Magical Tarra-Bulga National Park

We’ve been travelling through and exploring Gunaikurnai land but I’ll tell you about that shortly. Later that same day we visited Tarra-Bulga National Park. Magnificent!  Rugged up against the misty, chilly air, we walked through ferny gullies, along the lyrebird ridge trail, across Corrigans suspension bridge which stretches through the rainforest canopy.  Through stands of Mountain Ash, the tallest flowering trees in the world, we trailed along paths through dogwood, sassafras, stink wood and ferns of many descriptions. 

This is a mother shield fern. They reproduce from bulbil (baby fern) which grow on the tip of a frond. As the frond ages, the tip bends to the ground and the bulbil takes root and grows into a new fern. How gentle! 

You can be looking up at the stars - or the magnificent crown of a tree fern. 

We saw many vertical gardens. 

Raindrops did indeed keep falling on my head. 

Young fern or bracken fronds are good bush tucker. 
It’s a lovely tranquil place to be, particularly when it is silent - except for the piping bird calls from lyrebirds or the real owners of those songs.

This is a little blurry but there’s a tail of a Superb Lyrebird in there - with bird attached!. 

I managed to video one cheeky lyrebird out foraging in the open. We were flabbergasted as neither of us had seen one in the open before. I’ve also posted a video on YouTube of that same bird going through his unique choral routine (search for Heather Wheat - and pick me! I've posted quite a few videos). Not long after he stopped singing another started up. What an awesome day!  Earlier that morning we had listened to another lyrebird singing his heart out as we walked in Fosters Gully. A tally of three at least for that day. 

Corrigans suspension bridge

From the bridge you look out over a forest of lush tree ferns  

We followed the Strzelecki trail

Route 94 takes you winding through the Strzelecki Ranges, passed rolling verdant grazing land, plunges you into deep magnificent forests and National Parks and yes passed energy-generating hot spots, both wind and coal. A reminder that the rest of Victoria owes much to Gippsland - apart from its yummy cheeses!!!

Some energy to start the day, a day which ended up with us walking almost 10km. 

This particular day we started with a damp walk through Fosters Gully in the Morwell National Park. It is one of the few remaining areas of remnant vegetation in the Strzeleckis. 

Dogwood playing host to lichen. 

The trees were magnificent. This hollow lured me closer,

My human scale!

Inside a cosy shelter blackened in earlier days but the tree still soared skyward sufficient to give you a serious crick in the neck. 

This National Park is also home to over 40 species of native orchid - I found one species and was over the moon. This is a Corysanthis diemenica or Veined/Stately helmet orchid, I was mesmerised. Isn’t  she a beauty?

A love these - Drosera or sun dews, a carnivorous plant. They lure, capture and digest insects to supplement nutrient-poor soil. 

We took in other walks later that day but the day ended with a drive into the sunset in to a scene from a sci-fi movie. I was thinking Metropolis - scary but transfixing. 

Well of course we had to visit the Prom!

What an amazing huge chunk of land Wilsons Promontory is! Stretching rocky fingers out into the sea reaching towards the landmass it was once connected to; it formed part of the land bridge linking our big island to Tassie. We saw remnants, scraps of this ancient bridge 3 years ago when we flew over the Furneaux Island group, Bass Strait, to spend a week on Flinders Island. But I digress! 

This day trip we were heading for Lilly Pilly Gully to walk the nature circuit through the rainforest.

It was a magical day. This southern rainforest is much more ancient than the typical Aussie eucalypt forests and heathland which evolved to rely on fire for reproduction. Warm temperate forests like this one are more closely related to the ancient forests of Gondwana and grow in places protected from fire.  Incidentally this is the most southerly warm temperate rainforest in Australia.

It was just wonderful albeit a bit drizzly at times but that added to the magic of the place. We wandered deep into the gully through dripping rainforest - so beautiful, it took my breath away.  

Halfway around the circuit we stepped onto a Boardwalk suspended over swampy land. From there the path wound uphill around the slopes of Mt Bishop. Hard going (for me) as it took us higher and higher - we climbed around 180m. 

We didn’t climb further up Mt Bishop it was way to hard - for us. 

That’s Tidal River in the distance  this was one massive granite boulder  

The Prom is one of the few areas in Australia where rivers and creeks are protected from their source to the sea and are free from introduced species (fish and aquatic plants). So the Prom is a haven for native freshwater fish. It’s also home to a number of species of freshwater crayfish. The Lilly Pilly crayfish is about the size of your thumb and makes numerous holes in the earth - we saw many. In fact much of the region we’ve been exploring in Sth Gippsland  has freshwater crays. 

It’s been quite a learning experience and the more we travel and look and read, the more I learn - I’m really just starting! I have learnt that the diverse range of species of wildlife living in these waters need different water flow rates - I possibly knew this at some stage and obviously it makes sense but I can’t remember which needs what but it has given me pause for thought. 

This is snow or reindeer lichen. We saw similar lichen in Iceland and Canada

Everywhere else the heath has been pink or white. This soft coral colour was gorgeous against the deep green scrub. 

I love the furry edge to the leaves, stems and buds of this plant. 



Sadly I didn’t find any orchids but they are there I know. We did however find fungi in bucketloads - from browns, oranges and reds to white and lovely yellow and dark green as well as ‘jelly cups’ clinging tenuously to mossy trunks. Fungi, the essential forest recyclers, break down rotting matter to make it accessible to even smaller creatures like worms and snails etc. If you put your ear to the ground I suspect you might be deafened by the sound of munching!

We ended this magical day at Norman’s Beach at Tidal River watch by a couple of curious crimson rosellas

Entrance and exit to Tidal River 

Cute as a button!

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Nangara Reserve - a tranquil hideaway

This tranquil hideaway is not far from Jindivick. Nangara means ‘meeting of the waters’   The reserve forms part of the headwaters to the Labertouche Creek that runs to the Tarago River (home to some delish cheese!).  The reserve is part of the Kurnai Trail which we drove that day. As we visit and wander through many places in Gippsland, I am learning a little of the precious heritage of the traditional owners, their stories. It’s absolutely intriguing. 

That afternoon we walk in misty silence, a silence broken only by the chatter and peep of birds high in the canopy of dripping trees. Through paths and across creeks and by croaking ponds.  We discovered lots of little treasures in this region much of which is still recovering from the bushfires of Black Saturday 2009.

These cuties are part of a semicircle of wombats carved from local wood. 

Along the trail we came across sculptures drawing you into the aboriginal heritage of the region. This installation is a small mob of kangaroos frozen in time leaping through the bush - ‘rust on sticks’ (thanks Richard!) 

Tiddalik, the frog. From Aboriginal mythology. Tiddalik awoke one morning with an unquenchable thirst, and began to drink until he’d consumed all the fresh water. Creatures and plant life everywhere began to die due to lack of moisture. The other animals conspired against Tiddalik to get him to release all of the water he’d drunk. Eventually Nabunum the eel made Tiddalik laugh when he tied himself in comical shapes. As Tiddalik laughed, the water rushed out of him to replenish the lakes, swamps and rivers. 

A Black Saturday Memorial. Around the base were clusters of delicate fungi.

The range of patterns in nature seems endless. I find them hard to resist  

Lots of pretty pink heath - our State’s floral emblem 

My eye was drawn to this wee snail enjoying a sunny resting spot.

Where are we?

Is this a colder than usual winter? I don’t recall feeling so cold before, admittedly we’re in a caravan away from our cozy Southbank pad. I just realised that we haven’t had an entire winter in Victoria since 2014 but we have had a couple of months in both polar regions where temperatures are colder than we’ve been having. Go figure - maybe I’m getting old. Well I am so thank goodness!

When I lasted posted to this blog we were geared up ready for high adventure across Australia but that’s not looking promising. We got away just in time it seems (depends how you look at it), we headed off when the first hotspot lockdown hit. Our plan was to catch up with family in Victoria first as we had a fair bit of time before we were due in Lightning Ridge for the fossil dig - so we headed for Gippsland. And here we remain but it could be worse.  If we could have predicted the current explosion of stupidity, restrictions and scare, we would have headed out of the State straight from home - but then so would many of you I imagine. We’re in Warragul and there’s lots to see so we are making the best of things. 

Our caravan backs into a stream and a reserve with lots of interesting things to discover. 

Like this wee fruit tree (plum?) growing out from the base of a towering eucalyptus. The reserve has a plantation of mountain ash and grey gum and a number of other species. Every night a huge flock of little corellas fly in and roost in the trees right behind us; we think they are responsible for the little fruit tree.  We love the sound of them waking in the morning grumbling and chattering before they take off for the day. At night you can imagine them sharing news of the day - as well as squabbling over who gets which spot. 

The floor of the reserve is littered with discarded leaf and bark. Lift a corner and you find a power house of activity underneath breaking down the litter into essential nutrients for other organisms. That's what this beautiful white patterning is - mycelium of a fungus  Quite fascinating. 

And on the tail end of autumn glorious leaves discarded  like scraps of coloured paper tossed to the wind. I love seeing the once life-giving scaffolding. 

We are in freshwater crayfish territory and our reserve is no different with huge clusters of mud chimneys marking the burrows of what could be the Gippsland Burrowing crayfish, or some other species.