Carlisle

title2.gif (5465 bytes)

carlisle2.jpg (71917 bytes)

Carlisle State Park

Carlisle is a state park located in Victoria's south west in the northern Otway Ranges. It's not that big - about 5600ha - but is considered to be an important reserve for its varied habitats and flora and fauna diversity. Expansive areas of closed heath are interspersed by gullies of wet sclerophyll Eucalypt forest and woodlands on the ridges. Ground Parrot was historically found in the heath but as far as I know there are no recent reports. A recent visit to the park with a Birds Australia group was very worthwhile with some interesting records, notably Masked Woodswallow (a very southerly record and unusual for the Otways) as well as some very charismatic species such as Australian Owlet-nightjar, Southern Emu-wren, Olive Whistler and Beautiful Firetail. Below are my records for a total of three visits to the park, which should give an indication of the quality of the site. On our last visit in early November, the wildflowers especially orchids were stunning. Swamp Wallabies are common and Yellow-bellied Gliders inhabit the wet forest, we have seen these well on previous visits. Platypus can also be found in the Gellibrand River.

carlisle.jpg (81042 bytes)

Where: Some of the best birding can be found where Boggy Creek intersects with the tracks, especially the Old Carlisle Track. For Southern Emu-wren, which could be reasonably described as common in the park, try the Raper Ridge Track and the Old Carlisle Track east of Boggy Creek. There are no visitor's facilities in the park (which is part of the attraction as far as I'm concerned). Camping is no longer permitted but there are a couple of places including the Gellibrand River Cabins* (03 5235 8242). Best way to get there from Melbourne is to head west out of the city on the Princes Highway about 200km to Colac then south from Colac to the town of Gellibrand about 35km. Everything is well signposted.

Bird List (from a total of three visits)
Australian Wood Duck
Pied Cormorant
Swamp Harrier
Grey Goshawk	- one perched on a dead tree at the border with farmland on the Tucker Orchard Road
Collared Sparrowhawk	- one flying near the cabins on the Gellibrand River
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Masked Lapwing
Brush Bronzewing	- a few seen especially in the gullies
Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo	- often seen and heard flying over
Gang-gang Cockatoo	- common at the Gellibrand River Cabins where they drink from the cattle trough
Australian King-Parrot	- quite common throughout
Crimson Rosella	- common
Eastern Rosella	- common in the more open areas
Blue-winged Parrot	- we've found this species to be common every time we've visited, often seen flying over and feeding on the tracks
Fan-tailed Cuckoo	- not uncommon in spring
Shining Bronze-Cuckoo
Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo
Southern Boobook
Tawny Frogmouth
Australian Owlet-nightjar	- heard at night, one seen during the day at the Old Carlisle Track/Boggy Creek intersection
Azure Kingfisher	- one seen on the Gellibrand River near the cabins
Laughing Kookaburra
Sacred Kingfisher
White-throated Treecreeper
Superb Fairy-wren
Southern Emu-wren	- seemingly very common in any area of closed heath, easily pished up
Spotted Pardalote
Striated Pardalote
White-browed Scrubwren
Chestnut-rumped Heathwren	- one heard on the Raper Ridge Track
Brown Thornbill
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
Striated Thornbill
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
White-eared Honeyeater
White-naped Honeyeater
Brown-headed Honeyeater
Crescent Honeyeater	- common in the wet sclerophyll gullies
New Holland Honeyeater
Eastern Spinebill
Red Wattlebird
Jacky Winter	- in the paddock in front of the cabins
Scarlet Robin
Eastern Yellow Robin
Crested Shrike-tit	- not common but a couple seen in a large tree above one of the cabins
Olive Whistler	- usually seen in the wet forest
Golden Whistler
Rufous Whistler	- very common in spring
Grey Shrike-thrush
Satin Flycatcher	- in November 1999, a male and female observed attending a nest
Willie Wagtail
Grey Fantail
Rufous Fantail
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
Masked Woodswallow	- in November 1999, 2 or 3 seen in a very large flock of White-browed Woodswallows
White-browed Woodswallow	- a very large flock seen on the ridge above the Boggy Creek on the Old Carlisle Track
Dusky Woodswallow
Grey Butcherbird
Australian Magpie
Pied Currawong
Grey Currawong	- quite common in November 1999
Forest Raven	- the only raven we've seen (or heard) in the park
Beautiful Firetail	- seen on all three visits in the Boggy Creek gully
Red-browed Finch
Mistletoebird
Welcome Swallow
Silvereye
Bassian Thrush	- one young one seen in heath on the Old Carlisle Road, more likely in the gullies though
Common Blackbird	- unfortunately common

* I have no commercial stake in this business, I just think it's a pretty nice place to stay

If you want to know more about anything or have any comments, criticisms, complaints - whatever -
please let me know
This page was last updated on Friday, 05 November 2004

Home