1.
Victoria (Australia)
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Victoria is a state in southeast Australia. Victoria is Australias most densely populated state and its second-most populous state overall, most of its population is concentrated in the area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, which includes the metropolitan area of its state capital and largest city, Melbourne, Australias second-largest city. Prior to British European settlement, the area now constituting Victoria was inhabited by a number of Aboriginal peoples. With Great Britain having claimed the entire Australian continent east of the 135th meridian east in 1788, Victoria was included in the wider colony of New South Wales. The first settlement in the area occurred in 1803 at Sullivan Bay, and much of what is now Victoria was included in the Port Phillip District in 1836, Victoria was officially created as a separate colony in 1851, and achieved self-government in 1855. Politically, Victoria has 37 seats in the Australian House of Representatives and 12 seats in the Australian Senate, at state level, the Parliament of Victoria consists of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. Victoria is currently governed by the Labor Party, with Daniel Andrews the current Premier, the personal representative of the Queen of Australia in the state is the Governor of Victoria, currently Linda Dessau. Local government is concentrated in 79 municipal districts, including 33 cities, although a number of unincorporated areas still exist, Victorias total gross state product is ranked second in Australia, although Victoria is ranked fourth in terms of GSP per capita because of its limited mining activity. Culturally, Melbourne is home to a number of museums, art galleries and theatres and is described as the sporting capital of Australia. The Melbourne Cricket Ground is the largest stadium in Australia, and the host of the 1956 Summer Olympics, Victoria has eight public universities, with the oldest, the University of Melbourne, having been founded in 1853. Victoria, like Queensland, was named after Queen Victoria, who had been on the British throne for 14 years when the colony was established in 1851. The first British settlement in the later known as Victoria was established in October 1803 under Lieutenant-Governor David Collins at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip. In the year 1826 Colonel Stewart, Captain S. Wright, fly and the brigs Dragon and Amity, took a number of convicts and a small force composed of detachments of the 3rd and 93rd regiments. Victorias next settlement was at Portland, on the south west coast of what is now Victoria, edward Henty settled Portland Bay in 1834. Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman, who set up a base in Indented Head, from settlement the region around Melbourne was known as the Port Phillip District, a separately administered part of New South Wales. Shortly after the now known as Geelong was surveyed by Assistant Surveyor W. H. Smythe. And in 1838 Geelong was officially declared a town, despite earlier white settlements dating back to 1826, days later, still in 1851 gold was discovered near Ballarat, and subsequently at Bendigo. Later discoveries occurred at sites across Victoria
2.
International Union for Conservation of Nature
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The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, lobbying. IUCNs mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of resources is equitable. Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to equality, poverty alleviation. Unlike other international NGOs, IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation and it tries to influence the actions of governments, business and other stakeholders by providing information and advice, and through lobbying and partnerships. The organization is best known to the public for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List. IUCN has a membership of over 1200 governmental and non-governmental organizations, some 11,000 scientists and experts participate in the work of IUCN commissions on a voluntary basis. It employs approximately 1000 full-time staff in more than 60 countries and its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. IUCN has observer and consultative status at the United Nations, and plays a role in the implementation of several conventions on nature conservation. It was involved in establishing the World Wide Fund for Nature, in the past, IUCN has been criticized for placing the interests of nature over those of indigenous peoples. In recent years, its relations with the business sector have caused controversy. It was previously called the International Union for Protection of Nature, establishment In 1947, the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature organised an international conference on the protection of nature in Brunnen. It is considered to be the first government-organized non-governmental organization, the initiative to set up the new organisation came from UNESCO and especially from its first Director General, the British biologist Julian Huxley. At the time of its founding IUPN was the international organisation focusing on the entire spectrum of nature conservation Early years. Its secretariat was located in Brussels and its first work program focused on saving species and habitats, increasing and applying knowledge, advancing education, promoting international agreements and promoting conservation. Providing a solid base for conservation action was the heart of all activities. IUPN and UNESCO were closely associated and they jointly organized the 1949 Conference on Protection of Nature. In preparation for this conference a list of endangered species was drawn up for the first time
3.
National park
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A national park is a park in use for conservation purposes. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns, although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea, the conservation of wild nature for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, although Yellowstone was not officially termed a national park in its establishing law, it was always termed such in practice and is widely held to be the first and oldest national park in the world. The first area to use national park in its legislation was the USs Mackinac Island. Australias Royal National Park, established in 1879, was the third official national park. In 1895 ownership of Mackinac Island was transferred to the State of Michigan as a state park, as a result, Australias Royal National Park is by some considerations the second oldest national park now in existence. The largest national park in the meeting the IUCN definition is the Northeast Greenland National Park. According to the IUCN,6,555 national parks worldwide met its criteria in 2006, IUCN is still discussing the parameters of defining a national park. National parks are almost always open to visitors, in 1971, these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate a national park. In 1810, the English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a sort of property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive. It was known as Hot Springs Reservation, but no authority was established. Federal control of the area was not clearly established until 1877, John Muir is today referred to as the Father of the National Parks due to his work in Yosemite. He published two articles in The Century Magazine, which formed the base for the subsequent legislation. President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on July 1,1864, ceding the Yosemite Valley, according to this bill, private ownership of the land in this area was no longer possible. The state of California was designated to manage the park for use, resort. Leases were permitted for up to ten years and the proceeds were to be used for conservation, a public discussion followed this first legislation of its kind and there was a heated debate over whether the government had the right to create parks. The perceived mismanagement of Yosemite by the Californian state was the reason why Yellowstone at its establishment six years later was put under national control, in 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the United States first national park, being also the worlds first national park. In some European countries, however, national protection and nature reserves already existed, such as Drachenfels, Yellowstone was part of a federally governed territory
4.
Melbourne
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Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in Australia and Oceania. The name Melbourne refers to an urban agglomeration spanning 9,900 km2, the metropolis is located on the large natural bay of Port Phillip and expands into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon mountain ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a population of 4,641,636 as of 2016, and its inhabitants are called Melburnians. Founded by free settlers from the British Crown colony of Van Diemens Land on 30 August 1835, in what was then the colony of New South Wales, it was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837. It was named Melbourne by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. It was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria, to whom Lord Melbourne was close, in 1847, during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, it was transformed into one of the worlds largest and wealthiest cities. After the federation of Australia in 1901, it served as the interim seat of government until 1927. It is a financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region. It is recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature and a centre for street art, music. It was the host city of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the main passenger airport serving the metropolis and the state is Melbourne Airport, the second busiest in Australia. The Port of Melbourne is Australias busiest seaport for containerised and general cargo, Melbourne has an extensive transport network. The main metropolitan train terminus is Flinders Street Station, and the regional train. Melbourne is also home to Australias most extensive network and has the worlds largest urban tram network. Before the arrival of settlers, humans had occupied the area for an estimated 31,000 to 40,000 years. At the time of European settlement, it was inhabited by under 2000 hunter-gatherers from three indigenous tribes, the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong. The area was an important meeting place for the clans of the Kulin nation alliance and it would be 30 years before another settlement was attempted. Batman selected a site on the bank of the Yarra River. Batman then returned to Launceston in Tasmania, in early August 1835 a different group of settlers, including John Pascoe Fawkner, left Launceston on the ship Enterprize
5.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
6.
Arthurs Seat, Victoria
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Arthurs Seat is a hill and locality on the Mornington Peninsula, within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula, about 75 km south east of Melbourne, Australia. The Aboriginal Boonwurrung name for the hill is Wonga and it is a major tourist attraction, owing to its natural bushland, sweeping views and man-made attractions. The hill rises to 314 m above sea level, the underlying rocks are Devonian granite, bounded to the west by the Selwyn Fault. The vegetation consists of dry open forest of mixed eucalypt species, the indigenous vegetation on the north-west face has been heavily infested with noxious weed and much of the natural vegetation has been cleared away, although several large stands still remain. Wonga was home to the Boonwurrung prior to European settlement, the lower slopes of the hill were known as Wango, and were a place where corroborees were held. Three Boonwurrung names have been recorded for this hill, Momo, Wonga and Tubberrubberbil and it was named by Acting Lieutenant John Murray when he entered Port Phillip in HMS Lady Nelson in February 1802, for an apparent resemblance to the hill of Arthurs Seat in Edinburgh. I ascend the hill and took a set of bearings from the cleared place to be found on the north western bluff part of the hill. Another notable ascent was in 1844 Sir John Franklin climbed Arthurs seat with Andrew McCrae and it was not until 1853 That a structure was placed on the summit, a trigonometrical station, for survey purposes. In 1913 the Flinders Shire Council cut and formed a track for vehicles to the summit and it offered attractions such as a dance hall, camera obscura, telescopes, swimming pool, fish-pond, hexagonal kiosk and wishing well. The lookout tower opened in 1934, Tourism at the summit has been in decline since both the closure of the chairlift in 2006 and the closure and subsequent removal of the lookout tower in 2012. Current attractions at Arthurs Seat include Arthurs Seat State Park, a maze, the viewing area near the summit has disrupted views of Port Phillip with the Melbourne City skyline and the You Yangs visible on the horizon on a clear day from some of the lookouts. The summit is connected to nearby Dromana by a winding tourist road which opened in 1929, the road provides access to the Dromana cemetery on the way to the summit. Due to frequent vandalism the higher view points have had their Carved wooden signage replaced by smaller metal signage in an attempt to lower maintenance, the current occupation of housing is reflective of the locations original intention as a holiday destination with 40% of private dwellings listed as unoccupied. Arthurs seat boasts an expansive network of marked and unmarked walking tracks, the large number of Bush tracks and open bush land can make navigating the officially marked tracks confusing at times. The two bays walking track runs the length of Arthurs seat state park from Bunurong Track to Waterfall Gully Road. The Entire track runs from Dromana to Cape Schanck and is the longest continuous track on the Mornington Peninsula and was first proposed as a part of celebrating Victorias 150th Celebrations. Parks Victoria Does not recommend visitors attempt the entire track in a single visit, picturesque walk suitable for most levels of walker. The Kings Falls Circuit walk starts at the car park on Waterfall Gully Road, initially the walk is along a dirt track but this changes in some places to a boardwalk with steps making it easy on the steeper sections
7.
Trail
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A trail is usually a path, track or unpaved lane or road, though the term is also applied, in North America, to routes along rivers, and sometimes to highways. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland path or footpath is the term for a walking trail. There are also unpaved trails used by dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles, in some places, like the Alps, trails are used for moving cattle and other livestock. In the US, the term was used for a route into or through wild territory used by emigrants. In Australia, the track can be used interchangeably with trail. Walkway is used similarly in St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada, in the United Kingdom, the term trail is in common usage. Longer distance walking routes, and government-promoted long distance paths, collectively known as National Trails, are frequently called ways, as in the Pennine Way. Generally the term footpath is preferred for pedestrian routes, including long distance trails, track is used for wider paths, often used for hiking. The terms bridleway, byway, restricted byway are all recognised legal terms, the increased popularity of mountain biking has led to a proliferation of mountain bike trails in many countries. Often these will be grouped to form complexes, known as trail centers. A particularly unusual use of the term is in the Canadian province of Alberta, Shared use may be achieved by sharing a trail easement, but within it maintaining segregated and sometimes also separated trail treads. This is common in rail trails, Shared use may also refer to alternate day arrangements, whereby two uses are segregated by being permitted on alternate days. The Trans Canada Trail can be used by hikers, walkers, cyclists, horseback riders, the network makes use of towpaths on river banks and disused railway or vicinal tramway lines. Old railway lines have been leased by the Walloon Government for 99 years using emphyteutic lease contracts, where necessary, new paths are created to link parts of the network. Thus the right to cycle exists even though it may be difficult to exercise on occasion, Cyclists using a bridleway are obliged to give way to other users on foot or horseback. The seawall in Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada is popular for walking, running, cycling, there are two paths, one for skaters and cyclists and the other for pedestrians. The lane for cyclists and skaters goes one-way in a counterclockwise loop, foreshoreway is a term used in Australia for a type of greenway that provides a public right-of-way along the edge of the sea open to both walkers and cyclists. A forest road is a type of access road, built mainly for the forest industry
8.
Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park
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The Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park is a national park that is located in the Hume region of Victoria, Australia. The park was established under the National Parks Act,2002 to protect a range of threatened species. The park is used for a number of activities including bushwalking, hiking, trail riding, rock climbing, picnicking, camping. At the time of European settlement, box-ironbark forests covered approximately 3,000,000 hectares or 13% of Victoria, as a result of settlement, nearly 80% of these forests were cleared and the remaining areas were badly degraded by grazing. The forests of the Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park are living testament to these claims with some of its natural systems deteriorated as a result of grazing, clearing, logging and mining. When gold was discovered in the area during the mid 1800s, extensive alluvial and reef mining, quartz mining, fossicking, prospecting and gem hunting are still permitted within the park today. Evidence of these activities including disturbed ground, mullock heaps, dams, pastoralists driving cattle through Chiltern, known at the time as Black Dog Creek, discovered the forests of box and ironbark during the 1930s. The species were renowned for their strong durable timber and soon felled for fencing, construction, in fact, firewood collection continued until 2002 when the National Park was formed. A landscape that was dominated by large, mature trees. The clearing of land for agriculture and grazing impacted negatively on this landscape, grazing continued through the Chiltern section of the park until the 1980s and the Mt Pilot section until the 1990s. Common problems associated with activities including the introduction of pest species, soil compaction and erosion, increased salinity. The Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park is an amalgamation of two parks, each with distinct geological, historical and ecological profiles. The Chiltern Regional Park, first known as the Chiltern State Park, was a 4, the Mt Pilot Multipurpose Park was also established under the 1977 LCC recommendations. The Environment Conservation Council replaced the LCC in 1997 and gave rise to the Chiltern Box-ironbark National Park of 4,320 hectares, when the Victorian State parliament gave assent to the National Parks Act,2002 it initiated the creation of a highly protected system of parks and reserves. The Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park falls within the Victorian Riverina and Northern Inland Slopes sub-bioregions, the Chiltern section of the park comprises low-lying hills formed from Ordovician sedimentary rock which are distinctly contrast to the rugged Devonian granite of the Mt Pilot section. The park protects a total 18 ecological vegetation classes of which four are threatened, Box-Ironbark, Spring-soak Woodland, Gilgai Plain Woodland/Wetland Mosaic and the Valley Grassy Forest. The park supports over 600 native species of flora and has the most intact assemblage of fauna with more birds, mammals, most notably, the Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park provides a critical habitat for the recovery of the barking owl and brush-tailed phascogale. The park supports a range of native fauna with 276 different species of mammals, birds
9.
Grampians National Park
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The Grampians National Park, commonly referred to as The Grampians, is a national park located in the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia. The Grampians feature a series of sandstone mountain ranges. After a two-year consultation process, the park was renamed Grampians National Park in 1991 and this area is a distinct physiographic section of the larger Western Victorian Highlands province, which in turn is part of the larger East Australian Cordillera physiographic division. The general form that the take is, from the west. The most popular walking area for day trippers is the Wonderland area near Halls Gap, in summer the ranges can get very hot and dry. Winter and spring are the best times for walking, the Wonderland area is also host to The Grand Canyon on the Wonderland Loop on one of the tracks to the Pinnacle. In spring the Grampians wildflowers are a major attraction, the area is a noted rock climbing destination, and it is popular with campers and bushwalkers for its many spectacular views and unspoilt nature. Mount William is known within the community as the epicentre of the Grampians Wave. This predominantly occurs during the months of May, June, September and October when strong westerly winds flow at right angles to the ridge, the rock material that composes the high peaks is sandstone which was laid down from rivers during the Devonian period 380 million years ago. This sediment slowly accumulated to a depth of 7 km, this was raised and tilted for its present form. The highest peak is Mount William at 1167 metres, numerous waterfalls are found in the park and are easily accessible via a well-developed road network. Motifs painted in numerous caves include depictions of humans, human hands, animal tracks, notable rock art sites include, Billimina Jananginj Njani Manja Larngibunja Ngamadjidj Gulgurn Manja. The significance of the hand prints at Gulgurn Manja is now unknown. The town is located towards the side of the park. Grampians National Park is home to one of Australias longest running food and wine festivals, Grampians Grape Escape, held over the first weekend of May in Halls Gap every year. Launched in 1992, the Grampians Grape Escape is an event for Victoria and provides food and wine offerings by more than 100 local artisan producers, live music. A major bushfire burned out about 50% of the Grampians National Park in January 2006, soon afterwards the first signs of regeneration were already visible with, for example, regrowth of the eucalyptus trees. Many trees exhibit epicormic growth, where a mass of young shoots re-sprout along the length of the trunk to the base of the tree
10.
Great Otway National Park
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The Great Otway National Park, located in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia. The 103, 185-hectare national park is situated approximately 162 kilometres southwest of Melbourne and it contains a diverse range of landscapes and vegetation types and is situated within the Otway Ranges. The parks were combined after a campaign by the local community, the park is a popular area for interstate and international tourists, with companies operating tours in the region. It contains three camping areas at Johanna, Aire River and Blanket Bay, the park is accessed from the east via Apollo Bay, from the north via Forrest or Beech Forest, or from the west via Princetown. The park covers both coastline and hinterland in the Otway Ranges and so includes both beaches and forest, accessible via walking trails, the park and the Aire River campground are home to a significant koala population. The Cape Otway Lighthouse is adjacent to the park and is open to tourists throughout the week, migrating whales and dolphins such as southern right and southern humpback, and bottlenose dolphins can be observed from the coasts. The Great Otway National Park is extremely rich in fungal diversity, although hundreds of species of flora and fauna are listed in the Great Otway National Park Management Plan, there is only a single reference to fungi. The reference is to the pathogen, Chalara australis that affects myrtle beech. However, the majority of fungi in the Park perform beneficial ecological roles. In fact, most fungi perform positive rather than negative roles, even parasitic fungi – often regarded only negatively – are a vital part of healthy ecosystems, regulating ecosystem functions. As primary recyclers of organic matter, saprobic fungi break down fallen branches and leaf litter, other fungi form symbiotic relationships with other organisms. Although rarely acknowledged, the majority of plants in the Great Otway National Park form mutually beneficial mycorrhizal relationships with fungi. Given the great diversity of plants, specialist habitats and micro-climates in the park, two hundred and seventy-eight species of fungi are listed in the Atlas of Living Australia. This is likely to be only a fraction of the number of fungal species that grow in the Park. Despite their essential roles in underpinning terrestrial ecosystems, fungi are barely recognised as a part of Australias biodiversity. Although Australia has national and state level biodiversity conservation strategies and has ratified international conventions, there is currently no statewide biodiversity strategy for managing biodiversity in Victoria and the Colac Otway Shire Environment Strategy makes no reference to fungi. There is however, a deal of interest in fungi among the local community. The Australian citizen-science organisation, Fungimap is also documenting and mapping the distribution of fungi including those that occur in the Great Otway National Park, one of the tiniest yet conspicuous species found in the wetter parts of the park is the ruby bonnet
11.
Mornington Peninsula
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The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south-east of Melbourne, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, geographically, the peninsula begins its protrusion from the mainland in the area between Pearcedale and Frankston. The area was home to the Mayone-bulluk and Boonwurrung-Balluk clans. Much of the peninsula has been cleared for agriculture and settlements, however, small areas of the native ecology remain in the peninsulas south and west, some of which is protected by the Mornington Peninsula National Park. The peninsula is primarily a local tourist region, with natural attractions such as the variety of beaches both sheltered and open-sea and many scenic sights and views. Other popular attractions include the various wineries, mazes and the array of water sports made available by the diversity of beaches and calm waters of Port Phillip. Most visitors to the peninsula are residents of Melbourne who camp, rent villas, the peninsula was formed by the flooding of Port Phillip Bay after the end of the Ice Age about 10000 BC. It may have extended into Port Phillip at various times, most recently between 800 BC and 1000 AD when Port Phillip Bay may have dried out, indigenous Australians of the Mayone-bulluk and Boonwurrung-Balluk clans lived on the peninsula as part of the Boonwurrung Peoples territory prior to European settlement. The territory hosted six clans who lived along the Victorian coast from the Werribee River across to Western Port Bay, the peninsula may have been home to between 100 –500 people prior to European settlement. The first European settlement on the Mornington Peninsula was also the first settlement in Victoria, the Sullivans Bay settlement was a short-lived penal colony established in 1803,30 years before the establishment of Melbourne, by Lieutenant-Colonel David Collins. At the time of European settlement in 1803 much of the Mornington Peninsula was covered with she-oak forests and these were quickly cleared to provide firewood for the growing city of Melbourne, and much of the peninsula was then covered with fruit orchards. Nevertheless, much natural vegetation still exists, especially in an area of bushland in the known as Greens Bush. Most large areas of bushland are now included within the Mornington Peninsula National Park, as serious farming has declined, hobby farmers with an interest in the aesthetic and the natural environment have taken over much of the peninsula. This has led to an expansion of natural bushland on private property, the local council also has a slight lean towards sustainable practices. On 17 December 1967, Prime Minister Harold Holt went swimming at Cheviot Beach on what is now Point Nepean National Park, at the time this was still a restricted area. Mr. Holt, who was 59 and had had a recent shoulder injury and he disappeared from view and was never seen again. Despite an extensive search his body was never found and he was officially presumed dead on 19 December 1967. The peninsula extends from the mainland between Pearcedale and Frankston in a direction for about 40 km at a width of about 15–20 kilometres
12.
Sorrento, Victoria
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Sorrento is a township in Victoria, Australia, located on the shores of Port Phillip on the Mornington Peninsula, about one and a half hours by car south of Melbourne. It is a largely upper-class, seaside resort area, but is also a seaside township in the off-peak months of the year. It was named by the Italian founders after the southern Italian town, in 1803,30 years before the founding of Melbourne, Sullivan Bay in Sorrento became the site of Victorias first mainland European settlement. Due to a lack of water the settlement was short lived. Victorias first magistrates court, public hospital, postal service and government printing office were established in Sorrento, the first Victorian wedding, christening and funeral services were held at Sullivan Bay. The first settlement site overlooking Sullivan Bay includes graves believed to be of first settlers, Sorrento Post Office opened on 10 January 1871. A horse and steam powered tram which ran between the foreshore and the beach opened in 1890 and closed in 1920. The town has a number of historic homes and hotels which date back to the 1860s. The Australia ICOMOS charter for the conservation of places of significance in the practice of local heritage protection has listed 30 properties. Mechanics Institute, Sorrento was built in 1877 using local limestone and the building, other notable limestone buildings still standing include, Sorrento Hotel, Anglican Church, Athenaeum Theatre, Continental Hotel, Whitehall Guest House. The sandstone Presbyterian Church was built around 1880, ophir House, opposite the Masonic Lodge, a miniature Whitehall, was replaced by contemporary units. Stringers Store and Sorrento has regular bus routes and a ferry, Peninsula Searoad Transport. The Sorrento Park, established in 1870, contains a variety of trees, troy played with Sorrento in about 9 matches during 2012 when not required in the AFL, and the finals series. Ben McCormack took over the captaincy from Dave Lawson when Dave was appointed coach at Crib Point 3 years ago and its first and only Provincial First XI premiership was 1971/72 under ex-Northcote and Collingwood player Graham Burt. Forty years on, the seniors had their opportunity in a Provincial Grand Final losing to rivals Baxter in 2011/12. Sadly, a second grand final appearance failed. In 2010/2011 Ryan OConnor became the first player to win the W. B. Wedgwood medal for Sorrento, the original Macfarlan Reserve pavilion was erected in 1935 with a terraced grandstand upstairs. It was demolished and completely rebuilt in 1984 and re-opened as the Robert Keegan pavilion in 1985, several balconies have been added since
