Feel like giving nature a helping hand on your next holiday? You don’t need any experience to have a “conservation vacation” — just a sense of adventure and a willingness to join a group of like-minded people in doing whatever needs doing. The pay-off for your good deeds, of course, is a backstage pass to some of Australia’s most beautiful natural places: islands off the NSW coast, remote beaches in Arnhem Land and Cape York, even well-known national parks within coo-ee of a capital city. Everybody wins on these trips: the local plants and animals, the environments they inhabit and you. Need inspiration? Step this way. Following are some of Australia’s best green-themed experiences, plus one in New Zealand for good measure.

Penguin patrol: Montague Island, NSW

Picture this: you’re on a small, wild island 350km south of Sydney and 9km off the coast of Narooma, encircled by an ocean teeming with seals, whales, turtles and dolphins (all of which we saw on our 45-minute boat trip there). Overhead, a big, cloudless sky is filled with hundreds of squawking, flapping seabirds; more than 30,000 birds nest and breed on the island, including crested terns, silver gulls, albatrosses, petrels and sea eagles.

Then there’s you, spring-cleaning nesting boxes, being to Montague Island Nature Reserve’s 12,000 little penguins what Dian Fossey was to Rwanda’s gorillas. You’ll do only two hours of conservation work during your stay — which can include replanting native seedlings and helping with research projects and seabird surveys — so there’s plenty of time for guided nature tours with your NPWS guide, whale-watching from the balcony of the historic granite lighthouse, the island’s evening penguin parade and, of course, bird-watching. As if all this wasn’t enough, you get to stay in a beautifully restored 125-year-old lighthouse-keeper’s cottage.

How to do it: Conservation Volunteers Australia, in partnership with the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service, runs all-inclusive two- and three-night Naturewise trips on Montague Island starting at $600pp. Tours run year-round, but spring and early summer are peak wildlife-viewing times. Whale-watching is included in boat transfers September–November. More info: www.conservationvolunteers.com.au

Rafting and river care: Franklin River, Tasmania

Tasmania’s Franklin River, deep in the heart of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, is the epitome of an environmentally friendly destination, having been the setting for Australia’s first major conservation battle, which ultimately saved this remote river from a proposed hydro-electric dam in 1983. One of the most environmentally friendly ways to experience the Franklin is to spend a week paddling, pinballing (through Grade 3 and 4 rapids) and peacefully drifting more than 100km down it on an inflatable raft.

To take that up a notch, why not join a rafting trip that includes conservation work on the riverbanks en route? World Expeditions, which pioneered commercial rafting trips on the Franklin in 1978, started offering rafting-conservation trips on the river two summers ago. As a result of this and other ongoing responsible tourism practices by WE and other operators, the river remains as pristine as ever.

How to do it: Every summer World Expeditions runs 12-day Franklin Rafting River Care trips sponsored by The Wilderness Society. Trips consist of nine days of rafting plus three days of eradicating noxious weeds under the supervision of Parks & Wildlife Service Tasmania. The cost is $2695pp, which includes all gear, meals, accommodation in tents, national park entry and two experienced guides. More info: www.worldexpeditions.com.au