Wombolano Park & Sensory Trail (Ringwood East)

The Wombolano Park circuit is a 1.2km walk and the sensory trail is 300m. The walk is on narrow gravel paths with steps and steep grades.

The starting point is Rotherwood Avenue car park.

Wombolano Park & Sensory Trail (Ringwood East)

Wombolano Park & Sensory Trail (Ringwood East)

Wombolano park is a public owned bushland reserve covering 7.5 hectares, managed by Maroondah City Council. The park features regionally and locally significant remnant forest containing over 120 indigenous plants. The park contains important habitat for State significant Powerful Owls, Possums and other fauna. A network of walking paths allows visitors to explore the park but note some are steep and not suitable for prams or wheelchairs. A wetland can be viewed from the boardwalk which incorporates the Rotary Sensory Trail. Visitor facilities include toilets, playground, picnic area (no barbeques), shelter and interpretive signs.

Wombolano Park & Sensory Trail (Ringwood East)

Route description:
The Sensory Trail is a short loop with interpretive signs around a wetland area. It can be walked on its own or as part of a longer circuit of Wombolano Park. The Trail starts from the car park. When you walk on the wooden boardwalk, take time to listen, touch and smell the bush as you go.

The longer circuit of Wombolano Park starts from the north side of the car park heading through remnant native bush covering over 7 hectares. Look out for some of the 120 species of indigenous ferns and flowering plants found in the park.

Wombolano Park & Sensory Trail (Ringwood East)

The circuit Trail follows the perimeter of the park with several short cuts back to the car park and playground. The path is gravel and care should be taken on the steeper sections.

Return to the car park via the playground and picnic area.

Friends of Wombolano Park
Working bees are held monthly, usually on the 4th Sunday of the month (2-4pm), meeting at Wombolano playground.

Contact Merrilyn Smith on 0410 073 541.

Access for Dogs:

Dogs are permitted on leash.

Review:

A lovely area to wander around. The park is very well maintained and well sign-posted. Walks are on defined paths.

The Sensory Trail which passes around a lush wetlands area really invites you to use all your senses.

In the centre of the park is a small playground, shelter with table and toilets which are open 9am-5pm), but no water tap.

There are many information signs around the park including:

Common Bird-orchid
The Orchid family is the biggest and possibly the most diverse of all plant families. With some 3000 species found in Victoria alone. Throughout Wombolano Park, between the months September to January you can find the Common Bird-orchid. These Orchids were once quite common in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, but are now less frequent due to loss of habitat. They are known as Bird Orchids because when in flower, it is said they look like a baby bird waiting to be fed, a native wasp pollinates the flowers. The Common Bird-orchid can be seen in colonies of up to 100, with a dark red to brown flower.

Elderberry Panax
The Elderberry Panax is a small tree or shrub with a dark green, glossy appearance producing succulent blue berries over the summer period. These berries were once used as a source of food for local indigenous people. This hardy shrub has lush green leaves and clusters of yellow-green flowers during November to January. The Elderberry Panax requires moist, well-drained soil and can grow to a height of 2.5 metres. Its leaves are eaten by small caterpillars that often make a home within the leaves, which they roll up and join together with silk. The Elderberry Panax can be found in small colonies throughout Wombolano Park's moist gullies.

White Stringybark
Wombolano Park is home to a whole range of indigenous plants: the reserve features many eucalypts, one of which is the White Stringybark. These trees can be found in some of the gullies throughout the Park, but rarely in the higher sections. The White Stringybark's leaves are usually smaller, thicker, with a glossy appearance and a brighter green than other Stringybarks. White Stringybarks can provide habitat to many Australian mammals, birds and insects, including; both Brushtail and Ringtail Possums, the Crimson Rosella, Gang-gang Cockatoos and sometimes the Powerful Owl. During the flowering period between September and March, the White Stringybark is also a large source of pollen to foraging bees.

Tasman Flax-lily
Dianellas have a strong fibre in their strap like leaves, which were often used by indigenous people for weaving baskets. Over spring and summer this plant bears clusters of blue-purple star shaped flowers. These flowers are followed by the development of glossy purple berries. The berries in some species of Flax-lilies are edible and were a source of food for indigenous people, but the Tasman Flax-lily is known to be a mild stomach irritant. This plant thrives in Wombolano Park's sheltered moist regions, and grows in a tufted habit that can spread intensively. The Tasman Flax-lily is also known as a food source to a wide variety of seed eating birds, including Rosellas and other parrots. The flowers are also an attractant to a range of butterflies and moths.

Powerful Owl
Occasionally seen throughout Wombolano reserve, the Powerful Owl is the largest of eight indigenous Owl species. It is estimated that there may be fewer than 500 pairs of Powerful Owls in Victoria and they are listed as a vulnerable species under the Endangered Species Protection Act. They are also known as the Great Hawk Owl. Wombolano's wet, hilly landscape and dense gullies make a perfect habitat for these shy birds, which feed predominantly on Ring-tailed Possums. A family of Powerful Owls can consume up to 300 possums a year.

Powerful Owls are endemic to Eastern and South-eastern Australia with small populations of owls known to roost in other bushland reserves close to Melbourne, such as Glenfern Valley in Upwey and the Dandenong Ranges National Park, but they are generally found east of the Great Dividing Range.

Powerful Owls have dark brown - grey upper bodies and usually identifiable by 6 cream-coloured bars across the tail. The owls facial disk is dark brown with bright yellow eyes. An adult's wingspan may be up to 1.5 metres, and a larger birds may grow to a height of 65 centimetres. They live up to 30 years.

Breeding occurs from May and June, with males preparing the nest and supplying food. Usually only one or two eggs are laid and the female incubates the eggs over about 40 days. The young birds will then stay with the parents for several months. Powerful Owls roost in large trees, and nesting usually occurs within the hollows of large Eucalypts. Although pairs will share the same territory, they will roost separately. Hunting territories can be up to 1000 hectares in size.

Sightings of the Powerful Owl are becoming increasingly rare due to loss of habitat and predation on food sources such as Brushtail and Ringtail possums by foxes and domestic cats. Conservation of remnant bushland in urban areas is crucial for the survival of this species.