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Wildlife Region

You Yangs & Great Ocean Road

You Yangs & Great Ocean Road

The You Yangs and Great Ocean Road region is only a short distance southwest of Melbourne and is characterised by dramatic coastal scenery, wet hinterland rainforests, spectacular heathlands and vast grassy plains.

The You Yangs are the best known granite ridges in the area, rising 350m above the Werribee Plains. The grasslands and low woodlands around the You Yangs are home to more than 200 bird species such as White-naped, White-plumed, New Holland and Brown-headed honeyeaters, Laughing Kookaburras, White-winged Choughs, Eastern Yellow Robins, as well as a key habitat for Eastern Grey Kangaroos, possums and Koalas.

The Great Ocean Road region stretches from Geelong to Portland in south-western Victoria with the limestone rock formations and cliffs being one of Australia’s most famous landscapes. The Twelve Apostles are 20 million year old limestone towers that rise dramatically out of the sea; a result of being pounded for centuries by the raging Southern Ocean, with other striking natural features in the area including the Loch Ard Gorge and the Blowhole.

Inland from the coastal landscape lies the cool, wet hinterland rainforests. Home to Eastern Kangaroos, Swamp and Red-necked Wallabies, possums, Southern Brown Bandicoots, Short-beaked Echidnas, King Parrots and Crimson Rosellas, the Great Otway National Park is a landscape of tall eucalypts and Myrtle Beech dominated forests, rushing waterfalls, cascading streams and tranquil pockets of fern gullies. These forests are alive with vividly red and green coloured Australian King-parrots, Crimson Rosellas, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos as well as 38 species of butterfly.

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Quick facts

  • Some of the world's most dramatic and rugged coastal scenery
  • Wet hinterland rainforests a sanctuary for numerous marsupials and parrots
  • You Yangs key habitat for Koalas
  • Western Plains prime opportunity to see kangaroos and raptor birds

Experiences

Featured operator

  • Featured operator

    Echidna Walkabout Nature Tours

    Echidna Walkabout Nature Tours was founded by Roger Smith and Janine Duffy in 1993, with the vision to bring people and wildlife together for mutual benefit.  

    The team believes that observing and connecting with wildlife is a key element in enriching the lives for people of all backgrounds; whether this interaction is for pleasure, new experiences and learning, for connection to the land or the basic needs for humans to breathe clean air and drink clean water via healthy ecosystems.  

    Increasingly, wildlife needs people too, as climate change...

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