Author(s): Graham Patterson

Local

Graham Patterson finished the final stretch of his four-decade walk along the coast of Victoria in 2018. Coastal guide to nature and history 3: western Victoria covers the coast from Point Lonsdale to the South Australian border.   Like Phillip Island, western Victoria has penguin colonies and mutton-bird rookeries, and you have a good chance of seeing whales in season. There are distinctive plant communities in heathlands near Anglesea and Port Campbell, and from Portland westwards there are plants which are more common in South Australia. The photos in the chapter on plants and intertidal animals will help you to identify the species you are most likely to see.   There are traces of thousands of years of Aboriginal occupation of the area. The book traces the first European invaders in Victoria, and their impact. The early history of all the coastal towns is described. The rock outcrops on the west coast are often spectacular. Around Cape Otway they are old enough to contain dinosaur fossils from just over 100 million years ago