Our first walk in Yarrawonga was to a spot called Chinaman’s Island. This is not really an island, but is almost one. It is land set aside as a nature reserve and has a lovely path to follow with some great views. The area was used as market garden, pig farm and pastoral farm for many years, until the Lake Mulwala was formed by the building of the weir in 1939. It spent 50 years as waste land, and was proposed as a possible site for a Casino before the local residents and Rotary club rallied and campaigned to keep it natural. Apparently there was a chinaman called Jimmy who worked at the market Gorden and they seem to think that this is where the name came from. Over 2000 tress have been planted here by local community members since the regeneration work started in 1989.
We parked by the yacht club and walked from there. We were treated to lovely views over the lake. The views always leave me feeling a bit sad, as there are many dead trees protruding from the lake – the results of drowning when the lake was formed. In some ways it is a bit like looking at headstones in a cemetery.
We enjoyed glimpses of a number of different birds, and heard calls from many others which we were not able to identify.
The red-rumped parrots were showing off their pretty red rears and we saw the yellow version of the crimson rosella.
The paths were easy to follow and new plantings of grasses and ground covers seem to be thriving inside their brown cardboard surrounds. (so much more environmentally friendly than the plastic ones).
Some of the native plants are in flower and looking very attractive.
We meandered our way home and stopped at the weir to have a bit of a look. We planned to come back here and have a better look later on in the week.
Luvapuzzle 