23-526: The Great Otway National Park is a national park located in the Barwon South West region of Victoria , Australia . The 103,185-hectare (254,980-acre) national park is situated approximately 162 kilometres (101 mi) southwest of Melbourne , in the Otway Ranges, a low coastal mountain range. It contains a diverse range of landscapes and vegetation types. Commercial logging began in
46-519: A very wet temperate oceanic climate . Climate data for the Otway Ranges are sourced from Weeaproinah, at an elevation of 492 metres (1,614 ft); operating between 1965 and 2012. The Otway Ranges feature a cold rainforest climate with extreme winter rainfall, which owes to its highly exposed location in the far south-west of the state. Heavy snowfalls occur on the higher peaks each year, such as Mount Cowley at 670 metres (2,200 ft); wet snow can also fall nearer to sea level on rare occasions. It has
69-462: Is accessed from the east via Apollo Bay, from the north via Forrest or Beech Forest , or from the west via Princetown. The park covers both coastline and hinterland in the Otway Ranges and so includes both beaches and forest, accessible via walking trails. The park and the Aire River campground are home to a significant koala population. The Cape Otway Lighthouse is adjacent to the park and
92-569: Is also documenting and mapping the distribution of fungi including those that occur in the Great Otway National Park. One of the tiniest yet conspicuous species found in the wetter parts of the park is the ruby bonnet ( Mycena viscidocruenta ). The ghost fungus ( Omphalotus nidiformis ) grows on trees and is another easily recognisable species, especially at night when it glows a pale green. The rosette fungus ( Podoscypha petalodes ) often appears in funnel-shaped rosettes at
115-526: Is home to Victoria’s largest provincial centre, Geelong and the major centres of Aireys Inlet , Apollo Bay , Camperdown , Colac , Hamilton , Lorne , Port Campbell , Port Fairy , Portland , Torquay and Warrnambool . It draws its name from the Barwon River and the geographic location of the region in the state of Victoria. Comprising an area in excess of 40,000 square kilometres (15,000 sq mi) with approximately 360,000 residents as at
138-590: Is likely to be only a fraction of the total number of fungal species that grow in the Park. Despite their essential roles in underpinning terrestrial ecosystems, fungi are barely recognised as a vital part of Australia's biodiversity. Although Australia has national and state level biodiversity conservation strategies and has ratified international conventions, most overlook fungi. There is currently no statewide biodiversity strategy for managing biodiversity in Victoria and
161-650: Is only a single reference to fungi. The reference is to the fungal pathogen, Chalara australis that affects myrtle beech. However, the great majority of fungi in the Park perform beneficial ecological roles. In fact, most fungi perform positive rather than negative roles. Even parasitic fungi – often regarded only negatively – are a vital part of healthy ecosystems, regulating ecosystem functions. As primary recyclers of organic matter, saprobic fungi break down fallen branches and leaf litter, making vital nutrients available to other organisms. Other fungi form symbiotic relationships with other organisms. Although rarely acknowledged,
184-741: Is open to tourists throughout the week. Migrating whales and dolphins such as southern right and southern humpback , and bottlenose dolphins can be observed from the coasts. Glow worms ( Arachnocampa otwayensis ), which are the bioluminescent larvae of small flies known as fungus gnats , can be seen at night along the stream banks and walking tracks, particularly at Angahook-Lorne State Park , Beauchamp Falls , Hopetoun Falls , Stevenson Falls and Melba Gully State Park . The park has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports populations of rufous bristlebirds , striated fieldwrens and pink robins , as well as numerous other species. The area has
207-672: The 2011 census , the Barwon South West region includes the Colac Otway , Corangamite , Glenelg , Greater Geelong , Moyne , Queenscliffe , Southern Grampians , Surf Coast and Warrnambool City local government areas and the Unincorporated area of Lady Julia Percy Island . The Barwon South West region is located along the two major interstate transport corridors – the Princes Highway corridor and
230-691: The Brisbane Ranges , Cobboboonee , Great Otway , Lower Glenelg and Port Campbell national parks. Mount William (Mount Duwil) Mount William (also Mount Duwil ) is a mountain of the Grampians Mountain Range, located within the Grampians National Park , in the Australian state of Victoria . The mountain is situated approximately 250 kilometres (160 mi) west-northwest of Melbourne on
253-538: The Colac Otway Shire Environment Strategy makes no reference to fungi. There is however, a great deal of interest in fungi among the local community. The Southern Otways Landcare Network have been actively involved in learning about and surveying the Park's fungi in recent years and produced a guide to one hundred of the more easily recognisable fungal species found in the park. The Australian citizen-science organisation, Fungimap
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#1732772267766276-698: The House of Representatives , the Barwon South West region is contained within all or part of the electoral divisions of Corangamite , Corio , and Wannon . For the purposes of Victorian elections for the Legislative Assembly , the Barwon South West region is contained within all or part of the electoral districts of Bellarine , Geelong , Lara , Lowan , Polwarth , Ripon , South Barwon , and South-West Coast . The region contains nine local government areas and one unincorporated area of Victoria, which are: The Barwon South West region contains
299-833: The Western Highway corridor. The region comprises two distinct and inter-connected sub-regions or districts: Greater Geelong and the Great South Coast. The region is bounded by Bass Strait and the Great Australian Bight in the south and southwest, the South Australian border in the west, the Grampians region in the north and the Greater Melbourne region in the east. For the purposes of Australian federal elections for
322-407: The Otway Ranges in the 1880s. After World War One , with improvements to the roads and railways, logging increased massively, peaking in 1961, almost entirely stripping the Otway Ranges of its old-growth forest and causing land degradation issues, but has since been greatly reduced. The forest standing today highlights the lengthy period needed to regrow the giant trees of the past and to reproduce
345-650: The Otway State Forest and a number of Crown Land reserves were combined into one park. The parks were combined after a campaign by the local community and the Otway Ranges Environment Network and was officially gazetted on 11 December 2005. The Great Otway National Park is popular with Victorian, interstate, and international tourists, with a number of companies operating tours in the region. It contains three camping areas at Johanna , Aire River and Blanket Bay . The park
368-487: The base of trees and among leaf litter and is widespread throughout the park. The flame fungus ( Clavaria miniata ) grows singly or in groups on soil. Barwon South West The Barwon South West is an economic rural region located in the southwestern part of Victoria , Australia . The Barwon South West region stretches from the tip of the Queenscliff Heads to the border of South Australia . It
391-408: The eastern edge of the national park, approximately 22 kilometres (14 mi) drive south from Halls Gap . Mount William is the highest point within the Grampians National Park . Sir Thomas Mitchell reached the summit with a group of explorers in 1836. The first settler in the area was Horatio Wills , who established a sheep run at Mount William in 1840, and named nearby Mount Ararat, after which
414-513: The ecological complexity nearing that of the original wild forest. Historically, several bushfires have burnt through the park's predecessor reserves, shaping its ecology and plant and animal diversity. The last major fire was part of the Ash Wednesday bushfires that swept southeastern Australia in 1983. The park was declared in 2004 when Otway National Park, Angahook-Lorne State Park, Carlisle State Park, Melba Gully State Park , areas of
437-549: The great majority of plants in the Great Otway National Park (indeed in the world) form mutually beneficial mycorrhizal relationships with fungi. Given the great diversity of plants, specialist habitats and micro-climates in the park, a great diversity of fungi, including lichens, is also expected to occur there. Two hundred and seventy-eight species of fungi are listed in the Atlas of Living Australia . This
460-591: The greatest amount of precipitation days in mainland Australia (219), narrowly beating out Mount William's 216 days, though the latter site only has seventeen years of record. The Great Otway National Park is extremely rich in fungal diversity. Although hundreds of species of flora and fauna are listed in the Great Otway National Park Management Plan Archived 31 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine , there
483-425: The mountain can drive to a carpark located approximately 920 metres (3,020 ft) up the mountain, before proceeding on foot for 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) to the summit. It will take a person of moderate fitness approximately 45 mins to walk. No permit is required to climb the mountain. Due to being an exposed peak in the west of Victoria, Mount William features especially cool maximum temperatures throughout
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#1732772267766506-459: The town is named. His son, cricketer and Australian rules football pioneer Tom Wills , grew up as a lone white child among the Djab wurrung Aboriginal tribes of Mount William. Three transmission towers are located at the summit of Mount William including an amateur radio repeater. A sealed service road continues to the summit, but is not accessible by vehicle to the general public. Visitors to
529-615: The year. Winter cloud cover is profound; with an extraordinary 26 days of precipitation in July, constituting an annual total of 216 days—quite possibly the highest figure of any site in mainland Australia. Snowfalls are both frequent and heavy throughout the year. Daily maximum temperatures can struggle above the single digits even in summer, and on such days the afternoon and mid-day readings can be near to 0 °C (32 °F) in extreme cases such as in December 2022. The peak can be classed as
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