The Cape Crusade

Lauretta Stace
1 day ago
4 min read

There's nothing like spending Christmas near the beach in Australia! This year, we landed in the picturesque holiday town of Cape Bridgewater on the Victorian coast, just west of Portland. The rugged coastline, crashing waves, fresh sea air and abundant birdlife made it a wonderful destination to celebrate the festive season.

Cape Bridgewater

Originally settled by European pastoralists, Cape Bridgewater is now a pristine holiday destination in Victoria. The windswept Bridgewater Bay spans 4km of deep blue ocean fringed by a long curve of sandy beach. and is the hub of the town. The variations in the weather during our stay enabled us to capture this beautiful, wild bay in several different light perspectives.

Lunch at the lively Bridgewater Bay cafe was a must do. It was lots of fun to watch people going for their traditional ocean swim on Christmas Day and to see families doing simple things together, such as playing cricket on the beach and walking the dog. A very Aussie Christmas holiday!

Narrawong

The lovely little of village of Narrawong was our destination to enjoy Christmas lunch. Located on the northern side of Portland Bay, Narrawong sits on the mouth of the Surry River. It's a picturesque town with the twin benefits of ocean and river and a great place for a lazy summer holiday. Our Christmas feast consisted of fresh oysters and prawns accompanied by a bottle of Tasmanian sparkling wine and followed by premium fresh cherries for dessert. It was simple, but delicious.

Gannets galore!

Australia's only mainland gannet colony is located at Point Danger, near Portland, and it was well worth a visit to get close to these magnificent birds. Lawrence Rocks is the primary location for the colony, with over 6,000 pairs. (See centre image below). The 'overflow' colony hosts around 300 pairs and has been established by the birds on the mainland due to real estate overcrowding on the rocky offshore island.

People can visit the mainland colony to view the birds. It's protected by fox-proof fencing and regulated by the Point Danger Committee of Management, who look after the ecological health of over 180 hectares of coastal reserve.

Australasian Gannets (Morus serrator) are a large and distinctive seabird common to the waters of southern Australia and with a wingspan up to 1.8 metres. Their plumage is very elegant with tones of white, black and buff-yellow.

Gannets, like most other seabirds, spend the majority of their lives at sea and only return to land for the breeding season (summer). If you look closely at the first and third images below, you can see fluffy white chicks amongst the adults.

Amongst the colony we were lucky to spot an interloper, which is the Cape Gannet, usually found around Southern Africa. This gannet species is identified by a gular stripe under the neck, which is nearly three times as long as the stripe found under the neck of Australasian bird (see image below). Apparently, there are only two Cape Gannets in this colony - like finding a needle in a haystack!

Here is a short video of these birds in flight. They are lovely to watch as they soar in the wind and hover above the colony.

Blowholes at Bridgewater

Another great experience was the walk through the Discovery Bay Coastal Park to view the blowholes and petrified forest. The blowholes have been created by the sea eroding volcanic rock, forming tunnels where waves force water and spray up. The combination of colours of the rocky landscape and deep, wild ocean were simply stunning.

Bridgewater Lakes

More evidence of the volcanic nature of this region was found at the Bridgewater Lakes, only a short distance from our campsite. These are coastal, freshwater lagoons, separated from the ocean by towering sand dunes.

Portland

Portland was the site of Victoria's first permanent European settlement and is now a thriving port city with several important industries. The city has some beautifully preserved historical buildings and is now a major whale watching hub for southern right whales and blue whales. Being nature lovers, we were delighted to be able to walk around the extensive Fawthrop Lagoon, close to the centre of town, to view an abundance of water birds. It was also a treat to see the tiny, threatened shore-bird, the Hooded Plover walking along Nuns Beach in town and to spot some elegant brolga in the surrounding grasslands.

Budj Bim

A visit to the Budj Bim National park enabled us to see an impressive dormant volcano and wetlands created by ancient lava flows. Unfortunately, the cultural centre was closed for the holiday break, so our walk was resticted to part of the crater rim of what was formerly known as Mount Eccles. The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape is a unique place with universal heritage values that demonstrate how Gunditjmara people worked with the natural resources and environment of the Victorian south west region to establish a permanent place of human society over the past 30,000 years and beyond. It will be worth a return visit to visit the state-of-the-art Aquaculture Centre, showing

freshwater eel farming techniques practised by Gunditjmara people for thousands of years.