letter size. They print fine on A4 if you:

Print at 100% (sometimes called "actual size"), not "fit to page".
Use ordinary printer paper for crayons and pencils.
Pick thicker paper if your child uses markers, so the colour doesn't bleed through.

You can print as many copies as you like, so feel free to run off a spare for when the first one gets "finished" in thirty seconds flat.

More Australian animals to colour

If your little one loves the koala page, our My First Australian Animals colouring book has 30 native animals, one big picture per page, with thick outlines and the animal's name in bubble letters to colour too. It includes koalas, kangaroos, wombats, quokkas and platypuses, and it's made for ages 2 to 6.

To start today, grab the free koala and sea turtle pages, print them on A4, and pick one fun fact from this list to share while you colour together.

Questions and answers

Where can I get free Australian animal colouring pages?

Sparkle Bay Books has a free koala and sea turtle page in its sample pack, and Bush Heritage Australia offers free sheets of threatened native animals such as quolls, bandicoots and black cockatoos.

What age are simple animal colouring pages best for?

Pages with thick outlines and one big animal are made for little hands, roughly ages 2 to 6. Older children often enjoy adding a background or habitat of their own.

Will a US letter-size colouring page print on A4 paper?

Yes. Print at 100% rather than 'fit to page' and the picture sits on A4 with a little extra margin.

Is a sloth an Australian animal?

No, sloths don't live in Australia. Some printable packs list one among Australian animals by mistake, so it's worth checking the animals before you print.

Which Australian animals lay eggs?

The platypus and the echidna. They are monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs.

Sources

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