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This Signature small group personalised tour takes you to the Must See places of western Victoria. Discover the Great Ocean Road, one of the best coastal drives in the world, the Victorian Volcanic plains, the third largest volcanic plain in the world, the Grampians National Park, with its rugged mountains and wildlife, the Pyrenees with its wineries and the gold rush history of Ballarat.
This Signature small group personalised tour takes you to the the far west of Victoria, where wide open landscapes, breathtaking sunsets and starry nights add a spacious dimension to this semi-arid country. The temperatures are much hotter and the rainfall is lower, and where the sand is white from when this land was an ancient sea bed millions of years ago, yet a wealth of animal and birdlife has adapted to the environment, this is where you will find Outback Victoria.
The Outback Victoria small group personalised signature tour travels through small farming towns and over flat fields of wheat to get to the Outback National Parks.
We explore the arid landscape of yellow gum and black box woodland of the Little Desert National Park where the endangered Lowan or Mallee Fowl survive. We travel to the vast Mallee park of the Wyperfeld National Park to experience the animals and birdlife of the Mallee and floodplains and shifting sand dunes of the north.
You get to see the pink lakes of the largest desert national park, the Murray-Sunset National Park, which has vast area’s of undisturbed vegetation. The most northern of the Outback parks is the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, which centres on an impressive lakes system with an abundance of wildlife, majestic river red gums, ancient buloke trees amid rolling sand plains and the distinctive Mallee for which this region is renowned.
This is an Ecotourism Certified tour.
Ecotourism is ecologically sustainable tourism with a primary focus on experiencing natural areas that foster environmental and cultural understanding, appreciation and conservation
(Ecotourism Australia)
Notes:
2024 Departure Dates.
Departs Sunday
March
10 & 24
April
14 & 28
May
12 & 26
June
09 & 23
July
14 & 28
August
11 & 25
September
08 & 22
October
13 & 28
November
10 & 24
Minimum Number 1 persons to operate the tour
Please refer to our Terms and Conditions prior to booking
In the morning you be met at *Southern Cross Railway Station, Melbourne by your Golden Nugget Discovery Tours Eco Guide. The adventure begins as we travel on our fast train to Ballarat, then swap over to the tour van, driving north west along the Western Highway to the Little Desert National Park.
When we arrive at Dimboola, which is the entrance town to the Little Desert National Park, we stop for lunch.
In the park we get to drive along and explore the Wimmera River at Horseshoe Bend, followed by the Pomponderoo Hill Nature walk. You walk along sandy tracks to view the flora and fauna, and visit a lookout to see the desert landscapes.
Driving to the north part of the Little Desert National Park we stop again to do another walk to view different Mallee desert habitat of the flora and fauna, keep a watch out for kangaroo’s, echidna’s and the wedge-tailed eagle.
Getting back into the vehicle, we drive to another location in the park to walk along the track to find the endangered desert bird namely the Lowan or Mallee Fowl.
The final walk of the day, you walk along an interpretation walk, which further explains the flora and fauna of the Mallee desert ecosystem.
We arrive in the town of Nhill for our Dinner and Overnight accommodation.
Inclusions/Exclusions
Today we head north passing through flat farming country of wheat fields and sheep grazing, before arriving at Lake Hindmarsh.
Lake Hindmarsh is one of Victoria’s largest freshwater lakes when full and is a haven for waterbirds such as Black Swans, Pelicans, Cormorants and numerous ducks, the lake is fed by the Wimmera river. River flows have been affected by Climate Change, so Lake Hindmarsh hasnt been full for many years.
Moving on, we arrive at the small town of Jeparit to see the Wimmera Mallee Pioneer Musuem. This Museum shows displays of farm machinery, farm houses and town buildings, giving you an insight into the life for the early European pioneers.
Our next stop is the town of Rainbow for lunch, then further north to enter the southern parts of Wyperfeld National Park.
We drive along the James Barrett Nature Drive stopping along the way several times, you can climb to the top of a lookout hill, view the emu’s feeding in the dry lake beds, see Western Grey kangaroo’s resting in the shade under the tree’s, and see the vivid colours of the parrots and rosella’s.
You do another walk in the Mallee bushland to try and find the elusive endangered Mallee Fowl bird.
The final drive of the day takes you to another area of Wyperfeld National Park to see native desert birds, red and western grey kangaroos and Mallee desert plants.
Leaving the Wyperfeld National Park we drive to the town of Ouyen for Dinner and our Overnight accommodation
Inclusions/Exclusions
After breakfast we head west to enter the northern part of the Wyperfeld National Park.
Driving over gravel and sandy roads we make our way to the Snowdrift camping area to view the large sand drifts and white sand dunes. This part of the Wyperfeld National Park is different to the southern parts we saw yesterday. The trees are more of Cypress pine and Buloke growing on the sand dunes. Keep a watch out for the wildlife, with the Western grey kangaroo’s, Red Kangaroo’s, emu’s and numerous small birds, parrots and cockatoo’s.
We head across the flat Wirrengren plain to O”Sullivans lookout and nature walk to take in views of the desert park and numerous birds in the trees.
Leaving Wyperfeld National Park we now head to the Murray-Sunset National Park stopping a Walpeup for lunch. At the small town of Linga we turn off the highway, and head north to the southern entrance of the Murray-Sunset National Park, where we drive to the Pink Lakes. At Pink Lakes we view the pink water of these lakes and do other nature walks in the area to see the desert fauna and flora of this part of Outback Victoria.
In the late afternoon we drive back to Ouyen for our overnight stop.
Inclusions/Exclusions
This morning we head north up to the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park. On arriving at the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, we do several nature drives and walks around the lakes, spotting kangaroos, emus and water birds.
This park borders Australia’s longest river, the Murray River, so we will leave the National park and drive a short distance to see the Murray River, which is our lunch stop, before travelling south along the Calder Highway until we arrive at Lake Tyrrell. Lake Tyrrell is a salt water lake and was made famous for its reflection photos of the lakes surface and sky looking like a mirror.
Departing Lake Tyrrell we continue down the Calder Highway to the gold city of Bendigo to catch our fast train to Melbourne, arriving at Southern Cross Railway Station where we say our goodbyes.
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