Wyperfeld National Park

One of Victoria's largest and least-visited national parks, Wyperfeld covers 356,000 hectares of mallee eucalypt scrubland, dry lake systems, and open pine woodland in the state's remote northwest. The park is excellent for birdwatching — more than 200 species have been recorded, including the mallee fowl, regent parrot, Major Mitchell's cockatoo, and the rare swift parrot during migration. The mallee fowl builds mound nests up to a metre high and uses the heat of decomposing vegetation to incubate its eggs, adjusting the mound throughout the season like a living thermostat.

The main access point is the Wonga camping area in the south, reached by a sealed road from Rainbow. Walking trails from Wonga range from short nature loops to longer overnight tracks into the park's interior. The Burnt Pine Walk (7km return) passes through regenerating mallee and gives a good sense of the park's character. The northern section of the park is more remote and requires a 4WD. Spring (September–October) brings wildflowers and the best birdwatching; summer is very hot and some facilities close.

things to do sight
A story
Wyperfeld's chain of dry lake beds — Wirrengren Plain, Lake Brambruk, and Lake Albacutya — only fills with water during exceptional flood events when the Wimmera River overflows its banks far to the south. The last major flooding was in the 1990s. In between, the dry white lake floors stretch for kilometres, cracked and ghostly, with the calls of mallee fowl the only sound across the plain.