Exploring Victoria: Melbourne to Phillip Island

After a late night planning our routes to Phillip Island and an early start checking out of the hostel, we picked up our hire car from the city centre to start the first leg of our 6 day road trip across Victoria. However, it wasn't long before we encountered our first problem - the hire car was an automatic and we'd never driven an automatic before! It wasn't as straightforward as you would think to get the car moving but once we got to grip with the controls it wasn't so difficult, although it did feel a bit weird not having to change gear or use a clutch peddle. On the whole, driving in Australia isn't much different to driving in the UK, except you've got far less traffic and more exotic animals to avoid running over!

Lizzie started off the driving for the first stage of the epic journey and she even performed a few of the infamous hook turns in the city centre! They're not as difficult as they're made out to be, all you need to do is pull across to the left hand lane if you want to turn right at an intersection to avoid blocking the tram line. Once the road is clear then you cross all the lanes of traffic to make your turn. Simples!

Unfortunately, there are no short cuts down to Phillip Island so we had to take the long way round the Mornington Peninsula largely down the Nepean Highway to avoid the Melbourne toll roads. It took us a couple of hours to reach our motel at Cowes, the capital of Phillip Island. There's also a town on the island called Ventnor just like the Isle of Wight so maybe there's some sort of historical connection.

Phillip Island is famous for it's Penguin Parade and Grand Prix circuit. The Penguin Parade is the number one wildlife tourist attraction in Australia and as a result it attracts half-a-million visitors annually. There's also a large seal colony to see at "the Nobbies", as well as the Koala Conservation Centre and Churchill Island (a working farm off the main island).

As Phillip Island is only 100 sq km it's quite easy to get around by car. So after dropping our bags off at the motel, the first thing we did was head down to the Koala Conservation Centre to see what else but koalas up close and personal from the treetop boardwalks!

Mrs Koala stuffing her face from the Koala Boardwalk



Cute joey climbing up to see her mum







































Walking around the Woodland Boardwalk, we caught a glimpse of a galah (or a rose-breasted cockatoo) in the distance before we decided to head round the short bush walk track where a swamp wallaby (or black wallaby) posed beautifully for us.

Galah (Eolophus roseicapilla)

Swamp wallaby (Wallabia bicolor)

Me taking a picture of the said wallaby

We then went to Penguin Parade at Summerlands in the south-west corner of the island, to watch the Little Blue Penguins (Eudyptula minor), or Fairy Penguins as they're known here, head back to their underground burrows from a day out at sea. The Little Blues are the smallest penguins at the world and the only penguin permanently found in Australia. The tour we did was the Ultimate Penguin Tour where we were taken to a secluded beach in a small group of just five people, away from all the main amphitheatre, to watch the little fellas waddling back to their burrows at dusk (approx. 9pm). On the walk back to the visitors centre we caught a glimpse of a few stragglers searching for their burrows in the car park, hence why it is important to check under your car before you drive away.

Penguins also have burrows in the car park, you have been warned!

An interesting note to the island conservation was that the Victorian government started a compulsory buy-back of the land on the Summerland Estate as it was considered a blight on the landscape and a threat to the last major penguin colony on the island. The plan was to strip back the developments from the land to restore the natural habitat to the area. This started in 1985 and took place over 15 years before any revegetation could take effect.

A day at the zoo and a day at the beach

In an attempt to explore Melbourne beyond the Central Business District we decided to take a trip to Melbourne Zoo in the inner city Parkville suburb, which was a short train journey from Flinders Street. The zoo is one of the city's most popular attractions and is currently celebrating it's 150th anniversary this year, making it the oldest zoo in Australia and the third oldest in the world.

The main attraction for us was seeing the large collection of native iconic Australian animals such kangaroos, wallabies, emus, echidnas, koalas, kookaburras and Little Blue Penguins (which we're hoping to see in the wild as part of the Penguin Parade on Phillip Island). 

Emus are the second-largest living bird in the world by height

Wallabies

An echidna

Laughing Kookaburras

A tree-kangaroo found in New Guinea and far north Queensland

Little Blue Penguins waiting for lunch

The first koala of the trip - it's so sleepy!

One of the most interesting animals that we saw had to the bizarre, but unique, platypus. This semi-aquatic animal is one of two mammals known as monotremes which lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young (the other monotreme being the echidna). What makes it even more unusual is it has a a soft, toothless rubbery bill, webbed feet, beaver-like tail and the males have venomous spurs, making it one of only a few venomous mammals - it's truly like no other animal on earth!

Lizzie outside the "Platypusary"

The platypus in all it's greatness!

However, poor water quality in Australia is threatening the platypus and many others species, so the zoo has been running the Wash for Wildlife campaign, which encourages people to use washing products with less phosphates, as these ultimately find their way into the ecosystem. High phosphate levels can cause:

• The potential for algal blooms
• Oxygen starvation of water, inhibiting the survival of some wildlife
• Decreased water clarity, creating a physical barrier to wildlife finding food and escaping predators
• Smothering of some habitats caused by disrupted light infiltration.

I'm sure this is not a problem exclusive to Australia, so it would be worth considering using products with reduced phosphates or even those without any to help preserve our wildlife elsewhere.

The other notable incident of the day was when a bottle of lemonade exploded in my face! In what seemed like a fairly harmless idea, I decanted some lemonade into a water bottle to take as a drink to the zoo.When it came to sitting down for lunch I unscrewed the cap and all hell broke loose. Having the bottle in the pocket of my day-bag in the thirty degree heat must have built up the pressure of the gassy liquid, as before I knew it the cap flew off and hit me in the face with a loud bang, with all the lemonade jetting out. It must have been quite funny to anyone who was walking by as I would have laughed at that!

Heading in the opposite direction, we decided to pay St Kilda a visit on a different day, catching the number 16 tram from Swanson Street. St Kilda once had a seedy reputation but has enjoyed a resurgence. During the Edwardian and Victorian eras, St Kilda became a favoured suburb of Melbourne's elite, however, today, St Kilda reminds me a little bit of Southsea in Portsmouth, in that it looks run down but is potentially quite a nice place to be.

One of the more famous attractions in St Kilda is Luna Park, which is a traditional-style amusement park that opened in 1912. The entrance to the park is iconic, as you have to walk through the creepy Mr Moon's gaping mouth! Once inside there's a heritage-listed wooden scenic railway, which is the oldest operating roller coaster in the world. Luna Park as a whole is listed by the National Trust of Australia, and the main heritage features are listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

The iconic "Mr Moon" entrance

 

Walking down the foreshore we headed over to the pier to check out the St Kilda Pier Kiosk and the nearby colony of Little Blue Penguins. The original kiosk burnt down in 2003 in an arson attack, one year from its centenary, but was it was faithfully recreated using the original plans and what remained of the original materials.

St Kilda Pier

St Kilda Pier Kiosk

Round the back of the kiosk is a stretch of breakwater which protects the harbour and is where the colony of penguins have set up residence. It is thought that the penguins might have originally come from Phillip Island and decided to stay. My good deed for the day was removing some litter from the beach by the Little Blues, although its a shame none of the locals thought to do it, seeing as they enjoy the penguins as much as the tourists they attract. However, we did indeed catch a brief glimpse of a Little Blue Penguin under by the boardwalk, down by the sea.

View of the Pier Kiosk from the penguin breakwater colony

Unfortunately, our day at St Kilda wasn't as successful as we would have liked it to have been as it rained on and off (although thankfully this was the first real bit of rain we've seen the entire time we've been here). Once the rain stopped the winds picked up and kept pelting us with sand, which got quite painful and irritating quickly, especially along the foreshore path to Albert Park.

On a final note, a special mention needs to go out to the Soda Rock Diner in South Yarra. Having stumbled upon this on the corner of Toorak Road and Chapel Street, this restaurant is a faithful recreation of a 1950s American diner. The thickshakes were thick, there service was great and they even catered to vegetarians, serving a decent veggie burger. If you're ever in the area be sure to check out this diner if you want a nostalgia trip, good music and fine burgers.

Soda Rock on the corner of Toorak Road and Chapel Street

Vinyl-seated booths complete with a jukebox!