Croajingolong National Park

The combination of stunning coastline, rainforest and sand dunes make Victoria's Croajingolong National Park one of the most spectacular places on earth

"Try Croajingolong National Park! It's like Kakadu, with amazing fishing, birds and wildlife," said Eddie Lee - eager south coast fisherman. With those few words of encouragement, I grabbed my fishing rod and camping gear, and headed south to Mallacoota, in the family Rodeo 4x4 Dual Cab.

Croajingolong is in Victoria, just over the NSW border. The coastline is like a scene from Namibia, Africa, where 100m-high sand dunes meet the ocean. The Cape Howe dunes create snake-like knife edges. Freshwater streams trickle down from the mountains, through pockets of rainforest, before passing through the dunes to the sea. Southern Ocean swell pounds the rocky shores and lengthy beaches.

Croajingolong National Park is a place swept by the forces of Bass Strait. It's a place so special that this 100km stretch was declared a 'World Biosphere Reserve' by UNESCO in 1977. Croajingolong National Park was established in 1979.

Croajingolong National Park gets its name from the 'Krauatungalung', one of five Aboriginal tribes in south-eastern Victoria. The park has more than 300 Aboriginal sites, with stone tools and shell middens dating back 10,000 years. Aboriginals have possibly lived here for 40,000 years, but possible evidence was been drowned by rising sea levels, after the last ice age.

Croajingolong is the first part of the Australian coastline that explorer Captain Cook saw in 1770. He was impressed with the spectacular coastline made up of granite cliffs, huge dunes, bush-covered hillocks and forest as far as he could see. Sir Joseph Banks, travelling with Cook in 1770, described the coast: "...it had sloping hills covered in part with trees and bushes, but interspersed with large tracts of sand."

Gabo Island, just off the coast, was once linked to the mainland by a sandbar and is the largest breeding island for little penguins on Australia's east coast. There are an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 little penguin pairs.

The red granite lighthouse was built in 1862, after the 800-tonne steamer Monumental City was wrecked on Tullaberga Island in 1853. It glows a red tinge, early and late each day.

One night on Gabo Island, I was treated to a great spectacle - little penguins coming ashore in droves. There are an estimated 6000 breeding pairs of short-tailed shearwater birds using the island also.

There is a weird balance on Gabo Island - kikuyu and other weeds such as blackberry and African buckthorn grow there which, if left unmanaged by grazing cows, make life hard for the penguins by restricting access to nesting sites. Without the cows, the kikuyu would soon become a tangle, blocking penguin pathways to their nesting sites.

"It's probably best to leave the cows until such time that an effective weed control program can be implemented. It is of course better not to have the kikuyu and the cows. A lot of money can be wasted on weed control which, if not totally effective, may need to be repeated in a few years. We're not sure what the effects would be of removing the cows and weeds. We now get little penguins nesting all over the island as the paths are clear, because of the grazing cattle and ease of walking under the mature melaleucas. Sometimes it's best 'not to rock the boat' until such time that the best solution can be found," says Peter Fullagar, a retired CSIRO seabird researcher. Gabo is managed by Parks Victoria.

On the mainland lies the remains of one of three homes, now hidden in sand, built during the late 1800s by pioneer farmer James Smellie. His hard farming life ended in tragedy when he split his eye open with a bullock whip in 1890, and died at just 47 years of age.

Croajingolong National Park

The combination of stunning coastline, rainforest and sand dunes make Victoria's Croajingolong National Park one of the most spectacular places on earth

"Try Croajingolong National Park! It's like Kakadu, with amazing fishing, birds and wildlife," said Eddie Lee - eager south coast fisherman. With those few words of encouragement, I grabbed my fishing rod and camping gear, and headed south to Mallacoota, in the family Rodeo 4x4 Dual Cab.

Croajingolong is in Victoria, just over the NSW border. The coastline is like a scene from Namibia, Africa, where 100m-high sand dunes meet the ocean. The Cape Howe dunes create snake-like knife edges. Freshwater streams trickle down from the mountains, through pockets of rainforest, before passing through the dunes to the sea. Southern Ocean swell pounds the rocky shores and lengthy beaches.

Croajingolong National Park is a place swept by the forces of Bass Strait. It's a place so special that this 100km stretch was declared a 'World Biosphere Reserve' by UNESCO in 1977. Croajingolong National Park was established in 1979.

Croajingolong National Park gets its name from the 'Krauatungalung', one of five Aboriginal tribes in south-eastern Victoria. The park has more than 300 Aboriginal sites, with stone tools and shell middens dating back 10,000 years. Aboriginals have possibly lived here for 40,000 years, but possible evidence was been drowned by rising sea levels, after the last ice age.

Croajingolong is the first part of the Australian coastline that explorer Captain Cook saw in 1770. He was impressed with the spectacular coastline made up of granite cliffs, huge dunes, bush-covered hillocks and forest as far as he could see. Sir Joseph Banks, travelling with Cook in 1770, described the coast: "...it had sloping hills covered in part with trees and bushes, but interspersed with large tracts of sand."

Gabo Island, just off the coast, was once linked to the mainland by a sandbar and is the largest breeding island for little penguins on Australia's east coast. There are an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 little penguin pairs.

The red granite lighthouse was built in 1862, after the 800-tonne steamer Monumental City was wrecked on Tullaberga Island in 1853. It glows a red tinge, early and late each day.

One night on Gabo Island, I was treated to a great spectacle - little penguins coming ashore in droves. There are an estimated 6000 breeding pairs of short-tailed shearwater birds using the island also.

There is a weird balance on Gabo Island - kikuyu and other weeds such as blackberry and African buckthorn grow there which, if left unmanaged by grazing cows, make life hard for the penguins by restricting access to nesting sites. Without the cows, the kikuyu would soon become a tangle, blocking penguin pathways to their nesting sites.

"It's probably best to leave the cows until such time that an effective weed control program can be implemented. It is of course better not to have the kikuyu and the cows. A lot of money can be wasted on weed control which, if not totally effective, may need to be repeated in a few years. We're not sure what the effects would be of removing the cows and weeds. We now get little penguins nesting all over the island as the paths are clear, because of the grazing cattle and ease of walking under the mature melaleucas. Sometimes it's best 'not to rock the boat' until such time that the best solution can be found," says Peter Fullagar, a retired CSIRO seabird researcher. Gabo is managed by Parks Victoria.

On the mainland lies the remains of one of three homes, now hidden in sand, built during the late 1800s by pioneer farmer James Smellie. His hard farming life ended in tragedy when he split his eye open with a bullock whip in 1890, and died at just 47 years of age.

Diverse coastal habitat

Near the Cape Howe sand dunes lie the boilers of the 2700 tonne Riverina, a liner ship wrecked in 1927. After running aground, it was being refloated when a gale blew it back onto the beach. Today, there is a marine park at the Cape, named the Cape Howe Marine National Park, a no-take zone, and the Cape Howe Wilderness Area.

'The Skerries' is a group of granite isles off Wingan Inlet and is home to a colony of black-faced shags, Australian Fur Seals and New Zealand fur seals - both increasing in numbers, after nearly being wiped out by sealers in the 1800s. Shore landing on 'The Skerries' and Tullaberga Island is prohibited, but sea kayaking is allowed. George Bass sheltered from a storm in his 8.5m longboat at Fly Cove, near 'The Skerries', for 10 days during his coastal survey in 1797.

Croajingolong National Park enjoys two merging climates, with an interesting mix of flora that normally lives in warmer climates, like silvertop ash and red bloodwood, mingling with Victorian stringybark trees. The sandpaper fig, Ficus coronata, a true tropical plant, grows nowhere else in Victoria, except in Croajingolong's Howe Range.

Covering 87,500 hectares, the park supports over 1000 kinds of native plants including 49 species of orchids, 8o or so of which are rare or threatened in Victoria. Eight of these are rare Australia-wide.

"The sheer quantity and diversity of coastal habitat with heathland, beaches, sand dunes and estuaries makes this area very rich. With its many estuaries, Croajingolong National Park is the sort of land that is often picked for settlement, so we were very lucky to have preserved so much coastal habitat," says Dr Steve Henry, Flora & Fauna Co-Ordinator.

Forty rare or threatened species live in the park including the smoky mouse - endemic to Victoria. A rare species of microbat, the large-footed myotis, Myotis adversus, can be seen. Highly specialised, they feed over the smooth surfaces of lakes using echolocation to detect the small ripples made by aquatic insects or tiny fish. They catch fish by dragging their very long toes through the water and grabbing them with long claws.

There are 12 bat species in the park including the eastern horseshoe bat and common bent wing bat - both live in sea caves. The eastern false pipistrelle bat, Falsistrellus tasmaniensis, flies high over forest foraging for moths, beetles and ants in the tree canopy. Grey- headed flying foxes hang out in a seasonal camp.

The Thurra River campsite is a great place to see lace monitors, ringtail possums, swamp wallabies, wombats and superb lyrebirds, while the Wingan Creek campsite is good for sugar gliders, possums, yellow-bellied gliders, long-nosed bandicoots and owls like the southern boobook, sooty, masked and powerful.

Yellow-bellied gliders are about the size of a rabbit, with yellow or orange bellies, and sugar gliders are much smaller, with greyish white bellies. When they call out, they sound like a small dog barking. There are marsupial mice, Agile antichinus and Swainsons antichinus and mouse-sized eastern pygmy possums.

Twitchers will be thrilled, with 300 species of birds including the yellow-tailed and glossy black cockatoo, king parrot, superb lyrebird, wonga pigeon, satin bowerbird, southern emu-wren, and lorikeets galore - musk, purple-crowned, little and rainbow. Rare ground parrots can be seen with luck, together with Victoria's only bristlebird population of 100 birds. Mallacoota is an excellent base for exploring the area. There are large caravan parks and camping areas.

There is some excellent fishing in Mallacoota Inlet with super-sized flathead, bream and whiting. Simon Buckley operates 'Porkie Bess Fishing Charters & Cruises' at Mallacoota. Porkie Bess is a 24ft timber boat, built in 1946, and is a former lake fishing boat.

"We are catching salmon every day now in the channel - three or four in no time at all. It's great for families with kids, because we can catch a fish before the kids get bored. There are big bream, 2kg plus, up above Gypsy Point at this time, and as the water warms up, you can catch big flathead on soft plastics. Bream around 1kg are reasonably common. One of my best catches was a 14kg mulloway on 6lb line, while I was bream fishing. Another angler caught a big mulloway on a soft plastic. Whiting come on the bite around Christmas, and there are luderick, trevally and chopper tailor. My best advice is to visit Mallacoota outside the Christmas period as it's absolutely crazy here at that time," says Simon.

Walks around Croajingolong

One of the best extended walking trails is the 'Wilderness Coast Walk', which extends 100km from Sydenham Inlet in Croajingolong to Wonboyn in the Nadgee Nature Reserve. Walkers need to be self reliant and obtain a permit.

At the Thurra River campsite, there is a two-hour return walk, where walkers will pass through stringybark, mahogany, and banksia forest, to 100m-high sand dunes. On the dune field, there are no walking tracks and temperatures can soar to 40°C, so carry plenty of water.

'Clinton Rocks' is another lovely walk, starting at the entrance of Tamboon Inlet, with granite boulders covered in orange lichen. Walkers need a canoe to paddle from Peachtree Camp to Tamboon Entrance, then walk east to Clinton Rocks.

The Point Hicks Light Station is a 1.5-hour walk starting at the light station reserve gate. The track takes walkers past Honeymoon Bay, then climbs through tea tree and banksia to the light station. This promotory was first seen by Lieutenant Hicks onboard Captain Cook's Endeavour voyage in 1770. 

Both Gabo Island and Point Hicks Light Station have accommodation, open to public bookings, but make advance bookings as holiday periods get booked out. Both are the best whale watching sites in the area, during June/July and October/November, when the humpbacks pass. The Parks Victoria Office in Mallacoota has plenty of information about touring the area. There are several caravan parks in Mallacoota, including one which has 600 sites, said to get totally booked out at Christmas. September to May is the best time to visit.

So hook up your caravan or plonk yourself in your motor home, and head for the NSW/VIC border. With a variety of activities on offer, you and the family will be well occupied - or you can laze around and cast a line for salmon.

Thinking of taking to the road and heading to the Kakadu of the South? You can break your journey at NRMA's Merimbula Beach Holiday Park. Be sure to inquire about special NRMA Member rates when you book!