I was amazed at the size of the Gippsland Lakes, especially Lake King. I was also amazed at how quickly the weather changes and can go from being dead calm in the morning morning with less than 5km/hour winds, to gusting in the afternoon, seeing at least 45km/hour. We covered about 70km (from 10 to 22 November) exploring the Gippsland Lakes and really only saw a small area, so we’ll definitely come back again. This video shows you the areas we visited.
A credit to Gippsland Ports
Gippsland Ports have done a lot of work to make the lakes ‘cruising friendly’, from an app that helps you identify areas/jetties to stop and includes facilities available such as water and power, to colour-coding on the docks:
- Yellow – for dropping off/picking up supplies and passengers, but you can’t leave your boat
- Blue – four hour limit and you can leave your boat
- White – 48 hour limit and you can leave your boat
- Red – private berths and off limits
We were very impressed, and while some of the docks were a bit small for us, we found plenty of places to anchor.
Silt Jetties
From its mouth, the Mitchel River flows through a narrow strip of land known as the “silt jetties”. These are naturally occurring levee banks that have formed over thousands of years. This occurs when sediment, carried by floods, settles out as the floodwater spills over the river banks and slows within the bordering reed beds.
The Mitchell River silt jetties, which extend more than 8 kilometers, are the longest silt jetties in the world – since hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi delta – and are of international significance.
Initially I thought we’d take Poseidon upstream and possibly to Bairnsdale but after checking the depths on our charts we decided not to risk it. While the charts showed some of the shallower depths at 1.5m and we only draw 1.4m, given the tidal difference was insignificant (barely 10-20cm) we went in our tender instead. The benefit of this was that we were able to test our electric motor and were pleased that we had motored more than 16km and still had battery charge left.
Swans
The Gippsland Lakes cover about 400 square kilometres and are a listed Ramsar wetland, meaning they are internationally significant and support rare migratory birds. The lakes support a significant proportion of the total global/national populations of some species, including the Black Swan.
They can be seen everywhere and sometimes they would come up to the boat and “talk” to us. One time I thought one was dead and floating in the lake, but then I realised they tuck their neck down when sleeping and they can sleep on the water, land and even standing on one leg! And chicks (cygnets) can swim and feed themselves as soon as they hatch.
Koalas on Raymond Island
Raymond Island, across from Paynesville, is a small island about 6km long and 2km wide. It’s known for its large koala population, originally introduced to the island in 1953. Back in the 1920s, the koala population of Victoria was almost wiped out by habitat loss, farming and hunting so to prevent them from becoming extinct, some were relocated to a number of different islands.
We decided to take the ferry across from Paynesville and walk the 2km koala trail, and it was great to see so many of them. And in this video, the first koala is having a good feed and then one of the koalas is waving to me (at around 50 seconds)!
Lakes Entrance
After exploring some of the Gippsland lakes, we went to the township of Lakes Entrance where we had booked a “valet berth” next to the Jetty Pavilion. But unlike valet car parking, no one comes out to park your boat! While there, we enjoyed a few meals out, Robert’s aunt came to visit and I took the opportunity to do some cycling. And the sunsets from here were amazing.
Flagstaff Jetty
The day before we were due to leave Lakes Entrance and continue our journey towards Melbourne, we headed over to the Fisherman’s Co-op, got diesel and fresh prawns/fish. We then tied up at Flagstaff Jetty for the night, and used the fender boards (that we made in Shellharbour ) for the first time.
The area of Flagstaff Jetty is very interesting and if you’d like to read more, take a look at the local history of Lakes Entrance.
As we explored, we saw the pelicans flying around, possibly waiting for the fishing fleet to return. We also saw seals, which I commented on in my blog – We’ve reached Victoria – swimming around the bar. Here are a couple of videos and then some photos taken at Flagstaff Jetty.
Where to next?
When we leave here, we’re heading to Melbourne via Wilsons Promontory.
6 Responses
Your photos/videos of the various birds and animals are wonderful. xx
Fabulous report and those sunsets pics are stunning! Love the Relive app: we use it too for cycling.
Great read again!!! Your photos are fab too Pam ❤️❤️
Silt jetties – an interesting landscape!
Love the sunsets.
Glad koalas are abundent down there. They are rare up our way now; too many dogs.
Weather- they say Melbourne has four seasons in a day, and we can attest to that. Maybe it is applicable to all of the south.
Looking at our calendar perhaps we can catch up lunchish on the 27th December.
Great spot! I bet you moved around Gippsland Lakes a bit quicker than we did on Mike’s boat… 🙂 I’m yet to spot a Koala in the wild, let alone one that waves Hi!
Lots of great information Pam, especially about the Gippsland Lakes. I had no idea either about the size. Loved the photos too Pam.