Protected area in Victoria, Australia
| Melba Gully State Park Victoria | |
|---|---|
| IUCN category II (national park) | |
 | |
  Melba Gully State Park | |
| Nearest town or city | Lavers Hill |
| Coordinates | 38°41′50″S 143°22′10″E / 38.69722°S 143.36944°E / -38.69722; 143.36944 |
| Established | 1978 |
| Area | 0.65 km (0.3 sq mi) |
| Managing authorities | Parks Victoria |
| Website | Melba Gully State Park |
| See also | Protected areas of Victoria |
The Melba Gully State Park was formed to protect a small pocket of natural temperate rainforest in the Otway Ranges near Apollo Bay, Victoria, Australia. The 48-hectare (120-acre) park is extremely valuable as one of the few pockets of natural old-growth Otway Ranges rainforests to survive the logging and subsequent fires, making it a key part of the regeneration of the original Otway Ranges rainforests. The park now forms part of the Great Otway National Park.
The gully has a dense cover of myrtle beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii), blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) and tree-ferns, with an understorey of low ferns and mosses. Glow worms (Arachnocampa otwayensis), which are the bioluminescent larvae of small flies known as fungus gnats, can be seen at night along the stream banks and walking tracks.
The park has few facilities due to its small size, but it has a picnic ground and basic picnic facilities, with the main attraction being the 35 minute Madsens Track Nature Walk.
References
- ^ Catrice, D. (1996), Victoria's Heritage: Melba Gully (PDF), Parks Victoria
- Baker, Claire H. (2010). "A new subgenus and five new species of Australian glow-worms (Diptera: Keroplatidae: Arachnocampa)". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 55 (1): 11–43.
- ^ Parks Victoria (2013), Parknotes: Melba Gully Great Otway National Park Visitor Guide (PDF), Parks Victoria
- Parks Victoria (2019), Melba Gully, Parks Victoria
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