Sunday May 12 to Tuesday May 14

Yarram Area

I stayed at the Yarram Rosebank Tourist Park.  A lovely caravan park within easy walking distance to the town centre. 

It has numerous powered sites that are well grassed, flat and divided from each other with attractive hedges.  There are about half a dozen drive through sites which saves all that backing!!  The amenities are clean and well maintained and the new owners have added some nice “homely” touches.  Coin operated laundry, bbq area and fire pot area with wood supplied!!  $32.00 per night for a double and for me, $29.00.

Yarram is a farming town of around 2500 people.  It services a very flat area along the coast that incorporates dairy, beef, sheep farming and cropping.  There is also an active timber industry cutting from plantations.

Port Albert

This pretty little sea side town was the first port in Gippsland and was the main entry point to the area for people and goods.  Now, like most of the towns along the coast it is a summer holiday destination for Melburnians and the people from the Latrobe Valley.  There is a very interesting maritime museum located on the water front.

Further along the coast is Woodside Beach the beginning of the 90 Mile Beach that runs along the coast to the east and finishes at Marlo and the mouth of the Snowy River. I am heading in that direction.

 

 

 

 Tara Valley and Tara Bulga National Park

A beautiful remnant of how the Strzelecki Ranges must have looked before European settlement.  The national park is a very dense cool temperate rainforest and home to the Lyre Bird.  No photos of them unfortunately as they are very elusive although I did sight several but they were too quick for the camera.  There is also an interesting suspension bridge in the park and some very, very, very, very tall eucalyptus regnans.

 

Wednesday May 15 to Monday May 20

On the road by 10 am heading further along the coast toward Metung which is at the eastern end of the Gippsland Lakes.  Why Metung I hear you ask?  You may remember I mentioned in a previous post that I had found a web site that matches “hosts” with “helpers” the idea being you do a minimum of 4 hours work per day in exchange for accommodation and meals.  I stayed with a lovely young family who have 10 acres of sea side pasture and a very comfortable home located in Metung.

The drive into Metung follows the very pleasant Tambo River which is navigable by reasonably sized motor cruisers a fair way inland.

 

Metung is a very up market holiday seaside town with lots of retirees as permanent residents and younger families.  It was once the centre for boat building (the above units are on the site of the former boat building yards) on the lakes and was predominantly a fishing and farming village.  It is also provided a training ground for flying boat crews during WWII.

Cosy anchorages at Metung

   

Bairnsdale is the main commercial centre in the lakes area.  There are lovely spots at Paynesville, just south of Bairnsdale, and Lake Tyers, east of Lakes Entrance, which are also very up market holiday spots/retiree towns.  The hinterland around Bairnsdale is dominated by very large vegetable growing areas that occupy the flood plains of the Mitchell River.

Ninety Mile Beach at Lake Tyers

 

Lakes Entrance, as its name suggests, is the point where the lakes enter Bass Strait.  There was a natural opening here which was modified early last century.  “Lakes”, as it commonly known, is the base for fishing and pleasure craft and is a prime holiday spot with numerous hotels, motels, caravan parks and all manner of holiday cabins and apartments. 

There is a pleasant 5k return walk to be had along the arm of land that separates the Ninety Mile Beach from the lake in front of the main town area.  The walk will take you to the actual entrance and a shorter history walk which explains how the current structures at the entrance were constructed.

I was really impressed with the extent of the waterways that constitute the Gippsland Lakes.  Very nice sheltered waterways and some really nice anchorages exemplified by those around Metung.  If you lived here you would definitely need to own a boat!  A house boat would be very suitable.  Well worth spending some time here if you are heading this way.