Tower Hill, Warrnambool

On By Coral WaightIn Australia, Victoria

Not far past Warrnambool is Tower Hill Nature Reserve,  nestled in the crater of a dormant volcano.

The reserve was declared Victoria’s first national park in 1892, but was eventually lost to farming and agriculture.

An unprecedented revegetation project began in the 1960s. Over several decades school children and volunteers planted thousands of trees. As the bush returned, so did the wildlife.

It was a spot I wanted to visit before starting the long trip back to my home in Melbourne’s south-east.

I arrived too early to get a look inside the rather nice-looking visitor centre.

Tower Hill Visitor Centre

I took the track winding around the edge of the lake. 

I was wandering through the bush, birds were singing, butterflies flitting, when I hear a quite loud, rather ominous rattling of the undergrowth. I stopped, wondering what it could possibly mean, when suddenly, onto the track in front of me, dropped my first ever emu in the wild.

First ever emu in the wild

After the initial shock, I was thrilled. It wandered along in front of me for awhile. I kept my distance; they’re awfully big creatures. Suddenly, more rattling, and another dropped out onto the track.

They wandered very much at their own pace, which was slow, and I wandered behind, till eventually I decided I’d have to get past, otherwise I would have been there all day. I got closer, they pulled to the side of the track, and I edged by and continued my walk.

On getting back to the Visitor Centre picnic area, there was an emu there posing for photos. Obviously, I didn’t have to be nervous of them after all, as they seem pretty-much tame.

Tower Hill is a lovely spot if you’re on the road and yearning to stop for a bit of nature.

21 thoughts on “Tower Hill, Warrnambool”

    1. Penny Caulfield

      Your story about the emu brought back a memory of my first experience of an emu, also at Tower Hill but a very long time ago, as we were driving into the park there were a few emus wandering around and one very curious emu came right up to the car, as it was a lovely day we had the windows of the car down this emu became a little too friendly and stuck his head into the car giving us all a fright, he was not being aggressive just nosey!!

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  6. Wow! One of the things I loved about Australia on our visits was the wildlife. On the other hand, an emu killed a farmer in the U.S. this past week — I don’t know the circumstances.

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