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I arrived in Melbourne at about 05:30 and it seemed like a good idea to rent a car and go to Sherbrooke Forest in the Dandenong Ranges, about a 45 minute drive south-east of the city. (In 1987 Sherbrooke Forest, Doongalla Reserve and Ferntree Gully National Park were combined to form Dandenong Ranges National Park. Covering 3215 hectares (Sherbrooke itself occupies over 800ha), the park plays an important role in protecting a population of lyrebirds, Black Wallabies, and other fauna, as well as protecting the forests and fern gullies of the Ranges. Since June 1997 Olinda State Forest and the Mt Evelyn Forest have also been included in Dandenong Ranges National Park [see http://www.bluedandenongs.com.au/homepage.html for more info].) To make things easy (it's been a long year) I headed for the well-known Grants Picnic Ground, just off the C404 and Emerald Roads. The picnic area is a little bit "dudey" - and very popular - but they are set in a spectacularly beautiful upland area predominated by Mountain Ash (a species of eucalypt and the tallest flowering plant in the world apparently) and tree palms with some well-marked walking trails that wander through some beautiful gullies and into the heart of the forest. I have to admit that by about 14:30 coming here didn't seem like such a good idea after all as I struggled to stay awake and the rain came spattering down, but by the time I get home in a few days I'll have forgotten all about being a touch weary and wet and just be happy that I came here: the forest is truly stunning.
 Mountain Ash Eucalyptus regnans forest, Sherbrooke
To say that Mountain Ashes are tall trees is a little like saying a skyscraper is a bit high. They're absolutely towering - ramrod straight and narrow girthed, but soaring to almost impossible heights. How on earth they stay upright is beyond me. Amazing things...(And I know that this will fill some regular readers with horror, but I felt so moved I wrote a poem: it's at Hey You (A Mountain Ash poem) if you feel like looking...) I didn't see all that many birds - a number of thornbills and scrubwrens for instance, plus typical eastern forest species including a family of very obliging Eastern Yellow Robins, a pair of Eastern Whipbirds, and Golden Whistlers etc (and this is supposedly an excellent site for Superb Lyrebirds but not today unfortunately).
 Large-billed Scrubwren Sericornis magnirostris
One group of birds that you can't miss here, though, are parrots. This is one of the few places where a State licence has been issued that allows the feeding of wild birds, and Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Crimson Rosellas, Galahs, and King Parrots - never ones to turn down a free meal - are practically tame. It's not normally "my thing" but even a grump like me finds it difficult not be charmed by a flock of beautiful rosellas descending on an outstretched arm offering seed. And you never know - maybe a few people will go away thinking that parrots actually look better in the wild than they do shut up in a cage...
All photographs copyright Charlie Moores, 13 November 2005
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