Our 2026 Birding Weekend will be in and around the Little Desert National Park and the Dimboola area in the Mallee. Due to the recent fires in the National Park, much of it has been burnt and at this stage closed but some areas are still accessible, with a number of good birding spots close to Dimboola.
The area has a number of different types of habit including mallee, dry forest, red gum areas and riverside. Recent interesting sightings and for October last year include Spiny-cheeked and Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters, Horsfield’s and Shining Bronze-Cuckoos, White-browed Babbler, Rainbow Bee-eater, Sacred Kingfisher, Gilbert’s Whistler, Restless Flycatcher, Jacky Winter, Hooded and Red-capped Robins, Inland Thornbill, Purple-backed Fairy-wren, Southern Whiteface, Common and Brush Bronzewing, Blue-winged Parrot, Purple-crowned Lorikeet, Diamond Firetail, Rufous Fieldwren, Southern Scrub-Robin, plus various others including Malleefowl seen as recently as late August.
We will centre ourselves where possible at Dimboola. There are a couple of holiday parks offering accommodation from unpowered sites to cabins. There is a motel and the Victoria Hotel does a reasonable room but the bathroom facilities are shared. There are also some B&Bs, etc. in the area. For those wishing to camp in the National Park itself, the Horseshoe Bend and Ackle Bend camp sites are open and not far from Dimboola. We believe all others are closed at this stage but it may change closer to the event. Don’t forget you need to pay for these sites. Nhill and Jeparit which are not far from Dimboola also have accommodation if you cannot find anything suitable at Dimboola. If you intend on going, we suggest you book your accommodation as soon as possible.
As usual we suggest driving up on the Friday to get settled in if you can. There will be walks organised for Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and afternoon and Sunday morning. If enough people are interested, we may look at doing a night walk on Saturday night. A communal dinner will also be arranged for the Friday night at a hotel or restaurant in Dimboola.
For those interested in the weekend, please advise Bob Dawson, by email to bobadawson@hotmail.com so that you can be notified of the details as they become available. Please provide the names of all going, and a mobile number. Please also let Bob know whether you intend on joining us for dinner on the Friday.Â
Mallee Fowl, Little Desert NP, Gary Smith
Dimboola, Victoria – Little Desert NP
