Great Otway National Park

Great Otway National Park
Coordinates: 38 ° 46 ′ 24 ″  S , 143 ° 33 ′ 27 ″  E
Location:	Victoria , Australia
Specialty:	Coast, forests
Next city:	Apollo Bay
Surface:	1031.85 km²
Founding:	1981

The Great Otway National Park is a national park in Victoria on the south coast of Australia . The 1032 square kilometer area stretches as an elongated strip of land from Anglesea in the east to almost Cape Otway in the west, partly along the coast and partly through the hinterland.

The area was declared a national park in 2004. To this end, the former Otway National Park , Angahook-Lorne State Park , Carlisle State Park , Melba Gully State Park , parts of the Otway State forest and a number of state parcels were merged into a single national park. The establishment followed the public campaign of a citizens' initiative called the Otway Ranges Environment Network .

The park has a wide variety of landscapes and ecosystems . There are open grass and bush areas, the result of clearing by early settlers, but also large, pristine forest areas. Light eucalyptus forests predominate near the coast, but you can also find open coastal heather, cliffs, dunes and estuary landscapes. Further inland you will find dense, dark temperate rainforest .

The Great Ocean Road touches a large part of the park. Hikers will find the Great Ocean Walk a 91 km route that takes them off-road over cliffs, secluded beaches and forests in eight days. There are overnight accommodations along the path. If you are looking for a shorter hike, you can reach the main path and leave it again via well-planned branch paths and entrances.

Other attractions in the park include:

• The Cora Lyn - Cascade
• The Erskine Falls
• The wreck of Fiji, which ran aground in 1878
• The Kalimna Falls
• Maits rest
• The Straw Falls
• Lake Elizabeth , a lake created by a landslide in August 1953

The Cape Otway lighthouse , built in 1848, is no longer part of the park itself, but is located immediately west of its border and on the Great Ocean Walk .

The Melba Gully Boardwalk leads over a wooden walkway over the fern bushes of the dark, shady rainforest. At the Triplet Falls , the Fly Tree Top Walk in the form of wooden walkways leads through the roof of the rainforest at a height of 25 meters , past king eucalyptus trunks up to 100 meters high .

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  Lake Elizabeth

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  Koala in Great Otway National Park

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  Erskine Falls

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  Treetop path through the rainforest

Web links

Commons : Great Otway National Park  - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files

• Great Otway National Park site

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Management plan. (PDF; 3.4 MB) Parks Victoria, December 2009, accessed on June 25, 2012 (English). 
2. ↑ Great Otway National Park  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.