Melba Gully State Park
Victoria
Melba Gully State Park is located in Victoria
Melba Gully State Park
Melba Gully State Park
Nearest town or cityLavers Hill
Coordinates38°41′50″S 143°22′10″E / 38.69722°S 143.36944°E / -38.69722; 143.36944
Established1978
Area0.65 km2 (0.3 sq mi)[1]
Managing authoritiesParks Victoria
WebsiteMelba Gully State Park
See alsoProtected areas of Victoria

The Melba Gully State Park was formed to protect a small pocket of natural temperate rainforest in the Otway Ranges near Apollo Bay, Victoria, Australia. The 48-hectare (120-acre) park is extremely valuable as one of the few pockets of natural old-growth Otway Ranges rainforests to survive the logging and subsequent fires, making it a key part of the regeneration of the original Otway Ranges rainforests. The park now forms part of the Great Otway National Park.

The gully has a dense cover of myrtle beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii), blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) and tree-ferns, with an understorey of low ferns and mosses. Glow worms (Arachnocampa otwayensis),[2] which are the bioluminescent larvae of small flies known as fungus gnats, can be seen at night along the stream banks and walking tracks.[1][3][4]

The park has few facilities due to its small size, but it has a picnic ground and basic picnic facilities, with the main attraction being the 35 minute Madsens Track Nature Walk.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Catrice, D. (1996), Victoria's Heritage: Melba Gully (PDF), Parks Victoria
  2. ↑ Baker, Claire H. (2010). "A new subgenus and five new species of Australian glow-worms (Diptera: Keroplatidae: Arachnocampa)". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 55 (1): 11–43.
  3. 1 2 Parks Victoria (2013), Parknotes: Melba Gully Great Otway National Park Visitor Guide (PDF), Parks Victoria
  4. ↑ Parks Victoria (2019), Melba Gully, Parks Victoria
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