Melba Gully & Otway Fly Treetop Adventures: Victoria, Australia

After a lovely morning in Port Campbell and a final visit to the scenic sites nearby, Matt and I had a choice to make. We could have driven straight back up the Great Ocean Road the way we came or... we could travel inland to see some of the beautiful Victorian scenery and catch a quicker highway to head back to Melbourne. We decided an adventure was what we were after so we headed inland! Our first stop was the beautiful Melba Gully.

Melba Gully State Park was established in 1978 to protect a small pocket of natural rainforest and forms part of the Great Otway National Park. Made up of only 48 hectares, this little piece of heaven is filled with myrtle beech and blackwood trees, ferns of all shapes and sizes, and a variety of mosses which all combine to create a lush setting with every shade of green. Interestingly: this is one of the best places in Australia where you can see glow worms. If you're able to pop back in the evening, you might be able to see the glowing web-like strands. Unfortunately, we were there during the day so weren't able to spot any!

The "Madsens Track Nature Walk" will take you about 35 minutes but we just did a little loop as we were keen to get to the next stop on our drive. However, this was such a peaceful little spot that we were so glad we stopped to see it! We were the only ones there so it felt like we were in our own world. There's a brook that runs through the gully and even though we couldn't see it due to the thick brush (it's in the centre of the photo below), we could hear it echoing around the site. Stunning!

Our next stop and the main reason for our journey inland was to Otway Sky Treetops Adventures. I had been eyeing up purchasing our tickets online because it offered a slight discount but the manager at our hotel suggested we instead pop into the Port Campbell visitors centre as they can offer greater discounts. We took her advice and, after a lovely chat with the British immigrant behind the desk, we were on the road with our tickets in hand. The visitors centre was fantastic and had lots of information about the local area so we highly recommend stopping in!

As you head into the welcome building, you have a cafe on the right and a gift shop directly in front of you. After a quick ticket check, we were able to head straight out the other side of the building and back into nature. The Treetops Adventures area is made up of a track that takes you through the dense underbrush before leading to the raised walkways that take you progressively higher into the trees. The tower at the centre of the track provides a canopy view that is just incredible to see. The full walk is 1.9km (1.1 miles) and takes about an hour.

We liked that the area was accessible for everyone with a cart service that could come and collect you if you didn't want to walk back up the path and an alternative walkway for those with strollers. This area really reminded me of our trip to Muir Woods in California - it has the same type of lush scenery but with local varieties of plants. Really makes you feel like you've gone back in time!

Instead of redwoods, we were treated to mountain ash trees that can live to be 300 year old (if they can avoid bushfires!). Here the undergrowth was made up of different "treeferns" which gave the area a very ancient feeling. We took the detour down the Treefern Track and found we had it all to ourselves. As you can see from the photo below, the path takes you right down into the heart of these plants and the signs asked that you keep as quiet as possible to really take in the experience. One of the signs informed us that "soft tree ferns" are an ancient form of plant life (even older than flowering plants) and these ones are native to the Southern Hemisphere. They provide an important habitat for insects, mosses and lichen.

The deep greens of the area are a result of the incredible amount of rain that falls here every year - making the Otway Ranges one of the wettest places in Australia. We were incredibly lucky to get such a beautiful day - one of the signs even said "if it isn't raining today, it definitely will be tomorrow!" This weather means that small pockets of the ranges (like this one) form cool, temperate rainforests. Fascinating!

After backtracking to the main path, we found ourselves heading up towards the largest trees (Matt for scale!) and up into the canopy. The raised platforms allow you to travel through the four levels ("strata") of the rainforest from the forest floor to the canopy. The tower stands 47 meters (154 feet) above the forest floor so it definitely isn't for the faint hearted!

Fortunately, visiting on a Wednesday outside of the school holidays meant we had the pathways mostly to ourselves. Although they have been built to withstand category 5 cyclones and can support 400 kilograms per square meter... I think it would have been much scarier if there were lots of people on them!

From the canopy, you could easily see the differentiation from the treeferns to the taller myrtle beech, blackwood, and mountain ash. We thought the ferns looked fantastically ancient - we wouldn't have been surprised if a dinosaur wandered through.

Another benefit of being up in the treetops was that we could hear the birds really clearly - including the kookaburra! Their call really does sound like laughter so it was easy to distinguish. More than 130 birds live in the Otway Ranges so there was a constant melody of bird calls and songs. It was such a lovely way to spend an hour or so out of the car!

This was a great stop off and such a unique experience that we would highly recommend it as an option if you're on a Great Ocean Road adventure. If you get there early enough, you can even have lunch in the little cafe. We had just missed the last hot food of the day so grabbed a bag of chips each and headed back out to make our way to the Melbourne Airport.

Details:

Address: 360 Phillips Track Beech Forest, Weeaproinah, Victoria 3237

Website: https://www.otwayfly.com.au

Hours: 10 am to 5 pm (last entry at 4 pm)

Tickets: $25 (adults) and $18 (children). Family tickets (2 adults and 2 children) are available for $70.