Seven of Victoria’s best national parks to enjoy the great outdoors

VICTORIA has 36 national parks, each with their own unique attractions. Here are seven places to enjoy spring in the great outdoors.

Kangaroos at Lake Wartook. Victourism tour of the Grampians.

Victoria has 36 national parks and each has their own unique attractions.

Get back in touch with nature and enjoy spring in the great outdoors with one of these national park experiences.

FOREST FITNESS

1000 steps at Dandenong Ranges National Park

Test your fitness, or take it easy and enjoy the lush forest surrounding the climb of the 1000 Steps. The 1000 Steps is part of the popular Kokoda Track Memorial Walk, named because of the similarity of the walk to the first 100m of the Kokoda Track in PNG. Fitness fanatics charge up and down the stairs while other visitors take it at a more relaxed pace and complete the entire 3km walk while reflecting upon the stories of war on the Kokoda Track told on the 14 plaques along the longer walk.

Tom Burlinson returns to the high country where The Man from Snowy River was filmed.

MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER

Horse riding in the Alpine National Park

Channel your inner Tom Burlinson from The Man from Snowy River and explore the stunning scenery and vistas of the Alpine National Park on horseback. Several companies run rides from as little as one to three hours, or for the more adventurous, weekend camp-out rides through to five day tours. There are hidden cattlemen’s huts, wildflowers, gold rush era mining relics, stunning rivers and waterfalls and more.

Tourists inside Princess Margaret Rose Caves.

EXPLORE THE UNDERGROUND

Princess Margaret Rose Caves, Lower Glenelg National Park

This hidden limestone cave, on the edge of the spectacular 15km long Glenelg River Gorge, is home to spectacular stalagmites and stalactites created as water gradually seeped through the earth over thousands of years. Take a river cruise to the caves from Nelson to see the gorge at its finest and take a 45 minute cave tour, or drive in — you can even camp nearby.

Mobs of kangaroos are a huge attraction at the Zumsteins picnic area.

COMMUNE WITH THE KANGAROOS

Zumsteins picnic area, Grampians National Park

The popular Zumsteins picnic area in the Grampians has been attracting both visitors and kangaroos for decades. Kangaroos congregate here in large numbers, hoping for visitors to ignore the signs not to feed them. Local, interstate and overseas visitors come to see the kangaroos and other wildlife that meander through and are photographed as they go about their day.

The 12 Apostles along the Great Ocean Rd.

FORCES OF NATURE

Port Campbell National Park

One of Victoria’s biggest tourist attractions is the wild coastline of Port Campbell National Park, home to the best of the Great Ocean Rd with the 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, shipwrecks and more. Put on your hiking boots and tackle one of the many walks in the area, or descend down one of the cliffside staircases to the beach and feel the sand between your toes as you gaze up at the towering rock faces.

A koala in Mt.Eccles National Park.

KOALA SPOTTING

Mt Eccles National Park

You might end up with a crick in your neck but you’re almost guaranteed to see koalas if you look up at Mt Eccles National Park. There are so many koalas living in the manna gum forests of Mt Eccles that park management must regularly relocate some to other parks. Mt Eccles is actually a volcano that is thought to have last erupted about 6500 years ago.

A WALK THROUGH THE TREE TOPS

Rainforest Gallery at Mt Donna Buang in the Yarra Ranges National Park

Walk among the treetops on a 40m high observation platform that stretches 350m through the rainforest canopy (one of only three in Australia). There are magnificent 65m tall old-growth Mountain Ash trees, 400-year-old Myrtle Beech trees, ferns, mosses and other plants in this cool-climate rainforest. Climb the 21m high summit tower atop 1245m high Mt Donna Buang for views across Melbourne, the Yarra Valley, Dandenong and Cathedral Ranges, Mount Baw Baw and the Alps. And keep your eyes peeled for the elusive superb lyrebirds who live on the mountain.