This information is useful to plan and enhance to your nature experience. It is for those who want to know more about a site, other than what is listed in our Discovering Ballarat’s Bushland book.
Online Information
Parks Victoria Information on locations on the website is variable; some ParksVic information sheets are available in information centres. Creswick Regional Park Visitor Guide and Brisbane Ranges National Park Visitor Guide can be downloaded as PDFs which include maps.
Alltrails Comprehensive instructions and maps for many areas available for a modest annual subscription. User reviews are helpful.
Railtrails A clear summary of the route, points of access and facilities along the way.
Goldfields Guide A comprehensive guide to exploring Vicotria’s Goldfield Region including walks, camping places to visit.
Vicmaps Detailed information on the availability of digital and hard copy maps.
Avenza Maps Maps can be downloaded to an app on a mobile device and used offline. ParksVic maps and guides can be found here and downloaded at no cost.
Books
Costermans LF and VandenBerg AHM. 2022 Stories beneath our feet: exploring the geology and landscapes of Victoria and surrounds. Costermans Publishing, Frankston, Victoria. This up-to-date publication provides excellent wider reading for those interested in physical landscape development especially Chapter 23 on vulcanicity.
Alison Pouliot Underground Lovers – Encounters with Fungi. NewSouth Publishing 2022. This provides a wide-ranging explanation of the place of fungi in our ecosystems written in a readily accessible style.
Central Highlands Victoria Walks and Guides Available at information centres.
Wettenhall G. Guide to Great Dividing Trail. 2021 Goldfields Track: Walk or Ride Guide. The Great Dividing Trail Network, Daylesford, Victoria. The Wallaby Track section covers Creswick to Daylesford. Available online and in information centres.
Day Walks Victoria Available at information centres.
Taylor A. A Forester’s Log. 1998. The Story of John La Gerche and the Ballarat-Creswick State Forest 1882-1897. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
Field Guides
Wildflowers of the Brisbane Ranges by Clive & Merle Trigg, reprinted and available from Friends of the Brisbane Ranges Online Shop.
Wildlife of the Box-Ironbark Country by Chris Tzaros is ideal for areas north of Ballarat.
Laminated folders such as Indigenous Plants of the Moorabool Shire, Indigenous Wildlife of Southern Ballarat, Indigenous Insects of Southern Ballarat, Indigenous Plants of Southern Ballarat and Indigenous Plants of the Woady Yaloak Catchment may be found at information centres.
Dragonflies and Damselflies of Victoria and Tasmania by Reiner Richter and Ian Endersby available from the Entomological Society of Victoria provides a readily accessible guide.
Several new books on Australian fungi are now available. Bruce Fuhrer’s latest edition of A Field Guide to Australian Fungi remains a reliable resourcewhile the newer A Field Guide to Tasmanian Fungi by Gates and Ratkowsky is equally relevant to Victoria.
Maps
Vicmaps covers the area at scales of 1:25,000; 1:50,000; 1:100,000. These topographic maps are available in hard copy and digital format. On the app Vicmap Viewer maps can be bought and used offline.
Meridian Maps meridianmaps.com.au have excellent paper maps of the Wombat State Forest, The Pyrenees (which includes Mt Cole State Forests, Mt Buangor State Park, Langhi Ghiran State Park), Brisbane Ranges National Park, and the nearby Werribee and Lerderderg Gorges. Road conditions and facilities are clearly marked and information updated.
Friends, Landcare and special interest groups
Many local groups will have Facebook and Instagram pages which oten highligh places to visit or you may like to contact a group to join an excursion or get advice on a good local place to visit.
Vegetation and Flora information
Common Names of Flora species used in the book
Victorian Biodiversity Atlas The Victorian Biodiversity Atlas (VBA) is the collated information of flora and fauna sightings across Victoria. It is a tool for everyone interested in species information across Victoria. Government agencies, environmental consultants, researchers and the public can update and use the information in the atlas to understand what animals and plants we have in the state and where live.
Guest Users can query summary species information for any area of interest. Simply select an area of the state and search.
Bioregions and EVC benchmarks Bioregions are a landscape-scale approach to classifying the environment using a range of attributes such as climate, geomorphology, geology, soils and vegetation. There are 28 bioregions identified within Victoria.
Visualising Victoria’s Biodiversity Visualising Victoria’s Biodiversity (VVB) – a place to discover and share spatial information on Victoria’s environmental values, conservation activities and research. You may generate a report of species in an area and copy the names into a spreadsheet. Names are hyperlinked to the Atlas of Living Australia where a picture and distribution map is shown
VicFlora Flora of Victoria VicFlora is a comprehensive and current guide to the wild plants of Victoria. The species profiles and identification tools that make up this richly illustrated resource are provided by Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria free of charge for use by land managers, scientists, students and anyone else with an interest in the Victorian flora.
The platform currently provides resources for vascular plants (including seed plants and ferns) and mosses. You will find plant keys and checklists – download flora lists by Park and Reserves, Bioregions, Local Government Area, and Registered Aboriginal Parties. Use the filter option to add more fields to your list. Currently flora lists are not available for all reserves and State Forests.
Citizen Science
Recording what you see out in a park or resrve helps others know what to see in an area and allows land managers to look better after an area or manage for threatened species. These records also help with a multitude of scientific projects.
iNaturalist This is a place to record what flora, fauna, fungi, feathers, nesting hollows and insects that you see on a walk. You need to set up an account and may add your reords by an app or computer.You may also use this app to explore what others have recorded at the site. Add photos and/or sound recordings
FrogID Record frog calls or use this app to listen to frog sounds to learn the different frog calls.
The Field Naturalist Ballarat 