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Tahbilk Wetlands Cafe
Tahbilk Winery 254 O'Neils Road Tabilk via Nagambie
Open 7 Days a Week - closed Christmas Day
Monday to Friday 11am to 4pm
Weekends & Public Holidays 10am to 4.30pm
Bookings are advised for weekends & Public holidays - (03) 5794 2555
Tahbilk Wetlands & Wildlife Reserve
Open 7 Days a Week
Closed Christmas Day and days of Total Fire Ban (applies to Walk In and Cruise & Walk access)
Walk In - $5.00 per person (Children under 18 no charge but must be accompanied by an adult)
Monday to Friday 11.00am to 4.00pm
Weekends & Public Holidays 10.30 am to 4.30pm
Cruise & Walk - $10.00 per person (Children under 18 no charge but must be accompanied by an adult)
Weekends & Public Holidays Only
Two Cruises - 1pm & 2.30pm
Please Note
The following applies when visiting the Tahbilk Wetlands & Wildlife Reserve.
TAHBILK WETLANDS CAFE
In 2005 construction was completed on a dedicated Wetlands Cafe built to service visitors to the Wetlands area.
In a dramatic architectural statement the ironbark, stone and corrugated roofed building rises from the Pepper Paddock, as its location is known, with your Wetlands experience beginning from a jetty below its sweeping outer deck.
The Cafe is also home to the Dalfarras range of wines and Dalfarras Gallery.
Established in 1991, Dalfarras is the vinous child born of a collaboration between winemaker Alister Purbrick (C.E.O. and chief winemaker at Tahbilk) and his artist wife Rosa Purbrick.
Alister crafts each Dalfarras release utilising the best fruit from Nagambie Lakes & other premium vineyard sites around Australia, whilst selected works from Rosa's extensive, and ever growing, portfolio are reproduced on the labels - and on display on the Cafe's Gallery walls. Rosa also lent her maiden name Dal Farra to its naming.
TAHBILK WETLANDS CAFE
TAHBILK WETLANDS & WILDLIFE RESERVE
BACKGROUND
Wetlands are productive and valuable ecosystems that contribute
to the health of waterways.
Acting as vast filters wetlands take runoff, extracting sediments, recycling nutrients, oxygenating the water and releasing these gradually back into the system.
Wetlands areas support a large and unique variety of native plants,invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
In Victoria only 2% of the state is covered by wetlands areas, yet they sustain 30% of the state's threatened species and 10% of our threatened reptiles and water birds.
Indigenous Australians have always been acutely aware of the abundance and diversity of life in wetlands areas and the rich food resources available there.
THE HISTORY
Long before white men found the valley, the Goulburn River was at work cutting and shaping the land with long probing waters, shearing through red clay, sifting fine sand & coarse sand and, in flood years, reaching out far beyond the confines of the high, curving banks to spread layers of rich brown mud over valley slopes.
Through the centuries swampy lagoons and curving billabongs along the valley filled and dried and filled again.
The aboriginals called the River Bayunga and the had names for the waterholes and billabongs - Deegay, Tatuta, Bontharambo, Nagambie & Tabilk-Tabilk.
It was here in 1836 that explorer Major Thomas Mitchell recorded in his journal that his and his party's footsteps would "soon be followed by men and animals."
And follow they did with first the overland route from Sydney to Melbourne passing through the area, followed by settlement and of course a vineyard!
With the construction of the Goulburn Weir in 1889 the Goulburn River was raised some 5 metres establishing 8kms of permanent backwaters and creeks - site now of the Tahbilk Wetlands & Wildlife Reserve.
In 1995 the first steps were taken to regenerate the Tahbilk Wetlands area with the planting of additional trees and understorey vegetation to provide the necessary habitat to attract greater numbers of native birds and gliders.
In 2004 these efforts were complimented with the establishment of nature walking paths, timber boardwalks, docking jetties for the Wetlands Pontoon and two bird hides.
Visitors have two options with access to their Tahbilk Wetlands & Wildlife Reserve experience.
The first (and available 7 days a week) is to choose to walk in crossing the historical Long Bridge.
The Long Bridge was built from timber hewn on the Estate to replace a ford on the site soon after the Goulburn Weir was completed in 1890.
Following the floods of 1954, the bridge was extensively repaired changing from double to single lane at the time and then in 1996 was completely rebuilt - again with timber cut and milled on the property.
The other option (available on weekends & Public Holidays only) is to access the Wetlands area by boat.
In 2004 Tahbilk commissioned two purpose designed & built vessels to service visitors to the Reserve.
Each vessel is powered by electric-driven environmentally friendly motors and is registered to carry 30 passengers in under cover all-weather comfort.
Your Wetlands Cruise can be combined with a Wetlands stroll as well, with three designated landing places positioned along the Wetlands & Wildlife Reserve where "cruisers" can be dropped off and picked up again.
Whether cruising or walking (or both!) you could also not help but notice the small Watershield Lily - a perennial water plant unique in Victoria to this locality, which has become the visual symbol of the Wetlands & Wildlife Reserve.
FAUNA & FLORA LISTING
Following are just some of the native fauna & flora you could expect to see or that has been seen on the Tahbilk Wetlands & Wildlife Reserve.
It is by no means exhaustive but merely indicative of the rich diversity of life to be experienced on the Reserve.
Birds
Black Swan
Maned Wood Duck
Australian Shelduck
Pacific Black Duck
Grey Teal
Little Pied Cormorant
Australian Pelican
White Necked Heron
White Faced Heron
Great Egret
Straw Necked Ibis
Australian White Ibis
Yellow Billed Spoonbill
Royal Spoonbill
Whistling Kite
Spotted Pardalote
Zebra Finch
Brown Goshawk
Wedge Tailed Eagle
Dusky Moorhen
Purple Swamphen
Eurasian Coot
Latham's Snipe
Masked Lapwing
Peaceful Dove
Crested Pigeon
Galah
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Little Lorikeet
Crimson Rosella
Eastern Rosella
Sacred Kingfisher
Crested Shrike Tit
Gilberts Whistler
Fan Tailed Cuckoo
Boobook
Azure Kingfisher
Kookaburra
Superb Fairy Wren
Noisy Miner
Yellow Faced Honey Eater
White Plumed Honeyeater
New Holland Honeyeater
Willie Wagtail
Restless Flycatcher
Australian Magpie
Tawny Frogmouth
Scarlet Robin
Australasian Grebe
Yellow Rumped Thornbill
Grey Shrike-Thrush
Mammals
Koala
Platypus
Swamp Wallaby
Water Rat
Eastern Grey Kangaroo
Sugar Glider
Squirrel Glider
Brushtail Possum
Ringtail Possum
Echidna
Frogs
Eastern Common Froglet
Peron's Tree Frog
Growling Grass Frog
Eastern Banjo Frog Poddlebonk
Spotted Marsh Frog
Reptiles
Blue Tongue Lizard
Red Bellied Black Snake
Brown Snake
Tiger Snake
Tree Goanna
Broad Shelled River Turtle
Long-Necked Tortoise
Short-Necked Tortoise
Fish
Murray Hardyhead
Murray Rainbowfish
Flat Headed Gudgeon
Australian Smelt
Freshwater Catfish
Flora
River Red Gum
Yellow Box
Grey Box
Silver Wattle
Lightwood
Golden Wattle
River Tea Tree
Rough Barked Honey Myrtle
Many-Flowered Mat Rush
Tall Sedge
Flecked Flat Sedge
Poong'ort
Swamp Wallaby Grass
Hill Wallaby Grass
Bristly Wallaby Grass
Spear Grass
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