Australia Great Ocean Road – Part 4 –
From water level the dunes tower above you. Orangey yellow, in stark contrast with the emerald green of the native grasses and plants. You walk across them to the crunch of millions of broken shells, like one giant graveyard. Look up and the blue sky reflects back to you and the birds keen above you. A short walk from the lagoon at Godfreys Landing and you reach the ocean. There is something about a long beach that sets me off – I immediately want to start striding along it into the distance. It’s a good thing I was restrained as it would have been one hell of a walk!
The biggest danger to the Coorong is of course human interference. The next day on a Coorong Nature Tour trip around the lakes and wetlands we hear of the earliest Aboriginal inhabitants of the area, and their reliance on and relationship with the environment. Now 4WD hoons threaten the sand-dunes north of the Murray, which fall outside the National Park. And the management of the waters of the Murray right to its mouth affects the entire region – will the Murray mouth stop flowing and silt over, will the freshwater lakes go to salt, is too much water being removed from the river upstream?
Driving around Lake Alexandrina (a vast surreal shallow lake) our driver, David Dadd, suddenly stops the truck, hops out and races into the tall grass beside the road. He emerges with an indignant stickle back lizard to show us. Whilst hundreds of graceful elegant pelicans are everywhere, and you can watch the cormorants and egrets stride in the shallows hunting for food, there is lots of other wildlife hiding in the mallee bush.
