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Birding Hotspots in Victoria Australia information (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Gallus
- Start date
MikeMules
Well-known member
Where in Victoria are you planning on going? It's bigger than the entire UK.
Werribee can be accessed by getting a permit from Melbourne Water, or by going with someone who has one - your best bet is to contact the Bird Observer's Club (www.birdobservers.org.au) for someone there.
If you're just hanging around Melbourne, Woodlands Historic Park near the airport is excellent. So too are the Dandenongs, about 50km E. of the CBD. A colony of Little Penguins lives in St. Kilda breakwater, and good watching can be had around Williamstown and Ricketts Point near Brighton. Banyule Flats in Rosanna, and Westerfolds Park along the Yarra River can also give good birding.
But seriously, if you're going to travel within Victoria, there are potentially hundreds of good birding locations. Are you travelling to the Mallee (400+km from Melbourne), the iron-box woodlands around Chiltern (300+km from Melbourne), South Gippsland (200km from Melbourne), Grampians (300km from Melbourne) or East Gippsland (400km from Melbourne)? Each have their own fauna and interesting spots.
Let us know, and I'll see if I can help.
Werribee can be accessed by getting a permit from Melbourne Water, or by going with someone who has one - your best bet is to contact the Bird Observer's Club (www.birdobservers.org.au) for someone there.
If you're just hanging around Melbourne, Woodlands Historic Park near the airport is excellent. So too are the Dandenongs, about 50km E. of the CBD. A colony of Little Penguins lives in St. Kilda breakwater, and good watching can be had around Williamstown and Ricketts Point near Brighton. Banyule Flats in Rosanna, and Westerfolds Park along the Yarra River can also give good birding.
But seriously, if you're going to travel within Victoria, there are potentially hundreds of good birding locations. Are you travelling to the Mallee (400+km from Melbourne), the iron-box woodlands around Chiltern (300+km from Melbourne), South Gippsland (200km from Melbourne), Grampians (300km from Melbourne) or East Gippsland (400km from Melbourne)? Each have their own fauna and interesting spots.
Let us know, and I'll see if I can help.
Tannin
Common; sedentary.
Mike's advice is always good. (Hi Mike!)
Take his distances with a grain of salt though - it's not that he's putting the distances down incorrectly (I hasten to add) simply that, once you get out of Melbourne and its immediate environs, you can travel a long, long way in a very short time. For example, I reckon on needing just about three and a half hours to get from my home (120 kilometres west of Melbourne) to Chiltern (300-odd kilometres north-east of Melbourne - and that's without scaring the passengers or breaking any speed limits. It's just open road with practically no traffic.
It is perfectly feasable, as another example, to leave outer Melbourne at the end of the working day and be almost anywhere in the state early enough in the evening to make camp (or find a motel - whatever) and wake rested and fresh before dawn ready to start some serious birdwaching. (If you start from inner Melbourne, all the bets are off - you have to struggle through the city traffic for anything up to two hours.)
Take his distances with a grain of salt though - it's not that he's putting the distances down incorrectly (I hasten to add) simply that, once you get out of Melbourne and its immediate environs, you can travel a long, long way in a very short time. For example, I reckon on needing just about three and a half hours to get from my home (120 kilometres west of Melbourne) to Chiltern (300-odd kilometres north-east of Melbourne - and that's without scaring the passengers or breaking any speed limits. It's just open road with practically no traffic.
It is perfectly feasable, as another example, to leave outer Melbourne at the end of the working day and be almost anywhere in the state early enough in the evening to make camp (or find a motel - whatever) and wake rested and fresh before dawn ready to start some serious birdwaching. (If you start from inner Melbourne, all the bets are off - you have to struggle through the city traffic for anything up to two hours.)
Gallus
Well-known member
Hi Mike thanks for your reply, I plan spending a month in Victoria so I should manage to see most of the State. Can overseas visitors obtain a permit for Werribee ? I would like to spend a few days at Werribee with my camera.On accommodation is there a reasonable priced Motel chain I can use during my visit.
