Field Herping Advice Victoria

[MarkMaultby]

Hi all,

Am going over to Victoria for about 10 days in the summer. Based in Melbourne but roaming outwards from there. Wanted some advice on places and techniques for maximising the amount of wildlife seen.

Thanks in advance!

Mark

 

[Snowman]

I moved from Melbourne 8 years ago.. But I do recall seeing a lot of wildlife in St Kilda and every time I walked Elizabeth st....

 

[Snowman]

The above was just a joke.. Some strange people in those locations If you just want to see birds and roo's then any NP should be fine.... Though not in the wild, Healesville Sanctuary is worth a visit.

 

[Red-Ink]

Depends how far you want to wander... you need to go atleast an hour - hour and half out of Melb to really find anything. There's blueys at local parks and snakes but less of a chance spotting them closer to Melb. Closest to Melb would be the Macedon, Little River, Werribee Gorge, Brisbane ranges or Lerderberg NP and you start getting wallabies. You could head east towards Gippsland as well for lacies and water dragons (plenty of birds too)....

 

[Snowman]

I saw a wallaby at the 1000 steps a few months back. Used to see lyrebirds there as a kid. But not anymore.

 

[Jacknife]

King st after midnight will give you an absolute plethora of feral species...

 

[MarkMaultby]

Hi, thanks for these responses - I should have been clearer. When I said use Melbourne as a base, I meant as a starting point for a road trip encompassing a few places in that region of Victoria. Let's say 7-10 days worth. Where would be best to maximise the herping fun?

 

[Red-Ink]

Hook us up here mate... give us some directions of your vectors, we would be more able to help you out that way.

 

[spud_meister]

The You Yangs near Werribee are great for Jacky Dragons, Black Rock and Blue-Tongue Skinks, Tiger, Red-Bellied and Brown snakes. Serendip Sanctuary and Anakie Gorge are close by if you want to do a day in the area. Get to the You Yangs mid-morning to see the reptiles, go to Serendip in the middle of the day, and check out Anakie Gorge in the evening to have a fire and watch the wallabies. That's all within an hour drive of Melbourne, and the area I'm most familiar with.

For a road-trip, I'd head to the Grampians, and the Halls Gap zoo, then go north to Mildura, take a look through the Hattah-Kulkyne NP, cross into NSW and head past Wentworth to the Perri sandhills where you can find gecko's, skinks, snakes and goannas, then head up the Murray until Wadonga or so, and head south down to Gippsland.

 

[richoman_3]

Spud is spot on !

Any grasslands around melbourne should reveal blue tongues and tigers basking on some rocks. The you-yangs is good for brown snakes and skinks like black rock skinks, cunninghams, robustus, 3 lined etc.
Going out to east gippsland you will find laceys and redbellies really commonly and might get some other cool stuff like she oaks or diamond pythons
and heading towards the mallee will reveal alot of small dragons like painteds and fordi along with some geckos such as southern spinys and beaded geckos

 

[007_lizards]

It might also help if you checked out the thread called A n00bs guide to herping in the forum section called Field Herping and reptile studies. It has many useful tips and peices of information for field herping.