We had decided to stay an extra day so that we could visit the beautiful Tarra Bulga National Park that is well known for it's cool temperate rainforest habitat that includes giant Mountain Ash trees, fern gullies and ancient myrtle beeches. The Tarra Bulga National Park is part of the Strzelecki Ranges. Tarra Bulga is located 33km south of Traralgon and the drive in and out is every bit as pretty as the park itself. The main attraction we were hoping to see today was the Corrigan's Suspension Bridge which stretches through the rainforest canopy providing views of the lush fern gullies below on the forest floor. One of the attractions to the park also is that it is a habitat to the shy Superb Lyrebird which is a ground living songbird noted for it's elaborate tail and it's mimicry skills. They are not often seen, but can be heard calling out or scratching about, if lucky. We followed the trail down to the bridge, the boys has gone on ahead, and suddenly I hear this rush behind me and it was Jess, all excited, whispering loudly, "A lyrebird just crossed the path in front of me!" So I rushed back as quietly as I could to see if I was lucky enough to see it too. And I was! I fumbled with my camera in the excitement and managed to get a couple of pretty blurry shots. Jess and I were pretty stoked! |
We then took a drive to the Cyathea Falls where we enjoyed short walk through the beautiful shaded and damp rainforest to the falls despite them just being a trickle, given the recent dry conditions at the end of summer. The rainforest environment is such a reflective place of nature, serenity, wonder and beauty. It is hard not to be moved by it. It is such a refreshing contrast to the dry arid habitat of our home town of Mildura, and surrounds, which has it's own beauty.
Upon return to Traralgon, we took a visit check out the Loy Yang Power Station which is about 12km from Traralgon. Loy Yang Power Station is owned by AGL and currently supplies around 30% of Victoria's power requirements. Loy Yang uses brown coal which is supplied exclusively by the adjacent open cut mine and this can be viewed from the Miner's Lookout which is off the Hyland Highway between Traralgon and Loy Yang.