Phillip Island

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Continuing our holiday. The previous blog entries have looked at the Mornington Peninsular and the immediate area. I would now like to tell you about a different area on the east of the peninsular known as Western Port Bay. The bay has in it two major islands.

French Island was well known as a penal colony but has since become a wildlife sanctuary. The island is accessed by boat. Once there you can walk for miles on well marked tracks or you can join one of the organised coach tours, it is advisable to book since they are very popular. I understand that many different species of birds and animals live on the island.

Phillip Island is very different, being easy to get to by car, driving direct on to the island. The biggest attraction on the island are the little penguins which come ashore at dusk, so we had all day to amuse ourselves, this proved to be very easy.

Our first stop was a small island off the main island. Originally they were joined by mudflats and farmers had to drive the cattle across at low tide, a tricky business, now a bridge has been built. It is called Churchill Island and was the home of L t.James Grant in 1801. He was to plant the first crops in Victoria. This small island is steeped in historical facts and I wish we had spent more time there, but after a picnic lunch ( we weren't aware of the lovely cafe/resteraunt there) we headed off back to the main island.

Our next stop was at the post office in Cowes, a large coastal town, well worth a visit, again very historical, but we were off on our next mission to see the koalas.

The koalas have their own piece of forest with plenty of their favorite gumtrees. A board walk and platform area has been erected in the trees, making it easier to get nearer to the koalas, we were not dissappointed. They are very sleepy during the day only waking up to munch on the tender shoots at the tops of the trees, most of the time they lie propped in the branch of the tree, occassionally opening one eye to see what is happening and only moving to get more comfortable. They have very thick, dense fur coat which needs the odd scratch, it's hard being a koala.

The main attraction was yet to come, the little penguins formally known as the fairy penguins.We headed to our allocated spot just before dusk (there are different viewing areas). Our area was a platform on the beach with tiered seating, a ranger was available to explain the event and answer questions. The wind blew off the sea and was bitterly cold and the penguins were late coming in, I felt frozen, tired and it was getting dark, then there they were coming out of the sea, in batches of 30-40 , if one stumbled or hesitated they would wait for each other. It was very emotional how these tiny penguins after days at sea, eager to get to the nest and feed their chicks, still took time to look out for one another. As each one was safely ashore they headed for the burrows and the chicks, who were at the entrances calling , hoping that the next adult was theirs. We spent ages watching the proceedings, but alas we had to leave them to it and return home ourselves.

We had great admiration for the little penguins, not only did they have to negotiate the perils of coming out of the sea onto a beach where their preditors the birds awaited but they then had to scale the cliffs and find their young. Since flash photography was banned I managed to catch a chick in daylight anticipating the evening. The terrain for the penguins is rough as can be seen in the picture of the Nobbies and Seal Rocks only a short distance from shore. The photo also shows a blow hole 40ft deep 15ft high 14ft wide, when the tide is high the display is magnificent.

our next trip is to Healesville wildlife sanctuary.




















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Photos

Kookaburra
kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
merry merry king of the bush is he,
laugh kookaburra laugh,
sing your song for me.

Koala
life is tough when you need to sleep all day

Kangaroo
I was trying to hide

Little Penguin Chick
Waiting for someone to bring his tea

The Nobbies and Seal Rocks
A rugged coastline for penguins