This is continues the series of articles by Gillian Johnston as she travels with AAT Kings.The first article was ‘The Puffing Billy Train‘ and the second was ‘A farm of a different kind at Kangaroo Island pairs nicely with the local wine‘.
What a wonderful greeting to the Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve at Warrnambool, Victoria to see emus roaming freely outside the main building. When you have been here a while you will understand natural beauty of the area.
We were greeted by the Worn Gundidj at the Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve and invited to go inside the main building to gain an Aboriginal perspective about flora and fauna, wildlife, and history of the area. Then we were taken along on a bush walk and given boomerang lessons.
When you arrive at this area you first see the corellas nested in the ash layer walls on the side of the road. Entering the land seems flat and there is a visitor centre in the middle of a field.
Looking around you see kangaroos and emus, which curiously approach and have a look at who is arriving. Inside the Worn Gundidj Visitor Centre were authentic Aboriginal products, displays, charts and even a small coffee shop. The roof of the centre was actually covered in grass.
The Worn Gundidj introduced the history of Tower Hill and how it formed around 32,000 years ago through volcanic activity that created the funnel shaped crater and central islands.
The actual crater is a Nested Maar volcanic crater, which is probably one of the largest of its type in the world. It is a dormant volcano, with the last activity being 7,000 years ago. Relics found in the ash indicated the Aboriginal people occupied the area at the time of the eruption and long before.
Apparently they relied on this area as a rich source of food, fibre and other materials. Descendants of the Gunditjmara indigenous people continue to have a close physical spiritual and social connection to this traditional land.
Having just travelled off the Great Ocean Road it was surprising to hear this area was declared Victoria’s first National Park in 1892, and was eventually lost to farmers and quarrying and the trees and bush were totally destroyed.
One big tree is said to have been left standing on the land after all the destruction.
The locals speak well of the numerous school and volunteer groups that planted 300,000 trees and revegetated the area.
The Visitor Centre opened in 1971 and was a brilliant way to introduce people to the Australian bush, flora and fauna. It offers numerous bush walks to the wetlands, Wagon Bay, volcanic craters and Fairy Island.
Heading down a track through the bush it was not hard to see a koala bear up in the tree. The animal seemed to know we were there as it climbed higher in the tree out of reach.
Numerous native plants were pointed out including a native mint, some drooping she oaks, a black wattle, the Manna gum tree and the swamp gum. We were given a piece of the native mint which three days later was still making our luggage smell sweetly.
What we did not see were the other animals including echidnas, magpie geese, possums and water birds which were not in the area at the time. We also did not see any water or lakes.
At the end of the track we came to a small area and we watched a boomerang demonstration. Everyone was given a chance to throw the boomerang although not many of our group were good at making them return.
We returned to the Visitor Centre and one of the staff was demonstrating how to play the Didgeridoo — a musical wind instrument developed by indigenous Australians that has been used over the last 1,500 years.
The staff had made some shortbread with native finger lime jam on the top and it was absolutely delicious. They had also made some gum tree flavour ice cream which was also very nice and very different.
On returning to the AAT Kings coach everyone was discussing the unique experience of the Centre and how it harmonised all the artistic creations of the local Aboriginals and the nature based tourism.
We had experienced kangaroos, emus and koalas in the wild and learned a lot about the native plants in the area. We had tasted bush food and watched as the locals played the didgeridoo and throw the boomerangs.
This was a really unique Australian experience.