Australia includes about 600 national parks, 45 of which are inside the state of Victoria. We visited the ones in eastern Victoria that were within a reasonable driving distance of our Morwell Cottage. Two such parks are featured in this post.

Tarra Bulga National Park – Most of the 1,500 hectares of trail-less forest in the park display giant mountain ash, a type of eucalyptus tree. 

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During our two visits to this cool temperate rainforest, which is one of the last remaining in the state, we explored about 5 kilometers of trail winding through eucalyptus forests. We stopped to admire many tall tree ferns and delicate fungi, enjoyed a short break at the suspension bridge, and took detours to two small waterfalls. 

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The park’s name honors the aboriginal history of the area. Charlie Tarra served as an aboriginal guide and bulga is the aboriginal word for mountain. The park is jointly managed by Parks Victoria in partnership with the Gunaikurnai people, who are the traditional owners of the land. Colorful varieties of birds are easily found in this national park by amateur birders like us.

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Baw Baw National Park – We didn’t see much of this 13,500 hectare national park, but we enjoyed our 3 kilometer walk to Mushroom Rocks on a sunny afternoon. The information sign at the popular destination included photos from the gold rush days in the early 1900s showing very large mushroom-like rocks. We had to use a bit of imagination to visualize fungi-shaped stones. Maybe we weren’t looking in the right direction. 

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Our walk included just a small portion of beautiful 655 kilometer Australian Alps Walking Track that extends from Walhalla to Canberra. 

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